First Retail Mobile Executive Summit a Success 

San Francisco, CA - 7/22/2010 

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and RetailConnections helped to break new ground this week, wrapping up a successful first ever Retail Mobil Executive Summit.

Designed to encourage participation and dialogue, the Retail Mobile Executive Summit is geared toward senior executives in all aspects of retail who are engaged in incorporating this transformative technology within their areas.

"The response from attendees was incredibly positive," said Casey Chroust, RILA's executive vice president of retail operations. "While many retailers are just getting into the mobile space, several other retailers have existing strategies they are evolving in line with the rapid pace of change. In both cases, retailers are identifying and employing new ways to connect to customers and serve their needs. This summit allowed them to share opportunities and challenges, understand the dynamic mobile landscape, and learn new techniques to improve their sales and operations through mobile technology."

Attendees heard from a wide range of leading industry experts, with many notable sessions closing out the two day event.

Keith Enright, vice president of privacy and chief privacy officer for Macy's Inc., described how evolving mobile capabilities open new challenges regarding consumer privacy for retailers. Achieving consumer acceptance for use of information is critical for retailers that want to use this information to customize the consumer experience.

Providing a lively overview of how retailers are succeeding -- and failing -- when creating mobile interfaces for their brands, Aron Ezra, president and chief executive officer of MacroView Labs addressed many vital topics, including:

• creating a mobile apps vs. web applications (WAPs)
• common mistakes when creating mobile/web applications
• key features brands need to make their mobile applications successful
  
• the differences in mobile shoppers vs. other channel shoppers.
  

The topic of mobile payments was addressed by a panel of experts who predicted the widespread adoption in the U.S. of this contactless payment option, as it has been embraced in other countries. With security and privacy concerns in mind, retailers are seeking to take transactions away from their customer's wallets and put them right in their hands, through their mobile devices. In a dynamic panel discussion with leaders in the industry, attendees heard several case studies on different applications of mobile payment strategies and engaged in a question and answer session with panelists to learn more about this evolving issue.

Finally, representatives from retailers, including Target and The Home Depot, engaged in a panel discussion moderated by RILA's Casey Chroust on the moving landscape of mobile in retail. Topics ranging from talent and staffing, personalization of mobile, integration with operations, and other key issues were discussed and debated by the two panelists.

RILA is the trade association of the world's largest and most innovative retail companies. RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers domestically and abroad.

RetailConnections creates and hosts innovative peer-to-peer events to bring together an unusually diverse range of retailing companies and senior management executives. RetailConnections' events span a wide variety of formats designed to offer the highest quality opportunities for networking, brainstorming and thought-leadership presentations and discussions.