Chicago is the destination for this years IRC Internet Retailer Conference and is becoming our top conference to attend every year.
This year over 9300 attendees and 45 vendors geeked out about all things
eCommerce.
If last year's focus was Social Media, then this year it was all about
Mobile. Mobile shopping will exceed Desktop shopping in the next few years and
why not? Smart Phone sales have long since eclipsed desktop sales. Optimizing
websites for mobile and pad are top of mind for web developers to create a
smooth shopping experience on all devices. Companies like Facebook are severely
challenged on how to offer the same customer experience while somehow fitting
advertising on the screen too. My prediction is this problem will be the demise
of the Facebook revenue model and steep stock decline over time.
What I find most interesting is the total convergence of online and offline
commerce into just one seamless way to shop. It was John Donahoe, the CEO of eBay, who
spoke about how the word eCommerce is being dropped from their corporate
vocabulary and replaced with just Commerce. As more and more offline retailers
add online components like dressing room checkout, in store mobile coupons and
QR Codes on the price tag, where does online and off line actually meet? I say
the line is so blurred now that eBay is right - it's just commerce. My thoughts
are that we buckle up and get ready for a fantastic ride as retail and ecommerce
transform shopping into an amazing new customer experience. The word of warning
as always from these conferences is the retailers who wait too long will be left
behind.
Cheers,
Calvin
