In the hot and sunny desert, specifically, Palm Springs, Calif., eTail West is in high gear this week. The event’s agenda includes sessions featuring executives from Bonobos, Gap, Office Depot, Petco, Sephora, Shinola, West Elm, and many other retail brands that have gathered this week to talk shop.
Luckily for Impact, Regional Director Marilyn Valace is at the show and digging into conference sessions and programming. Essentially, a high-level gathering that focuses on learning and networking, eTail West offers sessions ranging from multichannel commerce to mobile commerce trends, CRM, immersive media, and AI.
Of course, omnichannel retailers are a major customer base for IR. Valace reports that content at this year’s eTail West is all about the customer. She says hot topics revolve around optimizing the customer experience and offering a consistent customer experience. In addition, personalizing the customer experience and retooling marketing and media approaches to accomplish that, are top-of-mind for retailers here.
“What I’m hearing is about how to deliver a great customer experience and driving customer loyalty,” Valace says.
Other hot topics include integrating online/ecommerce operations with brick-and-mortar retail; tracking and optimizing KPIs around the customer experience; and ensuring retailers have the right tools to work with. This is a very omnichannel-focused event, Valace says.
Apart from the sessions, attendees have a lot of fun here. For example, organizers turned the exhibit hall into a disco rave, complete with dancers and glow sticks, and that was just during breakfast!
