Shop.Org 2015: Change Continues, But Fundamental Consumer Needs Remain

We always look forward to Shop.org each year, not just to share how our geolocation and IP Intelligence solutions can address retailers’ digital marketing challenges, but also to get a bead on the latest trends, commentary and research around the technologies that will most likely influence consumer’s shopping habits and, ultimately, their buying decisions.

While the venue changed from the Emerald City to the City of Brotherly Love, the top concerns of attendees at this year’s show didn’t seem all too different. In fact, we’ve been hearing about the very same issues from retailers for the last 18 to 24 months.

Among the challenges many retailers are still looking to tackle:

• Enhancing the online customer retail experience by truly engaging website visitors on that “first touch” without asking them to take some type of action (i.e. asking for location, device type, connection type, etc.);
• Personalizing content, inventory and messages to show the nearest location of area retail stores that may carry the products a customer is seeking; automatically display products on “virtual shelves” based on where a shopper lives; or spontaneously calculate shipping costs and delivery times based on a user’s city of residence;
• Targeting a larger universe of mobile users in a cost-effective, accurate and reliable way. Retailers are looking for consistency in geographic responses when targeting consumers across devices, whether these mobile users opt in to location-based services or not.

Certainly the innovations around the Internet of Things (IoT) are starting to emerge, and many companies are beginning to think more in terms of the not-too-distant future when it comes to the associated retail applications. Still, without oversimplifying everything we’ve been hearing, it really all does come back around to creating a relevant, authentic and seamless shopping experience for consumers ― wherever, whenever and however they choose to shop.

Not sure where to go from here? Download a copy of our ecommerce whitepaper “At the Intersection of E-commerce and IP Intelligence: Geolocation Strategies for Today’s Online Retailer” to get started.