Shownotes
Live from the Vusion podcast studio at booth 913 at Groceryshop 2026 in Las Vegas, Ben Miller connects with Katie Blackburn, Vice President - Commercial Strategy & Operations at WHSmith North America, for a GrocerTalk conversation on the evolving world of travel retail and the changing needs of airport shoppers.
Katie breaks down how WHSmith North America operates roughly 300 stores across around 50 U.S. airports, using localized concepts and curated assortments to serve travelers with very different shopping missions. From quick, convenient purchases like chargers and hydration to discovery-driven shopping experiences, the conversation explores how WHSmith balances speed and efficiency with exploration and engagement.
The discussion also dives into WHSmith North America’s growing retail media network, including its investment in digital in-store screens and new programmatic capabilities developed in partnership with SMG. Katie also shares what’s ahead for WHSmith North America in 2027, including a planned accelerator program designed to help emerging brands reach the millions of passengers traveling through U.S. airports.
In this episode:
• WHSmith North America’s travel retail business
• The different shopper missions shaping airport retail
• Balancing speed, convenience and discovery
• Self-checkout and the changing checkout experience
• Curated merchandising in high-traffic environments
• WHSmith North America’s retail media network
• Programmatic advertising across physical store environments
• Digital screens and in-store brand engagement
• What’s ahead for WHSmith North America in 2027
• A new accelerator program for emerging brands
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Transcripts
Hello everyone.
Speaker A:This is Omni Talk Retail.
Speaker A:I am Ben Miller, host of grocertalk and I'm coming to you live from Las Vegas from the Viewsion podcast studio.
Speaker A:That's booth 913, a grocery shop.
Speaker A:Joining me now is Katie Blackburn, VP Commercial Strategy and Operations at WH Smiths North America.
Speaker A:Welcome to Omnitalk, Katie.
Speaker B:Thank you very much.
Speaker A:Look Katie, we'll have some listeners who are really familiar, maybe like you and I, who grew up with the WH Smith's brand.
Speaker A:There'll be others who have walked past your stores in airports across North America so many times, maybe without even realizing who owns or run them.
Speaker A:So give me an introduction to the WHSMITH business and then kind of the North American business that you are part of.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So as you said, WHSMITH is a long standing business.
Speaker B: lobal organization with about: Speaker B:So it's a big old global business.
Speaker B:But the bit that I work for now is wsmith North America.
Speaker B:And we have in the region of about 300 stores across around 50 airports in the US and as you said, many people will have gone into our stores, many of whom are here today at the conference, who will have gone in or will have purchased something or walked past and they wouldn't have a clue that we were the people who run it.
Speaker B:The reason for that is we have a lot of localized concepts.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So the majority of our stores don't say W. Smith on the top.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:In terms of our store portfolio, we have a real mixed bag.
Speaker B:So the majority of our stores and where our focus is is travel essentials and convenience.
Speaker B:So thinking bottle of water, fuel for your journey, tech accessories, etc.
Speaker B:But we also do run some other store formats.
Speaker B:So we have formats like InMotion, the tech retailer.
Speaker B:We also have partnerships with the likes of Mac, Estee Lauder, Hugo Boss and other brands like that, and we run those for them in airports as well.
Speaker A:So your core travel essentials brands or brands that people might have visited in North American airports, what are they?
Speaker B:As I said, I think from a brand, there isn't really a brand.
Speaker B:So the way it works is that we're a localized concept.
Speaker B:So if I talk you through Newark Airport as an example, in New York, you walk through security in terminal A and you come to Shore Points Market and that is a huge convenience store marketplace.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You then walk down the terminal and you get to the Telegraph.
Speaker B:Totally different store design, looks like a different independent retailer.
Speaker B:But actually we run that both of those stores.
Speaker B:So all of them are effectively kind of local design, and we use local curation to kind of bring to life a sense of sense of place and difference as well.
Speaker A:Really interesting.
Speaker A:Really interesting.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Katie, this is a really good chance to dive into travel retail.
Speaker A:It's not a segment that we talk about a lot on the podcast, so.
Speaker A:Super interested to hear to get into this.
Speaker A:So tell me, what are the main shopper needs when you're designing your stores today?
Speaker A:And kind of how has that evolved?
Speaker B:Great question.
Speaker B:I think the way I'd frame this is probably that unlike traditional retail, where you talk about kind of demographics and boxes and types of people, for us, it's really about different types of mission.
Speaker B:So really we have two extremes, and then lots of people in the middle.
Speaker B:We've got some people, and I'm sure everyone can understand this feeling, some people who are extremely stressed, feeling like it's a chaotic environment, they may be running late, maybe they've got low battery on their phone.
Speaker B:Everyone knows that feeling of jumping onto a plane with 5% on their battery.
Speaker B:For those people, it's really about meeting their immediate needs.
Speaker B:Okay, that could be a charger for that phone as an example.
Speaker B:It could be hydration for the plane.
Speaker B:But effectively, quick, easy, efficient solutions, curated ranges that meet those needs.
Speaker B:The flip side is you've got a load of travelers who maybe they're really excited.
Speaker B:They're anticipating the journey ahead, they're with their family, they're thinking about what's that crisp cold beer going to be by the gate?
Speaker B:And actually, for them, it's about kind of exploration and finding something new and different and getting excited and actually the shopping experience being part of the journey.
Speaker A:Okay, really interesting.
Speaker A:So two completely different mindsets.
Speaker A:How on earth do you build a format and a proposition to cope with that?
Speaker B:It's difficult.
Speaker B:I think what we really have to do is be mindful that the most important thing is that quick, easy, efficient ranging.
Speaker B:And actually the cherry on the top is the exciting stuff and the innovation.
Speaker B:So we've got to get that shopping experience right.
Speaker B:Whether it's uncluttered stores, easy payment area, easy ability to get through the store.
Speaker B:They've got to be the primary things we think about first before we then think about the sexy stuff on top.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So it's take that high footfall, help people get through quickly, and then build on there.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:And the thing is, there's about a billion passengers who go through US Airports every year.
Speaker A:A billion.
Speaker B:So we've.
Speaker B:We have to really think Very carefully about how do we make it easy and efficient.
Speaker A:Really interesting.
Speaker A:You mentioned checkout.
Speaker A:I travel through Heathrow in London a lot.
Speaker A:There's a number of WHSmiths in each of the terminals, branded WH Smiths.
Speaker A:One of the things that I'm really familiar with because to help people get through quickly, self checkout.
Speaker A:Now, there's a slightly different relationship this side of the Atlantic with self checkout.
Speaker A:What do you find in your airport stores in North America?
Speaker B:Yeah, it definitely has to be a balance.
Speaker B:For us in the uk, it's very much focused on self checkout as the primary way of paying at the end of the journey.
Speaker B:But for us, we have to get that balance right.
Speaker B:There are still customers in the US who have a preference for interacting with a colleague.
Speaker B:They may also be paying in cash.
Speaker B:So there's multiple reasons why that might be the case.
Speaker B:So we always make sure to have a man checkout available.
Speaker B:But if you look at all of our new stores, pretty much most of them are 90% self checkouts.
Speaker B:And the adoption rate on that's been really good.
Speaker A:Okay, interesting, interesting.
Speaker A:So another balance, you talked about balancing a balance.
Speaker A:There is balancing this need to get through people really quickly when they're on a journey, the life of planning, et cetera, but then encouraging discovery, encouraging engagement.
Speaker A:How do you do that in a travel location?
Speaker B:I think that balance really comes from careful curation.
Speaker B:So what we don't want to do is give the customer endless choice.
Speaker B:I think sometimes retailers make the mistake of thinking that maximizing choice for the customer is the only thing that's going to help them.
Speaker B:But actually having a really well thought out curated range does help people move through the store quickly find what they need.
Speaker B:And that also then frees up the space to do things that are more interesting and a bit, you know, bit more on the edge.
Speaker A:It's all about the merchandising.
Speaker A:Really interesting.
Speaker A:Okay, so tell me, how are you using technology in your stores to help you enable all this?
Speaker B:Yeah, well, from my perspective, in my role, one of the big things that we've been doing is working on launching a new retail media network.
Speaker B:And we've done that in partnership with SMG over the last two years.
Speaker B:With that, what we're doing is really giving brands the opportunity to launch their innovation, talk about their brands to customers.
Speaker B:And I talked before about the number of people going through airports that the eyeballs are.
Speaker B:The number of eyeballs is huge.
Speaker B:So we've been working with them really closely on it.
Speaker B:One of the really exciting things that's recently launched.
Speaker B:As part of that is programmatic capability.
Speaker B:What that really means is that brands can engage directly with our estate and our digital assets without having to go through direct contact with us in negotiation.
Speaker B:It's all there, ready to go.
Speaker B:So we've done lots of things in the background, but we now we're in a really good place for kind of year three of that launch.
Speaker A:That's super interesting, Katie.
Speaker A:We get quite a few people that talk about retail media on our show.
Speaker A:When they're talking about Programmatic, they're talking about their websites for the travel community.
Speaker A:It's all physical stores.
Speaker A:So what does programmatic, what sort of assets are you making available to advertisers?
Speaker B:So for us, it's all about digital screens.
Speaker B:As you said, our entire business is in store.
Speaker B:We don't have an equom part to our business.
Speaker B:It's all, all about that in the moment, at point of purchase.
Speaker B:So we've been investing really heavily in digital assets in our stores at the front, over the coolers, all around the store to really help drive those brand messages.
Speaker A:Okay, and are those assets that you organize or you mentioned smz, you work with a partner.
Speaker A:Do they organize the content on the, on the screen?
Speaker B:It's definitely a partnership.
Speaker B:So we work hand in hand with them in terms of working with brands and they're effectively an extension of our buying team.
Speaker B:So we work with them to go out to brands and talk to them about campaigns, talk to them about measurement, do the planning.
Speaker B:All of that's done in partnership with smg.
Speaker A:Interesting.
Speaker A:Okay, let me get you out of here.
Speaker A:One last question.
Speaker A:Looking ahead, what's the most exciting development that's on the roadmap for W.A.
Speaker A: Smiths in: Speaker B:I mean, the list could go on there because we're doing so much stuff and a lot of it's very foundational, which might sound unsexy, but it's the stuff that's really going to make a difference.
Speaker B:But, but talking really personally, one of the big things that we're really excited about in the commercial area is about an accelerator program that we're going to be landing in the next year.
Speaker B:Now I'm calling it an accelerator program.
Speaker B:We haven't branded it yet.
Speaker B:It's in development.
Speaker B:So working on that as we speak.
Speaker B:But basically that's going to be an opportunity for new brands, emerging brands, to work with us in a really kind of professionalized way so they can get their brand out there in front of those billion passengers.
Speaker B:So we're really excited about that program.
Speaker A:Very good.
Speaker A:And okay, well, look, best of luck, Katie.
Speaker A:Thank you again for joining us.
Speaker A:And thanks to the teams at Fusion and Grocery Shop for making all of our coverage of this show possible.
Speaker A:And stay tuned for more.