It’s been a tough year for e-commerce trade shows, meetings, and events. Those of us in the e-Commerce space love to get away from our screens and meet up in person and talk about new technology, marketing, new opportunities, partnerships and so much more – and many of us do it at trade shows or other types of live learning events. As we keep an eye out for virtual opportunities that would be helpful to e-commerce merchants, we’re thinking about new shows and meetings that might allow e-commerce merchants to break out from the typical path of attendance. We’re considering some industry-specific and global events that we might not normally consider “attending” due to logistics or cost concerns. But with more and more “live” events going digital, there are some interesting opportunities out there. Here’s a lineup of events we believe merchants should be exploring; there are many others that have “gone digital” but we like these because we think they will provide unique, new points of view for e-commerce merchants.
And remember…If for some reason they don’t happen in 2020 make sure to follow them on twitter and attend in-person in 2021.
B2B NEXT
If you’re a B2B merchant this is one you should always be attending, even if it’s virtual this year. There will be top decision makers from some of the largest, most successful B2B e-Commerce merchants that don’t depend on Amazon. There’s a lot to learn from these companies, even if they are the biggest – they’ve tackled a lot of the problems in e-Commerce and remain at the forefront of cutting edge B2B online shopping experiences including:
- Grainger
- Graybar
- Fisher Healthcare
Learn more about the event on the B2B Next website.
KLAVIYO:BOS (hopefully)
Klaviyo is a leading e-commerce-focused email service provider (ESP) with explosive growth. They have built and continue to develop an awesome e-commerce email service that completely integrates with many of the most popular e-commerce platforms. It’s a lot more than an ESP, it’s essentially an e-commerce CRM. And, their annual live event is a great place to learn from the best at converting e-commerce web site visitors and list members into shoppers using email, text, abandoned cart, abandoned browse and much more. Great case studies and content from all the top e-commerce platform providers always present real world solutions to challenges that many merchants face.
Although typically held as a live event at the end of August / early September, their virtual conference plans have not yet been announced. Stay up to date with the plans for this event on Klaviyo’s website.
Paris Retail Week
Paris Retail Week is currently “LIVE” but we anticipate a digital offering for USA merchants. Usually timed with Paris Fashion week, this event still looks like it will be an in-person event for mid September. Adding this to the list as Europe seems to be opening up a bit more than the US – rumour has it major EU trade shows are offering US participants “virtual” access. This is a great conference that is helpful for the most innovative retail companies that also have or plan to have e-commerce operations.
Linn Academy UK
Another in our more “global” view of conferences – this September event is very popular with global B2C e-commerce merchants for the last few years. This conference has a reputation for super lively sessions with merchants ranging from startups to big brands sharing war stories and interacting with each other in live panels, presentations, Q&As, and more. Healthy competitive debates abound and although not a B2B centric attendance, this is a new one for us and we recommend it to any e-commerce merchant.
The event has already confirmed it will be virtual this year with more details to come. Follow the website to make sure you don’t miss out on the plans for this event.
Semi Con West (On-Demand until September 20)
Semi Con West is a specialized, industry-specific trade show for global electronics manufacturing and design. There are a lot of companies that conduct e-commerce that are a part of this industry and that are members of this specialized trade group. This is an example of an “on demand” trade show which will have a lot of pre-recorded content and will rely on email and direct messaging for a lot of the person-to-person interactions. The cost is reasonable too.
Ecommerce Expo (UK)
Scheduled between September 29 and October 1, this show looks like a great one – UK based, but easy for US merchants to attend because it’s all virtual this year. Several tracks of speakers including Global / Cross Border Initiatives, Personalization, UX + CRO, and Delivery and Fulfillment. We’ve heard from our UK sources that this is a great conference with a broad range of businesses, vendors, and merchants large and small in attendance. They’ve committed to an impressive agenda, even though it’s entirely digital and its FREE to register.
The Bottom Line
It’s going to be a strange year-end trade show season but there are still great opportunities to learn from other e-commerce merchants. Costs are low and there’s obviously no travel for most of these events. So go ahead and get some of these events on the calendar and make sure you stretch your mind as we wind through the Fall counting down the months until we all met up in person again!
