Category: Events/Tradeshows

What to Expect at Shop.org 2017

Posted on | by Adrienne Newcomb
Image: Shop.org, NRF

The Ketner Group team is gearing up for the busiest time of year for our retail clients, and we’re kicking things off with Shop.org, Sept. 25-27, in Los Angeles.

This year, Shop.org is focused on bringing fresh content to attendees with keynotes from Tyra Banks and Kobe Bryant and a number of new opportunities to network and engage with industry peers. In addition, Shop.org has partnered with Fast Company to provide a unique series of sessions focused on innovation. We’re excited to see all of the changes at Shop.org this year!

KG Clients at Shop.org

A number of Ketner Group clients will be attending and exhibiting at Shop.org this year. These clients include:

Columbus Consulting

Founded in 2001, Columbus Consulting comprises of a team of highly experienced specialists in retail systems and processes. Through a combination of pragmatism, innovation and years of experience, they deliver services ranging from strategic insight to tactical project delivery. Their experience stems from holding executive responsibility in retail, and from successfully managing some of the most challenging projects in the industry. At Shop.org, Columbus Consulting will be available to discuss the benefits of unified commerce and the need for retailers to have a single view of real-time inventory as they head into the holiday sales season.

DynamicAction, Booth #1519

DynamicAction is the most advanced analytics solution specifically built for eCommerce, store and omnichannel retail merchandising teams. Connecting and analyzing millions of data points from every part of the retail organization, DynamicAction uses more than 600 proprietary algorithms to pinpoint margin-eating disconnects in the business, prescribe precise actions and accurately rank those actions by financial impact. During Shop.org, DynamicAction will be previewing the data for their upcoming Retail Index benchmark report as well as discussing how retailers can arm themselves with an Amazon Plan for the holidays.

GroupBy Inc., Booth #639

GroupBy Inc. recently acquired Edgecase, becoming the first data-driven e-commerce platform available for e-retailers. The acquisition merges the eCommerce search and merchandising provider with a data-driven product intelligence platform to create the most comprehensive cross-channel digital commerce solution to-date. At the show, GroupBy will be sharing new customer projects and deployments.

Linc, Booth #541, 1800

Linc’s customer care automation platform powers the digital experiences that strengthen the relationships between brands and shoppers, transforming one-time purchasers into lifetime customers. Brands, retailers and CPGs leverage Linc to provide their customers with exceptional tracking, return and exchange experiences, and create new revenue channels via personalized upsells, cross-sells, sampling and product re-ordering. At their booth, Linc will be providing a preview on its upcoming platform features and discussing how TechStyle Fashion Group is working with Linc to maximize its customer care efforts.

Mirakl, Booth #1205

Mirakl gives retailers and brands a fast path to increase customer value by launching an online marketplace. The Mirakl Marketplace Platform automates the hard things: seller onboarding, product data management, service quality control, and order distribution; on an API-based solution that’s modular and easy to integrate. Over 130 customers operating marketplaces in 40 countries trust Mirakl’s proven expertise and technology, including Hewlett Packard Electronics, Best Buy Canada, Carrefour, Darty, Galeries Lafayette and Halfords.

Shopgate, Booth #319

Shopgate‘s leading SaaS platform enables online retailers to easily create, maintain and optimize native apps and mobile websites for the iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and tablets. Shopgate uses cutting-edge marketing features such as one-click payments, mobile coupons and advanced push notifications to help merchants connect with consumers on the go. During Shop.org, Shopgate will feature a new customer win as well as discuss newly added features to its platform.

We’re happy to help you arrange a meeting with any of these clients during the show.

Retail Innovation Lounge at Shop.org

Over the past year, we’ve had the privilege to work with Anne Marie Stephen from kwolia and help support the Retail Innovation Lounge at various industry events. This year, NRF and kwolia are partnering to bring the Retail Innovation Lounge to the Shop.org show floor, Sept. 26-27.

The partnership provides a unique “lounge and learn” experience at the retail industry’s most important event for digital commerce. A dedicated stage in the Retail Innovation Lounge features curated content and programming with exclusive, inspiring content focused on today’s most successful retail strategies and concepts.

The Retail Innovation Lounge also includes lounge areas for networking and relaxation, games, a happy hour bar and demo space for sponsors. More information and a detailed agenda can be found, here.

If you plan on attending Shop.org this year, feel free to reach out to us to schedule a meeting or find us in the Retail Innovation Lounge. We’d love to see you there!

IRCE 2017: The Focal Point of eCommerce Innovation

Posted on | by Mariana Fischbach

If you know the history of Chicago, you already know that the city proudly holds the title of the first skyscraper in the U.S. Similar to the innovation that took place to bring about one of the most transformative structures of our times, the annual Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) at the beginning of June, united the best and boldest technology vendors and retailers in the industry, all at the center of one of the founding cities for merchant activity —Chicago.

Whether attendees were looking for the next big technology invention on the show floor or sharing their best practices on the main stage, the conference was a clear indicator that technology continues to permeate into all aspects of the retail industry and that it will continue to evolve.

Here are four interesting takeaways from this year’s show:

  • The availability of technology – if you happened to find yourself wandering the show floor during the conference, one thing is for sure, if there was a specific technology you were in search of for your retail business, you were sure to find it as well as an additional buffet of technology offerings to serve your needs. Looking at the retail industry within the past decade, it’s amazing to see how retail technology has continued to advance. This is both a transformative and exciting time to be a retailer, and the caliber of technology solutions on the show floor demonstrated that there is a proper tech solution for all retailers’ needs.
  • B2C expectations in the B2B space – One thing our regular consumer lives has taught us is to expect a great customer experience no matter what. To achieve this, many retailers have implemented personalization technologies and techniques and these expectations have inevitably transferred into our business lives. Several workshops during IRCE, such as Zoro.com’s presentation with Kibo, offered key insights into how to overcome B2C challenges in the B2B space. A key lesson from this session was to analyze your B2B customer set across the board and implement key personalization techniques for three main groups; new online prospects, the ready buyer and return customers.
  • The Importance of Security – Today’s consumers expect their shopping journey to be one seamless experience, yet secure. We were impressed this year to see an increased and wide variety of security and fraud prevention technologies readily available on the show floor.
  • Grocery – The grocery space has undergone one of the biggest transformations of all within the past few years with the rise of grocery delivery services such as Instacart and AmazonFresh. Throughout the show we attended several discussions and outside events focusing on the future of grocery and were pleased to find the grocery space is currently one of the biggest verticals pioneering a mobile-first and omnichannel environment. One of the reoccurring themes throughout our discussions was the continuous blend of the brick-and-mortar store with the digital channel, and the push to continue making the grocery environment an experience-driven process for consumers.

Aside from the rich and delectable deep-dish pizza and the historic architecture found in every corner and crevice of Chicago, IRCE 2017 proved to be the focal point for retailers and vendors to share insights on the latest and greatest technology trends happening in the world of eCommerce. We are excited to see what the future holds for eComm and can’t wait to see what IRCE 2018 brings!

Shoptalk 2017: Disrupting & Transforming The Retail Industry

Posted on | by Mariana Fischbach

ShoptalkShoptalk 2017 in Las Vegas last month owned up to the reputation it created last year of providing fresh, groundbreaking and unmatched content as well as networking opportunities for the retail industry. The show, which proclaimed itself as “The New Blueprint For Retail & eCommerce,” featured more than 325 senior-level speakers who covered the ongoing disruption of retail and commerce.

The second annual Shoptalk event took place during a time when we are seeing, hearing and reading about significant turmoil in the retail industry. Daily headlines leading up to and following the show discuss Amazon’s market leadership, follows the journey of retailers becoming truly omnichannel capable and highlight traditional retailers who are closing their doors due to today’s ever-changing environment.

While it may seem we are witnessing what appears to be the retail apocalypse, the truth is this may be the most exciting time to be a retailer – and this is exactly what we saw at Shoptalk 2017.

Straight from the horse’s mouth, here are some of the best sound bites about blending technology with retail we heard on the show floor:

  • “At the forefront of all technology implementations, remember that your store associates are your strongest assets. Today’s retail transformation should also widely focus on empowering store associates through technology.” – Michael G. Relich, COO, Crate & Barrel
  • “When deciding what technology to implement throughout your retail organization, keep in mind the idea of explicit tech vs. implicit tech, what will your customers see and interact with vs. what technology will go behind the scenes to make all touch points connect.” – Healy Cypher, Co-Founder & CEO, Oak Labs
  • “Figure out what is important to your shopper’s and rewrite the rule book.” – Brian Kavanagh, Senior Director, The Hershey Company
  • “Balance duality, innovation cannot be in the corner, it must be part of the complete process.” – Mary Beth Laughton, SVP of Digital, Sephora
  • “Retailers spend the time to get your innovation right.” – Anne Marie Stephens, Founder & CEO, Kwolia
  • “There is a macro-level of personalization and a micro-level.” – Nadia Bourjarwah, Co-Founder & CEO, Dia&Co
  • “Consider where AI will intersect with human service.” – Shana Tellerman, CEO, Modsy

It’s a transformative time in the industry where many retailers are going back to the drawing board and shaking things up by partnering with savvy technology vendors to deliver authentic yet innovative experiences to their consumers. While taking a risk may seem scary, the end results of transforming a retail operation demonstrate a bright future ahead.

SXSW Gets Intelligent, Raises as Many Questions as Answers

Posted on | by Aidan Griffin

SXSW 2017 was a terrific week spent in the presence of some of technology’s brightest minds, music’s best acts and film’s most creative souls. For Ketner Group, the event was a chance to lose sight of reality and dive into the fascinating beyond, the next era of the intersection between technology and humanity. It’s exhausting work, but hey, someone’s gotta do it.

It seems that with each passing year, SXSW does a better job of asking questions than providing answers. Maybe that’s because each one-hour session doesn’t do the experts on stage enough justice. How can someone who has dedicated their life to mapping the human brain using machine learning break that work down in one hour, while sharing a stage with the founder of Siri and a biologist learning how to grow everything we need by having intelligent systems program atoms and microbes? It takes the hour just to fully realize how much smarter these folks are than you!

But understanding the question that needs solving is the key first step to success. And we saw a few critical questions arise that anyone involved in commerce and technology will need to consider within the short and long term to ensure their prosperity. Some will be answered before SXSW 2018, and some not for many years, but the work starts now. Let’s dive in.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, these are some of the most hyped technological concepts out there. And they were everywhere at SXSW 2017. And really, they should be. AI and machine learning will be incorporated into nearly every aspect of retail, from logistics and distribution to marketing to in-store and online customer experience.

AI has the power to greatly reduce the stress of manpower on a retail business, opening up human capital for more valuable roles that drive better experiences. Intelligent systems will understand human language and new age personal assistants will make Amazon’s Alexa look like a pet rock.

And as the founder of Kasita revealed, even your living room will be AI-heavy to the point that it may actually be artificial intelligence in physical form. TVs, window blinds, thermostats and many other items will become smart gadgets, learning how to adapt to your lifestyle and reduce your time spent doing menial tasks, which include buying things like groceries or razors. Watch out, because this one is going to be fun.

Conversational Commerce
Siri started the voice command personal assistant craze that has since grown into a full force commerce craze. But based on nearly any metric – capability, adoption, competition – it hasn’t yet hit the mainstream and is nowhere near its full potential. Alexa and Google Home can’t understand complex speech patterns, can’t infer deeper meaning from simple requests and are prone to making real mistakes, like ordering something because it overheard someone on TV or a demanding child say it. Chatbots will combine the best of speech recognition and cognition to make customer service a breeze. No, really.

Our voices will eventually replace our hands as our primary machine operating tools, and how retailers integrate this technology into their omni-channel platforms will be fascinating to watch.

Social Commerce
The golden rule in payments innovation is not to compete against other forms of digital payments, compete against cash. Social commerce has long been an area that retailers have felt could be the next frontier in omni-channel commerce. And as they started to understand its potential, conversation apps outpaced them. So what’s the future of social commerce? Think small.

Commerce on social media or conversation apps is not a significant growth area for enterprise level business, at least not yet. And part of this is the limitation of highly complex payment, banking and regulatory systems.

Instead, this is an area in which independent businesses, individual sellers and developing nations are the true pioneers. In fact, according to Facebook’s Director of Commerce & Payment Partnerships, Facebook alone has over 5 million businesses registered, many using it as a critical platform to do business.

Sellers can create mini-storefronts on their Facebook or Instagram pages, listing the products they have for sale, deleting the posts once they’re no longer in inventory. They can use peer-to-peer payments apps like Venmo to manage cashless and remote transactions, and communicate instantly via apps like WhatsApp and create a marketplace for their goods much broader than available within the constructs of their physical environment and local infrastructure. 

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The question for major retailers will be whether they can integrate massive SKU count assortments into this sort of framework, if the social and conversation apps will evolve with their platforms to enable a simple integration, or if social apps will avoid the invasion of commercial interests on an otherwise personal interaction space.

What Now?
For now, we wait, we watch and we marvel at the technologies that are revolutionizing our world. Within retail itself, we’ll continue to see the automation of process, the personalization of marketing and experience, and the simplification of consumption. Where we’re going, we don’t need answers (right away), we just need the right questions.

Shoptalk 2017, Back and Bigger than Ever

Posted on | by Mariana Fischbach

Shoptalk U.S. 2017 is just around the corner! Taking place at the Aria in Las Vegas, March 19-22, this year’s Shoptalk promises to be the “blockbuster” of all retail events for the year, with world class speakers, new session formats, increased networking opportunities and a revamped exhibit hall.

las-vegasIf last year’s Shoptalk is any indication of what this year’s will bring, we have one prominent piece of advice to maximize your time at the show: wear comfortable shoes and have your introduction ready to fire off at any moment in time, as you will find yourself mingling among the industry’s movers and shakers.

Remember that what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas and this is especially true for Shoptalk. If you schedule your agenda just right, the contacts you make at the show can follow you all the way back to your home headquarters and continue to deliver results long after the show has ended.

Here are our pro tips for making the best of Shoptalk U.S. 2017:

Content, Content, Content!

A little bit of history for you, the creators of Shoptalk are the same organizers that brought you Money 20/20. Inspiring and intelligent content is their bread and butter, and as such, Shoptalk this year promises to bring the brightest minds in the industry to discuss the current and future state of retail. Before the show, make sure to earmark the sessions you consider a must-attend on the agenda and plan around those. Shoptalk is a complete learning opportunity for your team and a great way to discover new opportunities for innovation and differentiated thinking within your organization.

Bring Your Best!

As we’ve alluded to continuously throughout this blog, Shoptalk provides several scheduled networking opportunities as well as opportunities to develop organic conversations anywhere you happen to be at the moment. As such, be sure to prepare a concise yet memorable way to introduce yourself and what your company does.

Social Media is a Must!

After you’ve introduced yourself to new contacts, be sure to connect with them via social media. Twitter and LinkedIn are excellent ways to not only keep track of everyone you are meeting at the show but to also engage in follow up conversations post-show. Consider this for one second: you are likely to meet an average of 50 contacts while you are at the show. Make life a bit easier for yourself by connecting with them via platforms you monitor on a daily basis.

Keep an Eye Out!

Additionally, should you happen to be perusing the exhibition floor or looking for innovative sessions to attend, keep an eye out for our clients who will be present at Shoptalk this year:

  • 360pi: Look for the 360pi team on the show floor meeting with retailers and partners about their pricing intelligence solution.
  • Bold Metrics: Bold Metrics will be exhibiting on the show floor, be sure to stop by to learn how they’re helping retailers predict consumer body measurements.
  • Columbus Consulting International: Be on the lookout for Columbus Consulting’s principals! They will be navigating the show floor and meeting with retailers and vendors alike.
  • DynamicAction: DynamicAction will be demoing the expansion of its advanced analytics solution, which addresses retailer challenges by leveraging connected data to drive profitable decisions online and in stores. The demo will take place with Mulberry on Tuesday, March 21 at 8:50 a.m. If you can’t make their demo, be sure to stop by their booth #1210 on the show floor.
  • Edgecase: Keep an eye out for the Edgecase team on the show floor. They’re looking forward to meeting with retailers and potential partners to learn how they can help them unlock the power of their e-commerce product data.
  • Mirakl: You won’t want to miss Mirakl’s demo at 9:35 a.m. on Monday, March 20. During the demo, CEO Adrien Nussenbaum will go through their new Marketplace for Services, which aims to make it simple and straightforward to sell services, whether standalone or packaged with complementary products. Mirakl will also be on the show floor at kiosk #PK20.
  • Shopgate: Shopgate will be on the show floor; make sure to drop by to discuss your mobile strategies for 2017.

We look forward to seeing you at the show!

Until Next Year NRF

Posted on | by Ketner Group

NRF’s Big Show is officially over and we are back in Austin! After several cups of coffee consumed as well as analyst and media meetings coordinated for 13 clients, I think it’s safe to say this year’s show was one for the books. Check out what the Ketner Group team was up to while in the Big Apple.

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NRF 2017, Here We Come

Posted on | by Aidan Griffin

In most industries, the holidays are a time to disengage from the hustle and bustle of work, plan for 2017 and clean out the junk folders to start the New Year feeling refreshed. But as we all know, quite the opposite is true in retail. And once a new calendar gets pinned to the wall, the heat really starts to turn up as we make final preparations for the biggest conference of our year, NRF’s BIG Show.

This year, the Ketner Group team has been as busy as ever, meticulously preparing, pitching, coordinating and managing all sorts of client announcements and on-site briefings. As the newest member of the KG team and a rookie to the realities of NRF life, I have to admit it’s been impressive watching our team stay (mostly) stress-free, while securing some truly terrific opportunities for publicity next week, without losing sight of client needs in the now.

As our entire office goes wheels up this weekend, heading from sunny and warm Austin, Texas to the hopefully not-so-cold and not-so-gray Big Apple, I expect to feel the same excitement and confidence in our client outcomes as our veterans who have been mastering the NRF process for over ten years.

We look forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces, connecting with new clients and having NRF ’17 mark the start of another great year at Ketner Group, for our clients, and for the retail industry in general. Good luck everyone!

Ketner Group clients at NRF, and where to find them:

 

NRF 2017: Don’t Throw Away Your Shot in the Greatest City in the World!

Posted on | by Catherine Seeds

For those of you who are theater nerds like me, perhaps you caught the mashed-up reference to two songs from the critically acclaimed, Tony award-winning Broadway musical, Hamilton. (For those of you who didn’t catch the reference, I’ll forgive you only if you can score me 5 tickets to the show next Tuesday!)

Image provided by Kathleen See
Image provided by Kathleen See

But, back to the matter at hand. Those of us working in the retail industry know there are exactly nine days until NRF begins. As of right now, the race is on to be in the room where it happens -“it” meaning where the best and brightest in retail come together to showcase the technologies that will change the way consumers shop in 2017 and beyond. (I’d also like to say I threw in another Hamilton song reference in this paragraph. I’ll let you figure that out on your own.)

The Ketner Group team has attended and supported our clients at NRF for nearly 15 years, and we’ve learned a few things along the way – one big one is to wear comfortable shoes and stay hydrated in between your Starbucks trips! Here are a few additional PR tips to keep in mind as we enter these last few days before the BIG show:

Don’t save all your announcements until January. Most vendors spend months planning their NRF announcements. But why cram all your news into a three-day period? We counsel our clients not to save everything until NRF, but rather to adopt a release strategy for before, during and after the Big Show.

Announcing significant customer wins and new technology in the months leading up to NRF is a great way to build momentum going into the show and to trumpet your successes to prospects. During the show, your news faces stiff competition from hundreds of other press releases, but one or two newsworthy announcements can help drive booth traffic and create a buzz during NRF. After the show is a good time for announcements, too; editors’ inboxes will be a lot less crowded, many of your competitors will emptied their arsenal of news at NRF, and your news will have room to breathe.

Don’t expect to brief everyone at NRF. While NRF presents a terrific opportunity for face-to-face meetings with key editors and analysts, you won’t be able to meet with everyone on your list. The top editors and analysts are in high demand during NRF and have tightly packed schedules; many of them will have their entire days booked in 30-minute slots starting at 6:30 a.m., and paying clients and prospects will have top priority. It is important to respect the fact that they may not be able to meet with you; briefings before or after NRF can often be more relaxed and unhurried.

In keeping with this, we advise our clients to connect with key influencers in the months leading up to NRF. Schedules are more open, and it’s an excellent time to bring analysts and editors up to speed on your company’s latest products, customers and other developments. During these briefings, you can also lay the groundwork for a possible meeting or product demo at NRF.

Leave the PowerPoints at home. The editors and analysts you meet at NRF will likely be cramming 30+ vendor meetings into their day – which can mean an equal number of mind-numbing PowerPoint presentations. We advise our clients to scrap the PowerPoints during NRF. After all, if you’ve done your briefings in the fall, then an NRF meeting can be a chance to build a one-on-one relationship. Offer editors and analysts a comfortable place to sit (their feet will be aching!), bottled water and treat them the same way you’d treat your most valued customers. Find out in advance what they’d like to focus on during the meeting: demo, product roadmap or customer announcements. If an editor is accompanied by a sales rep, be sure to give him or her equal time, too.  After all, editors and analysts have to make a living, too, and many of the lead generation programs offered by the top retail and analyst firms can produce solid results.

 If companies prepare properly, NRF can get the new year off to a running start. Don’t forget, history will have its eyes on New York during those four days this January – what will you do to earn your shot in the greatest city in the world?

Battle of the Brands: Austin City Limits Music Festival 2016

Posted on | by Mariana Fischbach

This month, Austin City Limits (ACL) music festival took over the city of Austin for two entire weeks, bringing with it a great variety of talented artists, a runway-like display of festival fashion and most of all, a vast array of brands looking to gain further consumer buy-in by being present and accounted for during the festival.

Its not every day that Willie Nelson graces the stage just hours after Kendrick Lamar and Radiohead delivered their performances all on the Samsung stage, and it’s this last part, (the fact that it all happened on the Samsung stage) that highlights the branding competition at play during the festival.

From the seven sponsored stages donning such names as Honda, Cirrus Logic, Tito’s and Homeway among others, to the latest transportation, payment and dating apps, brands battled it out the past two weekends to leave lasting impressions on consumers.

Here are our top picks for the coolest brands on display this weekend:

  • RYDE and Venmo’s Pony up campaign – Who doesn’t like a free ride? Even more, if that free ride happens to come in the shape of a car that is wrapped in brown faux fur and has a Mohawk? RYDE, an Austin-based startup transportation service that uses branded electric carts to transport patrons around downtown Austin, teamed up with Venmo these past two weeks to shuttle ACL Festival attendees to and from the festival, in a pony-like car that read “Pony Up on Venmo.” This eye-catching whip was seen all across town and spread the message to consumers that Venmo and RYDE are the way to go.
  • Fasten’s and Bumble’s airplane banner displays – It’s a bird, it’s a plane! Ok, so maybe it was a plane circling the festival grounds, yet a great way for Bumble and Fasten to send the message out to consumers that their apps are out there to help schedule a ride home and perhaps meet that special person at ACL. If you’ve ever been to ACL, you know the big concerts get crowded really quick, so much so, that sometimes you have to turn your head to the sky to either find your friends’ flag or better yet find an advertisement that stands out above the rest.
  • ACL’s own Golden Porta Potty – An oldie but a goodie, ACL’s Golden Porta Potty has been making the rounds for two years now and is the topic of conversation before and during the festival. This is just what it sounds like, a Golden Porta Potty with air conditioning and a golden throne. Before the festival, this porta potty is placed around the Austin area for lucky consumers to stumble upon and find their “Golden” ticket to attend ACL. During the show, attendees are encouraged to look around the festival grounds to find the lucky porta potty wristbands for their chance to win access to the Golden Porta Potty for the rest of the festival.

ACL may be classified as a music festival but deep down the festival also provides the perfect stage for a battle of the brands, where one by one, brands play up their presence to get the consumer to pay attention to them.

Shop.org Retail’s Digital Summit: Seen and Heard From The Shop Floor

Posted on | by Mariana Fischbach

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Last week, the Ketner Group team arrived in Dallas at Shop.org Retail’s Digital Summit to talk shop with top ecommerce innovators, retailers and influencers about what lies ahead for the remainder of 2016 and the start of 2017.

As anyone in the business can tell you, the summit is viewed as the kick-start to the holiday season, the opening ceremony if you will, to the busiest, yet most profitable time of year for retailers. During the months following the summit, retailers will look to put all of their technology implementations into play and verify which of their implementations are tough enough to withstand the holiday grind.

Seen on the shop floor
Ketner Group’s clients were in full force at this year’s summit showcasing their latest offerings and news:

Convey showcased how their technology helps retailers transform the most frustrating part of a customer’s experience, delivery, into one that delights at every turn. Through predictive, adaptive and proactive data analysis, Convey helps retailers unify the carrier ecosystem, identify problems before they happen, and facilitate changes on-the-ground, in real time. Convey also discussed upcoming integrations to their platform as well as shipping and delivery trends that will impact the 2016 holiday season.

DynamicAction released its Retail Index – Fall 2016 which found that as retailers head into the critical holiday shopping season, they continue to rely too heavily on their promotional calendars, with an 85% increase globally in the percent of orders using a promotion YoY (Jan.-Sept. 2016 vs. 2015). Other key findings from the report indicated additional challenges for this holiday season, as retailers continue to struggle to acquire new customers and convert first-time buyers into repeat shoppers. On a more positive note, retailers are beginning to make changes to increase operational efficiencies and shore up profit margins. While product profits are basically flat YoY, they’re up 6% for the quarter, compared to 2015.

Edgecase showcased how the company is helping retailers and brands like Lancome, Sur La Table and Crate and Barrel improve their online product visibility.

Kibo, the complete omnichannel commerce platform, announced the acquisition of Baynote, a cloud-based personalization platform. With this acquisition, Kibo will continue to strengthen its commerce solutions with industry-leading personalization technology that quickly enables retailers and brands to provide individual buying experiences.

Mirakl highlighted how the Mirakl Marketplace Platform makes it easy for operators to onboard vast numbers of vendors in a single platform to drastically increase their product selection, competitive prices and a superior shopping experience.

Heard on the shop floor
While innovative technology applications were the center of attention on the expo floor, these shiny new applications also opened the door to deeper conversations of best practices to remember while integrating a new technology.

From personalization technology, intelligent fulfillment, data analytics and in-store technology, one thing remains true: the overall experience should be at the forefront of the implementation. For example, key lessons heard around the expo floor for deploying a technology solution included:

  • Taking a research-based, vertically integrated approach to implementing technology within your product and services strategy.
  • In terms of disruptive technology, remember the function is just as important as the form – the look and feel of that technology must flow seamlessly and solve a pain point.
  • Being open-minded to new technology. For example, technologies like virtual reality will allow retailers to reimagine the way they should work on their next project.
  • Understanding new ideas and methods through data analysis.
  • Remembering that technology is just an enabler to achieve a greater result. It takes a deep understanding of your brand and customer to make all touch points flow seamlessly.
  • Keeping in mind the importance of great people and culture within your organization.

The conclusion of Shop.org Retail’s Digital Summit signals the opening bell for the start of the 2016 holiday sales season for retailers. With several technology solutions ready to make retailers’ processes flow seamlessly, retailers will be ready to deliver the goods to their consumers.