This week’s episode is split into two parts.

The first was recorded live at Top Drawer back in January, where we sat down with Hannah Adams to talk about AI and what it really means for buyers and brands.

The second dives into Hannah’s career journey from buyer to business transformation specialist and what that evolution teaches us about modern retail careers.

Part One: Live from Top Drawer - AI in Retail

Recording live brought such energy to this conversation. We wanted to strip AI back to what actually matters in day-to-day retail roles.

Hannah shares her experience at ASOS, where she worked on implementing Microsoft Copilot, and breaks down how tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini can support buyers in practical ways.

We cover real use cases, competitor analysis, trend research, product development ideas, supplier emails, negotiation prep and contract reviews as well as the importance of strong prompting and protecting sensitive business data.

The key message? AI is an assistant, not a replacement. Your judgement and instinct still matter most- AI simply helps you move faster and think wider.

Part Two: Hannah’s Career Pivot

Hannah started her career at Evans within Arcadia Group before moving into buying roles at Topman during the High Street’s early 2000s peak.

She shares the reality of international supplier travel- from Taiwan to Mauritius and the buzz of developing product and trading weekly sales.

Her move into business transformation was driven by both lifestyle considerations and curiosity. She explains how transformation roles act as the bridge between technical teams and commercial teams, helping retailers adopt new systems in ways that genuinely work for buyers and merchandisers.

Her journey is a brilliant example of how transferable buying skills really are — negotiation, stakeholder management and commercial thinking open far more doors than many realise.

We finish by reflecting on what we all still love about buying: the thrill of sales, backing your instinct, building supplier relationships and seeing product come to life.

Three Takeaways

1) AI won’t replace buyers - but buyers who use AI well will have an advantage.

2) Buying skills are incredibly transferable. Retail careers don’t have to be linear to be successful.

3) Whether it’s new technology or a new role, growth comes from experimenting, staying curious and backing yourself.

Let us know what resonates most and whether you’ve started exploring AI in your own role yet.

Support the show

If you've liked this episode please rate, follow, subscribe and share :)
- and if you already have, thank you!

Follow us @buyingandbeyond on Instagram

Send us a DM or email hello@buyingandbeyond.co.uk

Find out more about us www.buyingandbeyond.co.uk

If you'd like to show a little more love, then head here to give us just a little bit *extra* and show us your support :) thank you!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2300060/support

S8 EP2 From shop floor lessons to commercial confidence with Dahlia Stroud

This week we’re joined by Dahlia Stroud, a retail and FMCG leader whose career spans Nestlé, Asda and Co-op, where she’s led commercial strategy, online trading and multiple buying teams (without ever officially holding the buyer title). Today she hosts Stressed But Well-Dressed, exploring the link between confidence, mindset and how we show up at work.

In this episode we go back to the start- field sales, Christmas aisles and learning retail the hard way and how those early experiences built the instincts she later used to lead teams and shape commercial decisions across categories from home to healthcare.

We talk about the moment online retail changed everything: why a profitable product on paper isn’t always profitable in reality, how customer behaviour differs by channel, and why great buyers have to understand the full journey not just the margin line. Dahlia shares how she influenced teams without authority, using insight and education to bring people with her rather than telling them what to do.

We also get into the human side of careers. Redundancy knocked her confidence and identity, and led to creating Stressed But Well-Dressed as a way to rebuild her voice, discovering along the way that everyone, even senior leaders, is figuring it out as they go. Confidence, she says, isn’t about knowing everything it’s about trusting you can work it out.

Along the way we cover trend moments that unexpectedly explode, why getting the basics right matters just as much as innovation, and the psychology behind why customers actually buy things in the first place.

Three key takeaways

1. The best commercial instincts are built on the shop floor
Those early, unglamorous roles teach you how retail actually works - customers, stores, operations and reality vs theory. That experience shapes stronger decisions later because you understand the impact beyond the numbers.

2. Buying isn’t just margin (yes we did say that) it’s the full operating model
Online retail forced a shift from product-level thinking to end-to-end thinking. Packaging, fulfilment, returns and behaviour all matter, and the strongest commercial teams are the ones who connect customer behaviour to financial outcomes.

3. Confidence drives progression more than job titles
Redundancy pushed Dahlia to rebuild her identity and voice- and reinforced a simple truth: everyone has doubt. The difference is backing yourself anyway. When you change your internal narrative, your external impact changes too.

Connect with Dahlia

Podcast: Stressed But Well-Dressed
Exploring the relationship between clothing, confidence, and mindset

Support the show

If you've liked this episode please rate, follow, subscribe and share :)
- and if you already have, thank you!

Follow us @buyingandbeyond on Instagram

Send us a DM or email hello@buyingandbeyond.co.uk

Find out more about us www.buyingandbeyond.co.uk

If you'd like to show a little more love, then head here to give us just a little bit *extra* and show us your support :) thank you!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2300060/support

This week we are joined by Claire Ward- a senior product technologist. This episode is a particularly special one for us. Claire, Kate and Lyns all met right at the very beginning of our careers at Accessorize, learning the ropes of retail together so recording this felt like a real full-circle moment. We start by reminiscing about those early days before diving into the journey Claire has taken since, building an impressive career across some of the UK’s best-known fashion brands including Accessorize, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Mint Velvet and Hush.

Claire shares how she moved from being a creative student into the world of product technology and explains why the role is far more influential than many people realise. She lifts the lid on what a product technologist actually does day-to-day from fit, construction and fabric performance to safety testing, compliance and quality assurance and how they quietly protect both the customer and the business.

A particularly fascinating part of Claire’s journey came when she took a year out after Debenhams to work in Uganda with nonprofit organisation Acoa, which employed Ugandan women to produce jewellery and homeware for the US market. Hired as a product development manager, she quickly discovered she was the only person in the organisation with manufacturing or fashion experience and had to build the role from scratch. Acting as the bridge between US designers and the Ugandan production team, Claire created early samples, refined products for scalable production and introduced more efficient manufacturing methods. From visiting local markets to trace dye sources, to sourcing compliant suppliers in Kampala and investing in tooling for cowhorn craftsmen, the work was deeply hands-on and problem-solving led.

Claire talks honestly about why tech teams can sometimes be undervalued despite preventing costly mistakes, reducing returns and improving customer trust. Along the way she shares real-world stories from factories in India to Christmas decorations that accidentally became classified as toys, highlighting how problem-solving sits at the heart of the job.

Ultimately this episode is a reminder that behind every great product is a technologist making sure it works, lasts and is safe to sell — often without anyone ever knowing.

Three Key Takeaways

Product technologists are more than fit checkers. They bring expertise in fabric, manufacturing, construction and compliance that can save businesses significant money through reduced returns, improved consumption and stronger quality perception.

Involve tech from the beginning. The strongest products happen when technologists are part of development from day one, working alongside buyers and designers to prevent problems before they become costly mistakes.

Communication and respect are everything. Great buyer-tech partnerships rely on clear communication, mutual respect and understanding each other’s KPIs — when tech stays commercial and buyers listen to risk, everyone wins, especially the customer.

Support the show

If you've liked this episode please rate, follow, subscribe and share :)
- and if you already have, thank you!

Follow us @buyingandbeyond on Instagram

Send us a DM or email hello@buyingandbeyond.co.uk

Find out more about us www.buyingandbeyond.co.uk

If you'd like to show a little more love, then head here to give us just a little bit *extra* and show us your support :) thank you!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2300060/support