Retail Forward Intelligence System™
2005 Strategic Outlook Conference
Retailing 2010: Five Years Survived, Five Left to Thrive

The Surging Growth of Private Brands
Private brands are not new; they have been around nearly as long as retailing itself. But the convergence of optimal consumer, category and channel conditions has positioned private brands to thrive. As big as private brands are now, their imminent expansion across all categories, lines of retail trade and countries will cut even further into the sales of traditional branded goods. This penetration of private brands will cause a seismic shift in channel power. This session explores retailers' private brand strategy alternatives.

Brands Battle Back
The advantages of private brands for retailers are well-documented, yet many branded goods manufacturers remain in denial about the threat private brands pose. Once manufacturers recognize the threat, they have two choices: Fight them or join them. This session examines what suppliers can do to combat the threat of private brands.

A Future Vision of Multi-Channel Retailing
Shoppers increasingly view Web sites, catalogs and stores as part of the same shopping excursion, yet retailers still struggle to use their customer touch points to create a true multi-channel retail experience. As pressure from low-cost leaders like Wal-Mart forces retailers to differentiate, the world of channel integration offers a virtual greenfield of opportunity for new leaders in customer experience. This session examines what retail leaders are doing today to create a multi-channel future and explores what that future will look like.

Retail Innovation
There has never been a greater need for retail innovation than in today's cluttered marketplace, nor a period of greater opportunity. Significant and rapid demographic, economic, social and technological shifts are creating a fertile environment for new ideas to better serve consumers, steal market share and re-invent entire industries. This session reviews past patterns of retail innovation and focuses on the most promising areas and concepts for the next five years.

Wal-Mart 2010
Wal-Mart will be even more successful by 2010. While the world waits for Wal-Mart to collapse under its own weight, Wal-Mart waits for no one. Demonstrating a remarkable capacity to manage the retail lifecycle, Wal-Mart keeps rolling on. If you thought Wal-Mart was an impetus for change during the past five years, watch out for the next five! Wal-Mart's strategy of innovation is not about creating incremental change. It is about creating new businesses that disrupt traditional businesses. How big can Wal-Mart get? What categories will it dominate? What moves must competitors and suppliers make to survive? This session provides the answers.