IRCE: The Retail Industry’s Leading E-Commerce Conference and Tradeshow
The 13th annual Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE), the world’s largest and most well-known e-commerce event, will take place in the world-class city of Chicago, June 6-9, at McCormick Place West.
This event will be jam-packed, introducing new track and workshop categories including Fashion, Marketplaces, Direct to Consumer and Design & Usability, featuring sessions led by some of the most successful executives in the industry to entice and engage conference-goers.
The event, will feature four educational and inspiring Main Stage presentations by thought leaders in the e-commerce world. The keynote programming will provide attendees with a comprehensive educational experience, highlighting timely topics including Experiential Retail, Online Do’s and Don’ts, Customer Connection, and Personalization Strategies.
The Main Stage Speakers headlining this year’s event include Mary Beth Laughton, Senior Vice President, Digital, Sephora, Barbara Corcoran, Shark Investor, “Shark Tank”, George Hanson, Vice President North America E-Commerce and Brand House Stores for Under Armour, and Miki Racine Berardelli, Chief Executive Officer, Kidbox.
All-day, pre-and-post conference workshops will be offered on Tuesday, June 6 and Friday, June 9. Keynote and featured presentations will be presented on Wednesday, June 7 and Thursday, June 8, listed below, in addition to a score of conference sessions in a variety of tracks.
Tuesday, June 6, Pre-Conference Workshops:
- B2B Workshop: Many businesses are adopting e-commerce to sell their B2B customers as a way to create operations efficiencies and reduce costs. This workshop will present sessions on how to become a B2B e-commerce company, including sessions on fulfillment, marketing and website design and usability.
Wednesday, June 7, Main Day 1
- Marketing: Proven Winners Track: The established workhorses of online marketing are staying strong – when they adapt to the continuous change of the online environment. New trends in consumer behavior, new shopping and marketing channels and new ways customers communicate with brands and each other mean yesterday’s proven marketing tactics must flex to take advantage of the opportunities and meet the demands of today.
- Fashion: Try it On! Track: Fashion moves fast, fails fast, learns and regroups fast. E-retailers seeking to be nimble, both from within and outside the fashion/apparel category, know a little risk can pay off big time. In this track, new for 2018, we’ll explore new ways to speed delivery, heighten personalization and how to take advantage of new opportunities in social media to create unique and direct connections to customers. The runway for innovation just got shorter!
Thursday, June 8, Main Day 2
- Marketing: New Tactics Track: Online marketing keeps growing in sophistication as big data, new technologies and new methodologies hack ever more deeply into the mind of the shopper. Marketing as a result is becoming even more effective at not only anticipating what shoppers want, but serving it up to them so as to maximize appeal. This track will explore new developments in digital marketing and visit new ways with established marketing methods.
- Marketplaces Track: Online marketplaces are becoming the modern shopping mall as many consumers shop the marketplace and not a retailer’s stand-alone site. These sessions in this new IRCE track will help retailers sort through their marketplace options and understand what they need to do to succeed in online marketplaces.
Friday, June 9, Post-Conference Workshops
- Direct to Consumer Workshop: Today, many consumers prefer to buy direct from the manufacturer. After all, who knows the product inside out or is in the best position to assist if the customer has questions or special needs? At the same time, brand manufacturers see selling direct to consumers as a way to gain more control of the brand, an opportunity to get closer to customers and obtain direct feedback, and as a way to gain leverage with retail partners. This group of sessions, new for 2017, will help CPG and brand manufacturers understand the opportunities and challenges in selling direct to consumers.
- Design and Usability Workshop: Fundamental to any website’s success is the ability for shoppers to understand quickly how to find what they want and to navigate to the product, put it in a cart and check out fast. This new workshop provides guidance on designing sites for desktop and mobile and making sure they’re easy to use. It wraps up with real-time site critiques to help attendees understand how to put into action what they’ve learned.
IRCE provides an estimated 10,000 conference-goers with access to more than 200 expert speakers, 130 conference sessions, an exhibit hall filled with nearly 600 major solution providers, and a series of networking events, making it the must-attend event of the year for professionals seeking the very latest strategies and solutions in the world of e-commerce. IRCE is the flagship event for the ever-changing e-commerce industry, with attendees coming from over 40 countries around the globe, representing a range of industries in a variety of management levels, including representatives from up-and-coming startups to long-standing retailers. Since this is a jam packed event, I suggest you start now in planning your attendance event schedule. For a full agenda please visit the event site at http://www.irce.com.
Natalie Evans
Natalie Evans has over 16-years in the tech industry and currently works as the event coordinator and tech reporter for CMS-Connected, keeping up-to-date on what's happening in and around the Content Management industry.