Reflections on IRCE 2015 – Blurring the lines between “online” and “in-store”

Fashion Metric is in Chicago this week for one of the largest Internet Retail shows in the world – IRCE. The show brings together some of the biggest companies in the eCommerce world like Target, Amazon, eBay and many others, along with SaaS companies like us that provide insights and integrations to improve and enrich the online shopping experience.

Even though we’re only one day into the event I already have a lot of reflections based on the meetings and conversations that we’ve already had. There are a few clear trends emerging from the show but none is more prominent than the incredible impact mobile is having on the shopping experience both online and in-store.

target-on-mobile

In one of yesterday’s talks, Target shared a slide with a quote from their CEO – “Mobile is the front door to Target” which was followed by a slide that said “The future of retail is the digital integration of stores and mobile technology”

Retail Touchpoints, one of the top publications in the Internet Retail space wrote an article that is also making waves at IRCE this year titled “Digital Channels Will Influence $2.2 Trillion In Brick-And-Mortar Sales By End Of 2015” (Read it here)

Digital Retail Trends

It is absolutely incredible to see the impact that smartphones have had on our daily lives in such a short period of time. Just think about it, when you walk into a physical store, does your phone stay in your pocket the whole time? Probably not.

Even when you aren’t shopping online, there’s a good chance that you are online and using your phone to help make decisions while in a physical store. This is also what has so many retailers and brands excited about what we are doing at Fashion Metric since we can bridge the gap and provide incredibly detailed data and analytics about shoppers, their body measurements, and their shopping preferences both in-store and online, and we can connect the two experiences.

IRCE 2015

We have another big day ahead with more meetings than I can count on all my fingers and toes. I’m sure I’ll have more reflections soon and you can bet as usual that I’ll share them with all of you.

This week, pay attention to when you take your phone out of your pocket and you might just realize that there is no longer a division between online and in-store, because now when you’re in a store, you’re also online.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton