Thoughts from the Tour Desk

Listening, talking, helping – and learning.  FitForCommerce’s unique vantage point of organizing and managing the Expo Tour and Information Desk really lets us take the pulse of eCommerce.  And not in a “read a lot of articles way” but by having one-to-one conversations with the players – owners, retailers, marketers, technologists, providers, media, investors, etc.
Running the tours is a big task:  19 tours for 180 exhibitors; 3-4 concurrent tours going on during breaks and lunch; hundreds of attendees taking advantage of group tours, 1:1 white glove tours, pre-planned “trip tix” packages of information and best practice checklists.  And, of course, answering dozens of critical questions like “what time is lunch?” and “where do I get the bus?”.
But a wonderful by-product of this is that we’re in the heart of the hall and we’re able to hear a lot from both retailers and providers about ecommerce – problems, trends, and interests.
•    No surprise that Mobile and Social Commerce were the topics that most people were interested in .  What was a surprise was how many retailers did not understand their goals or know of a way to measure the effectiveness of mobile or social commerce.   These areas are clearly nascent and there is a lot of work to be done before ROI can be measured and understood.

•    Big plans are in the works.  After a couple of obviously difficult years, retailers seem to be done with “doing more with less” and are looking beyond selecting point solutions for increasing revenue.  Strategic direction (see Mobile and Social comments, above), expansion, and replatforming are hot topics of conversation.
•    We noticed more international attendees.  All exhibitors should start thinking about what it will take for them to provide international ecommerce, if they haven’t already.
•    The Big Guns were out in force -  sitting in the sessions, walking the floor and taking the tours.   We had many discussions with C-level retailers about their plans for 2011 and beyond.   They are thinking globally, thinking “geolocally”, and thinking out-of-the-box.

•    Partnerships, alliances and consolidation were high on everyone’s radar.  Given how quickly things move and how many new provider hats are being thrown into the ring, this is a natural “correction” in any new industry.   These changes were noticeable in the hall and in the conversations we had.

•    Retailers were figuring out ways to deal with other changes in the landscape and what that would mean to them.  Whither goest Amazon?  Google?   Will anyone be using actual books, CDs, DVDs?  Membership sites, micro-sites, both, neither?  One thing everyone agreed on – you have to stay nimble and react quickly while guarding against over-reacting and/or zigzagging.