Join us at Sync, Visualsoft’s flagship conference designed to spark the next chapter of modern retail. We bring together inspiring voices from some of the UK’s leading brands to explore how to reach customers wherever they search, shop or scroll.
From unified commerce to emerging tech, marketplace growth and customer experience, this is your front-row seat to connected commerce in action. If you’re after fresh thinking, real-world stories and conversations that actually matter, Sync is where it happens.
Last year, we welcomed standout speakers from Gymshark, Google, Shopify, PrettyLittleThing, Represent Clothing, Attentive, Klaviyo and more. They shared practical insight, honest lessons and future-focused ideas that kept the conversation going well beyond the event itself.
For 2026, we’re levelling things up with fresh perspectives, open conversation and more chances to learn, connect and swap ideas. Built for retail leaders, marketers, founders and digital innovators, the event brings together keynote talks, fireside chats and a hands-on retail experience inside our live Shopify POS room. Everything about Sync is designed to deliver practical takeaways and help spark lasting partnerships across the retail world.
We've got a stellar set of speakers for 2026 that you won't want to miss out on.
Registration and breakfast
Welcome talk
Chris Fletcher, CEO, Visualsoft
The purchase moment: How Shopify is helping
merchants become transaction ready in the AI era
Ben Homer, Solutions Engineering Lead, Shopify
The purchase moment is changing. AI shopping is moving beyond discovery into recommendations and transactions. Agents are beginning to compare products, build carts and complete purchases on behalf of shoppers.
In this keynote, Shopify's Ben Homer explains what it means for brands to become transaction-ready in the AI era. He'll unpack the new relationship between merchants, shoppers, and agents, why clean product data and trusted brand answers matter, and how Shopify is helping merchants show up and stay in control as commerce moves wherever intent lives.
Myrqvist's playbook for scaling internationally: Strategic
moves that made delivery a competitive advantage
Douglas Holm, Head of Online, Myrqvist
Piotr Zaleski, Co-founder and CPTO, Ingrid.
Founded in Stockholm in 2016, Myrqvist was built on a simple idea — to craft timeless, high-quality footwear at a fair price. Designed in Sweden and handmade by skilled artisans in Portugal, the brand combines Scandinavian minimalism with enduring craftsmanship.
From the start, Myrqvist has been a direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand, using Shopify to reach customers across 12 markets worldwide. The game-changer came when they moved from seven different sites to a single storefront: operational work went down by 92%. Today, they serve customers online and their flagship stores in Stockholm, London, Oslo, and New York.
Join Douglas Holm, Head of Online at Myrqvist, in conversation with Ingrid as he shares his strategic moves that turned delivery into a competitive advantage, proving that shoppers value delivery experiences far more than most retailers realise.
The REFY Story
Jenna Meek, CEO and Co Founder, Refy
This session takes us inside the story of one of the UK’s most exciting beauty brands. Founded in 2020 by Jenna Meek and Jess Hunt, REFY has grown from an instant global success with Brow Sculpt into an internationally recognised beauty brand, now stocked across the UK, US, Canada, Ireland and the Middle East. In this session, Jenna will share the REFY story from building a brand that challenged the traditional beauty playbook, to scaling internationally while staying focused on innovation, community and what today’s consumer really wants.
Lunch
Be Found. Be Trusted. Be Chosen: The Kijimea Story
Tom Goodwin, President and COO, clearer.io
Jannik Schlomann, Senior Management Web Development, Kijimea
Join clearer.io COO Tom Goodwin in conversation with Jannik Schlomann of Kijimea on winning trust in health and wellness. In a category where customers are cautious by default, Kijimea has built a science-led brand that gets found across every generation, from TV to TikTok, earns trust through evidence and real customer voice, and turns that into loyal, repeat customers. A candid look at being found, being trusted and being chosen, and where AI and smarter tech fit in without losing the human touch.
The Perfect Fit: Occasion-wear brand Paradox London
on Loyalty That Works Wherever They Buy
Amy White, Head of Digital, Paradox London
Alex Wright, Partner Manager, Yotpo
When your customers buy across your own site and retail partners like John Lewis and Debenhams, who really owns the relationship? Amy from Paradox London joins Yotpo to discuss how the fast-growing occasion-wear brand is using loyalty to bridge every channel, capture customers wherever they shop, and turn infrequent, occasion-led buyers into a community that comes back.
Manors Golf: First movers in Agentic Commerce
Nitesh Shah, Operations and Logistics Director, Manors Golf
Victoria Beech, Agency Partnerships Lead, Swap
AI is changing how people buy, not just how they search, and Manor's Golf was one of the first brands to bet on it, launching a fully agentic storefront with Swap.
Join Nitesh Shah, Operations Director at Manor's Golf, in conversation with Vicky, as he unpacks the journey from fixing returns and cross-border, to running one of the most engaged agentic commerce pilots Swap has seen: the trust question, the ops shift, and what he'd tell any brand thinking about doing this next
Streaming TV: The new performance channel
Featuring special guest Sean Robertson, ITV
Anthony O'Neill, MD The TV Agency, The Video Ad Agency and Lulu Animation
Streaming TV has evolved far beyond a branding channel. It is now one of the most targeted, measurable and cost-effective ways for businesses to reach new customers.
In this session, Anthony O'Neill, Managing Director of The TV Agency, will explain how brands can use Streaming TV to drive real business results through postcode-level targeting, audience data, direct attribution and AI-powered video production that significantly reduces creative costs. You'll also discover the latest interactive ad formats transforming viewer engagement.
Joining Anthony will be Sean Robertson from ITV, who will share exclusive insights into ITVX's latest innovations and how broadcasters are embracing AI.
Whether you're new to Streaming TV or looking to improve campaign performance, this session will show why it's rapidly becoming the next major performance marketing channel.
Why human taste is the missing layer in AI-powered
commerce: Lessons from Universal Works and Depict
Mat Brown, Head of eCommerce, Universal Works
Axel Larsson, CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) at Depict
AI can sort, rank, and recommend, but it still does not know what feels right for your brand.
In this session, Mat Brown and Axel Larsson will talk about why taste still matters online, from the products you push to the stories you tell and the shopping moments you create.
Expect a relaxed conversation on brand, ecommerce, product discovery, search, and merchandising, with practical examples of how teams can use AI without making everything feel the same.
Infrastructure for Impact: How Mooncup scale a
successful B2B channel while staying true to their mission
Alex Weston, General Manager at SparkLayer
Neil Kuschel, Executive Chairman at SparkLayer
Paulina Szklarek, Managing Director at Mooncup
Mooncup never set out to be a wholesale business, the demand arrived on its own, with offices, universities, and councils placing bulk orders through the consumer site. Paulina Szklarek, Managing Director, Mooncup and Neil Kuschel, Executive Chairman, SparkLayer, join Alex Weston, General Manager, SparkLayer, to talk about what happened next: building the automation and AI to support a fast growing B2B channel without losing the human relationships that made buyers choose Mooncup in the first place.
The waves reshaping eCommerce: Marketplaces,
social commerce & AI-powered shopping with TikTok
Niels Floors, VP of Strategic Development, ChannelEngine
Giulia Yang, Growth & Strategic Partnerships, TikTok
Jo Hunt, Head of Business Development, Debenhams
eCommerce growth is not slowing down, but the way shoppers discover, compare, and buy is changing fast. This session explores three major shifts reshaping the buyer journey: marketplaces, social commerce, and AI driven shopping. We will look at how discovery is becoming more fragmented across channels, why control over visibility, availability, pricing, and content matters more than ever, and what brands need to consider as commerce becomes more automated and less linear.
All Real Nutrition: Building a Brand Customers Trust
One Personalised Moment at a Time
Niall Harty, Founder, All Real Nutrition
Sam O’Neill, Managing Director, Leading Social
Aoife Teague, Director of Partnerships, Octane AI
The session is a brand story, not a product demo. All Real Nutrition’s journey to knowing their customers well enough to sell them the right thing the rebuild and the ads strategy are proof points inside that story, not the headline.
Afternoon Break
The Right Message at the Right Moment:
Calla Shoes’ SMS and Email Strategy
Holly Gafney, Marketing Brand and Content Manager, Calla Shoes
Kat Trenouth, Head of Brand, Attentive
Calla Shoes has built a highly effective customer engagement strategy by connecting the right message with the right customer at the right moment. In this conversation, Calla Shoes will share how it uses SMS, email, behavioural segmentation, loyalty messaging, and Attentive AI to create more personalised customer experiences and drive engagement and revenue. The discussion will explore how Calla identifies customer intent through signals such as recent product views and email engagement, tailors campaigns around product launches and loyalty rewards, and determines which channel is best for each
Beyond the feed: How JD Sports uses creators,
social and YouTube to build cultural relevance
Eilish Anderson, Head of Influencer, Social and YouTube, JD Sports
Consumers don't just discover brands through advertising anymore - they discover them through culture, creators and communities. As social platforms evolve and video continues to reshape the customer journey, retailers are rethinking how they build relevance and connect with audiences in authentic ways.
In this exclusive fireside chat, Eilish Anderson, Head of Influencer, Social and YouTube at JD Sports, shares how one of the UK's leading retailers has evolved its creator and social strategy to deliver campaigns that resonate with millions. From building long-term creator partnerships to developing standout YouTube content and integrating creators into major brand moments such as the FIFA World Cup, Eilish will discuss what it takes to create content that audiences genuinely choose to engage with.
Closing remarks
Chris Fletcher, CEO, Visualsoft
Post event drinks and canapes in The River Restaurant
"I came to sync to connect with great, like-minded people: founders, CEOs, leadership teams, agencies and brands. The whole day was warm, authentic and insightful."
Steve Hewitt
"sync's lineup was one of the best. The day was insightful and felt like a real community with similar industries and local brands all coming together. "
Niall Young-O'Brien
"I came to sync to see the host of fantastic people and incredible brands that I aspire to be like with WALK London. I'd say the day was enlightening, fun and engaging."
Adam Di Mambro
©2026 sync. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Visualsoft
Join us at Sync, Visualsoft’s flagship conference designed to spark the next chapter of modern retail. We bring together inspiring voices from some of the UK’s leading brands to explore how to reach customers wherever they search, shop or scroll.
From unified commerce to emerging tech, marketplace growth and customer experience, this is your front-row seat to connected commerce in action. If you’re after fresh thinking, real-world stories and conversations that actually matter, Sync is where it happens.
Last year, we welcomed standout speakers from Gymshark, Google, Shopify, PrettyLittleThing, Represent Clothing, Attentive, Klaviyo and more. They shared practical insight, honest lessons and future-focused ideas that kept the conversation going well beyond the event itself.
For 2026, we’re levelling things up with fresh perspectives, open conversation and more chances to learn, connect and swap ideas. Built for retail leaders, marketers, founders and digital innovators, the event brings together keynote talks, fireside chats and a hands-on retail experience inside our live Shopify POS room. Everything about Sync is designed to deliver practical takeaways and help spark lasting partnerships across the retail world.
We've got a stellar set of speakers for 2026 that you won't want to miss out on.
Registration and breakfast
Welcome talk
Chris Fletcher, CEO, Visualsoft
The purchase moment: how Shopify is helping merchants become transaction ready in the AI era
Ben Homer, Solutions Engineering Lead, Shopify
The purchase moment is changing. AI shopping is moving beyond discovery into recommendations and transactions. Agents are beginning to compare products, build carts and complete purchases on behalf of shoppers.
In this keynote, Shopify's Ben Homer explains what it means for brands to become transaction-ready in the AI era. He'll unpack the new relationship between merchants, shoppers, and agents, why clean product data and trusted brand answers matter, and how Shopify is helping merchants show up and stay in control as commerce moves wherever intent lives.
Myrqvist's playbook for scaling internationally: Strategic moves that made delivery a competitive advantage
Douglas Holm, Head of Online, Myrqvist and Piotr Zaleski, Co-founder and CPTO, Ingrid.
Founded in Stockholm in 2016, Myrqvist was built on a simple idea — to craft timeless, high-quality footwear at a fair price. Designed in Sweden and handmade by skilled artisans in Portugal, the brand combines Scandinavian minimalism with enduring craftsmanship.
From the start, Myrqvist has been a direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand, using Shopify to reach customers across 12 markets worldwide. The game-changer came when they moved from seven different sites to a single storefront: operational work went down by 92%. Today, they serve customers online and their flagship stores in Stockholm, London, Oslo, and New York.
Join Douglas Holm, Head of Online at Myrqvist, in conversation with Ingrid as he shares his strategic moves that turned delivery into a competitive advantage, proving that shoppers value delivery experiences far more than most retailers realise.
The REFY Story
Jenna Meek, CEO and Co Founder, Refy
This session takes us inside the story of one of the UK’s most exciting beauty brands. Founded in 2020 by Jenna Meek and Jess Hunt, REFY has grown from an instant global success with Brow Sculpt into an internationally recognised beauty brand, now stocked across the UK, US, Canada, Ireland and the Middle East. In this session, Jenna will share the REFY story from building a brand that challenged the traditional beauty playbook, to scaling internationally while staying focused on innovation, community and what today’s consumer really wants.
Lunch
Be Found. Be Trusted. Be Chosen: The Kijimea Story
Tom Goodwin, President & COO, clearer.io
Jannik Schlomann, Senior Management Web Development, Kijimea
Join Clearer.io COO Tom Goodwin in conversation with Jannik Schlomann of Kijimea on winning trust in health and wellness. In a category where customers are cautious by default, Kijimea has built a science led brand that gets found across every generation, from TV to TikTok, earns trust through evidence and real customer voice, and turns that into loyal, repeat customers. A candid look at being found, being trusted and being chosen, and where AI and smarter tech fit in without losing the human touch.
The perfect fit: Occasion-wear brand Paradox London on loyalty that works wherever they buy
Amy White,Head of Digital, Paradox London
Alex Wright, Partner Manager, Yotpo
When your customers buy across your own site and retail partners like John Lewis and Debenhams, who really owns the relationship? Amy from Paradox London joins Yotpo to discuss how the fast-growing occasion-wear brand is using loyalty to bridge every channel, capture customers wherever they shop, and turn infrequent, occasion-led buyers into a community that comes back.
Manors Golf: First movers in agentic commerce
Nitesh Shah, Operations and Logistics Director, Manors Golf
Vicky Beech, Agency Partnerships Lead, Swap
AI is changing how people buy, not just how they search, and Manor's Golf was one of the first brands to bet on it, launching a fully agentic storefront with Swap.
Join Nitesh Shah, Operations Director at Manor's Golf, in conversation with Vicky, as he unpacks the journey from fixing returns and cross-border, to running one of the most engaged agentic commerce pilots Swap has seen: the trust question, the ops shift, and what he'd tell any brand thinking about doing this next
Streaming TV: The new performance channel
Anthony O'Neill, MD The TV Agency, The Video Ad Agency and Lulu Animation
Streaming TV has evolved far beyond a branding channel. It is now one of the most targeted, measurable and cost effective ways for businesses to reach new customers.In this session, Anthony O'Neill, Managing Director of The TV Agency, will explain how brands can use Streaming TV to drive real business results through postcode-level targeting, audience data, direct attribution and AI-powered video production that significantly reduces creative costs. You'll also discover the latest interactive ad formats transforming viewer engagement.
Joining Anthony will be Sean Robertson from ITV, who will share exclusive insights into ITVX's latest innovations and how broadcasters are embracing AI.Whether you're new to Streaming TV or looking to improve campaign performance, this session will show why it's rapidly becoming the next major performance marketing channel.
Why human taste is the missing layer in AI-powered commerce: Lessons from Universal Works and Depict
Mat Brown, Head of eCommerce, Universal Works
Axel Larsson, CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) at Depict
AI can sort, rank, and recommend, but it still does not know what feels right for your brand.
In this session, Mat Brown and Axel Larsson will talk about why taste still matters online, from the products you push to the stories you tell and the shopping moments you create.
Expect a relaxed conversation on brand, ecommerce, product discovery, search, and merchandising, with practical examples of how teams can use AI without making everything feel the same.
Infrastructure for impact: How Mooncup scale a successful B2B channel whilst staying true to their mission
Alex Weston, General Manager at SparkLayer
Neil Kuschel, Executive Chairman at SparkLayer
Paulina Szklarek, Managing Director at Mooncup
Mooncup never set out to be a wholesale business... the demand arrived on its own, with offices, universities, and councils placing bulk orders through the consumer site. Paulina Szklarek, Managing Director, Mooncup, and Neil Kuschel, Executive Chairman, SparkLayer, join Alex Weston, General Manager, SparkLayer, to talk about what happened next: building the automation and AI to support a fast growing B2B channel without losing the human relationships that made buyers choose Mooncup in the first place.
The waves reshaping eCommerce: Marketplaces, social commerce and AI powered shopping with TikTok
Niels Floors, VP of Strategic Development, ChannelEngine
Giulia Yang, Growth & Strategic Partnerships, TikTok
Jo Hunt, Head of Business Development at Debenhams
eCommerce growth is not slowing down, but the way shoppers discover, compare, and buy is changing fast. This session explores three major shifts reshaping the buyer journey: marketplaces, social commerce, and AI-driven shopping. We will look at how discovery is becoming more fragmented across channels, why control over visibility, availability, pricing, and content matters more than ever, and what brands need to consider as commerce becomes more automated and less linear.
All Real Nutrition: Building a Brand Customers Trust — One Personalised Moment at a Time
Niall Harty, Founder, All Real Nutrition
Sam O’Neill, Managing Director, Leading Social
Aoife Teague, Director of Partnerships, Octane AI
The session is a brand story, not a product demo. All Real Nutrition’s journey to knowing their customers well enough to sell them the right thing - the rebuild and the ads strategy are proof points inside that story, not the headline.
Afternoon Break
The Right Message at the Right Moment: Calla Shoes’ SMS and Email Strategy
Holly Gafney, Marketing Brand and Content Manager, Calla Shoes
Kat Trenouth, Head of Brand, Attentive
Calla Shoes has built a highly effective customer engagement strategy by connecting the right message with the right customer at the right moment. In this conversation, Calla Shoes will share how it uses SMS, email, behavioural segmentation, loyalty messaging, and Attentive AI to create more personalised customer experiences and drive engagement and revenue. The discussion will explore how Calla identifies customer intent through signals such as recent product views and email engagement, tailors campaigns around product launches and loyalty rewards, and determines which channel is best for each
Beyond the feed: How JD Sports uses creators, social and YouTube to build cultural relevance
Eilish Anderson, Head of Influencer, Social and YouTube, JD Sports
Consumers don't just discover brands through advertising anymore - they discover them through culture, creators and communities. As social platforms evolve and video continues to reshape the customer journey, retailers are rethinking how they build relevance and connect with audiences in authentic ways.
In this exclusive fireside chat, Eilish Anderson, Head of Influencer, Social and YouTube at JD Sports, shares how one of the UK's leading retailers has evolved its creator and social strategy to deliver campaigns that resonate with millions. From building long-term creator partnerships to developing standout YouTube content and integrating creators into major brand moments such as the FIFA World Cup, Eilish will discuss what it takes to create content that audiences genuinely choose to engage with.
Closing remarks
Chris Fletcher, CEO, Visualsoft
Post event drinks and canapes in The River Restaurant
"I came to sync to connect with great, like-minded people: founders, CEOs, leadership teams, agencies and brands. The whole day was warm, authentic and insightful."
Steve Hewitt
"I was intrigued by sync and the line-up was easily the best one in the north to date. The day was insightful and felt like a real community with similar industries and local brands all coming together in one room."
Niall Young-O'Brien
"I came to sync to see the host of fantastic people and incredible brands that I aspire to be like with WALK London. I'd say the day was enlightening, fun and engaging."
Adam Di Mambro