Top Macroeconomic Effects on the Retail Economy
The future of the retail economy is clouded by myriad macroeconomic issues: Are global financial markets sufficiently healed to set the stage for economic recovery?  Will that recovery be plagued by inflationary side effects of government market intervention?  Will inflation fears also be fed by renewed price pressures on food and fuel?  Will business investment and hiring rebound enough to support a recovery?  Will household budgets drive economic growth in the same way they did in the past?  This session explores the short-term and long-term implications of these key macroeconomic issues for the retail sector and includes a question-and-answer segment with Retail Forward’s Senior Economist, Frank Badillo.

Retail Landscape Redefined
The economic shocks of the past two years have accelerated the end of many long-term cycles.  They’ve also created greater urgency for retailers and suppliers to understand and respond to new marketplace realities. This session explores these and other fundamentals of the post-recession retail landscape and their implications for suppliers and retailers: WHO—New roles for Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and Millenials in the recovery; WHAT—New reasons for purchasing and new success requirements for products and services; WHY—Behaviors and attitudes that will survive the recession and underpin new shopping norms; and WHERE—Changes in shopping patterns and emerging competitive dynamics for mall-based retailers, off-mall superstores and multi-channel providers.

Winning Online: How to Maximize Digital Marketing to Achieve Competitive Advantage
Despite challenging economic conditions, many marketers are winning and growing online by going where the shoppers are and finding creative ways to engage them and drive online and offline purchases.  See how to connect the dots from what consumers are doing online to concrete business decisions that drive marketing ROI.  This presentation will highlight three digital marketing programs in action: 1) assessing online advertising effectiveness, 2) couponing and 3) driving online to offline conversion.

Fresh Thinking on Shopper Engagement
With the increase of smartphone ownership, the proliferation of social networking participation and the evolution of in-store technologies (in terms of functionality as well as price and size), retailers and suppliers have unprecedented options for communicating with shoppers, both inside and outside the store.  This session looks at how retailers and suppliers can use these tools to create a more meaningful and actionable dialog with target shoppers.

A Tour of New Retail Business Models and Innovations
Tighter capex budgets and more stringent ROI requirements have checked the rampant proliferation of new formats and concepts by both retailers and brands during the past few years.  The renewed focus on improving performance in existing businesses has yielded innovations in marketing and distribution strategies, including new iterations of the branded manufacturer retail model, new expectations for social shopping and collective purchasing, and an unprecedented level of collaboration between retailers and suppliers.  This session showcases the best of these innovations and innovators.