RILA and RetailConnections Kick Off First Ever Retail Mobile Executive Summit 

Yesterday the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and RetailConnections together opened their first ever executive summit on retail and the mobile revolution. A variety of leading retailers, consumer brands and service suppliers shared their insights and personal case studies regarding how the growing use of mobile devices provides key opportunities for engaging customers, expanding loyalty and, ultimately, driving sales. More than 100 senior executives from a variety of leading retail companies participated in this high-level, interactive learning experience.

Kicking off the two-day event was opening Keynote John Thompson, senior vice president and general manager for BestBuy.com. Thompson shared with attendees how Best Buy is using multichannel tools to help them connect to their customers. Local store micro sites and specific store inventory information, for example, has helped Best Buy connect more closely with its customers by connecting them more closely to their local stores. This, along with other methods of "radical transparency," has helped Best Buy provide customers a place to experience the latest and greatest consumer electronics solutions.

"Best Buy has been an innovative leader in this space and has done some creative things with the use of mobile," said Casey Chroust, executive vice president of retail operations. "John shared many valuable examples of how they are using new avenues to reach consumers and how mobile technology has forever changed the way retailers will interact with their customers."

Julie Bornstein, senior vice president, direct for Sephora, spoke about Sephora's journey in mobile, from tapping its community for product ratings and reviews to a more extensive mobile site to be launched early next month. Based on insights from loyalty program members and Facebook fans, Sephora's mobile presence has evolved just as consumers' use of their phones has, integrating all channels into one presence.

As a leading global company, Unilever has embraced mobile to show how its products can help improve the lives of the more than 2 billion consumers who choose them daily. Stephanie Kovner-Bryant, senior integrated marketing manager for Unilever, shared how the CPG giant has integrated mobile within its marketing strategy for various brands such as Dove for Men, and has also worked with retail partners to leverage the advantages of digital coupons.

Later, a panel discussion around the evolving bar code allowed attendees to see the emerging opportunities to engage shoppers with promotions, special offers and products through 2D bar codes, engaging consumers when they are already in a receptive mode.

Finally, Andrew Koven, president of ecommerce & customer experience for Steve Madden, provided attendees with a comprehensive roadmap of what is required to get an organization ready to go mobile. Drew discussed the elements of a typical mobile campaign -- budget, SMS, banner ad, web site, application, search and coupons. Drew stressed that brands must decide what is most important to them, their consumers, and their ultimate goals, in order to develop a mobile strategy that is complementary to the brand.

The event continues on today with speakers representing companies such as Target, The Home Depot, Macy's and Safeway.

"The conference presentations have generated a great deal of interactivity, great questions from the audience and a true willingness to share, so everybody can propel their companies forward in this exciting space," said Marc Millstein, president of RetailConnections. "Retailers and brands are innovating big time. They are unafraid of the occasional misstep, because the rewards are too big to ignore."

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.

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.

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