Las Vegas has long played host to high rollers, Elvis impersonators, midnight marriages between complete strangers, and more circus acts than tourists baking in the desert sun. Only the crew rolling into town September 21 actually in many ways is more important than any of them. It may not seem so on first note.
But if you consider that the group assembling is actually powering much of the world’s economy, to the tune of $3 trillion in annual industry sales. Who is that group? Retail. The top 250 retailers, in fact, generate $3+ trillion in annual sales (source: Deloitte). And when you stop to think about it, your humble little town relies on this global industry from the shops to the jobs.
The world is a consumer economy, from Soweto to Shanghai, New York to Nairobi. Lots of industries have Summits. Countries do also. Davos, G8. United Nations. Heck, even music has the Grammys and VMAs. But from my perspective it would behoove the world’s leaders to really pay attention to what retailers are doing. As retail goes, so goes economies. As economies go, so go public opinion.
The Shop.org Summit is the retail industry’s annual get together to discuss what’s what, what’s hot and not, how to make customers happy, and basically keep the consumer economy moving in good, bad and Clint Eastwood times (as in ugly). For as ugly as ugly gets, fact is people need (and want) to shop. Yes, budgets are tight. But clothing, food, transport, goods of all kinds are what makes the world go round. It’s not “consumerism”, more like plain old consumer, from green to lean and mean.
Some of the more interesting sessions on tap for Shop.org’s Summit include:
-The kickoff Bootcamp Monday Sept 21 that talks about social media (is social media really paying off?)
-think consumers are all about saving pennies? consider Gilt and other buying clubs…looks interesting
-no longer bricks and mortar versus clicks…retailers are now multi-channel and I want to hear what thay have to say, if it’s working (or is Amazon eating their lunch?)
-mobile commerce…there’s about 1 billion mobile phones in the world, new uses for the phone include payments and shopping, comparison pricing (when does it hit primetime?)
-can eBay be a factor in the next wave of commerce? (its CEO will talk about trends, but I’d like to hear how eBay competes in the next decade)
These are just some of many, including an expo floor where retailers and vendors look to sell each other their own goods and services.
$3 trillion is up for grabs and how this group decides will effect consumers everywhere. Viva Las Vegas.
once again right on the money Steve!