Social Media Portal interview with Mark Pigou from Internet Retailing Expo

Social Media Portal (SMP) profiled interview with Mark Pigou, show director of Internet Retailing Expo

Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your name and what do you do there at Internet Retailing Expo?

Mark Pigou (MP): Mark Pigou and I?m the show director for Internet Retailing Expo (IRX)

SMP: Briefly, tell us about Internet Retailing Expo, what is it and when / where is the event scheduled?

MP: IRX is the UK?s largest trade event for online and multichannel retailers. It brings together over 150 exhibitors and 5000 visitors from the retail, leisure and hospitality industries.  It provides the most expansive platform of learning opportunities available in the UK.

The show takes place at the NEC, Birmingham on 20-21 March 2013.  Full details and FREE online visitor registration at www.internetretailingexpo.com.

SMP: Who are your target audience and why (who should attend)?
MP: The expo targets a wide range of job disciplines within the retail sector.  It targets IT, ecommerce, supply chain, logistics, customer service, operations, business development and sales and marketing professionals who are tasked with driving growth and strategy within their enterprise.

SMP: Why was Internet Retailing Expo started, and how long has it been going?

MP: It was started to fill the huge gap in the B2B marketplace for a major trade show that would bring together the best practitioners and suppliers in the retail industry.  Online retailing had no marketplace where suppliers could engage with key target audiences within their customer demographic, yet ?Internet Retailing? is by far the most explosive growth channel for modern retailers.

SMP: What is Internet Retailing Expo event doing that?s different?

MP: IRX delivers the most comprehensive education programme of any ecommerce related event in the UK. It has a key focus on ?innovation? in the marketplace and brings this innovation to the industry.  IRX is retail UK.

SMP: Is the event in conjunction with any other events this year?

MP: IRX is what it says on the tin!  However, like all top trade events it evolves as the industry evolves and in 2013 the big new message is ?IRIS? or Internet Retailing In Store.  This adds a new range of exhibitor profiles to the event and will showcase the convergence of online and in store retailing all being driven around the hand held device / mobile phone.

SMP: Why does the industry need this event?

MP: Every industry needs a top-level trade show to deliver thought leadership, innovation and the very latest solutions in a face-to-face environment.  As business interaction gets driven more and more onto digital platforms it is critical that any industry retains a physical touch-point with its customers. Retail even more than most!

SMP: What will be the highlights at the event?

MP: No doubt that the presentation, conference and workshop programmes will be hugely attractive to the visitors.  Throw in several new product launches, the opportunity to have a one-on-one session with ?Britain?s Biggest Fraudster?, Web Doctor sessions, show floor tours and some well earned time at the PayPal BAR and you have all the best ingredients for a truly dynamic event.

SMP: How are you attracting attendees to the event?

MP: Internet Retailing Expo is driven by Internet Retailing Magazine and website.  These are the leading news and information channels in the UK for this market.  IRX also works with all the key retail press and owns the largest retail sector databases in the UK ? no stone is left unturned!

SMP: What are the most important things that attendees can take away from this event?

MP: New ideas!  New knowledge!  New contacts!  A new burning enthusiasm for their business ? IRX is makes them think, IRX gives them answers.
 
SMP: What are the low moments of what you have been doing so far in terms of the Internet Retailing Expo event?

MP: Low moments?  The only sadness we have at IRX is that the UK high street is struggling and we have seen some pretty big old friends go by the wayside recently.  Great retailers like HMV, Comet and Jessops have closed shop but this makes us work even harder to educate the industry and help others maintain a competitive edge, survive and prosper.

SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far in terms of the Internet Retailing Expo event?

MP: The high moments are seeing IRX ?grow? ? already for 2013 we can report a 38% growth in show floor exhibitors and a 43% year on year growth in pre-registered visitors.

SMP: How can agencies, brands, sponsors and other stakeholders get involved in Internet Retailing Expo?

MP: Call us on 020-7933 8999 or email info @ internetretailing.net - it?s simple and we have a great team of account managers waiting to hear from you!

SMP: Have you any early bird discounts (if so when does it end)?

MP: Sadly the early bird discounts are now over ? this is why we keep reminding clients to book early and get the best value.  IRX is still the most competitively priced trade show in the UK for this sector so call us!

Check out a snap shot of IRX 2012 below



SMP: Why is digital marketing, mobile and social such an important talking point and why will it continue to be throughout 2013?

MP: The future of retailing will be built around the mobile device, as it becomes the de-facto tool for digital communication and online interaction.  When you marry that with the explosion in social media the concepts and value behind ?BIG DATA? becomes obvious and nirvana for digital marketers.

SMP: What are your top five tips for retailers?

MP replies with:

• For retailers with bricks and mortar stores, the top tip is to not be beaten by the internet, but bring the power of the web to the store. Using mobile primarily, make your stores an extension of the web ? offering all the detail, reviews, stock information, rewards and provenance of the web. This can be through channels like barcode scanning, augmented reality of simply plastering your web address around the store and giving consumers free Wi-Fi in store.
• For all retailers, integrating in store, online and mobile into a single seamless experience is going to be crucial as shoppers are already not discriminating between channels. But this omni-channel retailing has to be carefully thought through so that the right parts of your offering appear on the right channels. It is not a case of just mobilizing the web and offering it in-store.
  
  
• A rethink in terms of how shops work: is it really right that consumers have to queue up to pay?  Should they not be able to pay through any shop-floor assistant or automated kiosk?  Enabling shop workers to be more informative, do stock checks and order out of stock supplies for immediate dispatch to the customers home, as well as taking payments there and then is one of the much overlooked facets of in-store mobile shopping.  Make it part of the enterprise.  Look at how Apple runs its stores?
  
  
• Work out where ? and indeed if ? social media fits into what you are doing.  What can you gain from it, how will it deliver ROI?  And if you do go down this road it has to be continuous and consistent.  You also have to look at where it fits in with your in-store, online and mobile strategies and glues them all together.
  
  
• Gather data continuously about your consumers on all channels.  Understanding what your customers do in store, online, on mobile and on social, will help you move to offering personalized services and offers and engage in a seemingly one-to-one relationship with your shoppers, as well as tailoring your business ever more closely to what consumers want from you.

SMP: What are the top five things that retailers should be addressing in terms of social media over the next 12 to 18-months ?

MP replies with:

• Understand it!  What are consumers actually doing with social media and how can you leverage it?  And what social media channels are your customers actually on? 
  
  
• Encourage engagement through these applicable social media channels by offering deals and offers, vouchers, latest stock information, especially about new ranges and about sales.  Social is a great way to make stock clearance look sexy and value for money.
  
  
• Encourage your consumers to talk about you on social channels through again making offers and vouchers, offering news about stock and even linking what you do to any celebrity profiles that endorse you.  Getting people engaged enough to do surveys is also a must ? it generates data.
  
  
• Don?t just use social media as a dumb marketing channel, where you simply push messages out to your ?fans?.  You have to make it interesting and lend a degree of personality, a sense of excitement and a feeling of it being worth following your social media brand ? and give them something that will be Retweeted or shared: let you followers market for you.
  
  
• Make sure you are ready to fight issues through social media.  Many companies look at social as a great way to engage with consumers, but should you mess up and a social media storm erupts you have to be ready to fight your corner using social media.  You may only use Facebook, but if any sort of scandal erupts ? for example Tesco and the horsemeat in burgers issues ? it erupts across all social media.  Understanding how to counter this and maintain face (and save the day!) across all channels is now a key issue with business-to-consumer (B2C) social media interaction.

SMP: There is no doubt 2013 is going to be a challenging year for retailers - what do you think the next big developments in the retailers are likely to be and what role does social media have to play in this?

MP: 2013 is going to be a hugely challenging year for retailers, both online and offline.  The key thing to remember is that, while the internet is without doubt part of the route cause, but it can also hold the answer. The web can deliver a hugely rich experience and data, not least through consumer reviews. It can also help enhance the in store experience, which offers the chance for a really personal service. The key to doing this is through mobile, which is the bridge between the digital and physical worlds. And, one of the main elements of mobile is mobile social.

Mobile payments are also going to start to make an appearance over the coming year. How are you going to work it into your business and integrate it into your POS and other back-end systems? You also need to look what you can gain from adopting this sort of technology. There is considerable cost attached to adopting it, and there are going to be many competing ways of delivering it: look closely at what you think your customers are likely to do with it.

The upside to mobile payments is that it offers a new engagement path to your customers: if you are taking payments from mobile, you can deliver receipts to mobile ? and this offers a whole new way to offer services to your customers.

It is also worth bearing in mind that right now the in-store, online and mobile channels are the ones every retailer is looking at, but any retailer worth its salt must keep an eye on what is coming. The next big development is going to be on connected TVs. This offers retailers and consumers a TV platform that can turn marketing from a broadcast into direct interaction through social media and mobile.

Get this right and everything else might be right.  This means that you can start to offer unparalleled service ? and this is what you can turn to social media to publicise. You can also hope that your satisfied customers will also push this for you across their social media channels.

Outside of this, social media is the key to driving consumers to where you want them to go.  Omni-channel retailing is going to be how all but a few retailers will be offering, and social media will be the key way to direct people to the channels you want with specific information and offers.  Social will also be the key to building personalised relationships across channels.


SMP: Best way to contact you?

Hashtag #IRX13
Facebook
YouTube
LinkedIn
Twitter
Google+

SMP: Is there anything else we should know?

MP: Lots! But you have to visit Internet Retailing Expo 2013 to find out!



SMP: What did you have for breakfast and lunch?

MP: Porridge for breakfast and coffee for lunch

SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?

MP: Paid their gas bill? it?s cold out there.

SMP: If you weren?t running or working on Internet Retailing Expo (or doing what you do) what would you be doing?

MP: Learning to kite surf in the Bahamas!

SMP: When and where did you go on your last holiday?

MP: Exuma island in the Bahamas

SMP: What was your New Year?s resolution (how is it going so far) and how are you going to keep to it?

MP: Fat Fat Fat.  Did I say Fat?!  I?m looking at this new two days a week fasting diet.  What do you think?

SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?

MP: Coffee and BBC website for news and sports then sneak a peek at email and diary, groan audibly and go back to the BBC news site.

SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?

MP: Easy? FLY.  I hate airports and hate aeroplanes!

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