Main Day One: Setting The Stage For Customer-Centric Retail Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Big béhémoth ERP systems, massive warehouse management systems, legacy customized POS and order management systems. The list goes on and on. Traditional retailers are tied down by outdated, inefficient technology. The process of changing out these systems is costly, time consuming and just plain overwhelming. What’s more, the organization is not designed for a unifed approach.

Discuss :

•Where to start, which pieces to bite off first

•How to break down the internal barriers 

•Who to get involved within the organization and when

•Deciding what can stay and what must go

Retailers are moving toward a unified commerce platform; applications from inventory, POS, digital signs, CRM, loyalty, VoIP, Wi-Fi, and cloud-based security are growing network demand 40% annually. Enterprise networks are in the midst of a renaissance that is driving innovation in a market that hasn’t changed in 30 years. 

•What are the defining elements that drove the need for a complete network overhaul

•The promise of easily configured networks meets the reality of the technical expertise required 

•Benefits of a managed service provider when the solution requires a heterogeneous collection of vendors and services 

•Zero-touch deployments and the level of coordination across the portfolio required to succeed

Srini is leading the technology strategy and architecture for Tapestry and will explain how his team have overcome  the challenges of digital store transformation using a combination of Mobile, Cloud and APIs. Srini will teach you how to incentivize your eCommerce, mobile, product, IT and instore teams to work towards common goals, doing what’s right for the brand at a macro-level:

•How to bring the ease of online to brick and mortar

•Leverage the voice of the online customer to inform instore process

•Engage customers with immersive instore technologies

Conventional wisdom for creating a great customer experience is fundamentally flawed, and it is more evident today than ever before.

Over the past two decades, retailers have embraced three major transformations in customer experience. From loyalty programs, to voice of customer initiatives, to the digitization of customer experiences - we have assumed that by investing our customers, we will become a category leader.

The gaping hole?

We’ve forgotten about the most critical part of our brand delivery - the human interaction that takes place between our associates and customers. By empowering frontline teams, retailers can inspire true brand loyalty and deliver the exceptional in-store experience customers have come to expect.

Find out how Levi’s is creating the ultimate shopping destinations around the globe by conducting extensive customer research to understand how to design experiences that exceed expectations. Jeffrey Eggert-Peluso will walk you through some of their most innovative new concepts and how they are designed to be flexible to meet changing customer preferences and behaviors.

With rising labor costs and the need to enhance customer service, automation in retail and foodservice can drive operational efficiencies, improved customer service, and a complete re-imagining of the check-out experience. Cash still represents 30 to 60 percent of a retailer’s and foodservice operator’s transactions. Retailers spend millions of dollars annually on managing cash due to bank fees, time/labor costs and inefficient reporting which kills productivity and the customer experience. New cash automation technologies have the potential to reinvent the check-out experience and make cash processing almost as seamless as an electronic payment. 

This presentation will cover the truth about cash and share future cash management technologies and the impact they can have on a retailer’s business.

Topics will include:

•Reinventing the front-end

•Labor redeployment and Improving customer service 

•Automate the entire cash process closing the loop from tendered payment to the bank

The workforce is changing rapidly and now millennials are training Gen Z. How can you create development programs that make sense for today’s associates? Panelists will discuss:

•Methods for creating on-demand training that meets the needs of today’s associate

•Smaller modules that make training more digestible and effective

•Examples of virtual training programs that are working

•How to focus on relevancy for the associate so they understand what’s in it for them

This is your opportunity to gain honest feedback, debate strategic ideas and share high level insights in a closed door forum with your fellow retail executives.

This is an invitation-only session. If you wish to participate or would like to nominate yourself or a colleague, please contact: kristin.schoenstein@wbresearch.com

“I am so impressed with the quality of leadership that participates in the VP Think Tank and the egoless participation of all participants. The ability to transparently discuss the issues that we are facing today and collaborate on solutions and best practices is unparalleled.  I value the thought leadership and the think tank is one of my favorite sessions at Future Stores.”

Colleen Lewis, SVP, Retail, Coldwater Creek

As we all know, check out is typically the least enjoyable part of the entire shopping experience. Once a person determines what they want to buy, the last thing they want to do is wait in a long line. Hear how one retailer is reinventing the check out experience.

Discuss:

•How to get started with transforming your check out process

•Determining what makes sense for your brand, can you eliminate the cash wrap altogether?

•How to integrate mobile

•Unexpected outcomes and lessons learned

By offering mobile barcode scanning apps, retailers can digitize the in-store experience. Customers can point their smartphone camera at a variety of items and instantly scan labels or tags to obtain product information. Overlaying augmented reality (AR) information in the camera viewfinder allows retailers to provide additional data such as size or ingredients, as well as product ratings.

Gen Z (born between the mid 1990s and 2000s) holds 44 billion in buying power and not surprisingly, their expectations, neuro physiology and shopping behaviors are different than the generations before them. What’s critical to know is that 98% of Gen Z shoppers prefer to shop in store. Find out more about:

•What Gen Z expects from brands and how they prefer to engage with brands

•How to incorporate the mobile experience into bricks for this always on generation

•Surprising trends about their shopping behaviors

Every brand in the retail industry is spending a lot

of energies in making sure that a proper omnichannel

strategy is in place, as well as the right

technology to support it. Most of the time we lose

track of the fact that retailers put in the hands of

their associates their brand. The associates are

the one delivering the experience to customers.

A workforce motivated and engaged is the key

to win in a high competitive and tougher retail

market environment. Discuss:

■■Why to continue to invest in employees and

their retention

■■ How to leverage the brand culture to engage

associates

■■ 10 non-negotiable behaviors implemented at

Sunglass hut

■■ The power of one team one goal

With augmented intelligence, marketers and ecommerce practitioners can quickly act on customer behavior and seamlessly create real-time, personalized, data-driven digital experiences at every touch point. Join us to hear how retailers are using AI to map and monitor the entire customer journey to create compelling and personalized shopping experiences

Traditional store metrics are quickly becoming irrelevant as they are mainly transaction based and stores are no longer just about sales. Hear from a group of retails about:

•How they developed new store KPIs

•How they reward and incentivize associates based on these new KPIs

•Getting buy-in for these new measures

Host: Mercedes Roling, Director, Customer Experience, Macy’s