David Roth

History of Retail in 101 Objects – Object 7: Cowrie Shell

5 October 2026

Cowrie Shell · The History of Retail in 101 Objects

1200 BC

In the earliest civilizations the concept of ‘trading’ was well established, but there was no equivalent to money for use in such transactions.

To get your food you would ‘barter’ an item such as fish, fur, clothes, decorative items, tools or even weapons. From 9000 to 6000 BC the nearest equivalent to currency was cattle.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the first widespread form of currency was introduced around 1200 BC, through the adoption of the cowrie shell as a trading ‘token’. These shells shared many of the attributes of modern coins – being durable, portable, easily recognizable and hard to fake. As well as being counted out in payment, they could also be traded by weight.

The cowrie shell was indigenous to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but its use as a trading token spread and it became the most commonly used means of payment across large parts of Asia, Africa, and some of the outer reaches of Europe. The significance of shell trading in China is evidenced by ancient artefacts that show simplified representations of the cowrie used as part of the characters for words with economic meaning – such as money, coin and buy.

Just as with currency exchanges today, the value of the cowrie shell could fluctuate, depending on where it was being traded. For example, in some places a few cowries would buy a cow; whereas in the Maldives (where cowrie shell collecting and trading was a big business), several hundred thousands of cowries would be required in exchange for a single gold dinar.

The Portuguese, English, French and Dutch played a significant role in promoting the cowrie as a currency for commercial transactions, including using it for trading in slaves. In Western Africa, ‘shell money’ remained legal tender right up until the mid 19th century.

Contribution to Retail History

As the first recognized ‘common currency’, the cowrie shell played a vital contribution to the development of commerce and early formal retail. Non-perishable, lightweight and robust, it opened up international trade opportunities by enabling transactions to be carried out across continents and between different cultures.

See where this object sits in the sweep of retail history →

About the series. The History of Retail in 101 Objects is compiled and edited by David Roth, CEO of The Store WPP and Chairman of WPP BAV. It tells the story of retail through the objects that shaped it, from the cave to the connected store, organised across the historical periods in which each innovation made its mark. As David puts it, the history of retail is the history of mankind, and of retail’s vast contribution to society. A new object appears here every Monday.

This is the fourth edition, the World Retail Hall of Fame edition. The book, and every object published so far →

In Conversation: Nail Valley, Youzu

2 October 2026

Most Retailers Are Bolting AI On. The Real Work Sits in the Catalogue

Nail Valley, Co-founder, Youzu · recorded at the World Retail Congress, Berlin 2026.

Ask most e-commerce leaders about AI and they will point you to a shopping assistant plugged in through an API. Nail Valley thinks that is the easy trick, and the wrong place to start. The real work sits underneath, in the catalogue nobody has bothered to understand.

Nail is co-founder of Youzu, which he describes as an “intelligence layer for e-commerces and marketplaces.” His argument is that most sites talk about adoption while doing the shallow version: “just, you know, kind of using API solutions that’s connecting to LLMs, which is quite simplistic.”

His case has two floors. The foundation is product data, catalogues and SKUs, enriched and normalised by embedding both text and visual data so the machine actually understands what is on the shelf. On top of that sits visual AI: computer vision models that let a shopper search by image, a Google Lens experience most retailers have seen at the big platforms and almost none can offer themselves. “99% of e-commerce do not have that.” He is candid, too, about what is coming: AI-generated content so realistic that within a year or two you will struggle to tell it from a photograph, with humans left to moderate rather than make.

Here is my read. The seductive part of AI is the shopper-facing layer, the chat window, the clever demo. The unglamorous part is knowing your own images and video well enough that a machine can too. One is a feature. The other is a foundation. Skip the foundation and the feature sits on sand.

The Roth Read. Before you buy another shopping assistant, ask a harder question: does your business actually understand its own catalogue, image by image? If the answer is no, you are decorating a house with no floor. Nail’s five-year warning is blunt, and you should take it as a deadline, not a mood.

David Roth In Conversation is a series of conversations with the leaders shaping the future of retail, recorded at the World Retail Congress, Berlin 2026 in association with the World Retail Congress. A new conversation is published every Friday.

Adnams, by David Boynton

1 October 2026

David Boynton on Adnams. One of 121 stories from Brand Stories from Brand Champions, which I devised and curated for The Store, WPP.

Years ago, when I was a very young man, there was a TV program on about wine from Italy, and there was a guy on it called Simon Loftus, who was the wine buyer for Adnams. They're a small, regional brewer in Suffolk, and I'd never heard of them. I was interested in wine so I sent off for their wine list, and this was back in the days when the wine list was typed on a piece of A4 with corrections in Tipp-Ex. It was fearsomely expensive and I lived in a tiny flat in Leytonstone so couldn't afford to buy anything, but along with the list they sent me publicity material about their hotels, The Swan and The Crown. I thought they looked lovely and hoped that one day I'd be able to go there.

I was living with my girlfriend at the time and decided it would be quite nice to get married to her, so I booked a mini-break at the Swan in Southwold. Obviously, it's quite a nerve-wracking experience asking someone to marry you, so I went to the bar and had several pints of Broadside, which was Adnams' winter ale at the time, so I could pluck up the courage. I did the deed and she said yes, and we've stayed connected to Adnams ever since.

We moved to Suffolk full time in 2006, and Adnams is the brand that first introduced us to that part of the world. I have a deep love of Suffolk , the landscape, the skies, the whole aesthetic feel of the place just really suits me. We go to Southwold regularly, and I still buy all my wine from Adnams.

I think those guys do an extraordinary job of branding. There's something about the sense of place, the romantic Edwardian image of Southwold, the lighthouse and all of that, they do that beautifully. They know who they are and who their customer is, and the executions are lovely, inspiring and just right for that brand. It's had an emotional place in my heart and has been in and around my life for about 30 years. It's a brand that's helped me get married, for crying out loud!

It's amazing that 30 years later they still have such a clear sense of themselves, there's this continuity and uniqueness about them which I suppose goes back to the place that they come form and the fact it's a well-understood, well- executed brand. I'm still married to my wife, Jacqui, after 27 years and we have four children. The power of Broadside!

David Boynton
David Boynton is CEO of iconic British brand The Body Shop, where he has responsibility for the company’s business strategy, execution and growth in more than 65 markets worldwide. He took the role in December 2017 following the acquisition of The Body Shop by Brazil’s best-known beauty brand, and sustainability leader, Natura Cosmeticos. David previously held senior positions at a number of major high-street retailers, most recently as CEO of menswear retailer Charles Tyrwhitt. He was also formerly at natural beauty brand L’Occitane for 10 years, his last role at the group being Chief Executive of the US region, where he was operationally responsible for a geographically diverse group of over 600 boutiques. He has also held a number of senior management roles across Asian markets. David has over 22 years’ experience in the retail sector and has expertise spanning operations, real estate, e-commerce and CRM, brand-building, operational marketing and sales development. He is passionate about unearthing talent, driving positive change and building businesses.

There are 120 more. Brand Stories from Brand Champions collects 121 people writing about the one brand that shaped them. Amazon UK · Amazon US. The full index is at www.davidroth.com/brand-stories/stories/.

History of Retail in 101 Objects – Object 6: Shelf

28 September 2026

Shelf · The History of Retail in 101 Objects

8000 to 2000 BC · Neolithic Shopper

The shelf is a fundamental component of the store experience and allows retailers to display products and encourage sales, impart information and deliver promotional incentives. The type and quality of materials used in the fabrication of shelves contributes to perceptions of the retailer and the products offered for sale.

Shelves were created in ancient times out of a desire to elevate and protect valuable objects, which at the time tended to be scrolls or other types of written documents.

Advancements in printing which made the publication of books possible meant libraries needed extensive shelving for storage.

The application of shelves was readily apparent to retailers who equipped stores with horizontal surfaces to store products in back rooms and display products to customers so they could easily be retrieved by clerks.

The boom years for shelves arrived with the birth of self-service shopping in department stores in the 1800s and later in supermarkets. The new approach to retail meant shoppers needed to be able to see and touch products and shelves were the solution.

Shelving materials can consist of wood, metal, glass, plastic, stone or composite materials and come in an endless array of finishes. Shelves perform the most basic of functions within a retail environment, but the combination of materials, finishes and configurations present retailers with an infinite number of options when it comes to creatively merchandising a store.

In addition to their important contribution to merchandising, shelves play an important role in supply chain management. Different categories require specific shelving solutions which can vary widely from car batteries and cans of paint to folded shirts and delicate ceramics. Shelf design must account for the unique characteristics of each, to enable effective merchandising while providing adequate holding capacity to maintain acceptable in-stock levels based on anticipated rates of sale and the retailer's replenishment capabilities.

An amazing array of shelving is evident in the retail industry today.

Contribution to Retail History

The more products a buyer sees, the more a buyer buys. And throughout history, sellers realized this basic instinct of the retail process that they in turn would sell more products. While the shelf has evolved in terms of its material, size and configurations, and technological advancements, the fundamental purpose to maximize product assortments and sales hasn't changed. Stack it, show it, sell it is still the goal of visual merchandising and the overall store experience.

See where this object sits in the sweep of retail history →

This is the fourth edition, the World Retail Hall of Fame edition. The book, and every object published so far →

In Conversation: Clare Waight Keller, Uniqlo

25 September 2026

The Designer Who Doesn't Google

Clare Waight Keller, Creative Director, Uniqlo · recorded at the World Retail Congress, Berlin 2026.

Ask the creative director of one of the world’s largest clothing retailers what tools she uses to read a technology-soaked market, and the answer stops you: “For me, I don’t use anything.” No Pinterest, no Instagram search, no algorithm. Two months of doing the research herself, by eye and by instinct.

Clare Waight Keller is Creative Director of Uniqlo, arriving there after a career at the top of luxury. She now designs clothes worn head to toe in the queue at the airport rather than admired from a distance.

Her case is that the thing that matters most in design is the thing a machine cannot yet do. Separating a five-minute trend from a lasting one, she says, comes down to one discipline: “You have to watch it.” It is gut, honed over decades, and so far at Uniqlo it has played out well. The rest is process. A design goes through six months of refinement, fabric, quality control, touch point after touch point, until it becomes, in her words, “the perfect Uniqlo product.” And the reach is deliberately broad: democratic sizing, tropical buys for Southeast Asia, specific product for Muslim countries, Canada bought differently from the Philippines. One brand, many climates.

What should a retailer take from this? That the most defensible thing you own may be the least automatable. Anyone can scrape a feed. Almost no one can stand in the culture for two months and know, by feel, what will last. The instinct is the moat.

The Roth Read. If your trend forecasting is now a dashboard anyone can buy, you have bought your competitors the same edge you have. Waight Keller’s advantage is that she does the looking herself, and looking is expensive, slow and hard to copy. Ask whether you have outsourced the one judgement you should have kept.

In Conversation: Steph McGovern

18 September 2026

You Will Not Be Replaced by AI · You Will Be Replaced by Someone Who Uses It

Steph McGovern, Broadcaster and Presenter · recorded at the World Retail Congress, Berlin 2026.

Business as usual is over. What we have now, Steph McGovern told the room on the first morning in Berlin, is business as unusual, and we have simply got used to it.

McGovern is a broadcaster and journalist who now also runs a retail business of her own, Gootopia, a slime and experience venture that grew from six units to fifteen in a year. She is not talking about retail from the stalls. She is on the pitch.

Her read on the day was sharp. Homogeneity is a death sentence: “if you’re homogeneous you’re not going to survive.” The customer is now dictating, not being told. And the thing that holds it all together is not agility for its own sake but storytelling anchored to truth, whether you are Tendam’s Juan describing a tsunami rather than a wave, or Zalando’s David Schneider recalling flip-flops sold from a basement twenty years before the platform reached sixty million customers. On AI she was refreshingly unmystical. She uses it to trace a sales dip to the exact moment a new hire started, to write bedtime stories with a witch’s dragon from next door, and she has her elderly neighbour on Claude booking hospital taxis. Find your problem first, she says, then use the tool. Do not use it for the sake of it.

What matters here for any brand owner is the reframing of AI as an enabler of humanity, not a replacement for it. People are never offline, so they crave the analogue. Slime and dine. Something to touch.

The Roth Read. McGovern’s warning is the one to pin above your desk: you will not be replaced by AI, you will be replaced by someone who uses it. Stop admiring the technology and start naming the problem it solves for your customer. If you cannot, someone hungrier already has.

AA, by Alison Leslie Gold

17 September 2026

Alison Leslie Gold on AA. One of 121 stories from Brand Stories from Brand Champions, which I devised and curated for The Store, WPP.

Alcoholics Anonymous at first sight: ruby-haired, sultry Susan Hayward (playing torch singer Lillian Roth) drinks too much in the 50s movie "I'll Cry Tomorrow." She drags her mink coat along the floor while wailing/ slurring "Sing, You Sinners." Helping her rise from collapse, stalwart Eddie Albert (as Burt McGuire, once also brought to his knees by whiskey), offers a steadying cup of coffee, guides her to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. More meetings follow. When renewal, along with a happy, sober life results, Susan changes her tune, sings "When the Red, Red Robin …" in a clear, majestic voice:

Wake up, wake up, you sleepy head
Get up, get out of your bed
Cheer up, cheer up; the sun is red
Live, love, laugh, and be happy*

Affected by Susan/Lillian's transformation in my raw youth, the power of Alcoholics Anonymous lodged in the back of my mind though I hadn't even gulped the first of many gin and tonics, nor dragged my own coat across a dance floor. Time passed, destiny danced, quietly waiting in the wings hovered the cost-free fellowship that remains apolitical, international, multiracial, interdenominational, intergenerational. As it had for Susan/Lillian, its long open arms remained ever-ready to enfold all in need of help. Including oneself.

Begun in 1935 by a failed stockbroker and a doctor, AA has since provided sanctuary for many millions of shaky folks in more than one hundred-eighty different countries around-the-world. The organization's covenant with privacy/anonymity at a personal and public level discourages self- identification, but, as "Sing, You Sinners" warns, if one is

…wicked and depraved
And you've all misbehaved
If you wanna be saved **

earthy Alcoholics Anonymous, its waiting empty chair, its offer of support by those who came before, the never-empty pot of coffee, is there. In the same way that a Life Saver promises a fruit- flavored circular candy, Alcoholics Anonymous (its triangular Brand logo – service, unity, recovery , enclosed within a circle), envisions a life raft upon a tumultuous river; its Brand reflects the culture, aims and overall integrity of an ego-free, self- help organization.

I've been a witness to AA's miracles, seen ruined lives salvaged, the sick get well, watched the hopeless find hope, outcasts come in from the cold. Had it not been for the modesty of anonymity, I might describe the pale-yellow silk lampshade I once wore on my head, the golden child I once neglected because another martini took precedence, the amorous inappropriateness undertaken on the S.S. Christoforo Columbo, the seizure had in a Greek island pine grove, but, I needn't. Suffice to say –

Sobriety is a jewel
That I do much adore;
And therefore keep me dancing
Though drunkards lie and snore
O mind your feet, O mind your feet
Keep dancing like a wave
And under every dancer
A dead man in his grave.***

* “Red, Red Robin” words and music by Harry Woods, 1926.
** “Sing, You Sinner” music by W. Franke Harling, lyrics by Sam Coslow, 1930
*** “A Drunken Man’s Praise of Sobriety” by William Butler Yeats, 1869 – 1939

Alison Leslie Gold
Alison Leslie Gold is the author, with Miep Gies, of Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family, an international bestseller that has been translated into 23 languages. Gold is also the author of Fiet’s Vase and Other Stories of Survival, Europe 1939-1945 as well as the novel The Devil’s Mistress, nominated for a National Book Award. She has recently published a new memoir titled Found and Lost: Mittens, Miep and Shovelfuls of Dirt.

The fee was never the point. The float was.

16 September 2026

Every guide to accepting crypto in 2026 leads with the same number: the fee. CoinRemitter at 0.23 per cent. NOWPayments from 0.5 to 1 per cent. Stripe at 1.5 per cent on stablecoins. Set against the 1.5 to 3.5 per cent that card processors charge, on UPay’s own figures, it reads like a bargain the retailer would be foolish to refuse. But the fee is the decoy. The real story is which token lands in your account, on which chain, and whether you can ever spend it.

What happened

The comparison sites have industrialised. The Bitcoin Foundation’s 2026 ranking lays out five gateways on fee, supported coins and settlement path, from CoinRemitter’s no-KYC crypto-only model to BitPay’s daily bank withdrawals in dollars, euros and sterling. UPay’s guide names eleven, adding enterprise infrastructure players like BVNK and CoinsPaid, the latter having processed over 29 billion dollars on its own reported figures, mostly for Europe’s iGaming operators.

The more interesting document is the one that ignores fees almost entirely. EdgeX’s 2026 stablecoin guide argues the choice between USDC, USDT, PYUSD and EURC “is less a question of market capitalization than of workflow fit.” USDC for regulated checkout and treasury. USDT where local liquidity decides whether a supplier can actually cash out. PYUSD inside PayPal’s walls. EURC for euro invoices. Same dollar peg on the label. Very different money in the hand.

Why it matters

Here is the shift a retailer has to grasp. A card payment is a single decision: accept Visa, or don’t. A crypto payment is a chain of them, and each link carries a cost the headline rate hides. There is the on-chain gas fee. The provider’s cut. The FX spread when you convert to the currency you pay rent in. The compliance screening. The reconciliation time. EdgeX puts it plainly: the real cost “includes the token, the chain, the provider, FX conversion, compliance review, reconciliation, and the off-ramp.” The 0.23 per cent was true and also almost meaningless.

Then there is the machine underneath. When Stripe re-entered this market it did not build rails. It bought Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company, and folded acceptance into the dashboard a merchant already knew. That is the tell. The value is migrating from the token to the orchestration layer, the software that mints, screens, converts and settles while the merchant sees only “paid.” Whoever owns that layer owns the margin, the data and the relationship. The coin is just the thing moving through the pipe.

And notice what crypto quietly removes. Chargebacks, estimated by Chargeback Gurus to have drained 33.8 billion dollars from merchants globally in 2025, vanish because blockchain settlement is irreversible. For the retailer that reads as a saving. For the shopper it reads as the disappearance of buyer protection. A card gives the customer a way to be wrong and get their money back. An irreversible payment does not. That is not a feature you advertise at checkout. It is a trust you spend.

What to watch

Watch MiCA do to Europe what it was built to do: sort the field. UPay’s guide already flags that EU businesses “must now consider MiCA licensing,” and CoinGate is being marketed on compliance rather than price. When regulation becomes the sales pitch, the low-fee, no-KYC operators do not win the enterprise account. They lose it.

The Roth Read. Stop shopping for the lowest fee. It is the cheapest number on the page because it is the least important one. Ask instead which token lands, on which chain, who holds it while it settles, and what your customer loses when the payment can never be reversed. The retailer who accepts crypto to save half a per cent, and hands a stranger’s software the float, the data and the buyer’s only recourse, has not cut a cost. They have sold the counter and kept the rent.

History of Retail in 101 Objects – Object 5: Market

14 September 2026

Market · The History of Retail in 101 Objects

8000 to 2000 BC · Neolithic Shopper

In China, every neighborhood has its own little vegetable and meat market, selling local produce. These Chinese markets are a focus of activity and noise, and modern Chinese supermarkets still reflect the look and feel of these original markets with stores housing 'mini' markets and stalls within them.

In Moscow, nearly 10 per cent of all retail trade takes place in markets and indeed markets continue to occupy a special place in the hearts and minds of Russian shoppers. About half of all clothes and shoes sold in Russia are bought at markets – the prices are cheaper and sometimes the goods are newer and more plentiful than in retail outlets. Although perishable goods are also offered, grocery retailing has expanded significantly to the extent that now only about 11 per cent of all food is sold at markets.

For centuries, across every part of India, weekly Haats or 'gatherings' would see vendors gathering in market places. As towns and cities grew, small retail stores began stocking more goods, and high street bazaars were formed where traders sold a range of goods, food, and perishables.

In 1869, the Mumbai Crawford Market could be said to be the first form of shopping center in India, then in 1874, the Hogg Market was opened in Calcutta. Now known as the New Market, it was designed by an East Indian Railways Architect, R.R. Bayne, and named after the municipal commissioner of Calcutta, Sir Stuart Hogg. The Hogg Market had a garden, a red brick Gothic clock tower and benches for shoppers to rest upon.

Just a few decades ago the majority of Indian shoppers still relied on street markets. But shopping traditions here are changing too. The street markets are still appreciated for their colorful displays and merchandise, but new shopping malls offering entertainment and experiences for all the family are also attracting many customers through their doors. Retailing is now the largest private industry in India and the second largest employer after agriculture.

Since ancient times and throughout the history of man, wherever roads intersected or throngs of people gathered, buyers and sellers, or peddlers, quickly created a centralized market for the exchange of goods and services. From the original souk or bazaar to flea markets to today's sophisticated urban town centers or mega malls, the market remains the center of trade and commerce, social interaction and personal satisfaction.

Contribution to Retail History

The principle of the market is as old as civilization itself. Markets and market places are still to be found everywhere, and each country has its own traditions and customs.

See where this object sits in the sweep of retail history →

This is the fourth edition, the World Retail Hall of Fame edition. The book, and every object published so far →

In Conversation: South African Team, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa

11 September 2026

The Generation Built for AI Would Rather You Kept the Waiter

South African Team, Future Retail Challenge 2026 Winners, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa · recorded at the World Retail Congress, Berlin 2026.

Ask the people who will spend their whole careers alongside AI what they would build with it, and they answer by protecting the thing it could most easily replace. The human moment. That was the striking turn in this conversation with the winning student team.

They are from the University of Cape Town, one of twenty-one guests I sat down with in Berlin and, as it turned out, this year’s Future Retail Challenge winners. The brief: reimagine the store in 2030, when AI has been woven through our lives. Their case was Spur, a South African restaurant chain known for family-centred experiences.

What they did with it matters more than the win. Faced with a mandate to automate, they refused to let automation take the stage. “It was important for us to fight for the family experiences,” one of them told me, arguing that AI should step behind the human interaction rather than in front of it. On the question that keeps the older half of this Congress awake, jobs, they were clear-eyed rather than starry-eyed: AI viewed “in a very positive light,” but only if used responsibly, there “to create more time and space for humans to actually really connect in a more meaningful way.” And a warning, delivered with a calm most boardrooms lack: do not relinquish all of your responsibilities to automation.

Here is what a retailer should take from a room full of twenty-somethings. The generation you assume will automate everything is the one telling you not to. They see the shelf, the table, the greeting as the point, and the technology as the servant.

The Roth Read. If your 2030 plan uses AI to remove people, you are solving the wrong problem, and your youngest customers already know it. Automate the queue, not the welcome. Ask which human moment your technology is meant to protect, and if you cannot name one, start again.