Channel Intelligence Retail Marketing Summit Presents Future Success Factors for Online Commerce

Channel Intelligence Inc. (CI) hosted a one-day intensive event for online retail marketers at the Rosen Plaza in Orlando on January 22 as a prelude to the Shop.org Strategy and Innovation Forum. The Retail Marketing Summit event drew attendance from prominent retailers, manufacturers, search agencies, and both search and shopping engines seeking to learn from the results of 2007 and examine the new marketing trends in store for 2008.

Consumers use the Web as their primary resource to both research and buy products which means it's imperative for marketers to understand who their consumers are, what interests them, where they shop online, how they shop online as well as understanding which mediums influence local store purchases - and then devise effective advertising strategies with that knowledge. As Web 2.0 and ecommerce collide, retail marketers are also facing the need to confront a new point of initiation for online commerce.

"The new point of commerce is you and me - the individual," said Channel Intelligence President and CEO Rob Wight in his opening comments. "Instead of a popularity contest in which each retailer is vying to become the favored destination for purchase, the retailers that succeed will be those taking their stores to the customer. The new point of commerce is not the one that marketers create, but the one that customers make."

The need to know the customer better played a strong theme throughout the presentations. While metrics have always posed a challenge for marketers, online retailers are seeing that better measurement of their customers' actions, attitudes and shopping behavior is more important than ever if they are to succeed in today's customer-centric online retail environment. CI's Market Intelligence technology, TrueTag™, demonstrated a case study from a major retailer highlighting a customer's movements online, from seemingly irrelevant search terms through the various elements that eventually led him to buy the product, to demonstrate how this technology provides essential insight into buyer behavior.

Among other topics discussed during the panel discussions and expert presentations were the following issues:

Strategies for finding the most profitable mix for a retailers' online advertising efforts.

Attributing credit for sales in retail partner channels when consumers are relying on several touch points before making a purchase.

Tactics for producing optimal content and improving communications between retailers, manufacturers and licensors.

Best practices for using comparison shopping engines to increase sales incrementally.

The Retail Marketing Summit's distinguished lineup of speakers included Brian Bass, Director Product Development at The Parent Company (eToys Direct, Inc.), Joe Dew, Director, Cart Program at Shopping.com, Ken Eisner, Vice President of Marketing & Sales at Shop.org, Lauren Freedman, President of the e-tailing group, Jay Heavilon, President of ARS eCommerce, Pam Hege, Director of Online Marketing at Benchmark Brands/footsmart.com, David Stewart, Platform Marketing Manager, Commerce & Analytics at Google, as well as several well-known speakers from CI.

Attendees included many recognized brands from Philips to Provantage, bebe Stores, NetShops, Beall's Inc, Seta Corporation, Proctor & Gamble, Baby Center, Motorola, ShopNBC, Hanover Direct, Dymo, Best Buy and Benchmark Brands.

Channel Intelligence welcomes any inquiries or further discussions on the topics presented at the Retail Marketing Summit. Contact conference coordinator Joy Lee for more information. Presentations from the conference can be accessed at www.thechannelsummit.com.