Believe the hype: Shoptalk was back and better than ever this year! A slate of impressive speakers from the biggest names in retail, including many of our largest customers, impressed attendees with insights into market trends and their strategic imperatives as we head through the rest of 2022 and beyond.  

Here’s a quick recap of some hot topics discussed at Shoptalk 2022.   

Same-day delivery: the “future of retail?”

This is top of mind for retailers as they strive to meet increasing consumer expectations and look to step up their delivery game by providing same-day (2 hours) delivery. It is not surprising, when you consider that 80% of shoppers want same-day shipping, while 61% want their packages even faster—within one to three hours of placing an order. Extremely fast appears to be the new fast in retail.

It’s an important initiative for retailers as they continue to integrate shopping online with brick and mortar. Traditional retailers have the advantage of using their physical stores as distribution centers to get products to shoppers within a few hours or at their convenience with BOPIS and curbside.  

And many are now talking about quick commerce, to get consumers what they want even faster. In minutes rather than hours! 

Owning a marketplace

For many multi-brand retailers, owning a marketplace is fast becoming a priority.  Huge, Inc. shared the prediction that 75% of multi-brand retailers will have a marketplace of their own by 2025. 

And these marketplaces will offer increasingly robust logistics and shipping capabilities. This is a major shift, and to facilitate it, we’ve introduced Commerce Suite, a unified solution for drop ship and marketplace where one connection gives retailers and suppliers access to both business models.  This is available at no additional licensing fee to our customers.  

The focus is on providing consumers with an exceptional online experience

Retailers are paying attention to customer experience more than ever. At a time when consumer loyalty is fleeting at best, making sure a customer can find what they need easily and get it to them quickly is essential. But it’s also ensuring that the checkout experience is seamless, that purchases can be tracked throughout delivery, and that customers can make returns without friction. It’s the entire customer journey that matters and retailers need the solutions and the insights to take the online customer experience next level.  Steve Miller, SVP, Strategy, eCommerce, & Analytics, DICK’S Sporting Goods talked about how they are using a majority of their stores to fulfill ecommerce demands using stores as a fulfillment method to allow for fast delivery and pull from in-stock assortment.

Pro tip: Rithum can set this type of in-store/ecommerce fulfillment up for your company. Contact us to get started.

And what’s another key way to improve customer experience? Personalization. More retailers are focusing on this by collecting data and analytics to better understand consumer behavior, and then using this insight to curate products more aligned with what consumers are in search of.  

Metaverse: Is this actually happening or is it just a fad?

The metaverse hype was in full effect. More and more businesses are dipping their toes into the water and exploring the opportunity to sell goods in the metaverse, and this is expected to continue in the coming years. While some are weary of jumping right in to sell on the metaverse—it may be inevitable that this becomes an important way to attract the next generation of consumers. And marketplaces are proving to be one of the best platforms for retailers to test selling in the metaverse. Again, Huge, Inc. predicts that one-third of marketplaces will be selling virtual goods, including NFTs, by 2025. 

Liz Bacelar, Executive Director, Global Tech Innovation at Esteé Lauder, also shared  their expansion strategy for the metaverse following the success they had selling out of 10,000 wearable NFTs that give avatars “glow” on the metaverse.

You can also check out our blog on the metaverse and retail. 

Thanks to all that stopped by the Rithum booth to say hello. If we missed you at the show, we’d love to connect. Contact us.