Retail “rescue” specialist Bill Grimsey – a former customer service director at Tesco and later CEO of Wickes – warned delegates not to ignore the way consumer shopping habits were changing.

“Because of technology, the shoppers of tomorrow will not be like us and they won’t care about some of the things that we care about,” he said.

There would need to be a paradigm shift in thinking. Customer service was just not enough for tomorrow – customers would expect excellence as a given. Customer experience was the new dimension and would be where “tomorrow’s world will be won”.

“Technology is on the rampage,” he added, “and the consumer of the future will want to be on the edge of an experience. I predict that in 10 years time there will be stores without stock, using holograms . The technology exists.”