Shoptalk 2024 Recap: Inaugural Visit, Meetup March Madness, and Topical Insights
We here at Luminos Labs are no strangers to conferences and events ranging from large conventions such as NRF to small user groups like P21WWUG. Most recently, we were an exhibitor at Shoptalk's 2024 US event in Las Vegas from March 17-20, 2024.
In this blog post, we’ll recap the event from the perspective of a first-time exhibitor as an established Systems Integrator in the Digital Commerce space. We’ll cover trends that seemed to be recurring themes amongst software companies, those looking to source solutions, and overall event observations.
If you want to skip to the Insights, click here.
Matt Wozniak and Jacobi Zakrzewski of Luminos Labs.
Why Shoptalk 2024?
As a systems integrator, attending conferences has multiple purposes such as chatting with existing technology partners, exploring new partnerships that align with our mission, meeting with our amazing clients also attending, and identifying opportunities where we can add value to new prospects to help them carry out their strategic aspirations. If nothing else, it keeps us informed on the “pulse” of the market beyond the usual methods, which helps guide our organization in various ways.
This was the first time we attended Shoptalk and also opting to be an exhibitor. This was for a few reasons:
It’s a large conference. With over 10,000 attendees and more than 1,000 exhibitors, there are a diverse range of retailers, wholesalers, software vendors, and services organizations present.
The focus is all about commerce and technology in the digitization sense, but with a nod to physical stores and merchandising for omnichannel experiences. This is right up our alley.
Meetups; more on this later.
The mixture of table talks, social activities, keynote sessions, booths, and meetups mean there is a little of something for everyone. This attracts a wide variety of functions and skillsets.
It is well organized and professionally orchestrated, which makes everyone’s life easier.
Vegas.
Overall, many conferences and events are either focused on a specific industry segment or technology vendor. Shoptalk presents a unique opportunity that has width and depth of participating members while still aligned with our focus on digital commerce. We pulled the trigger; icing on the cake being many of our clients and technology partners were attending and it’s nice to be in person rather than staring at each other through a monitor a majority of the time.
The Exhibitor Planning Experience
Sponsoring Shoptalk comes with a variety of options that can include facilitated meetings, exhibit floorspace, private meeting spaces, dinners, coffee stations, signage, parties, etc. Long story short, the gameplan was for the two of us attending to focus on hosted meetings (20) and walk the exhibit floor to chat with existing and new potential technology partners.
For the uninitiated, hosted meetings are 15 minute 1:1 session in speed-dating style that is referred to as a Meetup. This is mutually beneficial for both sponsoring individuals and solution sourcing attendees; let us explain in a paraphrased way:
Shoptalk has a robust attendee onboarding process that takes you through what to do, when, and why with direct timelines. For those sponsoring and opting into Meetups, you’re to create your personal and company profile that establishes who you are and what you do (provide). On the other end, attendees create a profile that indicates who they are, who they work for, and what they are looking for (source).
Fast forward through other details where both sides of the Meetup must have “swiped right” and then a scheduling orchestration occurs that Shoptalk takes care of. Wait a few days, and boom, you now have your nicely organized Meetups that tell you where to be and with who. It almost seemed too simple to be true.
We knew where to be, when, how, and also had a few small marketing materials made in preparation. Pictured is Cassi Cregar of Bloomreach, a partner of ours, who gave us a birds eye view of the exhibitor floor.
The Exhibitor Execution Experience
As mentioned, Shoptalk is a large conference. However, the scale of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center is quite unwieldy. The Shoptalk logistics and operational teams really nailed it, and it was clear this was not their first rodeo. Video boards, helpful personnel, and the mobile app were all available resources to figure out where to go if it wasn’t blatantly obvious by the flow of thousands of people walking around. As a first-time participant, we spent time getting familiar with the exhibitor hall and meetup space so we could know what to expect:
1/2 of the Meetup Hall. Scaled up Speed-dating!
Jacobi’s slightly intimidated face.
While the exhibit hall and meetup area were packed and busy throughout the main two days, thought leadership sessions, keynotes, panels, and breakout discussions were ongoing as well. While we didn’t hit up many of these sessions, the feedback on them from others we talked to during breaks was that it was well produced, they learned something new, and could take an actionable item back to their organization.
For us, the Meetups were an amazing way to compress so much interaction on an intimate basis into two days. It seemed like everyone understood the assignment:
Show up to the table # you are assigned to for the 15-minute block
Wait for your counterpart, ideally not get stood up
Chat for 15 minutes, with a “low timer” warning blaring over the loudspeakers
Ding ding, musical chairs time. Say your goodbyes!
You then have a few minutes to move to your next table. Hopefully it’s not ALL the way across the hall.
Go to Step #1, rinse and repeat until your itinerary of Meetups is done
Just when you really started getting to know somebody and their org, it’s “Thank you, next!”. But that 15 minutes is enough and time bounds anybody potentially overstaying their welcome.
Many of the participants we got an opportunity to chat with had been doing this for a few years. Since we both swiped right in the planning phase, there was already mutual interest and helped move conversations along with a healthy balance of talking shop along with business. As one Meetup participant said:
“I’m here to proactively look out for solutions that help us achieve our [business] goals and learn from others who have a broader experience than what happens within our four walls of the business. These meetups are a big part of that.”
Throughout any Meetup gaps or during lulls, we, as well as most other participants would peruse the exhibit floor and talk with vendors. Overall, the “business” part of the event was a fantastic experience. We were able to establish a number of new partnerships that will supplement our core offering and enable our clients to make the most of technology, made connections with people looking for help driving and executing initiatives in their business, and got a pulse on the market sentiments regarding where business goals and technology are working (or not).
Whether you are somebody looking for software/services or you are providing the software/services, these quick Meetups are a very efficient way to evaluate if there is a mutual fit with no commitment needed. Either way, there’s a very good chance one or both parties will learn something new as a part of the conversation.
If we did not get an opportunity to connect at a 15-minute Meetup, no problem, we can do it virtually:
Insights
The Meetups, ad-hoc discussions, and other sessions prompted a number of trends and insights. We’ll share our core observations we personally saw patterns of throughout our discussion:
Cross Functional Representation
The wide spectrum of functional departments represented at Shoptalk was great to see. There was a strong mixture of pointed Ecommerce, Digital, IT, Marketing, Sales, and Support teams in attendance. This just goes to show that digital and commerce touches so many parts of the organization and continues to grow as adoption and maturity moves along. Seeing the variety present was telling that all organizations are navigating through the same complexities on how to do Digital Commerce well.
Luminos Insight: A good Digital Commerce function in an organization is as much of a business partner than anything else and requires cross functional collaboration due to Conway’s Law. No matter where you fit on the org chart, involving the rest of the business while not getting too many chefs in the kitchen is a fine balance between autonomy and authority. An identified Product Owner/Manager in your business that owns the digital experience is the cornerstone to it all. When these things happen, we are able to architect, design, and develop the right things that add value to your business - quickly.
Business Models & Size
Not only was there a wide variety of functional titles represented, but there was also an even bigger spread of organization sizes and business models in attendance. One Meetup participant I met with was a $10M/year retailer and another was $5B/year - yet those two organizations had very similar speed bumps they were facing and looking for solutions. Even more interesting was that many participants were a B2C or DTC focused individual, but their organization had a B2B/wholesale part of the business that they were not associated with at all. This was very intriguing and was a topic of conversation in almost every Meetup due to the tech spawl they were experiencing. We would by lying if we said we didn’t find ourselves drawing out high level operating model diagrams with Meetup participants as the conversation got rolling.
Luminos Insight: A business model (B2B/B2C/DTC) agnostic tech stack is now very achievable. This flexibility is available and technology is no longer a major constraint to have a operationally unified experience without making spine breaking sacrifices. Whether your organization is multi-brand, heavy M&A driven, or expanding into new markets - we’ve an established record of engineering a tech stack that is resilient, adaptable, and scalable without reinventing the wheel.
Technology Dissonance
Multi-Site & Multi-ERP Logical Architecture, enabled by Luminos Labs
We met with a mixture of both digitally born and non-digitally born organizations. Generally these entities have either adopted a more customer-facing technology stack or a business-facing technology stack first, respectively. It was very clear through conversations that both were trying to achieve the same goals but starting at different spectrums of the digitization spectrum. Many felt “stuck” at an impasse. Let’s give a few examples:
An online only retailer running three Shopify storefronts starting to get into brick & mortar and warehouse management
A large brick & mortar retailer with a strong physical footprint and operations (ERP, WMS) but only has a marketing website
A B2B manufacturer with six brands, a strong marketplace presence, but no native storefront
Luminos Insight: Businesses we spoke to generally know what to do and why they should do it from a business strategy side. However, how to execute on the technology front while making use of their existing investments that their business runs off today is a common area of friction. Have four different ERP’s and want a consolidated digital stack? Great. Strong brick & mortar footprint but want a leading digital experience too? No problem. Digitally born and now want to get into brick & mortar, but ensure an omnichannel experience for customers? Even better. These were frequent discussions at Shoptalk and displays that organizations are working to minimize this dissonance - we’re here to help navigate and quickly execute.
Systems Integrator Awareness
“Explain what you do and your special sauce…” was a common request at our Shoptalk Meetups. At Shoptalk, there are hundreds of software vendors representing a wide variety of use cases. Given the way digital commerce works, very few software vendors run in isolation as one vendor’s outputs are another vendor’s input in the information supply chain all the way to the front-end user experience. As it would turn out, many of the Meetup participants were not technical and would defer any tech talk to their IT team - an interesting observation. Shoptalk was not devoid of services companies, but the vast majority were the marketing/agency focus regarding CRO, SEO, etc. The systems integrator vertical focused on digital commerce is still relatively immature as most of this work is either handled by the marketing agency or internally within an IT team. However, neither feels natural to most people we talked to, given their complex needs. That’s where we fit!
Luminos Insight: As an engineering focused systems integrator, we’re the common glue between software ingredients by making sure they are working in concert to 1) make your business user’s life easier and 2) provide a seamless end customer experience and 3) ensuring the architecture is resilient and not wasteful. The conversations at Shoptalk were great as it was clear our focus and intention were different than the traditional “agency” and yet not cannibalistic towards internal IT teams, but supplemental without creating a Shadow IT nightmare. With the rise of composable ecosystems, we’re starting to see a shift in the market where companies are seeking out a qualified systems integrator first and then conjoining to find the right software stack for their business needs. If this is an approach you’d like to consider taking, contact us!
AI
As you can imagine there was no shortage of AI mentioned at Shoptalk 2024. Whether this was in discussions, keynote sessions, or on display at exhibitor booths. However, there was a marked difference in the positioning of AI which was great to see. The positioning was more about being “AI powered” as a supplement rather than its key ingredient in terms of their value proposition. Participants noted that they’ve been tasked by their leadership to incorporate AI into their business operations and customer experiences wherever possible. Individuals we spoke to want to ensure implementing AI is not done recklessly, but with intention.
Luminos Insight: We’re not data scientists or large language model experts, but we are exposed to the application of AI on a daily basis through commerce platforms, content management systems, PIMs, search & discovery platforms, and development processes. What we generally see is that using AI and LLMs on public datasets has value in helping with saving you time on things like writing content, but the real power comes in using your data to further exploit your unique value proposition as a company. While leadership may be yearning to use AI across the board in your organization, don’t skip the step regarding data quality and standards to feed into AI. We’re experts at connecting the pipes and plumbing between these systems, but we can’t promise you’ll like the quality of water (data) flowing through them.
Looking Ahead
Post event Ludacris concert @ Mandalay Bay
Shoptalk 2024 in Las Vegas was a whirlwind of non-stop activities and controlled chaos at the same time…some might even say it was Ludacris. Kudos to the operational and coordination teams for making it relatively seamless for all involved.
Would we attend again? Very likely. Would we make a few changes to our approach? Yes, there’s always room for improvement.
See you next time, Shoptalk!