The Retail Conference

PRESS RELEASE: 28 September 2009

With the theme of "Responsive Retailing" The Retail Conference 2009 has been described as an excellent, thought-provoking event attracting around 200 major retailers on the day.

"What's the cost of listening to your customers? Nothing. And, what's the reward?..." one speaker asked, really summing up the day in a few words.

The Retail Conference 2009 took place on Wednesday 23rd September and offered the chance for leading retailers to find out what was going on in the rest of the market - to gain insight into new research and hear success stories through presentations (all delivered by retailers)and workshops; and to meet with other retailers during informal networking time.

The conference kicked-off with 2 well attended breakfast meetings - one of which, lead by E-mphasis, was highly topical - exploring how use of Google Maps by SME retailers has positioned them above major retail multiples in Google searches. In this session a rather surprised audience discovered what they need to do to quickly and simply reclaim their well deserved top spot on Google!

The day was opened by Clare Rayner, Founder and Managing Director of The Retail Conference and Retail Acumen - who highlighted the increasing importance of the internet - not only in terms of a transactional sales channel but as a communications media not to be ignored. This message was continued by Andy Lopata the conference chairman in his opening address. Andy, a Business Networking Strategist and known as "Mr Network" by The Sun, talked about the increasing use of (and benefit of) social media and online networking for major retailers - using examples such as the 500,000+ messages on the Screwfix Electrician Forum and the profit attributed by Dell to its continued use of Twitter.

In fact throughout the event The Retail Conference team were provided with a constant stream of statements which were tweeted, providing those who couldn't attend with a live blog of the activities - and attendees on the day were also tweeting from their phone applications - a sign of the times that really impressed on all those who where there the relevancy of Andy Lopata's talk.

Companies presenting during the day included Mothercare, BrightHouse, 99p Stores, Waitrose, N Brown Group, Save the Children, Carpetright, Fortnum & Mason and more...

Delegates also had the opportunity to attend various workshops, with thanks to the conference sponsors, which proved incredibly popular. In a session delivered by Charteris delegates heard that customer centric marketing in the court of "King Customer" gets the attention of many monarchs! They also did a short survey and discovered they were 60% customer centric - so they had a further 40% to go for!

Sponsors stands were also a talking point - with Fifth Dimension providing Lego(TM) bricks as an exercise to bring to life the complexity of visualising store space and layout planning without the appropriate tools!

At the end of morning panel discussion Ian Woosey, Group IT Director of Carpetright, backed up the theme of the CTS Retail workshop - stating that in a challenging economy retailers need to cut back on new capital investments and sweat the assets they already have wherever they possibly can.

As ever, Cavendish Conference Centre put on a fantastic spread for lunch. Delegates took the opportunity for some networking time with other attendees. The atmosphere was congenial and friendly - meaning delegates commented on how they'd actually really benefited from talking to other retailers on the day and were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to engage in a conversation...

After lunch Retail Trust took centre stage - one delegate described them as "probably the best kept secret in retail", Nigel J L Rothband, CEO of Retail Trust told delegates about their 'Rework' programme - which assists people in retail who have been made redundant to get back to work. He also announced their 'Retail Search for a Star' competition - for more details see www.retailtrustsearchforastar.com

During afternoon workshops TXT e-Solutions, platinum sponsor, ran packed sessions explaining why metrics vary for different retail channels and how this means retailers need flexible attributes and flexible hierarchies to plan and analyse more effectively. In another session they illustrated how multi-dimensional planning can make a real difference to the bottom line and how using filters, attributes and promotional impacts retailers can improve forecast accuracy and generate one number for the business to aim for.

Retail Acumen walked delegates through a case study around range and space performance - clearly showing how margins could be considerably increased by applying simple analytics and then following through with rigorous implementation - the crux being that all stakeholders must share one common, unifying KPI - £return on space - to unify their behaviours for the benefit of the bottom line.

The star turn of the day, Gillian Berkmen from Mothercare, was described as "like the keynote speech" - talking about the Mothercare joint venture with Gurgle.com (linking right back to Andy Lopata's opening on benefits of social media). Gurgle.com has become a multi-national brand in its own right and Gillian talked about how Mothercare now achieves 20% of their sales online - about double the UK average.

Gillian was followed by Alan White, CEO of N Brown group - whose incredible success is attributed to clearly defined brand values for each of their multiple brands, in many cases each focusing on a niche market and from embracing the internet as a supplementary channel to their traditional home shopping (catalogue based) retail model.

The day was wrapped up with a final panel discussion, including Alan White, Catie Callendar, Global COO of Crabtree & Evelyn, Milton Guffogg, former CEO of the ill-fated Celebrations Cards Group, Nick Samuel, former CEO of Hobbs and a non-exec / chairman of various retailers and Nigel Rothband. With a strategic focus the panellist's final question was (and in light of Retail Trust search for a star) who in retail has the "X Factor"... answers included Apple, Mothercare, ASOS.com and Waitrose.

So, the day closed on a high-note - celebrating the some of the best, most successful and most innovative retailers of the moment. Delegates departed, and with many going on to BRC annual retail industry dinner that took place in Park Lane on the same evening, they all would appear to have had a fantastic and valuable day out of the office.

The Retail Conference 2010 will take place on 22nd September 2010 again at the Cavendish Conference Centre in Central London. It will once again be free to attend for retailers. More information is available on this website or call 0844 4145153.