Recorded live at Ministry of Sound in London, this episode is in partnership with London Experience Week and the studio dressed by USED Creative., a circular Marketplace.

Dr Amna Khan is a Senior Lecturer in Consumer Behaviour at Manchester Metropolitan University, a PhD researcher, and one of the UK's most recognisable consumer behaviour commentators, with over 400 appearances on BBC Breakfast, ITV, and Netflix.

Amna turns a decade of consumer research on the experience industry, and the picture isn't always comfortable. She makes the case that designers are building experiences without truly understanding the people they're designing for, unpacks why the emotional dimension of trust is twice as powerful as the cognitive dimension, and connects this directly to what the industry keeps getting wrong.

We cover the P. Louise pyjama crisis, why the retail assistant is still the most powerful person in any physical experience, what Lush and Fortnum & Mason do differently, Gen Z's relationship with brands, and why showing up brilliantly in three places beats showing up badly in fifteen.

Chapters

00:01:16 — Welcome to London Experience Week: Amna's first impressions of LXW and, what brought her to the stage.

00:02:52 — The Science of Trust: What trust actually is, how it develops, and why the emotional layer matters most.

00:08:28 — Service Recovery and Critical Moments: Why getting it wrong can actually strengthen trust — if you show up.

00:10:31 — How Trust Has Fragmented in a Social World: The shift from institutional trust to personal, founder-led relationships.

00:19:28 — The Role of Physical Retail and Human Connection: Why the human element in stores remains the most underutilised asset in retail.

00:26:32 — Popups, Brand Experiences and Memory: Why showing up in the right moment is one of the most powerful trust-building tools.

00:32:28 — Generational Shifts and the Empowered Consumer: How fragmented consumption and social media have changed who holds the power.

00:38:15 — Live Shopping, Belonging and the Future of Connection: Why TikTok live shopping is less about transactions and more about community.

Bio

Dr. Amna Khan is a Senior Lecturer in Consumer Behaviour and Retailing at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School. She holds a corporate PhD from Alliance Manchester Business School, awarded via a prestigious scholarship from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, where she studied the mechanics of trust — including the guanxi relationship networks that shape business and consumer behaviour in Chinese markets.

A leading media commentator, she has made over 400 appearances across BBC Breakfast, ITV, BBC Radio 5 Live, Morning Live, The One Show, Watchdog, and Netflix, and is a regular expert on Channel 5 retail documentaries covering Tesco, Primark, M&S, Aldi, Deliveroo, and Coca-Cola. She speaks internationally on consumer psychology, cultural identity, diversity in experience design, and the future consumer, and is represented by London Speaker Bureau (USA).

Connect with Dr. Amna Khan: www.linkedin.com/in/dramnakhan

Credits

Special thanks to USED Creative for dressing the studio: https://www.linkedin.com/company/used-creative/

Grateful to The World Experience Organization for the collaboration at LXW26 :https://www.linkedin.com/company/wxo/posts/?feedView=all