Retail Forward Intelligence System™
2003 Strategic Outlook Conference
Retailing 2010: New World Order

Twenty Trends for 2010: Retailing in an Age of Uncertainty
2010 is only seven short years away, but the retail world in 2010 will be substantially different than it is today. Consumer targets, categories, channels of distribution, and companies will all undergo radical transformation. What does the future hold in store for regional malls, Internet marketing, branding, globalization, and trading partner behavior? How will changes in the economy, consumer behavior, real estate markets, marketing practices, and competitor dynamics affect your company’s future? Retail Darwinism will continue during this period; many companies and brands won’t survive. What will leading companies do in order to thrive?

Retail Outlook in an Uncertain World
With the risk of two wars and an oil price shock, the world’s retailers and their suppliers face a difficult environment in which to plan. Economic weakness in the US, Europe, and Japan leaves few places in which to find growth. In this presentation, hear Retail Forward’s outlook for the global economy. How is the retail industry likely to fare in the next year?

Customer Intelligence: Strategies for Acquiring Customer Knowledge
For established retailers and suppliers, the easiest, fastest, and least risky path to increase sales and profitability starts with existing customers. In this session, learn about the techniques and systems leading companies are employing to get inside the minds of their customers. What are they doing to create differential advantages through knowledge of customer patterns, perceptions, and behavior?

Shopping Experience: Clueing in Customers
What will your customers find if they play detective in your stores? Research shows that customers pay attention to the clues emitted by the people and the physical environment they encounter to get a read on an enterprise. How can your company orchestrate its retail mix to send out the right signals to shoppers? This session examines the strategy used by the Mayo Clinic, a world-class health-care institution, to manage these customer clues, and explores the implications for retailers.

Managing Uncertainty: Strategic Flexibility in a World of Retail Change
And so it is. Most planning is done with an eye firmly affixed on the rear view mirror. Nations are rightly accused of planning for the last war; businesses are usually planning for the last big thing. The mean time to the next surprise is getting shorter. Over the coming decade, retailers and suppliers will be constantly bedeviled with questions about how the marketplace will evolve. What direction will competition take? How are consumers going to react? What impact will technology have on the business? Where will value be created in the future? This presentation will argue that consumer businesses will have to address this change through the incorporation of strategic flexibility and the embrace of real options.

Concepts That Count
Which retailers and suppliers are making moves now to position themselves to win - and win big - in 2010? In this session, learn about some of the best new concepts and innovations being developed by retailers and suppliers around the world. What sets these concepts apart from others on the retail scene? How are retailers and suppliers leveraging changes occurring in consumers, categories, and competition? What qualities best position these concepts and innovations for success in an age of uncertainty?