Success strategies for top e-retail executive track

Managing for Today and Stewardship for Tomorrow

This track will cover the landscape on the strategic thinking retail company leaders must use in assessing opportunities and challenges. It will show how critical decisions made at top management levels pull the key levers that drive e-commerce results and company growth — increasing revenue and containing costs — at the implementation level.

Retail Chains Track

Exploit Store Assets to Fuel All Selling Channels

Physical stores represent a significant investment and retailers seek new ways to leverage these assets to support all selling channels. The store pickup option for goods ordered online has grown in popularity and many are taking the service to new levels. Others are focusing on creating interactive experiences in store using beacons and touchscreens. This track will explore initiatives that blur the lines between the physical and digital to keep customers shopping wherever they like.

Marketing Must-Have track

Find New Ways with Tried and True Tactics

The long-established vehicles that are the bedrock of online marketing today remain popular on their own merits: affiliate marketing, email, SEO and SEM can cost-effectively acquire traffic and customers and drive sales and loyalty. This track will cover new ways to use the proven workhorses of digital marketing and also remind e-marketers that sometimes, the quickest problem fixes and best opportunities may be found in a new perspective on what they already know.

Small But Mighty Track

Big Wins and Great Saves on a Shoestring

Small and mid-sized e-retailers have a competitive edge: agility. In this track, multichannel and web-only merchants will divulge initiatives that strengthen their market position and do not require huge investments. Learn how startups get off the ground, rebrand when needed, how they turned their first profit—and once humming along at a good clip — how to manage growth while keeping profits and the customer experience top priorities.

Fullfilment, Customer Service & Operation Track

The Backroom: The Hub That Keeps Customers Happy and Loyal

The real test of how good an e-retail organization is comes after the sale. How well do they handle fulfillment and delivery? Post-purchase inquiries? Returns? These sessions will dive into the hidden foundation of e-commerce success that supports everything else. Topics include managing fulfillment and shipping, handling customer service, keeping a lid on fraud and managing returns.

Day 2

Design & Merchandise Track

Clicking the Buy Button: How to Turn Shoppers into Buyers

For today’s shoppers, the website is the richest — and sometimes the only — contact point with a retailer. And so the website must make a strong initial impression and provide a quick way to buy. This track will provide guidance on effective site design, content organization, ways to test a site’s effectiveness, how to make sure a site is ready for the mobile revolution and more.

Managing Technology Track

Creating a Technology Strategy that Leads to E-Retail Success

The sessions in this track will help attendees develop a technology strategy in a fast-changing market. Experienced merchants will discuss whether to take e-commerce technology in-house or to outsource it, how to integrate legacy systems into e-commerce technology or replace it altogether, how to grow faster than your technology investments, how to make sense of data, and more.

Social Commerce & Marketing Track

Trading Cautious for Audacious

If 2015 was a year of prudent experimentation in social channels, then 2016 is shaping up to be full of bold initiatives – and an exit strategy when efforts backfire. The best social strategies ensure shoppers know their voice is heard and the content they create is handled with respect. After today’s daylong programming on social strategy, stick around Friday to learn about bold tactics to deploy once you return home.

Marketing New Frontier Track

New Tools and Tactics to Connect with Shoppers

Triggered email, content marketing strategy, native advertising and more: A new world of online marketing practices has joined established tactics, offering e-retailers more opportunities to drive sales and traffic. This track will cover the pitfalls and the possibilities, what results these new approaches are delivering to online marketers, and the important lessons they’ve learned that you need to know.

Video in e-Retailing Track

The Merchandising Tactic That Really Engages Shoppers

Video has become key to online success. Yet many e-retailers have not adopted video merchandising because they don’t understand how easy it actually is. This track will examine the parts that make up a successful video merchandising and marketing program. Experts will discuss what makes great video, video production, how to measure success, how to scale up a video program, best means for distribution and more.