Shoptalk is well known in the retail industry as an exciting, forward-thinking gathering infused with tech innovations for retailers and brands. How do they stay on top of the trends and curate the most interesting tech solutions? We asked Joe Laszlo, Vice President of Content at Shoptalk, to share how he and his team scoured the tech industry to select the most dynamic, relevant solution providers for this year’s event.

Solutions for the Present Moment

Laszlo says that the Technology Spotlight sessions at Shoptalk present the many solutions that can improve the success of all types of retailers of all sizes. He explains the eight sessions that highlight what’s front and center in the lens of the CTO.

For 2023, Shoptalk’s tech track will feature sessions on:

• Innovative marketing technologies
• Data and personalization
• Fulfillment and last-mile delivery
• Customer care and the post-purchase experience
• Sustainability
• Pricing and merchandising
• Hiring, managing and empowering frontline workers
• Making digital shopping faster and more convenient

Arguably this year’s hottest topic is AI, which as Laszlo says, “permeates the entire tech track with new capabilities from marketing and advertising to fulfillment and delivery. What’s interesting this year is the shift from AI and ML as back-end, data crunching tools to creating content, in the form of generative AI. Several Shoptalk speakers are pioneering this field. For example, Pixis uses generative AI to quickly build ads and marketing messaging. Wizard uses automated text-based conversations to enable consumers to find brands and products they want by making AI conversations more human-like. Netomi and Forethought are leaders in automated chat solutions for customer care. ChatGPT has been the focus of much media coverage, which seems to alternate between the view that it is the most revolutionary thing ever, or risky, half-baked and a disaster waiting to happen.” Laszlo believes that generative AI will emerge as a game-changing technology shift, assuming solutions can install guardrails to make it safe and reliable.

All employees, from frontline workers to the C-suite need a basic conversational familiarity with data and technology. This is not to say that everyone has to become a digital engineer or data scientist, but that nobody in an organization should be scared of or intimidated by technology.

A Tough Selection Process

Shoptalk this year received over 700 applications to speak. Of all the companies that apply, only about five percent are accepted. Much of the Tech Spotlight is actually filled by presenters that are initially identified and invited by Shoptalk’s Content team. Laszlo explains that they are very selective keeping in mind what the audience expects — Founders and CEOs of some of the best and most innovative tech solutions, who are onstage to share their knowledge, not to pitch their companies.

A Pitch for Startup Pitch

The one exception to the “no pitching” rule is Shoptalk’s Startup Pitch. This session is a showcase for a dozen very early-stage retail tech solutions, whose founders have a moment in Shoptalk’s spotlight to share their solutions. Says Laszlo, “Since a bunch of tech presentations could quickly get boring, we gamify it, like Shark Tank, with Judges asking tough questions and the audience rating each presentation.” This year the winner of Startup Pitch will get a $100,000 investment from Shoptalk Ventures, funded by Commerce Ventures. This keeps the session engaging, while also introducing the audience to up-and-coming new companies.

Retail Engineering

Laszlo empathizes with CTOs today. “Any digital team is overwhelmed these days by the number of really cool solutions clamoring for attention.” He adds it’s tempting to focus on the newest or most buzzy technologies, without necessarily thinking through whether they are the right solutions for a given company’s specific challenges. However, he says, “The smart companies start with the needs of the business, not the latest headline-making tech unicorn. They then work backwards to identify the technologies and solutions that address those needs. Especially in the current economic climate, the best tech solutions are those that make brands more efficient, more profitable or serve specific needs of customers or employees.”

He also believes that success in a digital marketplace “requires that all employees, from frontline workers to the C-suite, have a basic conversational familiarity with data and technology. This is not to say that everyone has to become a digital engineer or data scientist, but that nobody should be scared of, or intimidated by, technology.” He adds that it’s the nature of the world today that our tech skillsets become obsolete every few years, so it’s important that a workforce is curious, wants to learn and can use filters to judge what solutions are most relevant for the organization.

Tech Success

The guiding light for bringing exciting new technologies to the Shoptalk audience is the fact that they address the current needs of the retail industry, aligning well with the conference agenda as a whole. Shoptalk’s role is not to advise individual attendees what solutions will work for them, but to offer a rich portfolio of possibilities and facilitate connections among attendees to find partners and solutions. Laszlo says it is a successful model because “We keep it honest and transparent. We don’t do any pay-to-play speaking. Every solution provider we feature on our stage is there because they do something that’s worth our audience’s attention.”

Identifying the critical trends that are shaping retail (short- and long-term) is an art supported by science. And that’s what Shoptalk does every year to build insightful content to guide retail executives in navigating an unpredictable, dynamic digital marketplace. All retail, whether legacy physical brands or the digital natives, face the same macro issues that keep everyone awake at night. The operations that once separated legacy from digital brands have merged, and it takes some brave, bold, and innovative thinking to chart the course forward in a unified model. The wild card is the consumer. Customers are undeniably calling the shots, but inconsistent in matching their declared public positions with their behavior. Decoding, deconstructing, and defining these attitudes and shopping patterns is the foundation of the content for this year’s gathering in Las Vegas.

Driving operational efficiency is even more important in a tough economic climate. Identifying the next game-changing technologies to unlock savings across the business, from new fulfillment capabilities to digital twins to inventory management solutions, is based on strategic needs to ultimately deliver customer-centric profitability.

We checked in with Krystina Gustafson, Shoptalk’s SVP of Content and Advisory Board Chair, to get a preview of the critical business challenges facing retail executives in the near future. Her team curates the content based on research, conversations, keeping a pulse on the business, what’s trending and what’s making news. She focuses on concepts that will become the narrative arc of what’s most relevant to the industry right now. She says that the Shoptalk agenda is complex and may feel hard to decipher a first glance. The larger story focuses on the now, the new, and the next — presented as five interrelated themes.

What Does Best-in-Class Shopper Engagement Look Like?

How shoppers search for and discover products is changing. There are a myriad of platforms and capabilities that companies need to ensure they’re present where their shoppers are, including social commerce, visual search, livestreaming and shoppable video, and generative AI. Best in class typically refers to the digital evolution and how to infuse joy into the online experience to emulate the in-store experience. Engagement focuses on how to talk about how people find products and the growing importance of zero-party and first-party data in building customer relationships.

What Emerging Channels Will Deliver Growth for My Business?

Identifying new channels to help retail businesses find growth goes beyond the obvious and short-term. Ecommerce, marketplaces, and DTC will strategically and commercially evolve. But forward-thinking retailers go the next steps further to understand how the latest in Web 3.0 and the metaverse, as well as how new offerings like Retail Media Networks and white-label services are creating new revenue streams and boosting profits. Walmart will be on hand to dive into how their media program is a poster child for this emerging revenue stream for retailers.

How Do I Deliver an Outstanding Store Experience? 

What is the role of the store? How are leading companies reimagining their stores to deliver unified, seamless, and engaging experiences to shoppers? The impact customer expectations have on merchandising, store operations and design, and the role technologies like computer vision, robotics and augmented reality will play, are critical ingredients in reimagining a store experience that is relevant and memorable. A great example is Brilliant Earth, a digital native fine jewelry brand that seamlessly integrates the online and in-store experience with great customized service.

Which Tech investments Will Boost My Revenue and Profitability?

Driving operational efficiency is even more important in a tough economic climate. Identifying the next game-changing technologies to unlock savings across the business, from new fulfillment capabilities to digital twins to inventory management solutions, is based on strategic needs to ultimately deliver customer-centric profitability. The role of the CFOs is evolving to become more digitally savvy in understanding how automation can power more efficient operations resulting in a better customer experience. Target’s CFO will discuss tech solutions and experts will address the potential of generative AI to help create personalized marketing messaging and customer service at scale. And Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks fame will share insights on his new venture WndrCo that invests in tech solutions that can change an entire industry.

What Organizational Changes Will Help Me Win?

Always a popular subject for Shoptalk attendees, what is the role of leadership and adoption of innovation. Should it be aggressive or measured in pursuing tech talent? How does management address the power shift in organizations from leadership to employees? And most importantly, how to maintain a business culture of excellence with compassion, empathy, and an understanding of work-life balance. Successful businesses must keep evolving their structures to enable digital transformation and not be left behind. Savvy organizations are breaking down barriers and processes to share data and insights across divisions, discover tools to better equip their workforce, and get firsthand advice from leaders on how to inspire and enable their teams during disruptions. Dave Kimbell, CEO of Ulta Beauty and Mary Dillon, CEO of Foot Locker will share their leadership principles and how to create a workplace culture based on mutual respect.

When you consider how much information is available to predict how to manage profitable retail in a digital marketplace, it’s critical to have a trusted source of information. Shoptalk provides that with a carefully curated edit of the trends and foundational shifts. The content is designed to bring information to retailers and brands that is useful right now. The five themes are just a snapshot of all the rich content at this year’s event, as Krystina says, “We want to get your wheels turning to get you going!”

Shoptalk. Uber. How did these brands transform each of their industries? The answer, according to Shoptalk’s founder, Anil D. Aggarwal, is technology that facilitates the right connections at the right time and place. Aggarwal is also the founder and CEO of Personatech, the company behind the event tech platform used by Shoptalk for over five years to power its Hosted Retailers & Brands Program.

Technology is the fundamental game changer for the entire events industry going forward, but you already know that if you’ve participated in the Hosted Retailers & Brands Program, which was introduced in 2018 to connect top retail execs with the best technology businesses in the industry.

Meetup takes the guesswork out of networking, removes the risk of wasted time and puts every attendee 100% in control. With double opt-ins required before any meeting is scheduled, it ensures the person sitting across from you is someone you actually want to meet, and someone who wants to meet you.

The parallel to the modernization of the taxi industry seems very appropriate. Remember the days when you used to have to stand in the freezing rain, late at night or during rush hour hoping against hope to find an empty cab? Uber allows you to sit in your warm home, watching the movement of your Uber on your phone’s map as it approaches, complete with the time of arrival and a seamless way to pay.

The typical event model is much like the analog taxi model–lots of “showing up” and hoping for the best. Shoptalk, however, has an Uber-like approach that provides every attendee with all other attendee profiles as well as workflows that allow everyone to send meeting requests, opt-in to meeting requests they receive and accept meetings. It sounds simple enough, but it’s like anything that’s simple…lots of hard work and a tremendous amount of thought and experience went into making it work so seamlessly.

A Tech Solution that Solves a Real Problem

Shoptalk has always been the maverick of retail events–known for its high energy, exciting content, and the breathtaking spectacle of its tech-enabled networking.

The first Shoptalk meetings program was the Hosted Retailers & Brands Program, which was introduced in 2018 and has arranged tens of thousands of meetings for one use case–buyers and sellers of retail technology and solutions. This year, Shoptalk will add a broader meetings program called Meetup, taking the meetings model to a whole new level, facilitated, and powered by Personatech. The key to the onsite meetup is that it goes beyond one use case, to include every single use case. That’s a giant leap forward.

How many times have we heard about tech innovations that are solutions looking for a problem? That is defiantly not what Personatech is. Sophie Wawro, Global President of Shoptalk and Groceryshop (now under ownership of Hyve Group) adds “The meetings program at Shoptalk 2023 will be the largest and most advanced meetings program to ever exist in retail.” Think: meaningful, personal connections tucked within Shoptalk’s attendee community of 10,000+. She continues, “Our Meetup is open to all Shoptalk attendees (at no additional cost) and will facilitate more than 50,000 double opt-in 15-minute on-site meetings. It is the best way to meet everyone you want to meet at Shoptalk 2023.”

A Bigger Footprint

Agarrwal explains the motivation behind expanding beyond the Hosted Retailers & Brands Program as follows: “With Meetup, we’re facilitating meetings so that every Shoptalk attendee can meet new people, discover new organizations, and create incredible new opportunities.”

We all know how important making connections is. But typical conferences demand that we do all the work ourselves and leave our success largely up to chance, spending endless hours identifying who’ll be there, getting their contact information, sending cold reach-out messages to try to schedule meetings, and then hoping for the best. As Aggarwal says, “Traditional events depend on serendipity. But serendipity alone is not a strategy. Our approach is to engineer serendipity.”

Aggarwal adds, ”Meetup takes the guesswork out of networking, removes the risk of wasted time and puts each attendee 100% in control. Meetup democratizes the struggle to meet the right people and companies. With double opt-ins required before any meeting is scheduled, we ensure the person sitting across from you is someone you actually want to meet, and someone who wants to meet you.”

Friction-Free Facilitation

If this sounds like a game-changer, it is.

So, how does it work? Say the founder of a new jeans brand wants to meet with the DMM of a specific major retail chain. Could Shoptalk’s new meetings program make that happen? And can that jeans startup also meet an investor they wanted to meet? And what about meeting with journalists and the media? In all cases, Aggarwal’s answer is yes.

Wawro adds, “Meetups will take place onsite in a dedicated area (the size of more than eight football fields!) located in the Exhibit Hall. All meetings will be scheduled based on everyone’s individual availability on March 27 and 28.” And more good news, “Shoptalk does all the work ensuring that the process is frictionless. Our concierge team is on-hand to help all participants through the process every step of the way. And think big! The meetings can be arranged to connect with investors, new hires, exciting new startups, potential partners, or whoever it is you’re trying to meet in the retail ecosystem… the sky is the limit,” adds Wawro. If you’re still not so sure about this, she says that to ensure successful meetings, over 100 data points are collected to power the most informed and data-driven level of networking. Hey, it’s at no extra charge and open to everyone. But act fast, the deadline to register for Meetup is March 3.

Community, Connection and Content

Shoptalk is more than meetings; it attracts the industry changemakers that are working to reimagine retail. The agenda covers the latest technologies, trends, and business models, as well as the rapid transformation of what consumers discover, shop for, and how they buy everything from apparel and electronics to beauty and grocery. And it’s fun. Shoptalk has a vibrancy and sense of the moment to make community, content, and connection a meaningful experience.

The Past as Prelude

Let me end with a brief historical perspective. In January 2016, I met Aggarwal for the first time over coffee at the NRF Big Show where he introduced his vision for Shoptalk. He explained how the timing was right at the crossroads of the technology revolution; how ecommerce and changing consumer behavior were major paradigm shifts; and how the entrepreneurial explosion of tech-driven startups was going to forever change the retail landscape. He envisioned Shoptalk as the first authentic retail communication and education platform, attracting thousands of professionals to connect, exchange ideas, create synergies and learn. And he said he would invest millions to make it happen. “The industry needs this,” he said six years ago.

I wrote at the time that I was skeptical, even though I was intrigued by the way he framed his vision. I said, “Anil, the industry doesn’t need another conference.” Furthermore, I thought that his experience in retail was peripheral at best, even though he had successfully launched large scale financial services events before and sold his last tech company to Google. It turned out that his background in tech and financial services was the catalyst needed to help transform how we think about and experience the business of retail.

I now admit that my comment “the industry doesn’t need another conference” has been my “eat crow” moment each and every time Shoptalk raised its own bar for each successive event, compelling thousands and thousands more industry executives to attend.

So, let’s hear it just one more time! Join me at Shoptalk in March and take advantage of the opportunity to be part of Meetup. Register by March 3rd and Shoptalk’s concierge team will be in touch to guide you through the process. For the skeptics out there, you have nothing to lose.

Note: Shoptalk is a Robin Report Collaborative Partner

It\’s an incredibly exciting time to be working in the retail industry. Ten years from now, consumers will look back and say: \”Did shopping really look like that in 2019?\”

It\’s no different than looking back about a decade to the introduction of the smartphone, which has changed our lives in countless ways by making the internet available anytime, anywhere for just about anything. Or 10 years before that when we were still in the very early days of the internet, and cordless phones and portable CD players were all the rage.

It\’s a Time of Great Opportunities and Challenges in Retail

Those organizations that lead the way with disruptive propositions will reap outsized rewards. But the effects of retail\’s transformation will not be evenly distributed among today\’s players. Some will successfully follow the leaders and secure key benefits, but many will fail to keep up and decline. Simply put, those that try to address exponential change with incremental innovation stand to lose the most.

To understand the magnitude of the coming changes in retail, it\’s critical to take a long-term view — progress shouldn\’t be measured only at specific points in time, such as year over year or one holiday season to the next. Why? Because it\’s human nature to overestimate the change that should happen in short-term cycles and underestimate the change that will happen in longer-term cycles of 7-10 years or more. While it might seem that progress is always frustratingly slow, the reality is that retail is on track — like every other industry — to evolve fundamentally as we approach 2029.

Below we list 75 key ways we at Shoptalk see retail shifting — yet these capture only a small fraction of what\’s changing in retail. We\’ll address these themes plus more at Shoptalk through our many sessions and curated interactions.

The New Digital Retail Organization

1. Running a retail organization — whether digital or physical — will increasingly mean running a technology company, mandating changes in skill sets, hiring, culture and more.
2. New titles will emerge at the most senior levels of the organization that reflect the shift to a technology-driven organization, including more data scientists and AI experts.
3. The culture of retail organizations will shift as millennials move into leadership roles and Gen Z makes up a larger part of the workforce.
4. Digital expertise will be a hiring factor in every role across the organization.
5. There will be more moves between departments as employees look to improve their understanding of all aspects of the business.
6. Concerns over privacy and the use of customer data will create new roles in the retail organization.

The Transformation of the Retail Industry

7. The next generation of retail leaders will be more likely to hail from digital or startup backgrounds–and will be more female as well as more diverse.
8. Retail industry stalwarts will continue to go under, leaving opportunities open for retailers that have invested and adapted to meet changing consumer demands.
9. The retail real estate market will continue to evolve to feature smaller footprints, pre-built-out stores, and shorter-term leases.
10. Shopping center operators will offer far more digital in-store options to their tenants, providing less tech-savvy retailers with the ability to provide new services.
11. Marketplace offerings will only become more critical to retailers.
12. Rental and preowned options will increase as consumers regularly update looks for social media and as consumer attitudes toward ownership and sustainability change.
13. Chinese companies will remain at the forefront of global retail innovation, outpacing their American and European counterparts.

The New Era of Marketing ROI and Attribution

14. Marketing campaigns will adapt automatically to reach the right person in the right place at the right time.
15. The lines between social media and other forms of marketing will blur.
16. Paid, owned and earned media will all become just media.
17. Marketers will gain a new level of insight into the exact path to purchase.
18. Marketers will become more adept at measuring the value of influencers they work with.
19. Reaching consumers in-store or at point-of-purchase will become an increasingly important marketing campaign KPI.
20. Mass media campaigns — and mass media — will become less and less important.
21. Direct-to-consumer startups will look for new ways to scale as customer acquisition costs rise.

Next Generation Ecommerce and Omnichannel Retail

22. Pick-up options will become more diverse and widespread, and there will be greater focus on drive-through offerings.
23. Search results and customer service responses will increasingly be generated through natural language text and voice, and will nearly flawlessly match the intent and preferences of the shopper.
24. The returns process will be simplified, making it far less painful for retailers and consumers alike.
25. Technologies that enable shoppers to visualize products on their faces and bodies, and in their homes and gardens, will become table stakes in categories like beauty, apparel, furniture, home improvement and more.
26. Mobile-enabled shopping experiences will play a bigger role in stores as they allow shoppers to learn more about products and add them to their baskets.
27. Social networks\’ e-commerce offerings will finally hit full stride, with buying options being seamlessly integrated into feeds.
28. Visual search will become widespread.

Technologies Creating New Retail Experiences

29. Every aspect of the store — from shopping carts to coolers — will become more intelligent.
30. Robots will become increasingly common in store aisles.
31. Digital shelves will proliferate.
32. Automated warehouses — combined with new pick-up and delivery options — will reduce fulfillment times, changing consumers\’ definition of immediacy.
33. Facial recognition will be even more widely used to identify shoppers.
34. Consumers will expect personalized experiences both offline as well as online.
35. Shoppers will be less impacted by out-of-stocks as endless aisle capabilities and delivery options improve.
36. Cashierless checkout will become far more common, with scan-and-go or camera-based systems contributing to more frictionless retail experiences.
37. Augmented and mixed reality technologies will be used primarily for fun/experiential in-store applications, but also for navigation, promotions and product information.
38. Voice will be used far more extensively as a communication interface.

Leveraging AI and Machine Learning

39. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will be deployed across the supply chain, optimizing the most inefficient parts of retail.
40. Demand forecasting improvements will make DCs more efficient and reduce out-of-stocks at physical stores.
41. Serendipitous discovery will become more common as retailers and brands better predict which products and experiences will delight each shopper.
42. AI will help in-store staff give shoppers more relevant and useful guidance based on shopper preferences and past purchase information.
43. Shoppers will rely on AI to make product recommendations and will come to expect extremely relevant suggestions.
44. Brands and retailers will have a better understanding of shoppers\’ intent and emotions, using optimized language and offers to create emotional responses from their customers.
45. Customer service and support will become much more helpful and proactive, alerting consumers before they are aware of problems.
Advances in Store Layout and Design
46. Stores will change their layouts in the era of cashierless checkout, with impulse purchases at checkout moving to strategically placed locations throughout the store.
47. Store success will be measured in experiences per-square-foot, as retailers leverage specific metrics like dwell time, engagement and social sharing.
48. A growing number of stores will evolve into showrooms for evaluating and selecting prior to ordering.
49. Stores will double as fulfillment centers, as sections are blocked off to shoppers and designated for filling online orders.
50. Experiential retail will continue to expand and evolve, but won\’t be a replacement for products that meet customer demands for when and where they want them.
51. Retailers will no longer use cookie-cutter designs for their stores, but rather will customize each location for its specific market.
52. Shopper convenience will be key in new store layouts.

Improving Operational Efficiency

53. Shortened supply chains will mean faster access to cutting-edge products and design.
54. Robotics will handle repetitive human tasks like auditing store shelves, freeing up labor for more customer-facing tasks.
55. Self-driving cars and other autonomous vehicles will speed up customer deliveries.
56. Advances in scheduling and employee training tools will result in better customer service in stores.
57. Retailers will find ways to limit waste throughout the supply chain as consumers grow more concerned about sustainability.
58. Brands and retailers will look for sustainable packaging options to reduce their carbon footprint as ecommerce and delivery grows.
59. The supply chain will become increasingly transparent as consumers demand more information on where their products come from and how they\’re produced.
60. Shuttered stores will be repurposed as warehouses and fulfill other parts of the supply chain as retailers push inventory closer to consumers.

Innovation Strategies for Brands and Retailers

61. Brands and retailers will strike unlikely partnerships with competitors to capture new consumers.
62. Successful direct-to-consumer startups will be highly sought-after as partners and acquisition targets for established retailers.
63. In-house startup accelerators/incubators will become a form of R&D for large brands.
64. Opportunities to innovate will spread to every role within retail organizations, empowering employees and creating more useful offerings based on insights from the field.

Building Brands for Today\’s Consumers

65. New brands will go to market faster than ever before.
66. Brands will build out their direct relationships with shoppers and rely less on wholesale partners — at the same time, brands will value their best wholesale partners more than ever as the fastest way to scale.
67. Retailers will invest more in the development and marketing of their own private brands which will claim a larger share of shelf space and sales.
68. Brands will seek lucrative niche markets and deliver products tailored to them rather than the masses.
69. Brands will invest more and more to understand and meet the needs of Gen Z as they start to graduate from college.
70. At the same time, increasing life expectancies mean brands will need to pay attention to older generations who will be healthier and have new spending patterns.
71. Customers will play a bigger role in product design.
72. The number of new brands will increase at an even faster pace
73. Brands will create new products and experiences for a generation of health- and wellness-conscious consumers.
74. A growing number of brands will take a stance on social issues that are important to consumers.
75. Brands sold through retail will be evaluated for their potential to engage shoppers through experiences.

By bringing together the industry\’s largest community of innovators and shaping an intellectually honest dialogue, Shoptalk plays a critical role in helping the broad ecosystem with its comprehensive agenda to Create the Future of Retail. We hope you\’ll join us in Las Vegas in just over 10 days!

By Robin Lewis

Old world brands, as well as their marketing models, big and small alike, across all consumer-facing businesses, are entering an era in which many of them are in danger of becoming extinct. At best, they are slowly sinking in an ocean crowded with tiny speedboats, a new world metaphor of the infinite number of long tail niche brands stealing chunks of share from the giant old-world brands. Think of it as the assault of the runabouts against the aircraft carriers. In the last century (the old world), it took decades and billions of marketing and distribution dollars to establish such iconic brands as Budweiser, Campbell’s Soup, Levi’s Jeans, Ralph Lauren, Sears, Macy’s, JC Penney, Estée Lauder and even Ford. And there are thousands more examples.

Technology and new world consumers are flipping everything old-world on its head, including the old-world brands and the processes that drove their growth to scale. First, most of the brands their parents and grandparents loved and trusted do not get a free pass to this generation: “They are so not cool and they’re old.” Second, these young consumers, don’t like or trust anything big. Third, the icons don’t make them feel special. They don’t (and most cannot) engage the nextgen intimately or personally. Fourth, most of the oldies put profits and growth first, and community and sustainability second (if at all).

And a fifth and out-of-control reason for the slow sinking of many of these Titanic brands is that technology, combined with a world awash in capital (resulting in very low barriers to entry), makes it possible for thousands of young entrepreneurs to set up shop and create products or services overnight. With lower marketing and distribution costs combined with the sweeping and speedy networking access to millions of consumers in a nanosecond, these branded tiny speedboats, in the aggregate, are like a thousand cuts into last century’s mass brands. And many of these upstarts are created in your own backyard or local bar/restaurant. Jack’s craft beer in a small Midwest town; Aunt Millie’s homemade organic soup started in a local restaurant, then scaled to every soup shelf of a national grocery chain within a month. Stitch Fix, Birchbox and many other subscription brands became overnight unicorns. In 1980, there were six major blue jean brands. Today there are over 800 and counting. And on and on and on.

So, there are two options for the Titanics: acquire the speedboats as Walmart, Nordstrom, Campbell Soup and many others are doing. Or, create your own private niche brands. Both of these strategies will accelerate as these giants realize that repositioning their old-world brand to appeal to this new-world consumer culture will be next to impossible.

In advance of their March event, the Shoptalk team is providing valuable background information about every speaker and why he or she was selected to speak on the topic. This will help attendees make informed decisions about what educational sessions they plan to attend to learn from peers on how to succeed in retail. Here’s a snapshot preview of sessions that look how brands are evolving.

By Zia Daniell Wigder

As Robin noted, at Shoptalk this coming March, we’ll be exploring the Future of Brands as one of our key themes. Below are a handful of sessions on the Shoptalk agenda—and a few of our great speakers—who will contribute to this topic.

Building a Billion-Dollar Ecommerce Company

As a slew of direct-to-consumer businesses emerge, it’s becoming more difficult to identify the next billion-dollar brand. Often, the most successful companies are those that have disrupted a legacy industry by pioneering an innovative business model or reengineering a product–and have a truly visionary founder. The founders of two different companies with funding rounds valuing the company at $1 billion or more will discuss the challenges of building a billion-dollar ecommerce company.

• Houzz, which has raised $614 million in funding from Sequoia, ICONIQ, GGV, NEA and others, is an online platform for home remodeling and design. The company has stayed at the edge of innovation as it has grown, investing in areas such as deep learning to analyze users’ home photos to provide product recommendations and an AR tool that allows users to visualize what different pieces of home furniture, decor and remodeling products look like in their home. In this session, Alon Cohen, the President and Co-Founder will discuss how he and his wife started Houzz as a side project in 2009 and built it into a company with a reported valuation of $4 billion. He will be interviewed by Sequoia Capital’s Alfred Lin, a key Houzz investor and one of Forbes 2017 Midas List of the Top 100 VCs.
• TechStyle, formerly known as JustFab Inc, has raised $290 million since its founding 2010. The fast-growing company’s fashion brands include Fabletics, JustFab, ShoeDazzle and FabKids. TechStyle operates a membership commerce model that boasts five million VIP members. Its brands are available in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands. In this session, Adam Goldenberg, the Co-Founder and Co-CEO, will discuss how he built the company from the ground up and how he’s used technology to create a sophisticated platform that can predict consumers’ preferences and create personalized offerings. He’ll also discuss how he’s built a billion-dollar brand while keeping almost all advertising in-house.

The Growth of Private Label

Private label brands are becoming increasingly popular with price-sensitive consumers. The cultivation of these brands presents retailers with several opportunities, including (1) providing them with exclusive merchandise that’s less susceptible to price matching, (2) reducing the costs associated with acquiring products from a third party, thereby enabling lower prices and (3) giving them greater control over products, from manufacturing to distribution. In this session, we’ll hear from one established retailer, one ecommerce company and one global manufacturer:

• Industry titan Macy’s has been producing private-label goods since the 1800s. More than 150 years later, the $26 billion department store is still recognized as a leader in the space. The company’s 15 private brands cater to a range of consumer tastes spanning multiple categories. Their value proposition makes them an important driver of Macy’s sales, accounting for a full 20 percent of the company’s annual revenue. Macy’s General Business Manager of Ready To Wear, Molly Langenstein, will share how the company builds private-label brands and distinguishes between the brands, catering product to specific customer lifestyle segments using data and moving decisions closer to the customer reducing development time.
• Germany-based Zalando is one of Europe’s biggest ecommerce success stories. Founded in 2008, this online fashion retailer’s revenues reached over $4.3 billion last year. The company sells almost 2,000 different international brands to customers in 15 different European countries. The company’s private label, zLabels, was launched in 2010 and now operates 17 different brands. In this session, Zalando’s SVP of Private Label/CEO of zLabels, Jan Wilmking, will discuss how the company determines which new private-label brands to launch and how Zalando balances its own private-label collection with those of its thousands of brand partners.
• Founded in 1975, Israel-based Delta Galil is the global manufacturer behind many of the industry’s branded and private label goods. The company, which generates $1.4 billion in revenue, owns a stable of brands including 7 for All Mankind and Splendid; it also has licensing agreements with fashion labels like Calvin Klein and Lacoste. Tim Zawislack, Head of Ecommerce, will share the company’s process for designing, manufacturing and delivering private label goods–including Amazon’s private brand for intimate apparel. He’ll also discuss his role in managing the Amazon relationship for more than a dozen of Delta Galil’s apparel brands and licensed businesses.

The Rise of the Niche Brand

A new type of brand has emerged: Today’s shoppers are embracing products across different categories that redefine traditional categories and better meet consumers’ needs. These fast-growing brands are winning over shoppers who are looking beyond incumbents to brands that reflect their unique preferences and values. Traditional retailers are taking notice of this trend, sometimes partnering with or acquiring newer brands. In this session, hear from three venture capital-backed startups.

• Sphero created an app-enabled robotic ball and pioneered the connected play category in 2010. Since then, the direct-to-consumer startup has raised $107 million in funding and carved out a niche in the fast-growing connected toy category. The company’s innovation has grabbed the attention of consumers and multibrand retailers alike, and its products are now sold at Target, Best Buy and other third-party stores. CEO Paul Berberian will share how Sphero’s unique technology-driven products and licensing deals with the Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises helped the creator of the BB-8 droid grow its business.
• Two-year-old Ollie is a direct-to-consumer startup that serves a niche customer in the $28 billion pet food industry. This startup, which has raised $17 million in funding, is tapping into consumers’ desire for fresh, natural food for every member of the family–including pets. Ollie tailors its recipes to each dog’s needs, recommends the perfect portion for its size and breed, and uses only real ingredients like ground turkey and kale. The Co-Founder and CEO, Alexandre Douzet, will discuss how Ollie has built a niche brand that meets its customers’ quality standards.
• Founded in 2015, Allbirds’ eco-friendly wool shoes use premium natural materials instead of synthetics. The company, which has raised $27 million in funding, works exclusively with wool that meets the strictest sustainable farming and animal welfare standards. It also uses less energy to produce its wool than is required for synthetic materials. Joey Zwillinger, the Co-Founder and Co-CEO, will share how Allbirds has established itself as a niche brand by appealing to shoppers’ desire for products that are sustainable and better for the environment.

Meeting the Demands of Today\’s Health and Wellness-Conscious Consumer

Consumers are increasingly taking charge of their own health and wellness–shoppers now want to ensure that the products they eat, drink, wear and use are safe and have a positive impact on their bodies. They are seeking out activities that improve health and wellness and are flocking to new product categories that support these activities. This session features an established athletic wear brand, a meal delivery service and a consumer goods brand.

• ASICS, a multibillion-dollar athletic wear company, has been a leader in the sporting goods industry for over six decades. In 2016, Runkeeper joined the ASICS team as a key piece of the brand’s strategy to improve the Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) experience. Since the acquisition, the Runkeeper team has evolved into ASICS Digital. The division is responsible for the development of Runkeeper and ASICS Studio, ASICS ecommerce platforms, and other digital services that inspire people to move, get fit and stay healthy. Dan Smith, GM at ASICS Digital, will share how ASICS Digital is helping to transform the 69-year-old brand with digital solutions to meet the demands of today’s health and wellness-focused consumer.
• Launched in 2015, Freshly is a subscription-based food company that delivers fully prepared, healthy meals to subscribers\’ doors. The company has raised $107 million to date, with CPG titan Nestlé contributing as lead investor to the most recent $77 million round of funding in June 2017. CEO Michael Wystrach will share how Freshly’s nutrient-rich, all-natural meals are capturing the attention of busy consumers seeking healthier meals.
• Co-founded by actress Jessica Alba, The Honest Company has raised over $300 million in funding to bring safe, eco-friendly products into consumers’ homes. By tapping into shoppers’ demand for natural baby and home products, the direct-to-consumer startup has catapulted into a household name in just six years. CEO Nick Vlahos will discuss how The Honest Company’s transparent, socially conscious brand promise has helped propel its business and get its products onto major retailers’ shelves.

When you attend Shoptalk, you feel the kinetic energy, optimism and confidence of the startups and investors that are reshaping retail’s future. The guiding principles of these entrepreneurs: speed and personalization, all fueled by machine learning and delivered by voice recognition, principally on mobile. Visual search, AR, VR, and 3D printing get the lion’ s share of attention as well.

These tech mantras bring great joy to the faces of entrepreneurs who thrive in our brave new world. Conversely, they trigger unbridled panic in some traditional retailers who grimly realize they may be way too late to the party. In both cases, the decisions these retailers are making today are already too late to shape the future, making everyone anxious and burdened with — the startup concept of the moment — existential crisis. It’s an intense education to witness the collision of two these cultures, and that’s why Shoptalk is an invaluable roadmap for anyone trying to make a living in retail.

Shape Shifting

We used to talk about disintermediation; today it’s about replication. The personal shopper bots that show up on our retail screens have already pinpointed what we want, before we want it. You can find this intrusive and unnerving, or liberating. In either case, the machines have a leading edge over humans. The innovative startups are using replication to their advantage; the smart startups are merging high tech with high touch. Chiquelle is a fashion-forward retailer based in Sweden, with manufacturing facilities in Turkey. The retailer combines the power of online social media influencers with a sophisticated supply chain that is ruled by tech tools designed to deliver new fast-fashion merchandise within two weeks. Chiquelle has replicated most of its sales staff and marketing experts with social media. The persuaders, AKA influencers, are paid commissions for their sales; so who needs a sales staff? Chicquelle uses social media exclusively for marketing. Their advice for social media ingénues is to make it real, make it authentic and avoid anything commercial. They decree Facebook as conservative and Insta stories as essential.

Bloomon, doing business in Amsterdam, Berlin and London, brings the fusion of high tech and high touch to an apex with a business model based on happiness. As they say, Bloomon is “beauty in a bouquet, one delivery at a time.” Bloomon takes one of the most sentimental businesses, fresh flowers, and turns the 1-800-Flowers model on its head. Customers order online and receive fresh flower bouquets exactly when and where they want them. The bouquets are designed by artisans who have upped the artistic standards of floral arrangements, using current fashion trends to inspire colors and flowers. To build a community, there are stories and pictures of fans with their bouquets posted online, personalizing Bloomon into an extended tribe of flower lovers.

One of the darlings of Shoptalk Europe was Picnic, a startup based in the Netherlands that is replicating the nostalgic memory of the milkman with an ultra rationalized, tech-driven business to fulfill grocery market orders. Fresh foods are delivered in their eco electric-powered delivery trucks, racing through the neighborhood at four miles per hour. Customers decide what Picnic sells, creating an algorithmic, predictive supply chain that eliminates waste from unsold, spoiled food. If a requested product meets the threshold of five customers, it is put into the market order system. With enormous financial backing, Picnic has already taken five-percent market share, and is expanding quickly into other towns. In its short existence, Picnic has already achieved an impressive Net Promoter Score of 85.

Then there’s 3D printing, which has been inching into the mainstream for years, replicating larger-scale manufacturers with the 21st-century individual tech artisan and craftsperson. 3DHubs, based on Amsterdam, has plans to build a network of 3D printing facilities in 160 countries, enabling customers to design and print products close to home, all paid for on a Verifone fintech platform. The Hubs combine high automation with customization. With 3D printing, production is now democratized. Providing 3D printers in brick and mortar, store personnel become design guides to help jewelry customers, for example, create their own original designs. In addition to the industrial and medical applications of 3D printing, here’s a glimpse of your near future: Scan your feet and design shoes that fit–exactly. Print your glasses frames. Customize the frame to the contours of your face for a perfect fit. Wouldn’t it be more fun for kids to design their own toys? We’ll soon have billions of budding Toys R Us 3D entrepreneurs. Amazon is going to have 3D stored in Echo devices. Stockholm-based Volumental, is disrupting shoe shopping using computer vision and artificial intelligence. Their technology is being used by many world’s footwear brands and retailers to personalize the shopping experience and provide great fit. When their 3D body scanning scales up, the fit will finally be perfect and returns will become a zero-sum game.

The Marketplace

Community was also a focus for the startups at Shoptalk. Junique, based in Berlin, is a curated marketplace for creative people, providing accessible and affordable art (under 40 euros) to everyone, instantly democratizing fine art. Westfield Retail Solutions, based in San Francisco, is an innovation lab working on a massive community build. It will ultimately integrate a fragmented retail world by bringing together the major players and the long tail into an interconnected, tech-based platform that provides consumers with a seamless experience in search, discovery and shop. Highly tech with plenty of machine learning, the Westfield marketplace demonstrates how to adapt and be relevant in a digital economy. Voice recognition, which is the megatrend in retail tech, is key to this marketplace.

Harrods, in London, caters to a luxury customer and seems be doing just fine with old-world tactics and strategies. Their marketplace is based on rigorous personal attention, providing luxe benefits to customers who expect nothing less. Marketing to the top 0.1 percent of the world, Brexit has had no impact on Harrods’ business. Their community is international with China as their biggest customer base representing 25 percent of Harrods spend. The pathway to the next gen is through beauty, and millennials over-index in the beauty spend. It’s not all soft touch; their CRM system is state of the art, enabling 84 percent of their customers to receive personal attention based on their shopping preferences and past purchases.

Speed Bumps

So, a few cautionary words to the retail community about speed. First, there seem to be no speed limits in today’s retail space. Spencer Fung, group CEO of Li & Fung, base on Hong Kong, admits “the environment is moving faster than the industry.” His tortoise-and-the-hare storytelling narrative illustrates the innovator’s dilemma. Speed, innovation and digitalization are the hare’s racing colors; the only recourse for the turtles may be to become a vertical model to control all supply-side risk. But there’s still the issue of how quickly and how expensive it is for both new and old-world retailers to innovate, adapt, build, buy, collaborate, re-tool, re-engineer and otherwise re-invent their business models. In the emerging 7th Kingdom of life concept of evolution, survival of the fittest will not be the human species, but rather technology as a whole system. Tech retail is looking like both the tortoise and the hare at the finish line.

There’s a dirty little secret underneath the happy veneer of all these startup entrepreneurs. The need for speed, forced by a demanding consumer who seems to be running everyone’s business, is built on a distortion – an illusion. The customer is calling the shots, expecting greater speed, more personalization, free-everything and immediate response through conversational commerce. The traditional retailers are running as quickly as they can (mostly in place) to build, buy or find platforms and systems to deliver faster and faster. But, seriously, this is like turning around an aircraft carrier, exacerbated by a non-tech culture and staff ill-equipped with the skillsets critical to success in a digital economy. The online retailers are positioned further up the innovation curve with nimble models and highly trained, digital native staffs with an intuitive understanding how technology works. But the cost of customer acquisition is a challenge, and even funded by forgiving investors, they’re not making tons of net profit either. So in both cases, retailers are speeding towards a wall, all in the spirit of an impossible mission of trying to fulfill customer expectations that are so unrealistic that they are potentially putting everyone out of business in the process.

So what is a retailer to do? Their new skillset is retail engineering. Their role is risk manager, and their business model is going to need a portfolio approach. Not everyone can offer cloud services to prop up their unprofitable retail divisions, but it’s going to take a diversified constellation of businesses to stay afloat. Think Alibaba, which could be destined to eclipse Amazon (if for some shocking reason Bezos falters in his goal to rule the word) as the dominant global player. Alipay is used in Alibaba malls and corner shops (with no cash registers) as well as online to complete a self-serving circle. Other megatrends? Mindfulness of resources. Supply the demand, not offer enormous inventories of irrelevant merchandise. Think: just enough. Automation will be the future of work. Blockchain is the future of secure fintech transactions. Data is the new oil. Apps are dead; mobile phones will recognize all bar codes. There will be a digital ID in the cloud for everything. Products will talk to you, reminding you, for example, that this is the third time you have bought this brand of wine. Immersive storytelling is the communications tool of choice for next gen consumers. Trust is key to managing vulnerability and risk. Empathy transcends all. The customer is saying, “You’ve got my attention, don’t squander it.”

So what does all of this have to do with Shoptalk? Everything. They lead the global retail ecommerce conversation. They are building a community of entrepreneurs to drive meaningful change. They are dynamic, not static, and facilitating the blueprint for the future of retail with an integrated conversation that is inclusive. If you want to know what’s happening after what’s happening next, Shoptalk is your ticket. You’ll be surrounded by a lot of smart, happy innovators, and their enthusiasm is contagious upping the game of hope and possibility for retail of the future.

It’s hard to have missed the cascade of articles written about Shoptalk from its day-one entry into the retail ecosystem exactly two years ago. It came in with a bang and continues to create bigger bangs. You might even be thinking “enough already.” Sorry, not enough. I say that because I know what retail needs right now, and it is exactly what Shoptalk provides—an education in new innovations, solutions and opportunities.

So, I refer to Shoptalk as a “School,” which differentiates it from the over-abundance of same-old, same-old conferences, expos and trade shows. And its industry-defining speaker lineup is nothing short of the retail industry’s “Faculty.” Yet there are still thousands of people at retailers—you and many on your teams might be among them—who need to enroll in Shoptalk’s incredible educational experience. If you don’t, you risk falling behind the more than 8,000 individuals who will be there in March.

The industry is still just scratching the surface when it comes to understanding and implementing data analytics, personal and conversational commerce, machine learning and artificial intelligence, innovations in delivery and distribution logistics, augmented and virtual reality, new omnichannel models and the many more innovations launched daily in the new universe of technology and ecommerce retail.

This is the “Curriculum” pioneered by Shoptalk with its agenda that consists of over 100 sessions during four  jam-packed days.

This week, Shoptalk released its 2018 Curriculum and the first 80 of 400 speakers/Faculty. The event will be held on March 18-21, 2018 at the Venetian in Las Vegas and among those kicking off the event on Sunday evening are Macy’s CEO, Jeff Gennette. Of the more than 8,000 attendees, over 700 will be CEOs—most of whom actually attend the sessions (or “Classes”).

As with every year, Shoptalk has many surprises in store. For 2018, Shoptalk’s Faculty includes some of the most innovative companies and greatest minds not just from the U.S., but from across the world. As Zia Daniell Wigder, Shoptalk’s Chief Content Officer, said, “This international focus is critical given that retail and ecommerce are changing everywhere around the world and no single geographic region dominates in terms of innovation. To fully understand how these industries are evolving, a global lens is now essential.”

There is a reason why Shoptalk has become the largest learning and sharing “community” in the world in just two years. Emanating from the vision of Anil Aggarwal, (whom I initially called crazy), Shoptalk is desperately needed, particularly now in the middle of the chaotic transformation the industry is going through. Shoptalk brings together the best and brightest from around the world to share knowledge and learn from each other’s innovations, and the strengths and weaknesses of their business models. In fact, Shoptalk also provides a “Hosted Meetings Program,” which schedules curated one-on-one meetings for retailers and brands with established and emerging providers of technology and other solutions. More than 1,000 participants will enroll in this program in 2018, resulting in about 8,000 facilitated onsite meetings—yet another much-needed opportunity to learn.

Aggarwal says of his vision, “Our goal with Shoptalk, as you know, is to lead the industry during a period of immense upheaval and opportunity. We frame the dialogue, and we bring together the key people to speak to the trends, technologies, and business models. We called the importance of this before innovation was top of mind with everyone, and we’re working hard to break down outdated silos to help the industry evolve.”

So, back to why I believe the cascade of Shoptalk attention is not “enough already.” There are still literally thousands of people among the large and small legacy retailers and brands that need the Shoptalk learning experience.

And, by the way, the thing most retailers love to hear is that many qualify for free tickets and travel. This is yet another no-brainer conceptualized by Anil Aggarwal. The decision to attend Shoptalk couldn’t be any easier or more obvious.

So enough already. Find out if you qualify for a free ticket and travel, and go! Your business needs what can be learned at Shoptalk.

Shoptalk’s 2018 Curriculum is available here: https://shoptalk.com/agenda and the Faculty to date can be viewed at https://shoptalk.com/speakers.

You can apply for a free ticket and travel at https://shoptalk.com/networking-program/hosted-retailers. And if you prefer to buy your ticket, prices go up on Friday!

Shoptalk by the Numbers

• 8,000+ attendees, including over 700 CEOs, are expected to join.
• 1,000 retailers and brands will enroll in Shoptalk’s Hosted Meetings Program, resulting in approximately 8,000 onsite meetings for retailers and brands with established and emerging providers of technology and other solutions.
• 400+ speakers from around the world.
• 100+ main stage and track sessions with the world’s best lineup of speakers.

We all know there is no free lunch in life, particularly in the retail world.  However, Shoptalk’s inaugural fall event — Shoptalk Europe, which will be held in Copenhagen on October 9-11, 2017 — offers any U.S. retail executive who would like to attend several free lunches and dinners, plus a free conference ticket and a $1,000 reimbursement for travel and hotel expenses.

The qualifications for this incredible offer are that executives must be responsible for evaluating or buying retail or e-commerce technology or other solutions for their companies and that they agree to take eight 15-minute onsite meetings (a total of just two hours) with Shoptalk Europe’s wide-ranging exhibitors and sponsors. The meetings are based on the interests and requirements of the retailers and brands.

While meeting with eight solution providers (selected by you) might not actually define a totally “free lunch,” in exchange for what you are getting — including the invaluable two-and-a-half day educational experience (and breakfasts, lunches, and dinners) — this offer goes way beyond a free lunch. That’s why more than 100 retailers and brands have already signed up for the offer.

Shoptalk Europe was created by technology entrepreneur and venture capital investor Anil Aggarwal, whose last tech company was acquired by Google in 2012 for over $220 million and who founded Money20/20 Europe–the largest Fintech event in Europe–as well as its U.S. counterpart, Money20/20–the largest Fintech event globally. He launched Shoptalk in the U.S. last year and it grew to over 5,500 attendees in just its second year.

Like the U.S. event, Shoptalk Europe brings together established retailers and brands, venture-backed direct-to-consumer startups, tech and Internet companies, investors, media, analysts and others to learn, collaborate and evolve. The event will include all key ecosystem stakeholders from a wide range of industry verticals — from grocery to fashion and everything in between, including home, electronics, beauty, and CPG.

“Shoptalk Europe facilitates a much-needed modern retail and ecommerce conversation and creates a new community of industry leaders and innovators,” says Anil. “We fill a major industry gap because this pan-European–as well as global–dialogue and community don’t currently exist but are now critical to shaping the future of retail and ecommerce.”

Yes, Shoptalk CEO, Anil Aggarwal, is positioning Shoptalk Europe to make it the powerful retail educational ecosystem in Europe that mirrors two-year-old Shoptalk U.S.  But this is not a promotional coupon or a giveaway just for the sake of pumping up attendance.  Anil describes this Hosted Retailers & Brands Program as a key investment to continue to create the industry’s most unique and powerful platform for learning, for the interchange between the old and new worlds, and for understanding the newly forming retail ecosystem necessary to transform business models for future success.

Regardless of this incredible offer, if I were a retail CEO, I would want as many of my executives as possible to attend what I might call the “Shoptalk Master’s Program.” And given the offer, it really is a no-brainer to attend Shoptalk and send as many of your qualified executives as possible. It is the kickstarter to transforming an industry that needs to leapfrog into retail-tech now.
Retailers and brands can apply for the Shoptalk Europe Hosted Retailers & Brands Program here: https://shoptalkeurope.com/register/retailers-form.

Shoptalk Europe to Date

So far, the preliminary agenda (https://shoptalkeurope.com/agenda) for the Copenhagen event is the expected Shoptalk on-target content that will include more than 100 sessions and 250 speakers.  Over 2,000 attendees are anticipated. Like its U.S. counterpart, Shoptalk Europe focuses on the evolution of how consumers discover, shop and buy in an age of digital transformation, and it will cover the trends, technologies and business models disrupting retail and ecommerce.

Shoptalk Europe’s currently confirmed speakers (https://shoptalkeurope.com/speakers) are European and global leaders and innovators from retailers, brands, startups, investors, analysts, and tech and internet companies, including William P. Lauder, Executive Chairman, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc and Jerry Storch, CEO, Hudson’s Bay Company, plus brands Birchbox, Casper, Dollar Shave Club, H&M, Tesco and Westfield. The event will also feature a Startup Pitch Contest with significant cash prizes.

Dear CEO: Take my advice and get as many of your top executives, including yourself, to Shoptalk in Copenhagen this fall (less than 150 days from now!) to take advantage of the “free lunch” and be an active part of the conversation to transform retail.

Shoptalk 2017 in the Rearview Mirror: Part 2

Here’s what smart companies are working on with all these new-economy brainiacs. We’ve compiled some highlights of the major trends, presented, discussed and predicted at Shoptalk in Las Vegas, March 2017:

AI/AR

We’re all going to fall in love with our machines – Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri. I mean how can you resist a soothing voice that anticipates your every need, shows you how to get where you want to go, and helps you cook dinner without complaining? What human can compete with that level of narcissism?

The Rebecca Minkoff brand is the poster child for thinking creatively and rationally about the customer experience. Uri Minkoff, Co-founder and CEO, explains that they strive to create experiences that are “future-proof and fool proof for millennials.” They were pioneers with lots of clever tech toys, including magic mirrors and checkout alternatives, and the see-now, buy-now seasonal launches. They are developing an IoT solution for customer relationship management and are invested in 42 Technologies, a leading edge turnkey analytics and reporting solution to deliver voice recognition, real-time information on inventory, sales data and trends…via Alexa. Where did they find each other? On LinkedIn, which just goes to show you that professional/social media works. The Minkoffs have established a VC fund with Quotidian Ventures for more next-gen tech acquisitions, which they will presumably scoop up before anyone else knows about it. Their seasonal launches have become major productions, most recently at The Grove in Los Angeles where models, bloggers and influencers collaborated in an immersion festival, resulting in a 64 percent lift in online sales. In the end, it’s about marrying great ideas and vision with logic in a systems-thinking approach. Uri says what really gets results from his team is simply seating people on staff together at the office in a way that they naturally interact and collaborate with each other to break down any silos or territorial thinking that could sabotage the overall business.

Mark Hardy, CEO of InContext Solutions, celebrates AR with the good news that retailers no longer have to look at stats and sales data on endless Excel spreadsheets. All you have to do is walk through the store and march down the aisles and see every parsed bit of information you will ever need on your mobile screen. Logistics support is the next step, then virtual commerce. According to Mark, that’s “when physical stores become irrelevant.” Through AR, you are transported on-site to see the what’s inside the tent. It all becomes a gamefication of retail as customers cruise through the store virtually and buy what you want. AR, he says, “is taking commerce to the next level.”

What’s inside? Intel’s intelligent reimagining of retail. Rachael Mushahwar, General Manager of Retail, Hospitality and Consumer Packaged Goods, defines the major AR/AI tech breakthroughs that are happening in-store and shaping the future.

• Chatbox is your new BFF. Centennials (Gen Z) shop differently and know Alexa can help. Rachel predicts that in 2017 less than one-third of customer service requests will require a human.
• Robotics. Retailers will use robots in-store in addition to distribution centers. Simbe (Simulated Being) Robotics Tally is the world’s first robotic autonomous shelf auditing and analytics solution for retail and has already been tested in Tesco, Lowes and Target.
• Internet of Things is an agent of value creation. The remote control for daily life – our iPhone – controls everything: how we shop and engage with it in the stores, as well as transportation and logistics. Here’s a sobering thought: Rachel says that the iPhone’s personal computing power is more than what was required to put a man into space in the 60s.
• Operational Wearables. These wearable devices connect with distribution centers and link to inventories to provide real-time stock information that reduces the friction in any retail transaction. You never have to say you’re sorry you’re out of stock, because you’ll know ahead of time.
• Visual and Video Search. We will use our voices, not a keyboard, to search. Visual match-ups will become the norm. Imagine taking a picture of a girl wearing an outfit you desire, and using visual search, immediately finding three similar outfits, complete with information on where to buy them.
• Machine Learning and Personalization. The floodgate opens with personalization, customization, mapping, and incoming messaging composed for each individual customer.

Retailers will have imaginative strategic choices to create a meaningful customer journey, all of which will require investments of science-based technologies. The transformation takes place when you shift your self-definition from being a store to becoming a provider of value. Rachel asks, ”What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Fill in the blank.” Her advice is to make the right choices now to morph into responsive retail.

Sophie Miller, Head of Shopping Partnerships at Google predicts that the fourth industrial revolution is coming with the fusion of biological, physical and virtual. Using AR and VR with partners Daydream and Tango, the smartphone becomes part mapping device and part encyclopedia of product knowledge. Google has developed 200+ apps for retail partners to help customers navigate stores and benefit from rich experiences. She says, “The closer you make interaction with computing like the real world, the more powerful it will become. It’s context computing.” Mapping – wayfinding pathways on your smartphone – can guide you through a Lowe’s store with a “yellow brick road” leading you to the products you are seeking. You are then directed to the product placement on the shelf. And then you are virtually enveloped with every piece of information you can imagine about that product. Or, think of rendering your own BMW through VR and AR, customized with your preferred colors and options. You can visualize the car you want and then you can order it directly. Home décor is perfect for AR. Wayfair can unbox the item in your own home. Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma can place an entire room of furniture in your own living room, courtesy of AR.

Sephora is mastering experiential retail that teaches and inspires through play.

Beauty classes in-store offer one-on-one consultations with makeup pros, and through augmented reality, customers can try on lipstick colors on their phones. More personalization? Their subscription model beauty boxes delivered to your doorstep. Alice Chang, CEO of Perfect Corp., offers an AR beauty journey, anticipating what Gartner reports that by 2020, 100 million consumers will shop though AR. To date, her brand has had over 400 million downloads from customers using AR to try on makeup. Alice says the AR alternative is great for in-store as well, as a workaround to unsanitary conditions from hundreds of customers experimenting with physical products. Plus, Alice says, you can see the whole panorama of brands in a single cosmetic category at a kiosk instead of wandering around the store trying to figure out what product is the best for you … and where to find it.

Clarifai uses visual recognition to connect people to pictures and video using a sophisticated technology platform that identifies images on a pixel level. It looks like magic when the app demonstrates it can discern your dog from someone else’s, and uses machine learning to deliver images of products based on customer behavior.

IBM Watson IoT has reinvigorated the venerable IBM brand. The platform uses data from the connected store to deliver insights to make real-time, contextually driven decisions. And all this tech jargon leads to delightful customer experiences. According to IBM, “retail store operations can be transformed to rival those of any online retailer.” And “Watson IoT Shopper Insights, from in-store behavior, purchase history and social media activities, can help retailers to provide personalized offers and predict future trends.”

Conversational Commerce

Amir Konigberg, CEO of Twiggle says 1.77 billion people shop online globally. But search is still so primitive that “31 percent of the results are irrelevant, 22 percent can’t find what they are looking for and 19 percent of the results come up empty.” So Peter Faricy, VP at Amazon Marketplace wins the dazzle-me award at Shoptalk. Courageously he live demo-ed Alexa on stage in front of 5600 people to show the power of conversational commerce. “Alexa, find me a pair of black velvet dress slippers, size 11.” In what seemed like a nanosecond, Alexa came through with a recommendation for the slippers, on your screen of choice, located at Saks Fifth Avenue in Las Vegas, including driving instructions, store hours and a host of product attributes. Even for the jaded, it was a behind the curtain glimpse from a Wizard of Amazon.

Shoppable Video

MikMak  is a mobile video shopping network that is becoming a giant wave of the present-future. CEO Rachel Tipograph produces video content in short-form formats, minimercials. She says the evolution of video is highly creative, personalized and customized to match the medium with the message that resonates with millennial shoppers. MikMak hosts have stand-up comedy backgrounds, and the videos are irreverent, clever, exciting and entertaining. New videos are released every night at 9:00 PM Eastern time. But regardless of their cool factor, these videos are designed to sell product.

Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSN – the doyenne of video commerce – shows a gentler side to the retail business. Her mantra is about compassion, meaning, caring and kindness. She believes that these qualities will inspire loyalty in a time of confusion, disruption and abundance of choice. The way to build a sustainable relationship is with human, tactile experiences.

Mindy declares that systems-thinking defines a successful retail leader. And that approach needs to be combined with fluency in the tech vernacular. She says, “Distributed commerce is table stakes for the future. Our world has moved from one broadcast to 96 million customers to one message to each of 96 million screens.” The way to be meaningful and intuitive on these screens is to tell stories that inform and engage. She describes five critical elements — universal truths — married to meaning:

1. Mobile is the new flagship. It’s personal, not a device, it’s a destination. It is our individual world — who we are and our life.
2. Everyone is your competitor. Uber, Airbnb –- any brand that delivers an experience.
3. Agile is the new smart, speed is critical.
4. Never take Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for granted. The iconic pyramid has been inverted and self-fulfillment is now at the top.
5. Talent is value.

She also emphasizes that, “Personalization has to be meaningful.” We need to cater to each screen. Transmedia is the communications strategy for shoppable video and personalization. Customization and localization are personified by craft, artisanal brands. She says we need to “make every touch point feel like a small business.” We also need to create a community through curation to mitigate the impotence when we feel faced by abundance. Creative retail can educate, inform and provide clarity. These communities provide ecosystems for customers that are holistic, immersive environments, not a discrete vertical. How is she keeping it fresh and cutting-edge? She hosts an incubation program for entrepreneurs and has launched 125 new products through the American Dreams Inventions Academy.

The Customer Channel

Mike Blandina, CTO of Westfield Retail Solutions has a lot of bold things to say about the future of retailing. He explains that an existential threat to his business forced a pivot in 2015 with new board members. Westfield Labs morphed into Westfield Solutions. He says, “In the evolution of retail, innovation in physical time is happening slower than innovation in digital time.” And he proclaims, “Omnichannel is dead. The consumer is the channel.” Retailers need to respond to these single channels by responding to customer needs any time, any place. “It’s time to write a new book. The chief of digital and technology information officer are not discrete jobs anymore,” he states. Retailers need to deliver a seamless interface experience. Imagine Google Home starts a product search, Facebook Messenger calls you and you can complete the transaction on Messenger or in-store.” He describes, “The problem for retailers is that they only have one way to do one task.” Interconnected systems and devices deliver an elegant, curated and refined way to do things. He suggests that we need to bring retailers together and they need to engage on social platforms as well as in venues. “We win as a team and die as individuals, “ he says. “Retailers should not look at their assets to deliver a unique customer experience. The trends are augmented reality, conversational commerce, and endless aisle –- about consumer as the channel. Collaborate now. He uses fintech as a model for new standards for retail. “There is no equivalent to fintech in retail; we need to find that model. The pace of innovation grows exponentially weekly,” he adds.

He believes that no one cares about an app and probably never will. “Consumers are on social platforms, so go and engage them there. An iconic experience is when physical and digital bring it all together. He says the top conversation rates result from conversational commerce: voicebots and chatbots. He adds, “whether you like it or not, it’s happening. We’re competing against several large giants, and against over 100 different apps and websites.” But in the end, consumers want a single valuable experience. They don’t care how you build it, they want the end result. Digital starts at home, at work, or the car. Basically, it starts and ends where the consumer starts and ends. Buy, sell pick up and return wherever they are.

He explains, “We can use the mall for a great experience, but if we don’t merge these two views – digital and physical – retailers will struggle and malls will struggle,” The solution is to build a retail network where we all share data.

The flat internet playing field enables inclusive e-commerce. Peter Szulczewski, CEO of Wish , serves the underclass of the 80 percent of U.S. households with incomes under $100K. With a robust business in Europe, Wish serves lower-income European households, with an average annual income of $16,269. That long tail adds up, and Wish fulfills many consumers who don’t have credit cards or bank accounts.

Speed wins and Amazon’s Prime Now, with one hour-or-less delivery, is hard to beat even though wannabes are working on it. According to Stephanie Landry, VP of Amazon Prime Now, Amazon’s philosophy is to “give you your time back.” Already in 45 cities in seven countries, customers are not only getting used to speed, they want way more. Built on the new business principles, technology is the infrastructure that provides fulfillment and delivers customer delight. Stephanie says that Amazon Prime, combined with Alexa’s machine learning voice recognition prowess, is “meaningful and makes customers come back to us.” A flex community of drivers provides the deliveries. And with a shout-out to the environment, the hugely popular paper bags have supplanted the mountains of corrugated cardboard that Amazon is famous for.

IoT

The Target Open House Innovation Lab in San Francisco is a living lab showcasing the seduction of IoT. The concept store is designed as an immersive environment dispaying the connected home and how it works. When all your devices are synched with a master program (like Alexa) you can pretty much play master puppeteer to your lights, appliances, locks and entertainment. According to Gene Han, VP of Consumer IoT at Target, the store demonstrates how a smart home works. Target has some dazzling kiosk-based interfaces: a digital wall immerses you in a travel experience, which delivers travel suggestions, ranging from destinations to what you need to take with you (back to retail). There are vignettes that demonstrate how a connected bedroom works. A lot of the ideas come from local startups, and the Lab serves as an open-house garage for entrepreneurs. The space is used for meet-up forums, and Target has embedded itself securely into the forward-thinking Silicon Valley startup community.

Personalized Commerce

The ultimate in personalized online customization is Spoonflower, a business that enables you to design and print your own fabric and textile designs. CEO Gart Davis describes Spoonflower and “an explosion of choice” that disintermediates the $3 trillion textiles and apparel business. Through crowd sourcing, this participatory commerce model provides a meaningful relationship between makers and customers.

Michelle Lam, CEO of True & Co., started a business that customizes bras so that vast majority of women who have been wearing the wrong size bras all their lives can finally get into the right lingerie. Michelle has broken through startup status to the next level, having been acquired by PVH.

Houzz offers customization through augmented reality, inspiring users to envision their redecorating and remodeling plans in their own homes. Adi Tatarko, CEO, has created a community of design professionals, suppliers, and buyers on a platform that provides an end-to-end solution. Users can source furniture, wall coverings, appliances and decorative details and plant them in their own homes through AR. Adi says Houzz taps into the tech community and recruits Ph.D.’s who think expansively about creating innovative tools. This community-based commerce model also serves the B2B community with housing and remodeling economic reports based on the data they collect.

Innovating in the realm of convenience, David Gudai, CEO of startup Ideally, has crated an app for serious shoppers to create a log of all the items they covet, but won’t buy until they go on sale. Shoppers curate their own product portfolios and then Ideally will alert them when that Theory dress or Montcler parka is on sale. Since shoppers have already specified the amount they are willing will pay, all they have to do is confirm the purchase and, boom, it’s on its way. Brands partner with Ideally to participate in the program, an effective way to avoid the outlets and instead move your off-season merchandise directly into the hands of those who love it.

eBay is the granddaddy of personalization for shoppers. CEO Devin Wenig says, “We’re going to compete by being different, not by emulating others.” eBay is more distinctive because of its unique inventory. “We provide a unique shopping experience, one-on-one for 167 million people. It is highly personal and individually curated.” Combining art and science, Devin says eBay is sitting on the largest image database in the world, and through machine learning, data engineers can image test merchandise to see which perform best and then can seamlessly choose the most effective picture to sell based on sales conversions. On the near horizon?

Devin says voice will play a role. Ask Alexa and the perfect pair of Stuart Weitzman shoes will show up in your life from an eBay seller.

Endpaper

In the end, startups and veterans alike can benefit from a more reflective view of work and success. Charming and super-successful Lionel Richie believes that risk taking follows one simple philosophy, “Life begins at the end of our comfort zone. If you think you’ve made it, you’re one step behind. You have to find your edge, and fear is your companion. Fear is a great motivator. Keep imagining.”