Two British founders behind some of the world’s most influential consumer brands used the stage at NRF 2026 to set out how focus, restraint and innovation are at the centre of their meteoric success.

Emma Grede, Co-Founder of Good American and Skims, and Ben Francis, Founder and CEO of Gymshark, joined Harvey Finkelstein, President of Shopify, to discuss how their brands have scaled globally without losing clarity of purpose or customer trust.

Agentic commerce leaders

Following the announcement that shoppers could purchase from Shopify merchants in ChatGPT using Instant Checkout, Gymshark, Skims and Good Americans are among a small and historic handful of retail brands now live on agentic commerce.

Describing her approach to AI, Grede said,“We’re in the midst of a really seismic change. And, while I am uncertain about what that’s going to bring, I am open to everything.  Any decision that we take in our company, ultimately, has to be led by our customers – and when it comes to AI, our customers are already there; they’re already playing with AI, they’re using it in their every day lives and that’s informing their purchase decisions.”

Grede says she sets aside time in her own schedule for an ‘AI day’, which helps her explore, test and use AI so she can apply its uses across the business and within the team culture. “Before I was using AI like a new search bar, so I needed to take time to get used to it – now I think of it as a second executive brain that can be used everyday.”

Grede applies a lens to AI use, and will often ask who between herself, her team or an AI should be doing different tasks or functions to ensure the technology isn’t used just for its own sake and continues to drive value through the business and its customers.

“For me, it’s not about taking anything human out of what we do. Its actually leaving ourselves time to do the stuff that only we can do,” she said.

Francis likened Gymshark’s agentic commerce approach to the brand’s early positioning as an ecommerce disruptor, explaining that the business relies on the expertise of technology partners to ensure access across key platforms, while his team remains focused on customer, product and brand.

“We don’t have to do massive amounts of internal work to benefit from this. It’s literally the flick of a switch and all of a sudden Gymshark product is available across all the different platforms and it’s really exciting.”

Narrowing focus to generate growth

Growth, Francis argued, is not about doing more things, but about doing the right things brilliantly. For Gymshark, that means an obsessive focus on its supercore; lifting:

“In the same way the 4X4 is core to Landrover, the running shoe to Nike and the yoga pant to Lulu, lifting product is what Gymshark does better than anyone else in the world.”

When asked whether the brand had ever been tempted to step outside this heartland and produce a broader range to appeal to a wider customer base, Francis said the opposite proved true.

“We found that as we narrowed our product base and narrowed our focus to become sharp on what we can be the best in the world at, the business has grown far more quickly than when we were trying to appeal to everyone,” he added.

“Exercising restraint is what has kept us super relevant to our customers. You know exactly what you get when you buy a pair of jeans from Good America or make a purchase from Skims,” said Grede. “Being really true to who you are and to your customers, as well as being steadfast in your vision and resisting the urge to do everything is what has kept both of these companies in a really healthy and aspirational place.”

Inclusivity to drive loyalty

“Some of the best businesses grow out of destroying the myths that exist and the de facto stories that we have been told,” said Grede, when asked about Good American’s decision to introduce a non-standard size 15.

“What we’ve done is make it impossible for fashion brands to operate in the same limited way that they were. You can no sooner launch a cosmetics brand with just ten shades of foundation than you can launch a clothing brand with this very narrow idea of what size people’s butts should be. And I’m really proud of that, which came just from instinct.”

Grede said women do not make decisions about what to wear based on size alone, arguing that brands have historically imposed those limitations on customers. She noted that both Good American and Skims saw rapid growth after broadening their definition of inclusivity, including expanding into petite sizing alongside extended size ranges.

She added that, while the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss injections has shifted the size mix, it has not resulted in lost customers, with the brands continuing to support consumers through different stages of life.

“It comes back to this idea of centering the customer in everything we do and having this unbelievable trust with them. And that’s what you get when you do things a little bit differently.”

Keeping brand soul with scale

When asked about maintaining customer connection while scaling, Francis said decisions are made through the lens of building “a one hundred year brand”, rather than chasing short-term gains.

“Its so easy to alienate that core customer and the second we do that, it is very difficult to to recover from,” said Francis. “For us, it’s about thinking long term and not over-expanding or over-exposing our product range or our channel mix. Not trying to be successful in every single geography around the world. The U.S. is our real main focus. It’s our biggest market and our biggest opportunity.”

“Why we started is the thing I try and remember every single day. It’s not to do everything. It’s not so you can say I’m a billion dollar brand,” said Grede. “It’s about serving a customer, making excellent things and be fantastic at this one thing.”