Euromonitor International is pleased to attend this year’s Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) at Chicago’s McCormick Place West from June 5-8. With IRCE’s conference offering more than 200 strategic educational sessions covering various topics and trends, there is more than enough to see and do. We are particularly excited about the top-tier content that this show continually offers. Here are Euromonitor’s picks for the most interesting sessions each day.
Tuesday
While it’s officially a pre-conference day, three day-long workshops offer plenty of opportunities to learn and network before the exhibit hall opens. Amazon & Me will walk attendees through Amazon’s sprawling empire and the best ways to work within it, E-commerce Technology deals with operational aspects of running an online store, and The New Recruit Boot Camp answers questions for newcomers to e-commerce.
From marketing to marketplaces, the E-commerce Technology workshop has caught our eye. It will be broad enough to address the issues that the other two do, but comprehensive enough to cover other operational aspects of an e-commerce business. Standout sessions include Idea to Doorstep: How to Configure the Omnichannel Tech Stack from Reed Jewelers VP of E-Com, Kate Goodman, and 20 Technology Innovations in 40 Minutes presented by the CEO of FitForCommerce, Bernardine Wu, and the GM/VP of Home for Walmart, Matt Baer.
Wednesday
The first day of official sessions kicks off with keynotes from the co-CEO of Warby Parker, Dave Gilboa, and acclaimed author, Seth Godin, followed by five tracks: Strategies for Top Executives, Fulfullment, Operations & Customer Service, Marketing: Prove Winners, Fashion: Try it On!, and Omnichannel Leadership.
With loads of valuable sessions between these five tracks, we’re keen to attend those that bring specific application to some of the most modern problems in e-commerce. Starting at 11 AM, Drive Loyalty by Getting Personal will feature Paul Fredrick’s CRM manager, Caitlin Flemming, and VP of Marketing, Scott Drayer, who will walk through their specific approaches to personalized emails to increase click-through rates and average order value. After lunch, at 3:45, the CEO of Reverb.com, David Kalt, and the managing director of Lazard Middle Market, will discuss the fascinating issue of how brands can and should work with marketplace partners in Profitability: The Marketplace Conundrum: Short-Term Sales Versus Long-Term Value. To end the day at 4:15, we are excited to see the recommendations made in Check Me Out: Making Mobile Checkout Smooth and Easy, which will help attendees determine how to go about increasing conversion in the channel of the future.
Thursday
The final full day of presentations starts with keynotes from the co-founder of Houzz, Alon Cohen, and the CEO of Eloquil, Mariah Chase, on digital innovation and design. These speeches will be followed by five different tracks: Managing Technology, Merchandising, Brand Building, Marketing: New Tactics, and Marketplaces.
Our picks for day three run across multiple tracks, but once again specificity and focus have brought them to our attention. The first, at 10:30 AM, is the CEO of Dazadi’s Jason Boyce, who will be outlining retailers that use private labels to stand out online in Bye-bye, Buy Box: A Merchandising Strategy Gets a Boost by Going Private-label. Our second can’t-miss session will be presented by a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, Eugene Zelek, and the VP of Sales at Wüsthof-Trident of America, Todd Myers. For those interested in how to align pricing across online channels and keep unauthorized sellers from stealing sales and margins, head over to Whack-A-Mole Medalists —Making MAP Happen and Grey Be Gone! at 3:45 PM. Our last must-see session begins at 4:15 and will be given by Whitney Greken, the director of e-commerce marketing at Envelopes.com/BIGNAME Commerce and Sarah Roger, a performance manager at CPC Strategy. From Micro Brand to Mega Hit: What Facebook Advertising Taught Us About Growing a Brand via Social will attempt to distill what we need to know about social media and commerce by applying it to the most important social media company around.
Friday
The final morning of the conference leaves us with three more useful workshops to explore. The Search Workshop will cover the state search and how it changes based on medium and modality. Design & Usability will focus on UX, UI and across desktop, mobile devices and social media. Finally, the B2B Workshop will fill the gaps for attendees that aren’t just consumer facing.
Of the three, we’re most looking forward to the Design & Usability Workshop. The Search Workshop also provides some fantastic tactical insight, especially with a session on voice search, but the Design workshop’s goal of examining website interactivity across channels through the filter of the new path-to-purchase funnel is endlessly interesting. Standout sessions include: Eye on Design: Live Site Reviews with Cake & Arrow CEO, Josh Levine, and Optimizing for Conversion? It’s All About Science with Brian Massey, the co-founder of Conversion Science.
About IRCE
IRCE is your one-stop-shop for all of your e-retail needs. This conference and trade show – in one location – offers you everything your business needs to stay ahead of your competition. The exhibit hall boasts 600+ vendors touting the latest in solutions and technologies to help take your business to the next level.
Maximize your investment in your business while minimizing the time you are out of the office at IRCE. Join us June 5-8, 2018. Use promo code EURO200 for $200 off your registration. Register today!