How are retailers adapting to change and using AI to support the tools required to build resilience and navigate increased financial pressures?
Changing market conditions and operational challenges are squeezing popular UK high-street retail brands. Many feel compelled to choose between shutting stores or restructuring their senior leadership, with some even opting for both.
The situation hasn’t been helped by UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to raise employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from 13.8% to 15%, effective next month (April 2025).
The increase in NICs, revealed by the UK Government during its last Budget, has added substantial financial pressure on retailers, who are already grappling with rising operational costs and shifts in consumer behaviour. So much so that 81 retail CEOs wrote to the Chancellor in November to warn that her NIC hike would cost the retail sector an additional £2.3 billion.
However, the dam holding back the tides of change for high-street retail started leaking long before Reeves took her seat on the front bench of the House of Commons.
Several of Mindbeat’s retail clients have been restructuring their UK operations since the end of the Covid pandemic in a bid to cut costs amid uncertainties around trade recovery, supply chains, and inflation.
According to Mindbeat’s Partnerships Director, Val Kessell, retailers understand that they can’t keep shutting stores because they remain key revenue drivers. So, cost-cutting measures need to be part of broader organisational change instead.
But what does that involve? And how can coaching help?
For one retailer, it may mean re-shaping functional structures, like combining digital teams with IT and giving senior leaders broader responsibilities outside their fields of expertise. This strategy asks for more multidimensional leadership.
For others, it could see brand portfolio consolidation or transitioning manufacturing abroad to benefit from the diversity of labour and associated cost savings.
The common theme, however, is ‘change’, and in times of transition and disruption, retailers require the tools to build resilience, support teams, and return their businesses to high performance.
Val explains: “Coaching provides a vital holding space to emotionally work through what change means to somebody facing significant role changes or redundancy. It also helps those with new roles to reconnect the organisational dots and understand the new company landscape.
“If onboarding new talent is taking place outside of the UK, coaching can help induct someone into a British company culture. We support both staff being outplaced, the onboarding of new hires, and those remaining team members who may feel insecure, demotivated, or unclear of the pathway back to high performance.”
A cost-effective way of helping financially-strapped retailers through organisational change is to blend one-to-one and group sessions with AI coaching support.
AI-powered coaching allows for questions with non-judgemental responses and for leaders to role-play difficult conversations or scenarios anywhere, anytime and on any device.
For example, AI coaching could help a senior leader practice a difficult upcoming redundancy conversation. By role-playing different scenarios with AI, the leader is better prepared for how the realm conversation may play out, leading to a more empathetic and productive exchange with the affected team members.
By including AI coaching tools as part of modules designed to ‘Build Resilience in Times of Change’ or ‘Navigate Change within Teams, ’ Mindbeat empowers retailers to provide broader support and undivided attention to more people over longer periods – benefitting their wellbeing, retention and engagement.
“It sends the right signal to leaders that despite the transitional change, the retail organisation is investing in the future of their professional development, getting them back on track, and supporting them for the way forward,” Val concludes.
So whether it’s supporting an organisational restructure, managing redundancies, talent retention, or just providing a holding space for clear strategic thinking, Mindbeat is helping British retail beat the financial squeeze – ensuring it’s fit for a future, which has AI embedded at its core.
If you’re a retail leader looking to navigate change and build resilience within your team, reach out to our Partnerships Director, [email protected] to learn how we can support your journey.
