RETAIL CHAMPION 2026 | EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING | OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
When Shopping Just Works
What makes a store enjoyable when one visit is a quick stop and another calls for time, choice or help?
Executive Intelligence Briefing
4–6 min read
One result in this year's Retail Champion study stands out before we look at any individual retailer. In the published figures, 18 of the 21 retailers received a lower score than in 2025 on the statement, “Shopping at this store is enjoyable.” Only three moved up: ROSSMANN, KAUFLAND and ORLEN. ROSSMANN, the 2026 Outstanding Customer Experience Champion, rose from 85% to 91%.
That wording matters. In the YouGov study, “Shopping at this store is enjoyable” is the leading statement for the Outstanding Customer Experience category. The supporting questions are very practical: are the shelves arranged clearly, is service prompt, is the store clean, and are employees nice and helpful? In this study, an enjoyable visit is therefore not about entertainment. It is about how the whole shopping trip feels when ordinary things either work well or get in the way.
And ordinary shopping trips can be very different. Someone entering for three known products may want to find them, pay and leave. The same person on another day may want to browse, compare products or ask for advice. A good store does not make both visits follow the same pattern. It makes each one easy in its own way
3,092
shopper surveys
Analysed in the YouGov study
21
retailers
Included in the research
July – September 2026
Fieldwork period
Members invited 1–2 days after a purchase
The visit often starts before the door
Many shopping trips begin before the shopper reaches the store. Someone may have seen a promotion, checked a price, opened an app, looked up a product or simply decided that this will be a quick stop on the way home. By the time they walk in, they already have some idea of what they want to do next.
At Retail Summit 2026, this became an important theme in the In-Store Shopper Experience discussions. Shoppers often arrive with expectations shaped before the visit, and the first minutes inside can either support those expectations or make the shopper stop and figure things out again.
The problems can be very ordinary. A promotion seen before the visit is hard to find. A product is not where the shopper expects it. The layout makes the next step unclear. An employee does not know about the offer the customer came in for.
When those first steps are clear, the shopper simply carries on. When they are not, the visit begins with extra effort before the real shopping has even started.
The rest of the visit has to keep working
Customer experience is often less about one impressive “wow” moment and more about avoiding a series of small frustrations. The product is where the shopper expects it. The price is understandable. The aisle is easy to use. Help is available when it is needed. The queue at the end does not spoil everything that worked before it.
Across the 21 retailer profiles, those ordinary moments appear again and again. A clear layout can still be weakened by confusing price information. Replenishment keeps shelves full but can make an aisle harder to move through. A helpful employee can solve a problem, but only if the shopper can actually find someone when the problem occurs.
Retailers are also under pressure to cut costs and work more efficiently. In July, Puls Biznesu reported continued price competition and pressure on store productivity. In the same article, LIDL Polska's CEO made the customer side of that challenge very clear: savings should come from places shoppers do not notice, not from making stores harder to use. This does not explain LIDL's Retail Champion result. It does show why efficiency and customer experience cannot be treated as separate subjects.
In October, the Club of 369 In-Store Advisory Committee added another useful point. More attention from staff is not automatically better service. Some shoppers want advice; others prefer to continue on their own until they need help. Committee members also noted that shoppers can arrive already well informed. They may have compared products or read about them before entering the store, so the employee's value may come from answering one specific question or helping the shopper choose between two options.
That gives YouGov's phrase “nice and helpful service” a more precise meaning. Helpful service is not simply more contact. It is useful contact at the moment the shopper needs it.
Can the same good experience happen again?
A retailer is not judged in only one branch on one quiet afternoon. The harder test is whether the things that make a visit good can still be found in another store, with another team, on a busier day.
HEBE offers an interesting example of how a retailer can try to make useful product advice less dependent on one particularly knowledgeable employee. Its #hebest Beauty Days is an employee-learning programme. In the 2025 edition, HEBE described nearly 400 participants, with one person selected from each store to learn about products, ingredients and trends. In an earlier edition, HEBE said those representatives were expected to share what they had learned with colleagues in their stores.
HEBE ranked second on shopping enjoyment in the 2026 study at 79%. The programme does not explain that score, and attending training does not tell us how every customer conversation goes. What it does show is one practical way to spread product knowledge through many store teams instead of leaving it with a few strong individuals.
The October Club of 369 People Advisory Committee looked at a related problem from the employee side. When someone's role changes, participants argued, it is not enough to keep adding new tasks. Some repetitive work may need to disappear, people need to learn what is changing, and managers need to make sure the new way of working is understood. They also raised a simple question that is easy to miss: if someone is asked to do something new, who takes care of the work they were doing before?
Shoppers never see those internal decisions, but they see the result. Is the store still easy to shop when it is busy? Can someone help when help matters? Does a new service make the visit better without creating a new irritation somewhere else?
The 2026 Retail Champion results do not point to one formula for a great store. They point to questions worth following: what should always be easy, what should change depending on the kind of visit, and what has to change inside the business when a retailer wants to improve the experience?
Those are among the questions we will continue to examine as the programme develops for Poland & CEE Retail Summit 2027, on 13–14 April 2027 in Warsaw.
Key takeaways
Shopping enjoyment fell at most chains. Scores were down at 18 of the 21 retailers in 2026. ROSSMANN moved the other way, rising from 85% to 91% and finishing first.
Everyday things make a shopping trip work. In the study's analysis, clear shelves carried the most weight (29%), followed by quick service (25%), cleanliness (24%) and helpful staff (23%). A good visit needs these small things to work together.
The same shopper can need different things on different days. On a quick trip, speed matters; while browsing, advice may matter more. Expectations often form before shoppers walk in, so the store has to be ready for both.
RETAIL CHAMPION 2026 | EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING | OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
When Shopping Just Works
What makes a store enjoyable when one visit is a quick stop and another calls for time, choice or help?
Executive Intelligence Briefing
4–6 min read
One result in this year's Retail Champion study stands out before we look at any individual retailer. In the published figures, 18 of the 21 retailers received a lower score than in 2025 on the statement, “Shopping at this store is enjoyable.” Only three moved up: ROSSMANN, KAUFLAND and ORLEN. ROSSMANN, the 2026 Outstanding Customer Experience Champion, rose from 85% to 91%.
That wording matters. In the YouGov study, “Shopping at this store is enjoyable” is the leading statement for the Outstanding Customer Experience category. The supporting questions are very practical: are the shelves arranged clearly, is service prompt, is the store clean, and are employees nice and helpful? In this study, an enjoyable visit is therefore not about entertainment. It is about how the whole shopping trip feels when ordinary things either work well or get in the way.
And ordinary shopping trips can be very different. Someone entering for three known products may want to find them, pay and leave. The same person on another day may want to browse, compare products or ask for advice. A good store does not make both visits follow the same pattern. It makes each one easy in its own way
3,092
shopper surveys
Analysed in the YouGov study
21
retailers
Included in the research
July – September 2026
Fieldwork period
Members invited 1–2 days after a purchase
The visit often starts before the door
Many shopping trips begin before the shopper reaches the store. Someone may have seen a promotion, checked a price, opened an app, looked up a product or simply decided that this will be a quick stop on the way home. By the time they walk in, they already have some idea of what they want to do next.
At Retail Summit 2026, this became an important theme in the In-Store Shopper Experience discussions. Shoppers often arrive with expectations shaped before the visit, and the first minutes inside can either support those expectations or make the shopper stop and figure things out again.
The problems can be very ordinary. A promotion seen before the visit is hard to find. A product is not where the shopper expects it. The layout makes the next step unclear. An employee does not know about the offer the customer came in for.
When those first steps are clear, the shopper simply carries on. When they are not, the visit begins with extra effort before the real shopping has even started.
The rest of the visit has to keep working
Customer experience is often less about one impressive “wow” moment and more about avoiding a series of small frustrations. The product is where the shopper expects it. The price is understandable. The aisle is easy to use. Help is available when it is needed. The queue at the end does not spoil everything that worked before it.
Across the 21 retailer profiles, those ordinary moments appear again and again. A clear layout can still be weakened by confusing price information. Replenishment keeps shelves full but can make an aisle harder to move through. A helpful employee can solve a problem, but only if the shopper can actually find someone when the problem occurs.
Retailers are also under pressure to cut costs and work more efficiently. In July, Puls Biznesu reported continued price competition and pressure on store productivity. In the same article, LIDL Polska's CEO made the customer side of that challenge very clear: savings should come from places shoppers do not notice, not from making stores harder to use. This does not explain LIDL's Retail Champion result. It does show why efficiency and customer experience cannot be treated as separate subjects.
In October, the Club of 369 In-Store Advisory Committee added another useful point. More attention from staff is not automatically better service. Some shoppers want advice; others prefer to continue on their own until they need help. Committee members also noted that shoppers can arrive already well informed. They may have compared products or read about them before entering the store, so the employee's value may come from answering one specific question or helping the shopper choose between two options.
That gives YouGov's phrase “nice and helpful service” a more precise meaning. Helpful service is not simply more contact. It is useful contact at the moment the shopper needs it.
Can the same good experience happen again?
A retailer is not judged in only one branch on one quiet afternoon. The harder test is whether the things that make a visit good can still be found in another store, with another team, on a busier day.
HEBE offers an interesting example of how a retailer can try to make useful product advice less dependent on one particularly knowledgeable employee. Its #hebest Beauty Days is an employee-learning programme. In the 2025 edition, HEBE described nearly 400 participants, with one person selected from each store to learn about products, ingredients and trends. In an earlier edition, HEBE said those representatives were expected to share what they had learned with colleagues in their stores.
HEBE ranked second on shopping enjoyment in the 2026 study at 79%. The programme does not explain that score, and attending training does not tell us how every customer conversation goes. What it does show is one practical way to spread product knowledge through many store teams instead of leaving it with a few strong individuals.
The October Club of 369 People Advisory Committee looked at a related problem from the employee side. When someone's role changes, participants argued, it is not enough to keep adding new tasks. Some repetitive work may need to disappear, people need to learn what is changing, and managers need to make sure the new way of working is understood. They also raised a simple question that is easy to miss: if someone is asked to do something new, who takes care of the work they were doing before?
Shoppers never see those internal decisions, but they see the result. Is the store still easy to shop when it is busy? Can someone help when help matters? Does a new service make the visit better without creating a new irritation somewhere else?
The 2026 Retail Champion results do not point to one formula for a great store. They point to questions worth following: what should always be easy, what should change depending on the kind of visit, and what has to change inside the business when a retailer wants to improve the experience?
Those are among the questions we will continue to examine as the programme develops for Poland & CEE Retail Summit 2027, on 13–14 April 2027 in Warsaw.
Key takeaways
Shopping enjoyment fell at most chains. Scores were down at 18 of the 21 retailers in 2026. ROSSMANN moved the other way, rising from 85% to 91% and finishing first.
Everyday things make a shopping trip work. In the study's analysis, clear shelves carried the most weight (29%), followed by quick service (25%), cleanliness (24%) and helpful staff (23%). A good visit needs these small things to work together.
The same shopper can need different things on different days. On a quick trip, speed matters; while browsing, advice may matter more. Expectations often form before shoppers walk in, so the store has to be ready for both.
RETAIL CHAMPION 2026 | EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING | OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
When Shopping Just Works
What makes a store enjoyable when one visit is a quick stop and another calls for time, choice or help?
Executive Intelligence Briefing
4–6 min read
One result in this year's Retail Champion study stands out before we look at any individual retailer. In the published figures, 18 of the 21 retailers received a lower score than in 2025 on the statement, “Shopping at this store is enjoyable.” Only three moved up: ROSSMANN, KAUFLAND and ORLEN. ROSSMANN, the 2026 Outstanding Customer Experience Champion, rose from 85% to 91%.
That wording matters. In the YouGov study, “Shopping at this store is enjoyable” is the leading statement for the Outstanding Customer Experience category. The supporting questions are very practical: are the shelves arranged clearly, is service prompt, is the store clean, and are employees nice and helpful? In this study, an enjoyable visit is therefore not about entertainment. It is about how the whole shopping trip feels when ordinary things either work well or get in the way.
And ordinary shopping trips can be very different. Someone entering for three known products may want to find them, pay and leave. The same person on another day may want to browse, compare products or ask for advice. A good store does not make both visits follow the same pattern. It makes each one easy in its own way
3,092
shopper surveys
Analysed in the YouGov study
21
retailers
Included in the research
July – September 2026
Fieldwork period
Members invited 1–2 days after a purchase
The visit often starts before the door
Many shopping trips begin before the shopper reaches the store. Someone may have seen a promotion, checked a price, opened an app, looked up a product or simply decided that this will be a quick stop on the way home. By the time they walk in, they already have some idea of what they want to do next.
At Retail Summit 2026, this became an important theme in the In-Store Shopper Experience discussions. Shoppers often arrive with expectations shaped before the visit, and the first minutes inside can either support those expectations or make the shopper stop and figure things out again.
The problems can be very ordinary. A promotion seen before the visit is hard to find. A product is not where the shopper expects it. The layout makes the next step unclear. An employee does not know about the offer the customer came in for.
When those first steps are clear, the shopper simply carries on. When they are not, the visit begins with extra effort before the real shopping has even started.
The rest of the visit has to keep working
Customer experience is often less about one impressive “wow” moment and more about avoiding a series of small frustrations. The product is where the shopper expects it. The price is understandable. The aisle is easy to use. Help is available when it is needed. The queue at the end does not spoil everything that worked before it.
Across the 21 retailer profiles, those ordinary moments appear again and again. A clear layout can still be weakened by confusing price information. Replenishment keeps shelves full but can make an aisle harder to move through. A helpful employee can solve a problem, but only if the shopper can actually find someone when the problem occurs.
Retailers are also under pressure to cut costs and work more efficiently. In July, Puls Biznesu reported continued price competition and pressure on store productivity. In the same article, LIDL Polska's CEO made the customer side of that challenge very clear: savings should come from places shoppers do not notice, not from making stores harder to use. This does not explain LIDL's Retail Champion result. It does show why efficiency and customer experience cannot be treated as separate subjects.
In October, the Club of 369 In-Store Advisory Committee added another useful point. More attention from staff is not automatically better service. Some shoppers want advice; others prefer to continue on their own until they need help. Committee members also noted that shoppers can arrive already well informed. They may have compared products or read about them before entering the store, so the employee's value may come from answering one specific question or helping the shopper choose between two options.
That gives YouGov's phrase “nice and helpful service” a more precise meaning. Helpful service is not simply more contact. It is useful contact at the moment the shopper needs it.
Can the same good experience happen again?
A retailer is not judged in only one branch on one quiet afternoon. The harder test is whether the things that make a visit good can still be found in another store, with another team, on a busier day.
HEBE offers an interesting example of how a retailer can try to make useful product advice less dependent on one particularly knowledgeable employee. Its #hebest Beauty Days is an employee-learning programme. In the 2025 edition, HEBE described nearly 400 participants, with one person selected from each store to learn about products, ingredients and trends. In an earlier edition, HEBE said those representatives were expected to share what they had learned with colleagues in their stores.
HEBE ranked second on shopping enjoyment in the 2026 study at 79%. The programme does not explain that score, and attending training does not tell us how every customer conversation goes. What it does show is one practical way to spread product knowledge through many store teams instead of leaving it with a few strong individuals.
The October Club of 369 People Advisory Committee looked at a related problem from the employee side. When someone's role changes, participants argued, it is not enough to keep adding new tasks. Some repetitive work may need to disappear, people need to learn what is changing, and managers need to make sure the new way of working is understood. They also raised a simple question that is easy to miss: if someone is asked to do something new, who takes care of the work they were doing before?
Shoppers never see those internal decisions, but they see the result. Is the store still easy to shop when it is busy? Can someone help when help matters? Does a new service make the visit better without creating a new irritation somewhere else?
The 2026 Retail Champion results do not point to one formula for a great store. They point to questions worth following: what should always be easy, what should change depending on the kind of visit, and what has to change inside the business when a retailer wants to improve the experience?
Those are among the questions we will continue to examine as the programme develops for Poland & CEE Retail Summit 2027, on 13–14 April 2027 in Warsaw.
Key takeaways
Shopping enjoyment fell at most chains. Scores were down at 18 of the 21 retailers in 2026. ROSSMANN moved the other way, rising from 85% to 91% and finishing first.
Everyday things make a shopping trip work. In the study's analysis, clear shelves carried the most weight (29%), followed by quick service (25%), cleanliness (24%) and helpful staff (23%). A good visit needs these small things to work together.
The same shopper can need different things on different days. On a quick trip, speed matters; while browsing, advice may matter more. Expectations often form before shoppers walk in, so the store has to be ready for both.
RETAIL CHAMPION 2026 | EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING | OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
When Shopping Just Works
What makes a store enjoyable when one visit is a quick stop and another calls for time, choice or help?
Executive Intelligence Briefing
4–6 min read
One result in this year's Retail Champion study stands out before we look at any individual retailer. In the published figures, 18 of the 21 retailers received a lower score than in 2025 on the statement, “Shopping at this store is enjoyable.” Only three moved up: ROSSMANN, KAUFLAND and ORLEN. ROSSMANN, the 2026 Outstanding Customer Experience Champion, rose from 85% to 91%.
That wording matters. In the YouGov study, “Shopping at this store is enjoyable” is the leading statement for the Outstanding Customer Experience category. The supporting questions are very practical: are the shelves arranged clearly, is service prompt, is the store clean, and are employees nice and helpful? In this study, an enjoyable visit is therefore not about entertainment. It is about how the whole shopping trip feels when ordinary things either work well or get in the way.
And ordinary shopping trips can be very different. Someone entering for three known products may want to find them, pay and leave. The same person on another day may want to browse, compare products or ask for advice. A good store does not make both visits follow the same pattern. It makes each one easy in its own way
3,092
shopper surveys
Analysed in the YouGov study
21
retailers
Included in the research
July – September 2026
Fieldwork period
Members invited 1–2 days after a purchase
The visit often starts before the door
Many shopping trips begin before the shopper reaches the store. Someone may have seen a promotion, checked a price, opened an app, looked up a product or simply decided that this will be a quick stop on the way home. By the time they walk in, they already have some idea of what they want to do next.
At Retail Summit 2026, this became an important theme in the In-Store Shopper Experience discussions. Shoppers often arrive with expectations shaped before the visit, and the first minutes inside can either support those expectations or make the shopper stop and figure things out again.
The problems can be very ordinary. A promotion seen before the visit is hard to find. A product is not where the shopper expects it. The layout makes the next step unclear. An employee does not know about the offer the customer came in for.
When those first steps are clear, the shopper simply carries on. When they are not, the visit begins with extra effort before the real shopping has even started.
The rest of the visit has to keep working
Customer experience is often less about one impressive “wow” moment and more about avoiding a series of small frustrations. The product is where the shopper expects it. The price is understandable. The aisle is easy to use. Help is available when it is needed. The queue at the end does not spoil everything that worked before it.
Across the 21 retailer profiles, those ordinary moments appear again and again. A clear layout can still be weakened by confusing price information. Replenishment keeps shelves full but can make an aisle harder to move through. A helpful employee can solve a problem, but only if the shopper can actually find someone when the problem occurs.
Retailers are also under pressure to cut costs and work more efficiently. In July, Puls Biznesu reported continued price competition and pressure on store productivity. In the same article, LIDL Polska's CEO made the customer side of that challenge very clear: savings should come from places shoppers do not notice, not from making stores harder to use. This does not explain LIDL's Retail Champion result. It does show why efficiency and customer experience cannot be treated as separate subjects.
In October, the Club of 369 In-Store Advisory Committee added another useful point. More attention from staff is not automatically better service. Some shoppers want advice; others prefer to continue on their own until they need help. Committee members also noted that shoppers can arrive already well informed. They may have compared products or read about them before entering the store, so the employee's value may come from answering one specific question or helping the shopper choose between two options.
That gives YouGov's phrase “nice and helpful service” a more precise meaning. Helpful service is not simply more contact. It is useful contact at the moment the shopper needs it.
Can the same good experience happen again?
A retailer is not judged in only one branch on one quiet afternoon. The harder test is whether the things that make a visit good can still be found in another store, with another team, on a busier day.
HEBE offers an interesting example of how a retailer can try to make useful product advice less dependent on one particularly knowledgeable employee. Its #hebest Beauty Days is an employee-learning programme. In the 2025 edition, HEBE described nearly 400 participants, with one person selected from each store to learn about products, ingredients and trends. In an earlier edition, HEBE said those representatives were expected to share what they had learned with colleagues in their stores.
HEBE ranked second on shopping enjoyment in the 2026 study at 79%. The programme does not explain that score, and attending training does not tell us how every customer conversation goes. What it does show is one practical way to spread product knowledge through many store teams instead of leaving it with a few strong individuals.
The October Club of 369 People Advisory Committee looked at a related problem from the employee side. When someone's role changes, participants argued, it is not enough to keep adding new tasks. Some repetitive work may need to disappear, people need to learn what is changing, and managers need to make sure the new way of working is understood. They also raised a simple question that is easy to miss: if someone is asked to do something new, who takes care of the work they were doing before?
Shoppers never see those internal decisions, but they see the result. Is the store still easy to shop when it is busy? Can someone help when help matters? Does a new service make the visit better without creating a new irritation somewhere else?
The 2026 Retail Champion results do not point to one formula for a great store. They point to questions worth following: what should always be easy, what should change depending on the kind of visit, and what has to change inside the business when a retailer wants to improve the experience?
Those are among the questions we will continue to examine as the programme develops for Poland & CEE Retail Summit 2027, on 13–14 April 2027 in Warsaw.
Key takeaways
Shopping enjoyment fell at most chains. Scores were down at 18 of the 21 retailers in 2026. ROSSMANN moved the other way, rising from 85% to 91% and finishing first.
Everyday things make a shopping trip work. In the study's analysis, clear shelves carried the most weight (29%), followed by quick service (25%), cleanliness (24%) and helpful staff (23%). A good visit needs these small things to work together.
The same shopper can need different things on different days. On a quick trip, speed matters; while browsing, advice may matter more. Expectations often form before shoppers walk in, so the store has to be ready for both.
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Explore more insights from Retail Champion
Read the full 2026 report and discover how retail, consumer goods and FMCG professionals can become part of the Club of 369.
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Explore more insights from Retail Champion
Read the full 2026 report and discover how retail, consumer goods and FMCG professionals can become part of the Club of 369.
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Explore more insights from Retail Champion
Read the full 2026 report and discover how retail, consumer goods and FMCG professionals can become part of the Club of 369.
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Explore more insights from Retail Champion
Read the full 2026 report and discover how retail, consumer goods and FMCG professionals can become part of the Club of 369.