Internet Retailer conference in Chicago
I've just returned from the Internet Retailer conference in Chicago. I fully expected to be blogging about how advanced US retailers were in comparison to the UK and what innovative things they were doing. But that's not what I got from the conference.
It seems to me that e-commerce is no more advanced in the US than it is in the UK. Certainly when it comes to integrated multi-channel retailing, nobody is doing anything that UK leaders are not already doing.
Technology-wise, the leading players in search, navigation etc are the ones we all know about who are already present in the UK. Although there were hundreds of vendor booths, I was a little disappointed that there was nothing really fresh and exciting there.
Deep analysis and review of data is the one area that does seem to be more advanced. Many of the speakers discussed different strategies for testing and measuring different website development and marketing initiatives and slides with "test-analyse-test-analyse" were frequently displayed. The sessions on this were by far the best attended.
The conference was very well run, had over 5000 attendees and hundreds of exhibitors. The speakers were almost all of a very high standard, and often more candid in their talks than UK speakers. I believe next year's conference will be in Chicago and I recommend it.