Speaking

Where AI genuinely pays back in retail, and where it is theatre.

Steve Webster

Steve Webster speaks on commerce: where AI genuinely pays back in retail, and where it is theatre. A commercial operator running retail and ecommerce P&Ls since 1999, twice named in Vogue’s 100 Most Influential in Online Fashion, he brings trading-floor evidence to subjects usually presented from slideware.

Who owns discovery

Agentic commerce, the trust gap, and what happens to brands when the customer stops browsing.

Value or theatre

Where AI actually pays back in retail: the unglamorous work behind the storefront, and how to tell a capability from a subscription.

The barking cat problem

Why businesses demand outcomes their operating model cannot produce, and the readiness work that fixes it.

Forward diary

9 September 2026 · Manchester

Ultimate Customer Experience Workshop. Panel: AI, Automation & the Future of Customer Service.

15 September 2026 · Stockholm

Agentic Commerce & Payments Summit. Moderator: Who Owns Discovery? Visibility, Relevance and Control in Agentic Commerce.

24 September 2026 · London

Ecommerce Expo, The Headline Stage. What Customers Say vs What They Do: The Signals Retailers Should Actually Trust. View the speaker profile.

4 November 2026 · London

RTIH Innovation Awards, eighth edition. Judging panel, AI Innovation category. View the judging panel.

Recent

July 2026

Ecommerce Leadership Summit South. Panel: Agentic Commerce, When AI Starts Buying for the Customer.

8 July 2026

IMRG, AI in the Workplace, live Q&A.

April 2026 · London

Digital Cheesecake, live podcast panel recorded before a full audience: Why Most Ecommerce Businesses Are Not Ready to Scale. Listen on Spotify.

23 April 2026

ECommerceCamp: The Ecommerce Decisions That Actually Mattered. The four structural decisions buried inside every growth story, channel architecture, market entry, margin architecture, measurement, and why whether they are made deliberately or by default determines the outcome. The same Foundation First discipline that now runs inside the Barking Cat Review. View the deck.

For panels, keynotes and podcasts: steve@barkingcat.ai

Steve Webster on the agentic commerce panel, seated nearest the camera, Shoosmiths

Agentic Commerce panel: when AI starts buying for the customer. Steve seated, nearest the camera.

Steve Webster on the Digital Cheesecake live podcast panel, making a point

Digital Cheesecake, On the Road: why most ecommerce businesses are not ready to scale.

Before Barbour, Steve spent half a decade running D2C for premium brands across the Gulf, and spoke on the GCC circuit in that period. The international track record is not theoretical.

Steve Webster named on the on-screen speaker panel at the Internet Commerce Summit, Dubai

Internet Commerce Summit, Dubai: Curating the Next Level of Customer Experiences. Speaking as a regional ecommerce director in the GCC.

Dubai

Internet Commerce Summit. Panel: Curating the Next Level of Customer Experiences.

February 2023 · Dubai

Marketplace & D2C Conference. Billed as Global Ecommerce Director, LIWA Trading, across a brand portfolio including GANT, La Senza, DWELL and ZIPPY.

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Barking Cat, Commerce Advisory

Barking Cat Advisory is an independent ecommerce and commercial advisory practice for UK retail and consumer businesses, giving boards and private equity investors an operator’s judgement before they commit to technology, transformation or growth investment. Founded by Steve Webster, who has run retail and ecommerce P&Ls since 1999.

Barking Cat Advisory Limited. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17338003. Registered office: The Old Constabulary, Welsh Row, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5ET. barkingcat.ai · Privacy