Retail West 2012 - Recap of the Show!

As Diane Brisebois, the Retail Council of Canada’s CEO and President, thanked everyone for attending the inaugural Retail West conference last week, it was apparent just how tightly knit the Canadian retail community is.  (It was also apparent how many retailers are thinking about long term growth and how online sales factor into that!)  The 2012 edition of Retail West doubled as a fantastic one-day event, jam-packed with great information and insight from leading Canadian multi-channel retailers, as well as a retail industry reunion. As Kevin Graff accurately tweeted, “You would never know this was the first year for [Retail West]”. 

OrderDynamics would like to thank everyone who stopped by our booth and took the time to introduce themselves, as well as the Retail Council of Canada for hosting a great conference.

For as much as a conference like Shop.org was about reinventing retail, Retail West was more about retailers focusing on how to deliver a quality shopping experience.  Specifically, the focus was on building a strong infrastructure from the start, and as mentioned above, how to significantly grow sales across multiple channels.  While an evolving retail business and building a strong retail foundation are two very different priorities, it speaks to the fact that Canadian retailers are focused on getting to that next step (but taking a much different route to get there).  Many Canadian retailers don’t want to back-fill their retail systems after achieving growth as they believe it's much more difficult than “building first and selling later”.  Keynote Speaker Brian Hill, CEO of Aritzia, spoke to the difficulties in completing the former philosophy, and that seemed to resonate strongly with the Retail West audience.

Speaking of Brian Hill, his presentation was a well received and refreshingly honest summary of Aritizia’s growth since opening its doors in 1984.  Hill shed light on Aritzia’s expansion into the United States and the difficulty they had trying to “explain” their brand to US consumers.  This summary set the stage for Hill and Aritzia’s venture into eCommerce.  In many ways, Hill noted the similarities between the two ventures.  He spoke at length about the preparation his company has taken to launch their new eCommerce site next month, including revamping their warehouse management system and hiring a whole new team to manage the site/channel.  One interesting comment that stuck out to us during his presentation was the emphasis Hill and his team placed on site design.  He added “Aritzia didn’t want to build multiple sites, including a mobile site, when we could build one great site that rendered well on all devices.”

 

Another highlight of the conference was a track session called “The Connected Store”, which featured OrderDynamics client Tony Holbrook from JYSK.  The session focused on how retailers can align their sales channels and ways to stay relevant with consumers and changing shopping habits.  Emerging technologies and trends were also discussed, and the panelists each shared some of the strategies that they employ to deliver improved experiences (including sourcing social media ideas from part-time employees that are still teenagers).  Mr. Holbrook also spoke to the importance of order management and why rapid fulfillment is a critical factor in ongoing eCommerce growth, especially in Canada.

One last note about the 2012 Retail West conference: Kevin Graff, President of Graff Retail, delivered one of the best and most interactive presentations we’ve seen in a long time.  The presentation focused on how retailers of any size can improve in-store sales by focusing on goals, ongoing sales targets, and the need to constantly talk about them.  The tips and fundamentals Graff touched on obviously struck a chord with the conference audience.   Many of the tips Graff provided could and should also be used for employees and teams responsible for online channels. 

As we close the book on OrderDynamics' final conference of 2012, we'd like to extend a huge thank you to the RCC and everyone we met at Retail West.  We will be reaching out to all interested parties in the coming few weeks.  You may also contact us directly: solutions@orderdynamics.com.

In the meantime, we invite you to visit our website at www.orderdynamics.com to learn more about our On-Demand Commerce Platform.

Sincerely,

The OrderDynamics Team

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