What Slowdown?
by David Rosen | Senior Vice President
Greetings from Las Vegas.
In what is an annual pilgrimage to Shop.org’s annual summit, some observations…
Attendance is up. One marketing conference later this month was actually cancelled due to lack of attendee registration. Not at all the case with the ecommerce crowd. General feeling – confirmed by attendees, analysts and the show organizers – is that ecommerce remains the shiny button at many multi-channel retailers where physical stores are suffering from consistent negative sales comps.
No real show theme. Last year you could have compressed the entire show into one big session titled “If you don’t figure out facebook today, you’re gonna get fired.” This year was back to blocking and tackling: better search, more analytics, email delivery. The doomsayers of economic woe were hard to find.
Customers matter. They really do get it. It makes no sense to reacquire your customer base daily through Google. We no longer have to explain the logic of investing in cultivating and retaining your customers. Loyalty is rewarded. Shop.org is a tough group to crack. The companies that win with these members are the companies that invest year after year in the organization.
If you want to learn about the state of the U.S. economy, spend some time chatting with a Las Vegas cab driver. They’re smart, articulate and have keen senses of observation. If Americans are cutting back, Las Vegas feels it.
Will the DMA show be this vibrant? I’ll let you know next month.
