januari 29, 2019
Last week, Valtech capped off NRF 2019 with an intimate dinner and panel for retail executives. Attendees enjoyed thought-provoking discussion from some of the top retail experts in the industry—brands like Samsung and Decathlon—over dinner amidst the spectacular New York City skyline.
For those attending NRF, it was the perfect way wrap-up their NRF 2019 experience.
JC Hermann, a retail industry veteran, presented a stellar keynote to kick off the evening:
Exploring hot retail innovation topics
Joacim Jeppesen, EVP, North America at Valtech, moderated the discussion by posing a series of industry-relevant topics to participants.
Experiential Retail: Emergence of the physical meeting digital
To begin, the panel spent some time discussing experiential retail. It is a hot topic in the industry due to a number of important drivers, including e-commerce and the need to differentiate brick-and-mortar, customer expectations, need for brand differentiation, etc.
“Retailers innately go to market by channel, however the consumer is omni-channel by default. The biggest stumbling block for retailers is this shift in order to bring the content and the data together to benefit the customer experience. Unless the mindset of the organization changes, delivering personalization won’t happen at scale”
Vijay Gupta - Vice President of Strategy, Sitecore
Customer Data and Insights: What to do with the data you’ve gathered
Next, the panel moved to another topic. Panelists discussed how customer data has been captured actively for years by brands and retailers; often leveraged for the purpose of getting valuable insights, and now more than ever to drive personalized engagement.
“A lot of companies are driven by catering to brand management and the brand directors and managing directors vs looking at consumer insights and data and letting that drive product development.”
Joacim Jeppesen, EVP, North America at Valtech
The Segue from Product to Service
Lastly, the panel took on another topic that is getting a lot of attention in the market: the emphasis on delivering ‘services’ rather than ‘products’ in the future. In other words, finding revenue streams that are recurring and based on ongoing customer engagement vs. an occasional product purchase (transaction). Examples include: Nike FuelBand and Amazon Prime.
Learning from insightful expert panelists
We had a fantastic mix of leading global retailers and leading technology companies.
Lori Miller - Senior Director, Lead Generation, Samsung
Mathieu Georges - VP, Omni-channel & Transformation, Decathlon
Robert Naughton - Chief Revenue Officer, Voicify
Vijay Gupta - Vice President of Strategy, Sitecore
Romney Evans - Co-founder + Chief Product & Marketing Officer, TrueFit
Line Tousignant - VP, Strategy & Experience, Valtech
Our sponsor Sitecore
The event was sponsored by Sitecore—one of our key technology partners. Sitecore is a global leader in digital experience management software that combines content management, commerce, and customer insights. The Sitecore Experience Cloud™ empowers marketers to deliver personalized content in real time and at scale across every channel—before, during, and after a sale. More than 5,200 brands––including American Express, Carnival Cruise Lines, Dow Chemical, and L’Oréal––have trusted Sitecore to deliver the personalized interactions that delight audiences, build loyalty, and drive revenue.
Want retail innovation insights?
We recently launched the Valtech Innovation Mag—filled with insightful real-world examples, articles, interviews, and case studies with a retail industry slant to help you navigate and compete in the changing retail landscape.
If you’d like to learn more about our retail work, why not browse through some of our retail case studies, like our L’Oréal case study where we detail how we took on the largest implementation in Sitecore history—increasing the number of unique monthly visitors by 35%, and customer satisfaction by 40%.
