Retail Business & Technology Expo, New Spring Leaves ...

Last week I attended the Retail Business and Technology Expo in London. It?s the second year of the show. Their strategy to drive traffic appears to be paying off ? registered attendees were reportedly up significantly.? Floor space was at a premium (vendors that typically buy whole pads at NRF in January had almost miniscule booths by comparison ? in a capacity venue).

There was one particular thing that caught my attention and inspired me to make the long haul from Denver to London for a two-day conference. It was the combination of ?business? and ?technology? in the conference?s title. In an age when technology increasingly lies at the heart of almost everything that retailers want to accomplish in engaging consumers, it was refreshing to see a conference focus on bringing the two together.

So what did I learn from this event? One, it pulls a lot of Americans, much like NRF?s big show manages to pull a lot of Europeans. I saw a lot of familiar faces at the event ? established US players alongside companies looking to break out into the European market by establishing a toe-hold at the London show.

But it also drove home to me that ?omni-channel? as a term is here to stay. It was whole-heartedly embraced by attendees and speakers alike, with a fairly common definition: the stuff that comes after you realize that just enabling simple, one-off process that help customers cross channels isn?t enough. And the retailers who spoke at the conference graciously shared their experiences as they struggle with building cross-channel processes.

In very general terms, European retailers seem to have more challenges than American retailers, in part because they have a more established version of a channel that is very immature in the US ? home delivery. Home delivery is not a universal capability, by any means, but it does serve as more of a consideration for omni-channel in European cities than it does in most US cities, outside of New York, and maybe Boston and Chicago. It doesn?t mean that European retailers have bigger challenges, or even significantly different challenges, when it comes to enabling cross-channel shopping behavior, but it does mean their challenges are maybe slightly more complex because they have more touchpoints for consumers.

However, one thing that also came across loud and clear was that customer centricity remains at the heart of cross-channel. All of these efforts that retailers are struggling to align to a cross-channel reality come at the insistence of shoppers, who persist in crashing across channels with no regard to retailers? constraints in supporting cross-channel behavior. So whether it is a grudging, after-the-fact acknowledgement of the customer as central to the business, or an enthusiastic embrace of same, retailers ranging from McDonald?s to Tommy Hilfiger demonstrated at the conference that customer centricity is key to unlocking omni-channel value ? when you place customer considerations seriously at the heart of your strategy, you can create truly innovative solutions to customer problems that you maybe didn?t even know existed. And that is a straight path to differentiation ? and long-term customer value.

So I hope the show continues its success, and grows into a real intersection point between technology and the business ? reflected not only in the discussions and presentations but also in the cross-section of attendees. A technologist who can speak business is valuable. But increasingly, a business owner who can speak technology is meeting a basic job requirement. Any help out there in the industry that provides an opportunity to consider both together ? business process as well as enabling technologies ? will only become more important as cross-channel capabilities grow.

Source: http://www.bluemaumau.org/retail_business_technology_expo_new_spring_leaves

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