#retail touchpoints

With the 2018 Retail Innovation Conference less than three weeks away, retailers from all over the country (and globe) will have the opportunity to hear how the industry’s most disruptive brands and innovative thinkers are raising the bar for all merchants.

The event’s keynote speeches, breakout sessions and hands-on workshops will give attendees insights, best practices and ideas that they can apply to their own retail business.

The RTP team reveals which sessions and speakers they are anticipating the most.

Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief: I need to address this question on a high level. #RIC18 is offering a phenomenal two days of content that will inspire and motivate retailers to collaborate across business units and reach out to industry peers, colleagues and experts, to think differently in order to bring positive change to their organizations. What I look forward to most is enabling retailers to learn from each other in a collegial and productive environment. This year we are honored to have many C-level executives on the stage — including Rafeh Masood, Chief Digital Officer of BJ's Wholesale Club, Miki Berardelli, CEO of KIDBOX, and Romain Liot, COO of Adore Me. We'll hear from the 2018 Retail Innovator Award winners as well throughout the event. Pack up your laptops and plan to join #RIC18 for all three days, including the pre-show Store Tours on Monday, April 30. 

Adam Blair, Executive Editor: I’m looking forward to Walmart CIO Clay Johnson’s keynote presentation, Digital Transformation: Empowering Walmart Associates With Consumer-Grade Technology. I’ve been covering this industry long enough to remember just how dramatic the mindset shift was when we all realized that consumers’ technology had leapfrogged far ahead of retailer-supplied technology. Now, of course, it’s retailers’ technology that strives to be consumer-grade. It’s commonplace today to say customers come into stores with far more information about products, prices and promotions than in-store associates, but that’s a relatively recent inversion of the classic retailer-customer relationship. I’m also interested to hear how Walmart is dealing with this challenge/opportunity. The company certainly has its faults, but it’s shown a consistent desire to take risks and stay on the cutting edge of technological change — behavior that is not always typical of an enormous corporation.

Marie Griffin, Managing Editor: I can't settle on just one session! Instead, I'll point out some of the speakers that stand out to me. Danielle DiMaiolo Rendini, Senior Director of Product Management for Barneys New York, will tell us how the 95-year-old retailer continues to thrive through unique in-store events, associate empowerment and personalized customer service (Tuesday, May 1 at 12:45 pm). Jeff Gamsey, VP of Private Brands for warehouse club disruptor Boxed.com, will outline how the proprietary Prince & Spring line helped Boxed.com become a $100M+ business in just three years (Tuesday at 2:20 pm). Aaron Nilsson, Manager of Digital Experience for 128-year-old Carhartt, will talk about the brand’s move to real-time personalization and the organizational shift that went along with it (Tuesday at 3:25 pm). And Erica Yamamoto, Director of Lifecycle Marketing & Customer Experience for zulily, will let us know how the e-Commerce enterprise melded data-driven personalization with the entertainment of discovery-based shopping to get 91% of shoppers to make a repeat purchase (Wednesday, May 2 at 3:00 pm).

Glenn Taylor, Senior Editor: While he doesn’t represent a specific retailer, shopper behaviouralist Ken Hughes is sure to deliver an exceptional blueprint for handling retail’s youngest clientele, Gen Z. With conversational commerce becoming such a large part of the retail upheaval, I’m very interested in hearing Hughes discuss the steps retailers must take to move away from marketing as we know it and build further on true customer conversations. As retailers seek the elusive goal of becoming entirely customer-centric, attendees will surely benefit from Hughes’ analysis of shopper expectations. This isn’t a shot in the dark assumption either. Two years ago, Hughes spoke at #RIC16 identifying four principles retailers need to follow in order to effectively reach the disruptive “Blue Dot” consumers — Personalization, Authenticity, Contextual and Experiential (PACE) — and the keynote was a fan favorite. Hughes captivated audiences in 2016 with his touches of humor and emotion all at once, and I have no doubt that he’ll be able to do the same at #RIC18.

Klaudia Tirico, Features Editor: The Retail Innovation Conference is always such a great time and learning experience. I personally always look forward to the Store Tours, which will kick off the event this year at the Shops at Columbus Circle. Attendees will have an opportunity to learn how retailers deliver unique marketing strategies and leverage innovative technologies to make the in-store experience a memorable one for every consumer. This year, the tour will visit Amazon Books, Sugarfina, TUMI, New York Running Company by JackRabbit and Williams Sonoma. Plus, an executive from each retailer will host their respective visit. In addition to the Store Tours, I’m also looking forward to the panel titled: Influencing With Influencers: How To Win At Retail’s Hottest Marketing Trend. The session will feature influencer marketing experts such as Kamiu Lee of Activate and Patricia Hong of A.T. Kearney, as well as retail execs from Lovesac, Astral Heathy & Beauty and Love Your Melon, who will share best practices, trends, faux-pas to avoid and predictions for the future of influencer marketing. 

Bryan Wassel, Associate Editor: My pick for the must-see presentation is Digital Strategies Session: Best Practices for Building A Private Brand In The Digital Era, presented by Jeff Gamsey, VP of Private Brands at Boxed.com, Miki Berardelli, CEO at KIDBOX and Kelly Sayre, Retail/CPG Analyst at IHL Group. Private labels are still sales drivers online, as seen by the success of Brandless, but getting these brands noticed by consumers is a completely different game when you can’t take advantage of shelving and store displays to draw the customers’ eye. Price is the single most important factor for 61% of e-Commerce shoppers, and making sure a retailer’s products stand out among the endless options available across the web can improve both sales and loyalty.

This week, Retail TouchPoints released its Top 10 Stories of 2017. These articles chart the state of the industry, in particular the recurring “retail apocalypse” chatter, as well as noteworthy topics like off-price retailing, personalization and the growth of Gen Z’s buying power.

The RTP editorial team shares what they think were the biggest and most influential stories in retail throughout 2017.

Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief: For me, the most significant retail story of 2017 is a celebration of opposites: retail is dying and thriving at the same time. We saw more bankruptcies than ever last year, and apparently we need to be bracing for more of the same in 2018. But at the same time that stores are closing, stores also are opening. Holiday sales were impressive, reaching close to $600 billion, based on early reports. In fact, Fortune suggested the 4.9% increase in holiday sales could be the beginning of "Retail's Big Comeback." I am looking forward to the vibe at the annual NRF Big Show in a few weeks...that is typically telling of how retailers and their solution partners are expecting to fare in the coming year.

Adam Blair, Executive Editor: I wanted to identify what I felt was the biggest retail story of 2017 without mentioning that Seattle-based-company-named-after-a-South-American-river, but it’s simply not possible. Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods was a major event — not so much for itself, but because it supercharged the always-busy Amazon rumor mill. In retail circles, “What will Amazon do next?” is a guaranteed conversation-starter, and no guess is too far-fetched. Whatever Amazon does do next — whether it’s buy Nordstrom, buy Target, create its own private drone Air Force or announce same-day delivery to the moon — that will be a strong candidate for the top news story of 2018.

Marie Griffin, Managing Editor: CVS Health's agreement to acquire Aetna is important and impactful because it would redraw the lines that have traditionally defined retail. The drug store has long been considered a second-class citizen within health care because its highly educated and knowledgeable pharmacists must practice behind a counter, but CVS challenged that status by opening more than 1,000 in-store MinuteClinics staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants. With Aetna's network of doctors, specialists, hospitals, labs, surgical and rehab facilities and so forth, CVS has the potential to be a force in the health care world. I have no doubt that other chains and insurers are planning to do something similar. But don’t expect any of the drug, supermarket or mass chains that are looking to expand further into health care to give up retail. With the anchor of community-based health care services, you’ll see them chart a dynamic new course for the long term.

Glenn Taylor, Senior Editor: While not the biggest individual story of the year, the continued decline of Sears is a perfect example of how retail has drastically changed over the last decade. Sears embodies all the struggles that retailers have dealt with in adapting to the digital/consumer experience age, seeing declining sales every quarter, closing more than 350 stores in 2017, cutting costs upwards of $1.25 billion and selling its iconic Craftsman brand  — all while CEO Eddie Lampert desperately keeps it afloat with millions of dollars in cash infusions. Whether Sears gets the basics right at this point doesn’t even seem to matter, given the long-term damage to the retailer. Unfortunately for Sears, it will be the poster child for industry mishaps going forward, being known most as the company that remained stuck in the 20th century for far too long.

Retail Vision has ranked Retail TouchPoints as the #1 blog on its list of the Top 50 industry blogs to follow!

The list contains blogs that serve as “invaluable resources” to retail professionals. The Top 50 blogs include content such as expert opinions, retail trends, design innovations, case studies and guides.

Here’s a snippet of what Retail Vision had to say about the RTP blog:

“The blog of Retail TouchPoints never lets us down. They always provide a fresh angle on what's going on in retail… we always learn something reading their posts.”

Last week, Retail TouchPoints published a piece spotlighting the top 15 articles of the year (so far). This is our time to reflect on the year thus far, and make educated predictions about which trends will remain top-of-mind through the rest of 2015. 

Needless to say, we’ve covered a broad range of topics thus far, touching on everything from personalization, to social media, fulfillment best practices and the Internet of Things (IoT).  But which trends will make the most headway through the rest of 2015? The RTP editorial team shares their predictions: 

Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief: The article titled: “Data-Driven Personalization Drives Advanced Pricing Strategies” hones in on one of the key strategies retailers must embrace to be successful moving into 2016. Some retail executives may consider pricing to be a lower priority these days, because they know they can no longer compete on price alone. But effective pricing will help push businesses ahead of their competitors. The headline provides the high-level mandate: initiative effective pricing using the available data across channels; and target shoppers with personalized communications.

Alicia Fiorletta, Senior Editor: Personally, I think social media and specifically social commerce is going to reach a tipping point through the end of 2015. That is resources like our Social Media Maven Awards are extremely important. It’s our chance to reach out to the retail community, and ask them to share their strategies (or their peers’ success stories). So not only can we spotlight the innovators and forward-thinkers, we can provide great inspiration to the rest of our followers! I was extremely pleased with the variety of retailers we featured, such as Kohl’s, Jamba Juice and Claire’s, and the variety of topics and best practices we highlighted, such as embracing user-generated content and multichannel campaigns. And with Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook all stepping up their advertising models, I think retailers will be paying more attention to -- and investing more dollars in -- their social strategies.

Rob Fee, Managing Editor: Although the Internet of Things (IoT) is still more of a cool concept than it is a strategy, products like Amazon Echo and the Nest thermostat are making made it more familiar to consumers. This, in turn, creates more excitement for the technology. Gary Schwartz's article, “The Retail Internet Of Things (IOT): Turning Your Store Into An App,” takes an interesting slant on IoT's impact on retail. Connecting in-store technology to shopper's mobile devices has the potential to stream a two-way stream of information. This means that stores could deliver targeted, personalized messages or offers to shoppers while they browse a store's aisles. Both groups would benefit from this approach, and I'm curious to how many retailers begin exploring IoT in the coming months. 

Glenn Taylor, Associate Editor: The article, “Retailers Embrace Omnichannel Fulfillment Strategies To Exceed Customer Expectations,” outlines some of the newer delivery and fulfillment trends retailers are embracing. As the 2015 holiday season gains closer, I believe we will see more retailers looking to adopt and optimize trends such as buy online, pickup in-store to give consumers the opportunity to get products on their own time. As services such as Amazon Prime continue to offer free, fast shipping to their consumers for a flat yearly price, while third parties continue to think of creative ways to boost retail delivery methods, retailers have to be proactive in implementing and offering new delivery options in 2015.

Brian Anderson, Associate Editor: When it comes down to it, the customer has to be happy with your goods and services to maximize the boost brand loyalty and promote future sales. In the article “Getting Back To Customer Service Basics In A Digitally Connected Era,” the fact that the customer journey has become more complex has led to retailers having to adapt to provide excellent services through all the channels their target customers use. Understanding these new channels, and offering a consistent brand experience throughout these channels, is crucial to retail success, and I believe it will continue to be an important topic of discussion.

Last week, news broke that Fab.com was letting go up to 90 employees based in NYC in its latest round of cutbacks.  The flash sale / daily deal retailer has struggled over the past few months to rebrand itself, offering its own line of furniture and a pop-up showroom in NYC.  In light of Fab.com's turbulent period, the RTP editorial team pondered: Is this marking the end of the flash sale as we know it? The editors share their feedback below:  Debbie Hauss, Editor-In-Chief: Flash sales, or Deals of the Day, are not a flash in the pan since they gained popularity when Woot made a splash as far back as 2004. But this retail model has its ups and downs. Daily deals can offer a quick boost in sales and revenue for small businesses, but they've also been known to put small businesses out of business. And while Fab.com is laying people off, Australia-based MySale just agreed to purchase UK-based Cocosa from Mohamed Al Fayed. Now, with a 800,000 strong customer base, MySale is planning to open a new flash sale site in the UK. I think the jury is still out on the flash sale model. Alicia Fiorletta, Senior Editor: Full disclosure, I will say that I'm an avid flash sale shopper, and a fan of Fab.com. I think the eTailer has a lot of fun and unique pieces, especially in the areas of wall art and home decor. However, I think the struggle for the home category is that furniture is a big purchase (no matter how good the deal). Since this is the new focus for the company, the pop-up showrooms are a smart idea. I also think this may be a general branding issue rather than a company issue. Rue La La, Gilt and even Zulily have very specific target customers. The online shopping experience, content and marketing are aligned appropriately. I think if Fab.com focuses on engaging folks who love modern design and appreciate interior design, there could be a new and exciting path for the company moving forward.  

Kim Zimmermann, Managing Editor: There will always be consumers hunting for bargains, so I don't think that the flash sale/daily deal model will ever go way. It was in place long before the Internet, for those of us who remember the Kmart "blue light specials." The sense of urgency and limited offers draws customers, no matter the format. I do think we will see retailers taking matters into their own hands more often, conducting their own flash sales and daily deals rather than leaving it to third parties.  Glenn Taylor, Associate Editor: Flash sales seem to be a mixed bag based on the business model at hand, and the industry as a whole constantly changes. Fab is a primary example of the industry's volatility, as the company had completely changed its business model multiple times over a two-year period. Increased holding costs for unsold inventory certainly can create a burden for these sellers, especially if they are relying on specific products to bring in revenue. Companies like Gilt and Zulily have been able to keep the flash sale idea fresh by introducing private-label merchandise to their selection, showing there is still potential for retailers to adapt their business models appropriately.

By Ed Cleary, Publisher, Retail TouchPoints

As we enter our seventh year of operation, Retail TouchPoints continues to evolve as the go-to site for the latest trends on how retailers can improve the customer experience. From our inception in 2007, our readership has grown to more than 28,000 newsletter subscribers and over 40,000 followers on our social media channels. Each and every day we post breaking news, executive thought leadership, relevant case studies and industry research to help our retail readers navigate through the complexity of new technology and innovative trends. Our commitment to providing the best and most comprehensive coverage of the retail space will continue in 2014 and beyond.

We also are proud to announce that, in early February will be debuting our new web site, Retail TouchPoints Version 3.0!

The new site will offer a host of new features including:

Retail News Hub:  Navigate the state of retail trends with breaking news briefs, executive appointments, mergers & acquisitions, financial news, new product offerings and customer wins.

TouchPoints TV Videos:  Video continues to be a major content focus on our site.  Hear from retail executives who invite us into their stores to share insider info; learn from industry experts on the current state of retail; and watch interviews with solution providers discussing new and upcoming advances in technology.

Customized Experiences:  I am excited about this!  Our new web site will suggest related content based on your individual reading habits, making your online experience with us more enjoyable.

Responsive Design:  Optimized for mobile devices, the new site will keep you connected with a great user experience whether it is on a tablet, smartphone or desktop.

Industry Events:  Find out what is on tap with key retail events each month.

Content Resources:  Check out our latest white papers, E-books, infographics and web events.

Exclusive Reports & Research:  Each month Retail TouchPoints will take a dive into new trends and uncover important statistics and insights from retail executives and the consumer market.

Yep, it's that time of year again folks! The National Retail Federation's annual BIG Show is back, and bigger than ever! (Pun intended.) 

The Retail TouchPoints team is excited to get back on the EXPO hall floor and chat with top solution providers and retail executives. We'll even get to catch a few sessions this year featuring Nordstrom, Rebecca Minkoff, Macy's and more!  Be sure to check out the blog and our web site to get the latest updates from the show! Oh yeah, and don't forget to follow us on Twitter! We'll be tweeting our thoughts and key takeaways along this new, epic journey! (Using the #NRF14 hash tag, of course!) 

@DHauss @AliciaFiorletta @KimZim2764 @GlennJTaylor @G3Brian