eTail Connect Virtual Event

Get to know your fellow participants before the event officially kicks off, in this exclusive 30min speed networking session, where you get the opportunity to have a number of informal 5min 1-2-1 meetings with your peers, discussing your greatest challenges, best practices and initiatives, as well as your thoughts on a number of hot button topics. Find out what others have learned over the last year and benchmark how they are preparing for 2022

Listen in as three retail leaders take a close look at the retail landscape and discuss where we are and where we are going, as well as the long lasting impact of the pandemic on both retailers and customer shopping behaviour.

• Facts and figures - Overview of recent reports
• Lessons learned from 17months pandemic
• Discussing the key factors for winning or losing in the current environment
• Predictions for the upcoming holiday season
• Anticipating next steps

Macy’s, Inc. is a digitally led omnichannel retailer focused on delivering a seamless shopping experience for its customers online, in-store and on the go. Learn how Macy’s is evolving its omnichannel platforms, creating differentiated experiences and using analytics to power its transformation and grow the digital business.

In a world of information overload Personalization and relevancy is more important than ever before. But what is needed to reach the next level of hyper personalization? Take a look behind the curtain as this brand shares how they have built an effective framework and organized personalization optimization to provide customers with the features they are craving for.

• How to create a personalized, positive and contextually relevant shopping experience without being invasive of your customers’ privacy
• Integration with internal customer persona and messaging system
• Moving beyond existing data silos
• Analytics and commerce technologies that can create real-time personalization while staying compliant
• What does optimized site search look like 
• Leveraging behavioral and transactional data to max out on opportunities in conversions

Keep the conversation going and engage with fellow participants in the Chat

With mobile apps becoming a necessary touch point between businesses and consumers, find out how this brand took steps to boost repeat engagement and retention by offering experiences, content and services for their Mobile audience.

• How to leverage the experience economy for customer acquisition
• Striking the right balance between free and paid
• Experiences, content and services that drive engagement
• Integrating shopping features in the right places

• How is the relationship of D2C brands and retailers changing 
• Technologies that help connect stores and digital
• The success and failures of Buy Online -Pick Up In Store
• Incorporating digitally enabled technologies to make stores more experiential and frictionless. 
• Increased emphasis on atmosphere and community-driven experiences for brick –and mortar

The pandemic made many retailers drastically change their business. Digital transformations that would normally take years happened in a matter of weeks. Hear from Invicta Stores how the development of Invicta’s Magenta e-commerce platform helped boost sales and revenues across InvictaStores.com & TheCloseout.com.

• How to enable quick, precise and holistic change for both business and marketing, focusing on technology and process 
• Selecting and implementing the right transformation tools for lower cost and higher speed to market
• Focusing on efficiency to achieve considerable savings in distribution and packaging costs and environmental impacts

Choose a Roundtable based on your interests and join an interactive discussion round with a small group of your peers discussing best practices and challenges with regards to the topic.

Topics May Include:

1. How To Avoid Burnout And Keep Business Culture Alive In The WFH Era
2. Adopt “Buy Now, Pay Later” To Make Purchases More Affordable In A Strained Consumer Economy
3. Assessing The Status Quo Of Advancements In AR/VR 
4. Boosting Conversions Through Headless Commerce 
5. Trends In Affiliate Marketing
6. Why Customers Might Not Find You And How To Fix It - Best Practices For SEO
7. Managing The New Store Reality

The pandemic has brought a flood of new digital shoppers to the online universe, but how can you build a long lasting relationship, especially with ‘Stress-shopping' leading to lower retention rates? It’s now more important than ever to think about your loyalty strategy. There is a high correlation between loyalty and a great customer experience. Hear from 3 Retail leaders how their loyalty strategy increased repeat purchases and retention.

• Loyalty drivers in 2021
• Biggest movers in the Loyalty landscape
• How have retail loyalty programs evolved?
• The pros and cons of paid vs free loyalty programs
• How do current loyalty programs stand up to new consumer expectations?  
• Which aspects of customer loyalty are most difficult to maintain?
• The secret sauce to a premium program

• Prioritize collection, management, and usage of owned, first-party data
• Aligning the compliance and marketing teams when devising the strategy around consent and data capture. 
• Making server-to-server integrations to regain control, reduce costs, and future-proof your business
• Leverage permission-marketing for give customers greater control over their privacy
• Understanding the power of owning your own data for retention marketing
• How to measure performance in a cookie-less world
• What Gamification can do to gain consent
• How to set yourself up for holiday success

COVID-19 has altered consumer behavior. It is crucial to stay on top of changing customer needs and expectations. Find out how this retail innovator went about identifying the greatest priorities for their customers and how they crafted the perfect customer experience leveraging those insights.

• Understanding and prioritizing changing customer needs and expectations to design and deliver better Customer experiences
• Replatforming for improved UX and CX
• Digital technology both retailers and consumers need for future success
• The need to innovate 
• How the pandemic has reinforced the importance of content 
• The latest trends in Influencer Marketing

Keep the conversation going and engage with fellow participants in the Chat

Tik Tok is not only hot with GenZ, its popularity is skyrocketing with a whole range of different demographics. Now that it has entered a partnership with Shopify and is rolling out more and more shopping features, e-commerce brands need to ask themselves if this is the future of Social Commerce. Hear from this early adopter about their struggles to tap into Tik Tok, lessons learned thus far and how they have had to pivot their strategy to retain a presence on TikTok.

• Tailoring content to the aesthetic of the platform
• Leveraging Creator Marketplace to collaborate with influencers
• From targeted ad campaigns to social commerce
• Mastering short video ads

A heightened interest in brand purpose and demand for relevance is driving many companies to re-focus on brand identity and story telling. What customer need or problem will you solve at a specific moment in time and what does your brand stand for? Hear from an industry leader how they have put brand purpose at the heart of it and have not only created a loyal customer base, but a group of passionate brand advocates.

• Building brand for the next generation of shoppers 
• Humanizing your brand to create emotional connections 
• Allowing a look behind the curtain 
• The power of effective brand partnerships

Day-to-day shopping has shifted online and with the closing of many non-essential brick-and mortar stores over many months, traditional B2B brands faced a significant challenge. One fast and effective way to adapt to the shift we’re witnessing in the retail industry is by rapidly introducing and investing in a D2C retail channel. A blurring of the lines, with one thing in common – Digital Transformation is pivotal! Hear for the Kersheh Group how they accelerated their digital Transformation and moved from Wholesale to D2C without ruffling any feathers with their wholesale partners.

• Getting buy-in for the pivot
• Selecting the right tools and tech stack
• Designing for Mobile First
• Consolidating websites 
• Balancing channels

Choose a Roundtable based on your interests and join an interactive discussion round with a small group of your peers discussing best practices and challenges with regards to the topic

1. Managing Channel Conflict - Mitchell Nollman, Vice President Sales and Customer Engagement, C.F. Martin & Co 

Topics May Include:

1. Building A Company Culture That Embraces Diversity And Inclusion
2. Information Overload: The Critical Role Of Personalization And Relevancy And How AI Makes It Happen
3. Getting The Most Out Of Automation Without Losing The Human Touch
4. How Current Anti-Trust Lawsuits May Impact Retail
5. Breaking Into New Markets - Best Practices For International Expansion During Times Of Crisis
6. Tapping Into Voice To Improve Touchless Shopping Experiences
7. Dos And Donts For Influencer
8. Customer Data Platforms The Path To A True Customer 360?
9. Creating Compelling Content