Hot topics to discuss at Shoptalk’s first virtual event
COVID-19 has certainly made an impact on live events this year, and Shoptalk is no exception. Originally scheduled to be held in Las Vegas this fall, Shoptalk gathers thought leaders and industry changemakers to discuss how retailers are reshaping the ways in which customers discover, shop for, and buy products. However, due to COVID-19 and related gathering and travel restrictions, Shoptalk’s in-person event has been rescheduled for March 21-24, 2021.
But don’t worry about missing out in 2020! This year, Shoptalk has moved online with the first Shoptalk Meetup—providing retailers, manufacturers, tech companies, investors, media, and analysts a place to come together to learn, network, and collaborate from the safety of their homes.
Shoptalk Meetup is retail’s first digitally native event and offers participants the ability to share ideas with thousands of industry peers, participate in 15-minute meetings and 55-minute tabletalk group conversations, and get unlimited post-event introductions for high priority mutual matches. The virtual event, held online from October 20-22 at 12:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. EST, acts as an ideal forum for attendees to discuss the latest innovations and transformations in retail. ZineOne is excited to participate in Shoptalk Meetup and connect with our customers.
Many important industry themes will be discussed during Shoptalk Meetup. Let’s take a look at some hot topics we can’t wait to talk about with you.
The Importance of Personalized Outreach
Personalization has always been key for connecting with customers. As retail responds to the new normal, delivering personalized, relevant experiences for customers at home has become increasingly important for capturing sales and building long-lasting loyalty. By applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to customer data, retailers can gain actionable insight from customers’ behavior, serving up offers and promotions that meet their immediate needs. Further still, an omnichannel platform will allow retailers to deliver this message to customers where they prefer the most—in-app, online, email, text, push notification, and more.
The Role of Next Best Actions in Driving Transaction Completion
Consumers’ purchasing behaviors have shifted as they adjust to a new lifestyle during the pandemic. These unprecedented changes make it challenging for retailers to connect with customers, particularly as they spend less time in store. To guide the customer journey, retailers are utilizing ML models to predict next-best actions and determine when to intervene. Next-best-actions are a real-time approach that examines a customer’s historical engagement with a brand (e.g. transaction history, online browsing patterns, and/or preferences) compared to their current activity, context, and mindset to determine the “best” action for a retailer to take. These actions can be offers, promotions, reward reminders, or recommendations delivered via emails, mobile, or other forms of personalized outreach, and prove critical in continuing to engage customers even as their needs evolve.
The Right Offer, in the Right Moment
More so than ever before, connecting with customers requires retailers to understand customer intent quickly, serving up relevant offers to on-the-fence shoppers. To predict customer action and intent with accuracy, retailers cannot take a myopic view of customer data, only utilizing historical behavior to understand their current context. Rather, retailers must take into account a 360° view of customers, combining in-session insight with an understanding of prior interactions and purchases as well as environmental context to serve up the right offer at the right moment.
Connect with ZineOne at Shoptalk Meetup
To ensure you get the most out of your time at Shoptalk Meetup, make sure you participate on Oct. 5 in an exchange of 100,000 insights and ideas that will inform the virtual event’s meetings and sessions. Then, check back in on October 12 to see your matches and opt-in to sessions.
Make sure you look out for ZineOne at the event to learn how our AI-powered Intelligent Customer Engagement (ICE) platform can help retailers understand customer intent and respond in real time with 1:1 personalized offerings for every customer.