Modern heritage brands: How Fortnum & Mason is blending digital innovation with a timeless customer experience
02-17-2026
At Fortnum's, our 300-year history doesn’t hold us back – it propels us forward. We’re incredibly proud of our heritage, but we know that customer interest is continually earned by being brave and remaining relevant.
Today's customer expects exceptional service, but beyond that, unforgettable experiences. Whether they are enjoying our iconic afternoon tea at Piccadilly or browsing joy-giving gifts on their phone, the experience must be something highly personal, and one that's remembered fondly.
Our current transformation is focused on delivering across our digital channels, but more broadly as a unified, and seamless experience.
Our history is rich, we were written about by Charles Dickens, and we've served everyone from Florence Nightingale to some of history's most famous explorers. It's that enduring magic that we’re committed to preserving — and reimagining — for the customers of today and tomorrow.
Function with feeling: magic across every channel
We’ve always believed in the delight of discovery – whether it’s lifting the lid of a hamper to unearth unexpected treats or sampling rare teas from far-flung corners of the world. That spirit of curiosity and wonder is something we’re weaving into every digital touchpoint. But to achieve it, we knew we needed better data. Not just more data, inter-connected information and more usable insights. With Adobe Commerce as our foundation, supported by Adobe Target and Adobe Analytics, we’re building unified customer views and personalising journeys.
We talk about rolling out the red carpet in-store – quite literally – and our digital ambition is no different: to make every customer feel welcomed, recognised, and special at every touchpoint. So, if we know our customers are visiting from overseas, we make sure our store experience reflects that – whether that’s highlighting international delivery options or guiding them toward local relevant product offerings.
Reopening doors, and markets
Reintroducing deliveries to Europe was a big moment for Fortnum's. After Brexit, we had to pause EU shipping, which was disappointing for our customers. Thanks to better infrastructure and a much more agile platform, we’ve been able to bring that service back – reconnecting with our European audience – with Adobe Commerce helping us. It's given the business the flexibility to move quickly, adapt when needed, and kept us close to what our customers care about most.
Digital natives, and relevance in real time: showing up for the next generation
We're now seeing growing engagement from Gen Z and younger shoppers, who experience Fortnum's not only as a modern heritage brand, but as a platform for discovery, offering everything from beauty and homeware to thoughtful gifting. These audiences are digital-natives, values-driven, and expect relevance in real time.
This also influences how and where we show up. We’ve long had a presence at iconic UK events like Ascot, so last year we took a different route (quite literally) by appearing at Wilderness Festival, Porthleven Food Festival, and The Great Estate Festival, amongst others. It was a deliberate move to connect with luxury consumers in unexpected spaces.
Other recent successes include our collaborations such as with cult online bakery Get Baked, who created their 24-layer Bertha Cake especially for us. As an exclusive it caught fire on TikTok before appearing in our Piccadilly flagship store. The result? Queues that stretched around the block, a wave of younger shoppers, and a surge in digital engagement – all driven by content our audiences were creating and sharing.
With Adobe Target and Adobe Analytics, we can now understand these wonderful journeys much better and build infrastructure that meets our customer needs for all ages and backgrounds, with more personalised, relevant experiences online and in-store.
Looking ahead: building smarter
We’re still at the start of this journey, but with big ambitions for where we want to go next, which is hugely exciting. As personalisation scales, so does our need to produce content at pace. We’re now rethinking our content supply chain to increase efficiency, and to ensure the right story reaches the right customer at the right time.
At Fortnum’s, we’ve never stood still. That’s why this transformation feels so true to who we are. With Adobe as our partner, we’re not just modernising systems – we’re attempting to unify different customer experiences and celebrating our past, whilst we're building toward a more connected, more personal experience, which is full of the joy and magic we know our customers will expect from us in future.
As this journey continues, AI offers new ways to innovate and deepen personalisation to create even more meaningful moments for customers, whilst retaining the magic that defines Fortnum’s.
For leaders navigating similar journeys, our experience shows that transformation isn’t about trading tradition for technology — it’s about using both seamlessly to be brave and stay relevant in a highly competitive world.
Iain Robertson is Chief Operating & Innovation Officer at Fortnum & Mason responsible for Supply Chain, Logistics, Procurement, Digital Transformation and Technology. Iain previously worked at Burberry as Senior Vice President, Global Planning & Inventory. Since 2004, occupying multiple roles, he led the creation of one of the most forward-thinking fashion supply chain models in the industry. He was also Co-Chair alongside Christopher Bailey, of Burberry’s Strategic Innovation Council which conceptualised and delivered many of their most innovative and disruptive customer initiatives including Burberry Bespoke. Before joining Burberry, Iain worked as a consultant for Arch Consulting and Glue Reply.
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