• Programme Overview
• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• World Retail Hall of Fame
• Retail Futures Challenge
• Retail Study Tours

Day Three - Friday 21 September 2012

07.45-08.45
Breakfast briefings x2

 

09.00-10.00
Choice of 5 sessions

 

Session 1
The challenge of private label: how to establish a point of difference in a commoditised world
Retailers are increasingly battling against the commoditisation of their branded product ranges or the price-cutting of their rivals who stock exactly the same brands. Private label has long been recognised as the way retailers can protect and build their margins but also their exclusivity. Across a number of product categories, private label is now moving towards a far more sophisticated level that is even allowing retailers to consider internationalising their private label. This session brings together a cross section of retailers who have shown how private label is helping create that all important point-of-difference and a strong platform for future growth.
Panellists include:
Janet Grove, Former Vice Chairman of Macy's INC, Chairman & CEO of Macy's Merchandise Group
Ken Murphy, Chief Operating Officer, Alliance Boots

 

Session 2
Sustainability and trust: hard to deliver and hard to win, but essential for modern retailers
Despite several years of economic downturn that would appear to have pushed sustainability issues further back down the retail agenda, consumer research tells us otherwise. Consumers are increasingly favouring those companies and brands that they trust and this can often start with a sense that a retailer has the right approach to corporate responsibility. What does the latest research say about this important issue and how should retailers reappraise their strategies to be good corporate citizens.
Chaired by Michael Jary, Worldwide Managing Partner, OC&C Strategy Consultants
Ian Cheshire, Group Chief Executive, Kingfisher
BS Nagesh, Chairman, Shoppers Stop

 

Session 3
Successful international expansion models - one size fits all?
With the rapid pace of change across so many markets, retailers must constantly reappraise and tailor their business model to the market. Company-owned operations, franchising or licensing or local partnerships can figure across a retailers' international portfolio but what is the best formula for guaranteeing successful operations across multiple markets? This panel session brings together highly experienced international retailers to share their knowledge and experience.
Chaired by Jeff Klinefelter, Managing Director and Head of Equity Research, Piper Jaffray
Simon Marshall, CEO, Fawaz Alhokair Fashion Retail

 

Session 4
PeopleShop: Patterns and Portraits of Today's Shoppers
People live, work, play and shop. Let's take a close look at people across countries in Western Continental Europe and North America to better understand how and why they behave the way they do. What are their attitudes, behaviors and motivations across categories and channels? How have emerging channels shifted shopping patterns? How do journeys vary as people shop in different categories? Learn, for the first time, how people shop differently within, and between, some of the most advanced retail markets in the world.
Giles Hedger, Group Managing Director & Chief Strategy Officer, Leo Burnett Group UK
Masha Sajdeh, SVP Strategy Director, Leo Burnett / Arc Worldwide

 

Session 5
Digital workshop in Customer Experience Lab
The In Store experience workshop

 

10.00-10.15
Refreshments

 

10.15-11.30
World Retail Congress keynote address:
Tomorrow's Global Cities: what future for shops and shopping centres?
The dramatic shift to urbanisation across the world is leading to a growing number of mega-cities, forcing architects and planners to re-think the way we lead our lives, and the role and influence of the physical space around us. Retailing has always been at the heart of urban living but how is this changing, particularly in an era being re-shaped by digital communications and technologies? In this
special World Retail Congress keynote address, we welcome one of the world's leading architects and urbanists, who has produced award-winning buildings and city plans around the globe, to give his thought-provoking insights into the future of retail within urban environments
Introduced by: Paul Finch, Chairman, the Design Council Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment
Speaker: Sir Terry Farrell, Founder, Farrells

 

11.30-12.00
Exclusive Research: The World's Most Popular Retailers report 2012
The World Retail Congress is delighted to unveil the second annual OC&C/World Retail Congress Retail Proposition Index based on interviews with 15,000 consumers in 6 key global markets. This important annual survey looks at which retail brands consumers rate and trust more highly than any other and what lessons should be drawn from the results. Who are the risers and fallers year-on-year and why?
Presenting the results
Michael Jary, Worldwide Managing Partner, OC&C Strategy Consultants

 

12.00-13.30
Roadmap for the future: so how can retailing build a sustainable future?
To close the 2012 World Retail Congress, this final session will include keynote addresses from 2 leading retail figures who will set out their personal retail manifestos for successful strategies for an uncertain world. And bringing this session to a close, they will be joined by a panel of senior industry figures who will help provide a checklist of ideas for delegates to take back to their own businesses.
Speakers and panellists include:
Charlie Mayfield, Chairman, John Lewis Partnership

 

13.00
Close of 2012 Congress

 

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