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A retail enthusiast with a passion for finding emerging technology that is proven to help…
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Anthony Gavin shared thisFOOTASYLUM are unbelievable partners to work with and partners in a true sense of the word. Finding the early adopters who believe in your vision, values and product is bloody hard when bringing a new product to a region with limited proof points. It’s a relationship that has to be built on absolute trust and clear, tangible, shared outcomes. All familiar and comfortable to a brand with an ethos of "Defy Ordinary". It’s so energising to see the full circle complete. From reconnecting with the legend Richard Noon at Retail Technology Show in March last year, to meeting Shannon Osman and her awesome team including Dale Hare, Josh Atkinson, Liam Harvey (another familiar face!), Brett Llewellyn, Shaynul Uddin, Marcos Landim and many more - all the way to a 2 week full fleet launch of the MVP, onboarding the rest of the Zipline platform’s modules shortly after and then seeing a case study with tangible results based on the business case we co-authored only a year ago. ⭐ Did we reduce time wasted by store managers on admin - ✅ ⭐ Is execution more consistent - ✅ ⭐ Did we consolidate 6 platforms and apps to 1 - ✅ ⭐ Did it have an impact on engagement/turnover - ✅ ⭐ Did we get live in 6 weeks as promised - ✅ ⭐ Has it had a tangible impact on business performance - ✅ These guys have helped me with countless reference calls and project/product advice through their deep experience in retail operations and staying at the cutting edge of retail technology. I’m truly grateful for their continued collaboration, it’s an absolute pleasure to work with you all and I’m stoked to see the project’s continued success and impact on the business. "The fact that Alex Henry ran an onsite workshop in his second week at Zipline, proved enough to me that this would be easy for the stores to adopt!" Case study in the comments!
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Anthony Gavin shared thisThat's a first for me - getting an alert that the pope is in town and to plan for delays accordingly! Please come by and meet this stellar team at Shoptalk Europe in Barcelona at booth F50. We have representation from marketing, sales, solutions consulting and product - from demos to data to roadmap, we have it covered - in 7 languages! Doing 'more with less' is a top priority across European retail - more focus than ever is being placed on efficient operations in-store, productivity and execution. Zipline is working with some of the leading brands across 40+ countries on exactly that.
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Anthony Gavin shared thisReally looking forward to being back out in Australia next week for the Retail Leaders | 20–21 May 2026 | Melbourne event! I’ll be there with Abby Jarvis and Meagan Sobol, who will be on stage Thursday talking with 3 Australian retail leaders on subjects including Ai in stores, managing risk and retaining talent on the frontline. Can’t wait to catch up with old friends of course and, hopefully, making some new ones. I’ve learned a few valuable lessons over the years, checking the humidity vs temperature for our day trip to Brisbane this time :) If anyone does happen to be in town for the show and is free for dinner on the Thursday, we have a few places left at Gaea, I’ll drop a link in the comments to the sign-up page. It sounds like this is a top spot in Melbourne with top food and a cosy setting for an informal get together after the show. Please shout if you are free for a catch up, coffee, the dinner or will be at the show - stoked to be back! 💪 🇦🇺
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Anthony Gavin shared thisExcited to get on stage with the fantastic Shannon Osman from FOOTASYLUM at Retail Technology Show this year! Footasylum has delivered a standout year in retail — expanding into new regions, replicating the flagship London store through new stores and upsizes, and winning Retail Employer of the Year at People in Retail Awards. In this session, Shannon will share how the brand is turning frontline employee experience into a competitive advantage. Session will be 23rd April 13:30 at the Spotlight Stage - look forward to seeing you there! We’ll also be at stand X48 with a team of great former retail folks and a home-made claw machine with some fun gifts. Part of Alex Henry's role is to build retro arcade machines between demos and RFPs :) If you'd like to talk retail ops, frontline experience or meaningful Ai use in-store, please stop by. If you'd like to talk retro arcade builds, the door is also open!
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Anthony Gavin posted thisLooking forward to spending a couple days in Düsseldorf with Alex Henry at EuroShop – The World´s No. 1 Retail Trade Fair with Zipline. If anyone is around for a chat, please do give me a shout! Looking forward to spending time with our customers and hearing some on stage.
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Anthony Gavin shared thisPlease come visit Enrica Visco Marigliano, Alex Henry and I at the Zipline booth - F56. We're showcasing how luxury brands are prioritising retail excellence - in a world where we are being forced to do more with less, having the frontline teams enabled and productive is becoming a real focus. Looking forward to connecting with some new faces and have already bumped into plenty of old ones! ShoptalkAnthony Gavin shared thisWe’re heading to Abu Dhabi for Shoptalk Luxe 2026 💕 It’s where premium retail leaders gather to talk experience, exclusivity, and what’s next. Luxury is built on details, and so is execution. Zipline will be on site January 27–29, connecting with leaders who are raising the bar on high-end customer experiences ✨ Stop by and say hi. 📍 Booth F56
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Anthony Gavin shared thisHaving had a heads up on this one, fully recommended for anyone heading out to NRF and looking for a unique tour of some of the unique stores in NYC. Especially if it's your first time or have travelled a long way for inspiration and want to see how NYC stores do things differently. There are still a couple of slots available, all transport and logistics included from Javitts - some well earned rest for your tradeshow feet! Ian Jindal, Michel Koch are incredibly knowledgable tour guides and this is about unique experiences, pushing boundaries and differentiation - no sales pitches or vendor bias on store selection. Ilana Mahrouch is a great host too, great idea to sponsor this!Anthony Gavin shared thisIf you’re attending NRF and want to experience retail where it truly happens, this tour is for you 🫵 During National Retail Federation 2026 in New York, join the WAIR Store Tour — a curated, immersive journey through distinctive and experience-led retail concepts you won’t find on conference slides. We’ll take you by private bus to explore stores that push boundaries and redefine physical retail, with live insights and decoding from two leading retail experts: Ian Jindal (RetailX) & Michel Koch (@Back-From Retail) 👉 Register here (12 seats only): https://lnkd.in/dh2k5XbQ ✨ Real stores. Real insights. Real inspiration. 🚌 Logistics handled — just enjoy the experience. 🎯 Only 12 seats available. 🗓 January 13, 2026 | 2:30–5:00 PM 📍 Meet at the Javits Center 👉 More info: https://lnkd.in/dRdue3_N
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Anthony Gavin posted thisIt’s NRF time again! While retailers are heads down navigating peak trading, anyone involved in marketing and sales at retail technology vendors knows this season brings its own intensity. NRF planning never really lets up. For those travelling from the UK and Europe, the weather has delivered a very authentic “NYC in January” experience this week. Brutal. The back to school walk was emotionally cold. What’s especially encouraging is the strength of international attendance again this year, from Europe through to Australia, across both retailers and partners. I’m looking forward to meeting many new faces and reconnecting with familiar ones. I’ve also heard from several people who couldn’t make it this year due to budget constraints. If that’s you, Michel Koch and Ian Jindal have NRF recap sessions planned in London and Lille which are always well worth attending. This NRF marks a first for me across three companies. We will have customers available on the booth! Not one, but eight. We’re proud to be joined by leaders from Tapestry, Mosaic, SEPHORA, The Container Store, Mark's, Helzberg Diamonds and Aritzia, alongside Zipline’s executive team, product leadership and GTM teams. A real testament to the strength of our relationships and the customer community behind Zipline. I’ll share links to all Zipline events and calendar slots in the comments. Feel free to message me as well and we can find time the old fashioned way. Looking forward to seeing many of you in NYC!
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Anthony Gavin shared thisStores don’t suck! The first event in a global series kicked off in London where we had an amazing networking dinner with some brilliant retail minds from leading UK brands and an amazing - incredibly enthusiastic - host for a private tour of the National Gallery. The conversation took some really interesting turns and as one of the only 2 people around the table who hadn’t worked in stores, the main takeaways from the conversation were: 🪜 Retail is not a summer job, it’s a career. All the successful folks around the table had started from store backgrounds and were now a combination of - CEO, VP of Retail, Head of Business Systems, Global Product Owner, Head of Customer Success, Managing Director, Retail Operations Manager and Head of Retail Strategy & Operations. Take Stuart Machin, Mark Newton-Jones, Neil Clifford, Paula Nickolds - to name but a few CEOs starting on the shop floor. 🤹♂️ Retail roles require incredibly diverse skillsets - this is what empowers the flexibility to choose a career path within retail across any and all business units: - Communication and inter-personal skills - Customer service and empathy - Problem solving - Multi-tasking & ruthless prioritisation - Emotional resilience - Sales skills - Time management - Technical skills - POS errors, inventory management, scheduling, reporting/data management - Teamwork and leadership 🤝 Community is everything, what goes around comes around - we had one story about someone’s entire team being made redundant when a US brand pulled out of Europe in 2020. Just 4 years later she has hired most of that team into one of UK’s brand success stories, successfully breaking into the US, opening more stores in 2026. 🪴 The future is bright - the table was really buoyed by hearing the career paths of peers and their experiences climbing the corporate ladder within retail brands from the shop floor. Whilst other industries are more heavily impacted by Ai etc, people will always crave in-person interaction and authentic retail experiences. Despite the negative press around retail focusing on the High Street brands of old, there are plenty of success stories out there in the wild. You don’t need to look far, just not in the same places as 1995. Retail is very much alive. Thanks to Shannon Osman, Abi Ward, Melissa Wong and Anna Collis for fuelling the great conversations. It ain’t easy out there for retailers, especially this time of year. Even harder selling to them, hence me having time to play on LinkedIn for once! Good luck this week! 💪
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Anthony Gavin liked thisAnthony Gavin liked thisWhat has it cost to self-publish my book? And was this a terrible financial decision!? I've been inspired by Lauren Currie OBE and Lisa Jackson (FCIM) Jackson’s openness about the financial side of self-publishing (and grateful for the advice and support they’ve given me!). I don't think we talk about the realities and risks of running your own business or launching something on your own (and the privilege it often requires). So, here goes: ➕ Illustration: £3,830 (you get what you pay for, and it looks amazing) ➕ Editing: £160 (very pleased I did this as it’s a better read as a result) ➕ ISBNs & barcodes: £219 (boring) ➕ Printing: £1614 (printed my own stock because the print-on-demand quality was shite - unfortunately most of these have crappy binding that I can’t actually sell full price 😑) 🟰 Total to produce books to sell: £5,820 Ooh but we're not finished! There have been more costs: ➕ A bit on bookmarks, a colouring book and greeting cards to go alongside the book and help with promotion (questionable). ➕ Sending out free review and influencer copies ➕ Card envelopes and a pre-loved label printer to post what I sell direct ➕ Sending boxes to Amazon’s warehouse (and back for the fragile ones) ⌛️ My time - days and days and days and days of my time writing, figuring out the ridiculous systems in place, promoting, pitching, stressing and selling. I’ve not factored in a cost for this, because that would make break-even a retirement goal 😂 I’ve spent over £6,000 of my own savings on producing and promoting Elf Chloe's Surprise (so far) I’m about £4.5k away from break-even 😅 First thoughts - I’m extremely privileged to be able to do this. The barriers are so high, excluding too many people who have amazing ideas. Second thoughts - this is a long game. I was hoping to break even by Christmas. With the binding issues I’ve had, this looks unlikely (but not impossible). Third thoughts – right NOW is the time to push this book, in the lead-up to Christmas, and I need people to show up in support to help me do this. Finally - it matters where you buy the book as to how quickly I can recover the costs: → Amazon & direct are best for me in terms of margin, and boosting my reach. → Amazon reviews are a huge help too. Can I break even by Christmas? Let’s see. Were you surprised by the costs?
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Anthony Gavin liked thisAnthony Gavin liked this796 days. That’s how long it’s been since I left Sensormatic. When I left, I always hoped that one day I’d have the opportunity to come back, with more experience, a different perspective and ready to take on a bigger challenge. And now, I’m getting that opportunity. Sensormatic has always been a business I’ve felt strongly about. The products, the mission and, most importantly, the people are all things I’ve genuinely missed being part of. I’m really excited to be returning as EMEA Commercial Operations & Transformation Leader, bringing the experience I’ve gained over the last couple of years into a role where I can make a real difference. A huge thank you to Sean Lee and Luca Cappellini for putting their trust in me and giving me the opportunity to come back. Really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces, meeting some new ones, and getting stuck in. It’s good to be back.
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Anthony Gavin liked thisAnthony Gavin liked thisFollowing internal development I'm hiring a 12-month FTC Project Manager. Ideally looking for someone with Retail/Supply Chain experience but we have an interesting portfolio of work across a variety of different types of projects. Want to join a great team and a great place to work - take a look and apply via the link Pets at Home. https://lnkd.in/ehdvdXPd
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Anthony Gavin reacted on thisAnthony Gavin reacted on thisYou're assigned as APAC VP of Sales for a US or EU Tech company and are tasked to go from 0-1 and build your sales team from scratch. HQ is saying that revenue growth and profitability are key. You don't have 3 years to find PMF. How do you go about it? Set up an office in Australia or Singapore? Or fully remote? How many headcount do you start with? Or do you start by doing the selling yourself first? Do you go direct or channels first? So many questions that all regional sales leader had to think through. There's obviously no single one way of doing it band so many variables to take into consideration (ACV, sales cycle, customer profiles, industry, competition, partner ecosystem, marketing...). But after talking about this with a few US/EU companies, generally speaking, here's what I'd do: 1. Focus on the ANZ market first. You can sell directly and the selling motion will be close to US/EU's. Maximise revenue there. 2. South East Asia: Hire Enterprise AEs to target named accounts that best fit the ICP based on ANZ customers. Start finding partners and enable them to spread in ASEAN and India. Consider setting up a Digital/Inside Sales team in KL, Malaysia to own the run rate and inbound + twinning with Enterprise AEs in Singapore focusing on the strategic accounts. 3. North Asia (Japan/Korea/China): Build upon the partner model in SEA. Hire Enterprise AEs in countries once the motion is established, supported by the KL digital sales team. Sales leaders who've built 0-1 in APAC, what route did you take?
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Anthony Gavin liked thisAnthony Gavin liked thisMelbourne retail network — we’re hosting an executive dinner on 22 September and I’d love to see some familiar faces around the table. Together with Ready, SymphonyAI is bringing together a small group of retail leaders for a discussion on how AI is moving beyond dashboards and insights to become part of how retailers actually operate day to day. We’ll be talking about areas such as anticipating issues before they impact sales, reducing manual effort across operational workflows, and using AI to help teams make and execute better decisions. It will be an interactive discussion rather than a presentation, with the opportunity to share experiences with other retail leaders over dinner. Places are limited and the event is invitation only. If you’re in my network and interested in joining us, send me a DM and I’ll share the details. 📍 Melbourne 📅 22 September 2026 #Retail #AI #RetailTechnology #RetailAI
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Anthony Gavin reacted on thisAnthony Gavin reacted on thisBefore we get into a busy autumn, with events and exciting things to show: when we announced our €1.9m pre-seed round in June, we introduced an incredible group of business angels. One name we held back, until now. Christian Lindner is backing ShopAgentic as an angel investor. Germany's former Federal Minister of Finance and chair of the G7 finance ministers in 2022, today responsible for sales and digitalization at a billion-euro company. He deals with the changes coming to commerce operationally, day to day. That is why he invested. Every major shift in commerce so far changed how people buy. Mobile, marketplaces, omnichannel. Each one rewired the path to purchase, but a human was always the one deciding and placing the order. Agentic commerce is the first shift that changes who buys. It used to be a hundred visitors and three of them bought. Soon it's a thousand agents and not one of them is human. Data models, systems and payment paths all will need to adapt to that. That merchant stack was built for human buyers. We're building its agentic successor: a native agentic commerce system where specialized agents set up, optimize and operate commerce. Rail- and protocol-agnostic, because nobody can credibly tell you today which protocol wins. There's a second half to this. An agent that doesn't buy like a person won't settle like one either. Machine-to-machine transactions need a money layer built for that: instant, regulated, programmable and for Europe ideally euro-denominated. So we're working with AllUnity, the BaFin-licensed joint venture of DWS Group, Flow Traders and Galaxy, together with Peter Grosskopf who owns the partnership on their side. Specifically on agent payments via x402, settled in euro. That standard has been driven almost entirely out of the US so far and there are very few examples of it anywhere in Europe. Christian Lindner brings two perspectives at once. He reads how European regulation and institutions will treat this, and he sees from the inside what it takes to move a large organization through a shift like this. We build the commerce side merchants can trust. Those things need to meet somewhere. This is the third time Kai-Thomas Krause and I have started a company at the founding moment of a wave. Mobile in 2011, omnichannel in 2015, agentic commerce now. If you're at Agentic Commerce Day in Munich on October 8, we're bringing something along with AllUnity that you'll be able to see for yourself. More there. Christian Lindner joins a group that includes Boris L., Jochen Krisch, Stefan Wenzel, Sven Rittau (思文), Dr. Andreas Schenk, Andy Lenz, Thomas Gottheil, Peter McCoy, Tony DiPaolo and Dr. Peter Wolff. As well as Greenfield Capital and May Ventures. Thank you for building with us 🚀 #AgenticCommerce #Stablecoins #x402 #Fintech #Ecommerce #Payments #Retail
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