eCommerce “Retail Summits” Conference 2024

Topics Covered: Website Optimization, Customer Experience, Advertising, Online Sales

Conference Overall Ratings: Venue (4/5) - Food (5/5) - Speaker Content (5/5) - Networking Opportunity (3/5) - Likeliness to Return (4/5)

Initial Conference Overview: This was my second time attending this event in the past two months. The first time I tried to attend but I showed up a month early. They were like… uh, it’s in July, not June! Lol. So. Besides that, it was a valuable event to attend, though really far from my home! I traveled over an hour each way to get there. This event focused on ecommerce and sales. I attended this event without taking many notes because I spent the most of the time talking to people and seeing what I could learn about developing my own business. There were many vendors here that had useful information.

Bullet Point Notes from Conference :

• Cart Abandonment Solutions:

  • Most people leave their carts without checking out

  • Though if you email them to check their carts, they will follow up over 50% of the time and complete their purchases

• Scaling Challenges:

  • Many companies can help you get from 1-100, but they can’t help you get from 0-1.

• Site Performance Statistics

  • 53% of site visitors leave if it takes more than 3 seconds to load

• Shopify is the most popular sellers service

• Shipping Return Innovation

  • A company helps with physical "shipping returns" at no cost to us.

  • People will want to return items more often, as well. The solution/business I learned of today offers customers with help returning items. It uses a gorgeous interface, to either help customers a refund or make an exchange for something else. Duh! Genius!

  • Their interface helps customers process refunds or exchanges with ease - streamlining the operations and improving customer satisfaction and sales.

Conference “Overall Rating” Further Elaboration:

• VENUE - 4/5

  • OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT: This hotel is in a popular city but far from my house. It was a good size for this event. But for people traveling a distance, the commute is a commitment.

• FOOD - 4/5

  • ALLOW ME TO ELABORATE: The food was good. Lots of variety, but the snack time was not healthy. There were a lot of variety and choices.

• SPEAKER CONTENT - 5/5

  • ALLOW ME TO ELABORATE: There were A LOT of speeches with useful information. I wish I had taken notes at this event haha. But, again, I spent a lot of time talking to companies. The speakers provided highly relevant and actionably info from what I recall.

• NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES - 4/5

  • OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT: There can always be a bit more time for socializing. Maybe even a little bit of fun built in somehow. Especially not only relying on the happy hour in the end. Many people need to leave by then - or are not interested in drinking. So adding things earlier in the day is smart.

• LIKELINESS TO RETURN - 4/5

  • OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT: This type of event is super useful to attend, though especially if you have a business that is well established, not just in startup mode. For startup companies, this knowledge is important, but there’s only so far you can take it without much action or client interaction. That being said, if it comes up again next year at a time that’s good for me - I think there is a lot to learn at these events and I’ll take better notes.

Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time (and sometimes social media manager procrastinate to announce things, so new events pop up last minute!)

Find relatable or interesting topics to check out… maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover, not too far from home. 😊