Why the Future of Retail Belongs to Human-Centered Brands

At Beauty Connect LA, Paula Floyd (Headkount Inc), Sheena Zadeh (Kosas), Kevin Wong (Target), and Brad Pearson (Route) explored how brands are rebuilding the retail experience around trust, data, and shared value rather than distribution models.

Paula Floyd, Founder and CEO of Headkount Inc, opened with a dose of reality. “Do you have a consumer out there? Do you have a demand?” she asked. “Retail is crazy. It is complex, it is costly.”

For Floyd, the winning brands are those that design for fluidity between physical and digital, meeting customers in the moments that matter rather than the channels that perform. “We can move within 30 days for our client and switch a market completely,” she added, describing how retail success now depends on agility, not scale.

Experience as the New Infrastructure

Sheena Zadeh, Founder of Kosas, said that retail is entering a new phase where growth depends less on transactions and more on emotion. She spoke about the importance of treating physical stores as extensions of brand identity, places where consumers can feel the brand’s purpose as much as they can see it.

Floyd agreed that experience is now infrastructure. The most forward-thinking founders, she said, treat the retail floor as an active testing ground. “It’s where you see what works before you see it in your data.”

That alignment between creative storytelling and operational precision is what turns presence into performance. The store, once a static endpoint, is now an evolving medium.

Commerce Without Friction

For Brad Pearson, Director of Sales at Route, the post-purchase journey defines whether consumers come back. “We help you to own the post-purchase experience,” he said. “Where is my package? is the most common question that we hear after someone orders.”

Pearson believes that the period between checkout and delivery is now central to brand trust. He described how data visibility and communication during fulfilment can convert uncertainty into loyalty. “Go and pretend you’re a customer,” he advised founders. “Make that purchase and ask yourself what you would think in your customer’s shoes.”

A Retailer’s Perspective on Data and Discovery

Representing Target, Kevin Wong, VP of Merchandising for Beauty, shared how the retailer integrates empathy and insight to shape the customer journey. “A lot of it is being able to deeply empathize with your consumers and what they’re going through,” he said.

Wong explained how Target’s in-store mode allows shoppers to locate products, view deals, and access curated recommendations. “It allows them to find products we think they’re going to love and offer them deals,” he said, adding that such technology isn’t about replacing human service but reinforcing it.

He also noted that direct-to-consumer and retail channels are not rivals. “They’ve been pretty symbiotic from the start,” he said, citing Target’s partnership with Naturium as proof that collaboration drives category growth.

Building for the Long Game

Floyd returned to what she sees as the central truth of modern retail: disciplined focus. “Stay really focused on one retailer,” she said. “Nail it, and then expand from there.”

She urged founders to invest in operational expertise as seriously as they do creative talent. Her advice came with characteristic candour: “Hire your Chelsea. Chelsea was my first hire in the company, and she’s still with us today. And it started with my mindset, who did I need to bring on into this team?” Behind that shorthand was a wider message – great retail execution depends on people who know how to make complexity look simple.

Designing the Next Chapter of Retail

Zadeh reminded the audience that technology matters only when it amplifies human understanding. Pearson called for empathy that scales. Wong described innovation as empathy in motion.

For Floyd, retail remains an act of translation, adapting timeless brand stories to meet consumers wherever they are.