With the lead up to this year’s eTail West in full swing, here is what is awaiting attendees of the conference, which begins on February 27 and touts 60 percent retail attendance.

Worldwide Business Research (WBR), which heads the conference, expect the February’s event to be the biggest in company history. Presentations will revolve around a number of relevant topics in ecommerce, including profitable growth strategies for brick and mortar retailers, ecommerce players, emerging retailers and innovation.

“Mobile continues to be one of our main themes at the event, and we believe it will be for the foreseeable future,” said Lauren Pozmanter, a WBR spokesperson. “Retailers are still challenged trying to turn mobile traffic into sales, and that’s why we cover mobile with dedicated workshop days, with different streams and within our keynote sessions.

“Through our extensive research with our audience, mobile is always a topic of conversation, so anyone working in the mobile commerce space will be able to find the answers to their problems in our program,” she said. “Mobile first is critical for retailers to grow their businesses, with strategies either assisting the sale, or serving as a bridge for omnichannel success.

“Mobile content is in fact threaded throughout many of our omnichannel sessions, which are held every day of the event. We feature speakers such as Chieh Huang, CEO of Boxed, so our audience can hear him discuss how integral mobile is to the success of his disruptive retail company.”

eTail West 2017
Topics will be covered during strategic morning sessions, with targeted “deep dive” seminars to be held in the afternoon. WBR and eTail will look to provide attendees with a holistic view of the ecommerce and mcommerce atmosphere in the coming year; very useful for both the large-box and startup marketer alike.

“This year, we have the Department of Commerce doing a workshop day onsite, so I think our audience will be able to take advantage of how engrained we are in the retail space, and that we are actually bringing government bodies to them to help them work through their challenges,” Ms. Pozmanter said.

Also taking place are a Women in eTailing networking hour, Retailer to Retailer small group discussions; individual meetings between ecommerce solutions and retailers and massive opportunities to network at a conference populated primarily with retailers.

Mobile innovation
eTail held its first event in 1999, and have been party to more than a few innovations in its history. Conference-goers watched how many of the giants in the social media space, such as Instagram and Twitter, have grown in the past three to four years, and saw executives from companies that now have robust bricks-and-mortar presences — such as Warby Parker and Indochino — participate in its panels before they technically became retailers.

“I’m excited about so much from this year’s event,” Ms. Pozmanter said. “Our attendees should obviously be focusing on the content and speaker faculty, as this is going to be where they get the most useful information they can take back with them.

“We marry disruptive content with leading retailers, and won’t have any ‘talking head’ type of commercials,” she said. “So no matter if you’re in the industry for fifteen years, or fifteen minutes – the content is all about growth and education, and most importantly actionable takeaways from every single speaker.

“I believe 2017 is the year retailers will really be able digital and physical channels, establish a mobile first strategy, shape experiences that truly assist the sale and push content that really engages consumers. eTail West is going to help these retailers make that a reality.”