Thoughts from the eTail Conference

On a flight home from DC after a great eTail Conference. Its always enjoyable and productive to spend time with and around our customers, and our competitors for that matter. The (online) retail industry, while massive in terms of dollars is actually a fairly small, tight-knit and fun community.  Over the past three days I have heard stories of tremendous growth, struggles, opportunities won (and lost) and plans for the next 6, 12, 24 and even 60 months.  With an industry moving at warp speed it was amazing to hear of one companies FIVE year plan.

I had an opportunity to sit on a panel at Personalization Day and talk about the here and now of “personalization”.  I was thankful that much of the day, let alone the panel, was focused on Recommendations and particularly how CleverSet is changing the way in which retailers can personalize the Recommendations on their site to dynamically adapt to each customer on a click-by-click basis.  I made the claim that “segmentation” and “behavioral targeting” are good first steps on the path to true personalization but that they didn’t get a retailer to where they should want to end up. I had four retailers tell me that the statement rang true to them (which was nice to hear!).

One of our customers, Glenn Edelman, Director Online Marketing and Merchandising at Wine Enthusiast participated in the panel discussion and then presented a 30 minute case study on personalization and in particular their implementation and outstanding results they have had while utilizing CleverSet. Thanks Glenn – you’re not only a customer but also a good friend of CleverSet’s

I also had a chance to spend some time with a great Canadian retailer, Penny Gniwisch, Founder and EVP Marketing at Ice.com.  I won’t share most of the stories or conversation but let’s just say that I felt like I had met a kindred spirit and that I have not drank my last beer with “the Rabbi”.  We came up with a unique promotion for the Shop.org Annual Summit in Vegas in September

Some other notes from the past few days:

Retailers are struggling with priorities and how to make choices on which technologies/strategies to employ, regarding personalization and other opportunities.
Many vendors make very similar claims which muddies the waters even more for the retail community.
I saw more VCs at this conference than any in the past 15 years – means something interesting is happening in the space.
Retailers really want to engage third parties to assist them but get tired of being ‘pitched’ to all day – I can’t blame them.  There was rarely a time that I saw Tony Hsieh , CEO of Zappos, without a vendor ‘selling’ him something – felt somewhat sorry for him, but I guess you get that kind of attention with the growth trajectory that Zappos is on.
Competitors (retailers and vendors) are typically friendly with one another.
DC is REALLY hot in the summer – seriously, it was ridiculous.
The “Hinkley Hilton” (where Ronald Reagan was shot) has absolutely terrible cell phone coverage and NO wi-fi, which was frustrating.

All in all, a great week!

Comments

[Josh Greene]

Great summary... I've posted some thoughts on eTail, with more to come, but do wonder why some forward thinking vendor wouldn't have hooked up a few WiFi repeaters to offer branded WiFi service in exchange for 5 minute meetings... that would have been far more effective than the occasionally overfriendly salespeople in the exhibit hall.

[Glenn Edelman]

Thanks for the kind words! It was a fun week with some great new friends. Todd H., Todd, S., Donna, Blake and Ryan are not only great partners, but a great group of people. I am excited to see how many retailers are serious about recommendations. The interesting part of the week was to see how so many people lump customer ratings/reviews and product recommendations into the 'personalization' bucket.

[Shannon]

YEah! i agree! zappos is very impressive especially now that they have this free overnight shipping. Now zappos is expanding, they have http://www.thehotshoestore.com