At last night’s party at LAX at the Luxor casino, Shop.org retailers had the chance to unwind. While the food was limited, “I found the appetizers, but where is the dinner,” people quipped. Still everyone was happy to eat and drink.
I spoke with a long-term bricks-and-mortar brand that was at the event for the first time. The retailers are gearing up to launch their first e-commerce site, so Shop.org was an exciting place to be. While the hot topics like m-commerce and social media are a little overwhelming for a retailer building their first online shopping cart.
This perspective was nice to hear since I was feeling like the session topics seemed a bit played out. Everyone these days is talking about social networking and mobile phone marketing, that it wasn’t news to me to hear that if you want to reach teens you have to be on Facebook.
But realizing that bricks-and-mortar retailers are slower to adopt this kind of approach than say a brand like Coca Cola, I thought that the content at the show really matched the audience. The Shop.org sessions have really been highlighting the emerging technologies and then highlighting the brands that are embracing these technologies, for example, William Sonoma using online video or Borders personalizing the shopping experience. This is important because the leaders in the space are inspiring the beginners and Shop.org is helping facilitate this education.
