Innovation in Sustainability: Building a Resilient and Responsible Retail Strategy

Purpose-driven consumers now represent the largest segment (44%) of consumers, according to IBM. Shoppers are becoming increasingly concerned with sustainability and having a positive social impact. Business leaders must step up to the challenge and embed purpose into their business DNA, demonstrate responsibility and build resilience. Purpose is now a core differentiator in business.

Track 1: Looking to the Future: New and Emerging Technologies Shaping the Retail Landscape

A new era of digital, technology-driven retail is fast emerging. From till-free checkouts to inventory forecasting, fulfilment to in-store facilities, retailers must adopt bold digital transformation strategies to succeed in a competitive landscape. Providing a frictionless retail experience across multiple platforms is key and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain are aiding this transition.

This roundtable will explore the following key questions:
•What digital technologies have you implemented successfully across your organisation and what business value have seen as a result?
•Cashierless shopping and “beacon network” technology is on the rise. How is in-store technology helping to remove friction throughout the bricks and mortar shopping experience?
•The latest breakthroughs in NLP (Natural Language Processing) have made it possible for voice assistants to become a great ally for retail. In what way is this assisting customers in finding products and making purchases?
•What are the key challenges retail organisations faces in adopting new technology? What strategies can they put in place to overcome these?

Track 2: Shock-proofing Supply Chain: The Race to Meet Rising Consumer Demand

According to the Deloitte supply chain executive survey, only 58 percent of shoppers are “satisfied” with their shopping experience and just one-third are “very satisfied.”Retailers must align their offerings and capabilities with new and rising consumer expectations. But what changes are mission critical? It’s now a sprint to get product from manufacturer to customer, but a nationwide shortage of truck drivers, a lack of available warehouse space, and rising demand means leaders must be flexible and innovative in their approach to operational challenges in order to reap the rewards.

This roundtable will explore the following key questions:
•How does a supply chain operation need to change its mindset to prepare to meet hyper-local fulfilment needs?
•How is automated technology helping retailers manage labour shortages?
•What impact is the “everything is convenient” expectation of shopping having on business operations and the omnichannel journey?
•What are the biggest drivers of customer satisfaction online?
•Is your organisation exploring highly connected supply networks that can be dynamically planned, tracked and directed?
•What does the future hold in terms of fulfilling customer demand?

Track 3: The Next Horizon for E-commerce - Fine-tuning Your Digital Strategy

Today, ecommerce is valued at around $4.2 trillion (Statista 2021). The accelerated shift in online is here to stay and there is a renewed importance to an organisation’s need to adapt and keep pace with improving technology and evolving consumer expectations in the online space. It’s predicted that mobile sales will account for 73% of all ecommerce sales by the end of 2021, and whilst 37% of users use social media to research products the rise in direct social shopping is set to take the biggest bite of the eCommerce pie by the end of year (Global Web Index). Platforms introducing features that manage everything from in-app purchasing to customer management are gaining maximum exposure for retailers.
The scope for growth in the online space is not just exciting, it’s necessary for retailers that want to survive. During this roundtable session the group will explore some of the following challenges and opportunities:

This roundtable will explore the following key questions:
•How do you align your digital strategy to your business strengths?
•What experiences are affecting conversion and how do we resolve these blockers?
•How can stores support eCommerce acceleration?
•Are you making the most of social?
•What role does eCommerce fulfilment and returns play in online conversion?

Leadership Innovation: People, Process, Technology

The future of retail in a post-COVID world

The Future of Retail in the New World: How data can illuminate the path forward

Navigating the road to a more sustainable Retail landscape