How wonderful to be in a conference room with a selection of Irish Retailers, who are passionately growing and developing their eCommerce businesses every day. And even more special to be asked to participate, as host of an expert panel discussion, to close the session.
eCommerce technology company, Magico, recently hosted their annual Retailer Summit, at the beautiful Glasson Lakehouse, on 9th March. The theme of the day was Growth, with ‘interactive presentations, practical advice and expert speakers’ to help Retailers achieve sustainable growth in 2023 and beyond.
” Learn from expert eCommerce speakers.
Network with Ireland’s leading online retailers.
Grow your online revenues with practical learnings.”
Conference Agenda & Content
- Martin McGarry of Air Impact: Insights from one of Ireland’s leading specialty retailers, on their online journey
- Orla Cooney, Magico: Who is your Customer? Understanding the online shopping experience through your customers eyes
- Erin McGrath, Magico: What does your customer see? The importance of strong online merchandising
- Shane O’Leary, Chatify: Are you being served? Boost your customer service and upsell capability using Chatify
- Ken Condon, Segmentify: Personalise the customer experience. Boost product sales and AOV by offering a personalised experience
- Jillian O’Leary, Magico: Why should I read your email? Stand out from the competition with a strong email marketing strategy
- Orla Cooney, Magico: Why should I keep coming back? Retention tactics to keep your customers coming back
- Paul Montwill, Magico: Supercharge your Online Store with AB Commerce & Magico. Optimise your online store with AB Commerce and hear our plans for 2023 and beyond
Expert Panel Discussion
I was delighted to host an expert panel discussion again this year, with wide ranging topics and an even more diverse group of panellists. I was joined by:
- Paul Walsh, Adhere Digital
- Ciara Nolan, Barry Group
- Ciaran Crean, Wave OMS and Mick’s Garage
- John Caldwell, CreatorSEO
- Emily Bowens, KevEm Media
The panel discussion ranged from the importance of cohesive digital branding, to new and emerging digital marketing trends, to eCommerce fulfilment operations, to analytics and evaluation.
I was particularly interested to hear Ciaran share his guidance for Retailers on how to avoid a crunch point in your eCommerce Operations flow, where the fulfilment cannot keep up with demand. This is a very common problem in growing eCommerce businesses, and Ciaran shared that while this can be avoided using good processes, it is good, proactive communication that will make the difference. Marketing & eComm front end people need to communicate better with Ops, and vice versa.
On the marketing side, I was keen to hear the agency view on how best to work with Influencers. Emily shared some excellent guidance for the Retailers present, centring around the importance of a detailed brief, so that your budget is not wasted and you get the best content possible. Emily also spoke about the nuances with the Gen Z audience – how they are different to Millennials and how, despite their tender years, that they are the audience every retailer should target.
Ciara also shared her views on the value of brand synergy across every digital touchpoint, and acknowledged that this can be difficult to achieve.
Paul & John also covered the impending ‘sunset’ of Google Analytics UA, and the shiny new GA4 arrival in it’s place. The key consensus from both, was that Retailers should get stuck in, set up their profiles and familiarise themselves with GA4, as change is coming regardless, so it’s important not to wait.
Key Takeaways
Panellists were each asked for their one key takeaway that they’d like Retailers to focus on for 2023, and the following golden nuggets, are what they shared:
Paul – don’t be afraid of Chat GPT! Get in, play around with it, and see what you can get out of it, for your business.
Ciara – Think creatively when resourcing digital roles in your business. There may be a team member with a hidden talent for social, for example, so try and seek out those people within your existing staff, before you add additional resource.
Ciaran – Margin and Profitability should be at the centre of all decision making, for your eCommerce store and your digital marketing.
John – Bring everything back to Strategy. Create a robust strategy that is right for your business, and let that power your decision making.
Emily – Just give it a go. Digital is evolving and changing all the time, and agencies are learning at the same time as everyone else, so retailers should not be afraid to test and learn.
Watch the full session below
If you would like to talk to Little Rock Digital about participating at your event, please contact us today.
