IRCE 2010 - Renewed Energy in Retail
June 21, 2010
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Donna Remillard
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I remember thinking at
IRCE last year, that despite the economic climate, retailers were generally upbeat, especially when it came to e-Commerce. Comparison really puts things in perspective for you … this year felt like full steam ahead, everything looks great!
The show boasted:
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6400 Attendees
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175 Speakers
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418 Exhibitors
While every keynote and session I attended revealed informative and thought provoking insight, a few themes continuously popped to the forefront throughout the show:
Content
There was lots of talk about ‘Connected Content’ this year. Whether it’s on-site or off-site content, company or user-generated, we saw countless examples of leveraging content to engage and interact with consumers in personal ways across all channels.
I sometimes find the amount of content overwhelming (from both the shopper and retailer point of view), so I’m happy to see strategies emerge and evolve to organize and deliver that content in more relevant ways.
One speaker from Moosejaw, summarized the sentiment simply as ‘Content not campaigns’.
Mobile
Mobile was of course a hot topic. I’ll be honest, I not only attended the regular mobile sessions but also the full day workshop on Mobile, so it did account for a good part of my time at the show. However, one key piece of advice was consistent though out, if you’re trying to decide between mobile commerce and a mobile app, don’t … you need both.
In fact don’t forget about including SMS/text messaging in your mobile strategy.
It seemed like many speakers came prepared with market data to validate their mobile predictions, but few were inclined to spend any time reviewing them. Although some stats indicated that there are still plenty of retailers that need to improve or even start their mobile strategy, there didn’t seem to be a retailer that wasn’t already planning to do so.
However, I’m going to repeat some of the SMS/text messaging statistics, because I think they are a little less familiar:
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98% of mobile phones are text enabled, according to ShopText
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50% of Americans use text messaging, according Forrester Research
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There were 1.5 Trillion users of text messaging in the U.S. in 2009, according Cardinal Max
I found these numbers high at first, as we tend to think of teens who ‘prefer to text than talk’. It was pointed out that parents wanting to communicate with these teens are texting as well. If you have one of these teen textaholics, like I do, you’ll agree that you will need to learn to text pretty quickly, if you don’t already.
Text enabled phones are in the hands of a staggering amount of users in the U.S. and worldwide. So whether it’s reaching those users that only hold text enabled phones or strategies to accompany smart phone users, some interesting examples and success stories were shared that make SMS a compelling option to consider.
Finally, I wrote down the following two quotes that I thought were worth sharing:
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‘Mobilize, don’t miniaturize’, Tom Nawara, Managing Director, Digital Strategy & Design, Acquity Group
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‘In the next 5 years your phone becomes your mouse and the world around you becomes the internet’, Mark Seidl, Manager, Retail Operations, REI.com
Social
Social of course is top of everyone’s mind lately, and there’s always the usual talk about Facebook and Twitter integration to create buzz. However, I always find the truly interesting and inspiring ideas are the ones that go beyond the Fan page. That’s why I found one of the most interesting sessions to be ‘Two thumbs up – or down – on social media efforts’, where Dan Shust, Director of Emerging Media, Resource Interactive and David Griner, Social Media Strategist, Luckie & Co, critiqued some recent social media campaigns.
You may have already heard of some of these, but if not, they are worth checking out:
David Griner, also had some good advice to keep in mind with any social strategy, ‘Engage fans in their daily lives, not in a web browser.’
Global
Of course everyone’s interested in going global and there were some great tips and advice from those with firsthand experience. Having personally spent a lot of time researching, analyzing and working through globalization efforts with various clients across both ERP and e-Commerce solutions, I’ll agree with the advice that research, test and expansion in stages is the best approach to successful globalization.
Last year’s 2009 Shop.org Annual Summit dedicated an entire track to International Expansion. Although I don’t recall it being mentioned at IRCE, I thought this was worth mentioning again here, because that research is available online.
Finally, keynote speaker Geoffrey Robertson, had these words of wisdom that I thought were a perfect summary of the motivation and innovation that drives this industry, ‘The expectations of customers far exceeds the vision of retailers’