With the retail industry digital revolution as the central theme, last week took place in Barcelona the first edition of the Retail & Brand Experience World Congress. RetailApp™ was one of the many participants of this encounter that brought together industry’s main actors and benchmark companies from all around the world. For Gonzalo Almada, CEO of RetailApp™, it was “a fantastic experience”.
“Seeing all the brands, the news, all the interaction between different technology companies, I love it, it’s fantastic, I saw a lot of innovation”, added Almada. The Congress, which took place from May 27th to May 29th, was organized by Fira Barcelona in its Gran Vía venue. The main objective was to make visible and analyze the digital transformation that is happening in the retail sector at a global level.
This transformation into the digital side is a fact that already seems like a tough challenge to the different companies involved. Each of them are facing it in their own way. In this regard, the main topics of the Congress were the following: customer experience, omnichannel and digital, personalization, retail technologies, real state sector, and new models and trends. Thus, the event encouraged the technological debate, innovative proposals and more than a hundred specialized conferences.
More than 210 benchmark companies participated in the Retail & Brand Experience World Congress, companies such as Google, Value Retail, Ikea, Purina Petcare, El Corte Inglés, Carrefour, and so on, and more than 60 startups. This successful first edition ended with around 5.500 visitors, a number that will be the one to beat next year. The new retail tendencies clearly found a new place to meet each other, learn and grow.
The future of retail
According to RetailApp’s CEO, the key to the future of retail is in the personalization of the customer’s experience, of the new generation of customers, both in digital and physical stores. That’s a huge race in which most of the companies are running behind. This is how Almada put it: “Somehow, we are already behind their expectations, so our goal is not only to catch up but also to get ahead of what they want; that’s why the brands are trying to generate excitement inside the store, through digitalization, through the 360 experience with the customers, the ones that don’t see this coming are the ones that are going to suffer the most”.
To overcome this process, which is happening at a global level, it’s elementary to understand what is coming and adjust to it. “We must redesign our stores to provide the same excitement that you can get when you are online, it’s a big challenge; many brands are handling very well this transition and some others are still suffering, trying to find their way”, Almada explained.
RetailApp™, with four years of rapid growth in the retail sector, continues to develop concepts and innovations for the industry. It’s a clear international example of one of the many young companies that gathered in Barcelona, the so called ‘global capital of technology’.
Enjoy the complete interview:
