It’s been a week since digital commerce and advertising executives descended on San Francisco for the inaugural (and sold out) Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference. It was a whirlwind, but boy, did we learn a lot.

First up, one of the hottest topics to hit retail in many years: Mobile. We kicked off our time in San Fran with a one-day Mobile Boot Camp which covered basic topics of designing and deploying effective mobile sites, using SMS to increase sales, and what the future holds for this digital trend, but that was hardly the end of the mobile discussion. At the main event, speakers detailed where mobile has been and where it’s heading, how to take the first steps in mobile retail, and digital trends to watch for 2010. Trust us when we say, everyone is on the mobile bandwagon. Best Buy even shared a video of why they love mobile and what it means to the company (it’s worth a watch).

And the other big hitter at our conference was the topic of social commerce (our VC panel summed it up by saying: it’s here and it’s now.) But there were also social media mantras from Diane von Furstenberg, rules for customer engagement from Moosejaw and Marketspace’s Jeff Rayport, and a very popular Sephora session on identifying key participants in your community: “Who’s at your social media party?”

Mobile and social commerce may have been the big ticket items for this conference, but our speaker topics also included The New Customer, Creative and the Customer Experience, as well as Cross-Channel Marketing. If you’re looking for more highlights from Innovate ’10, check out a full listing of blog posts here. Or search #innovate10 for all the Twitter chatter and nuggets straight from attendees. If you attended, feel free to tell us what you thought.

Thanks and feel free to share your experiences at our inaugural Innovation event.

Larry Joseloff
VP, Content, Shop.org
joseloffl@shop.org

If you didn’t see it last week, do check out some brand new information about consumers and how they plan to file their return and spend (some of) their tax refund this year.  Conducted in early February 2010 in partnership with BIGresearch, this NRF consumer survey found that: 

• 61% of US taxpayers expected to file their taxes by the end of February (no procrastinating when there’s money on the table?).
• 54.4% of US taxpayers will file their taxes online this year, up from 50% last year. 
• Two-thirds of taxpayers are expecting a refund this year (down slightly from last year)…
• …which they’ll use to pay down debt (44%), put into savings (40%), use for everyday expenses (29%) or go on vacation (10%). 
• Good news for retailers:  12.5% of consumers who expect a refund “…plan to treat themselves or their families to a major purchase such as a new television, furniture or car” (to which I’d add – “hooray!”). 

See further details in the NRF press release.  And as always, please let us know your comments.

Since it seems everyone is looking for more detailed (and up to date) insight into the social media user, I was happy to come across a new study released last week by our sister organization, the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA). This consumer study was conducted by NRF partner BIGresearch as part of its Simultaneous Media Usage® Survey (SIMM® 15) in late Fall 2009.

• The survey confirms that social media users cut across every demographic – likely no great surprise to many in our industry. Among social networking sites specifically, Facebook and YouTube – for now, at least – handily beat out other sites, and their popularity cuts across age ranges.
• What prompts social media users to start an online search? Hold on to your hat: face to face communication. Runners up include cable and broadcast TV, radio, Internet advertising, and email advertising. (The study highlights how results differ for various age groups.)
• What are they searching for? Social media users report that they “regularly” search online for maps and directions (over half), as well as movies, online entertainment and product information / comparative shopping (about four out of ten). Three out of ten regularly search online for travel, clothing and shoes, and restaurant information.
• Once they’ve found what they’re looking for, how do social media users communicate with others about a service, brand or product? Hope you’re still holding on to that hat: almost three-quarters want to communicate face to face, followed by email (half) and landline or cell phone (one third). At this point, just one fifth turns to online communities and instant messaging (IM) to tell others about a service, product or brand.

Take a look at the full study results and the press release – food for thought in the midst of much social media discussion. As always, I look forward to your thoughts.

The State of Retailing Online, Shop.org’s annual retailer study, is officially underway for 2010. We’re excited about this year’s study as we think it has the potential to be our best yet. On the cusp of a new decade, our partner, Forrester Research, and we decided to focus this year’s survey on topics that are top of mind for retailers right now such as social media and mobile, without forgetting about fundamentals such as online marketing and multichannel management.

Why do we believe the 2010 SORO study has the potential to be the best yet? On the one hand, this is a survey that focuses on key areas that retailers increasingly see developing from experiment to core functionality, so developing benchmarks for those is an important Shop.org initiative. Secondly, to make this research truly relevant to you, we want to report the aggregated results at a fairly granular segmentation level, especially by category / sector. To achieve this goal, we’re challenging retailers to participate this year as never before. We need a minimum of 10 (preferably more!) retailers in each category to participate so we can break out segmented results and benchmarks. So, if you ever thought your participation was optional, no more!

If you haven’t received your survey participation email this week, please let me know ASAP. The deadline to participate is end of day Wednesday, March 31. Look for results published over the coming months, including the May 5 Shop.org Webinar that is part of Shop.org’s Marketing Month series of events.

Thank you so much for participating in SORO 2010!

I have been speaking to many Shop.org, RAMA, and NRF members who are excited about going to our Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference next week in San Francisco.  Some are looking forward to catching up with old business associates at the round tables and receptions, some are hoping to learn how retailers are using social media to drive business (check out this recent interview with one of our speakers), and some are excited to get insight into new consumer trends.  Probably the topic that seems to be mentioned the most is mobile.  Whether you are new to mobile and just trying to figure it all out, or if you have some experience in this rapidly growing channel, there is a general thirst of knowledge on this topic that is unprecedented.  So, not only are we covering this topic during opening keynote presentations and afternoon discussions, but we are also having a mobile boot camp on March 2.  A year’s worth of mobile learning in one day.  For Shop.org members, the price is only $295 and I guarantee it will be money well spent.  You can read an interview with Mickey Alam Kahn from Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily who is our content provider for the boot camp.

I would like to hear from folks who are heading out to San Francisco next week, what you hope to get out of this inaugural event.  What are your top priorities that you hope to achieve by the end of next week?   Let us know, and we could recommend some specific sessions, round tables, and people to make sure you connect with to help you reach your goals.   Thanks everyone and I am looking forward to seeing everyone in San Francisco. 

Larry Joseloff
joseloffl@shop.org