2022 Conference Programme

• Assessing where the customer is in the adoption funnel for sustainable solutions
• Understanding and testing ‘The 3 key C’s’ that drive a customer tipping point from existing to sustainable solutions
• Setting up a parallel innovation programme to deliver sustainable innovation alongside business-as-usual innovation
• Understanding the need to migrate the existing product or business P&L to the new shape sustainable one 
• Busting the myths that sustainable solutions will always cost more
• Digesting examples of sustainable fails and wins and what you can learn vs the 3 C’s 

• Achieving a deeper understanding of how a global pandemic has disrupted retail supply chain strategies
• Evaluating how build innovation and agility into your supply chain strategy to maximise resilience in the face of disruption
• Assessing new ways to forecast, partner and reduce costs even in an environment of unpredictability
• Ensuring final mile excellence that will strengthen your supply chain

• Driving retail business efficiencies whilst delivering a differentiated retail experience
• Meeting consumers’ increasing demands for an easy, frictionless shopping experience
• Evaluating how smart solutions are delivering results for both the consumer and the retailer

1. What are customers' expectations of personalisation when their journey is across multiple touchpoints?
2. How should retailers invest effectively in the single customer view and why is that so important for customer experience?
3. How should retailers approach building a personalisation strategy that engages customers throughout their journey and maximises opportunities for profit?
4. What are the key data challenges that restrict effective personalisation and how can they best be overcome?
5. How can retailers ensure their personalisation initiatives are not viewed as intrusive?
6. Which technologies offer the retailer the best ROI for driving digital customer experience?

The interviewer will ask the interviewee some of the following questions :

1. What new trends have we seen in customer returns over the last two years? 
2. How can retailers encourage trustworthy reasons for returned goods and prevent returns abuse? 
3. What does excellence look like in a retailer’s returns policy? 
4. How should a retailer go about communicating their returns strategy to the customer in 2022? 
5. How can retailers best use technology to minimise the impact of returns on the business? 
6. How can retailers best collaborate with delivery partners to minimise the cost of returns
7. How can retailers best integrate sustainability into their returns strategies? 
8. How should returns be managed from an omnichannel perspective? 

The interviewer will ask the interviewee some of the following questions :

1. Which key value-added services are getting the most traction in the UK retail market? 
2. Which value-added services offer the greatest benefits to the retailer and how can they best prioritise them?  
3. How can retailers use artificial intelligence effectively to stay one step ahead of the fraudster?  
4. Which new developments in authentication should retailers pay most attention to and why? 
5. How can the industry optimise the strong customer authentication (SCA) experience? 
6. How can payment providers and retailers work together effectively to unlock the value of payment data?
7. How can payment providers and retailers collaborate effectively on subscription services?   

• Understanding the magnitude of the waste generated in the fashion industry and the reasons why it’s happening
• Evaluating why current methods don't solve the problem and the need of for new thinking
• Embracing the new paradigm shift of Consumer to Business
• Understanding how Amazon & Stylumia are working together to solve the challenge through consumer centricity

1. How is your business utilizing item-level RFID within its supply chain?
2. Before implementing item-level RFID, what pain points did your organization experience within your supply chain and why did you look at RFID to address them?
3. After your implementation, what difference did you see in delivery compared to your original process?
4. What impact did COVID-19 have on your supply chain and how did item-level RFID solve these challenges?
5. Based on your journey, what 2-3 things would you encourage a retailer to consider before making the jump to item-level RFID?
6. How is your organization looking to utilize the technology to drive more value within the supply chain going forward?

• Driving customer engagement through making in store payments more mobile
• Using innovative IT to boost employee engagement and improve staff interactions with customers
• Tackling the technological considerations that will truly transform the customer journey
• Assessing which new advances in mobile terminals will reduce abandonment whilst ensuring connectivity is maintained 
• Evaluating how to reduce costs of acceptance and infrastructure
• Creating a systems architecture that simplifies the transaction process for the store of the future

• Evaluating key uses of RFID that will drive stock integrity and allow retailers to maximize sales opportunities across all channels
• Assessing which uses may offer the best ROI for stock integrity
• The do’s and don’ts of using RFID in a complex store environment  
• Placing the omnichannel customer at the heart of the retailer’s stock strategy
• What could the future hold for RFID in Retail?

• How a winning checkout and payment orchestration converts shoppers over and over again
• Why identity-powered commerce creates more value for both shoppers and merchants
• How opt-in shopper identity can help merchants overcome the unfair advantage of marketplaces
• How opt-in identity will enable checkout, payments, and post-purchase experiences that are consistent and inspire shopper trust  

1. Why did you start Deliciously Ella and how would summarize its journey over the last nine years?
2. How would you define Deliciously Ella today and how is that definition different from 2013?
3. What does the Deliciously Ella community strategy look like and why has it been so successful in keeping its customers engaged? 
4. How has your social media strategy developed over the last nine years and what advice would you give to a retailer undertaking a social media strategy today?
5. What does brand authenticity look like in 2022 and how is this likely to develop?
6. How important is a podcast to the marketing strategy of a retailer and what tips would you give for ensuring your customers engage with it? 
7. How can retailers establish a strong enough brand identity to thrive even in a disruptive market?
8. What key steps should retailer take to become a brand of purpose?
9. How will Deliciously Ella develop over the next two years and what are you most excited about?

1. What level of supply chain visibility is required in 2022 to drive market share and profit?
2. How can retailers move effectively from data management to real supply chain actionable insight ? 
3. How can retailers better understand how every part of the supply chain works together to make smarter decisions and improved ordering?
4. How can retailers automate communications with carriers to ensure information is both dependable and timely?
5. What does the blockchain mean for retail supply chain and what should retailers be doing to embrace it?      
6. How can retailers get real ROI from  prescriptive analytics? 

• Evaluating how to make buy now pay later as frictionless as possible for the customer
• Ensuring the buy now pay later option is effective across all touchpoints
• Ensuring compliance through understanding how buy now pay later is regulated 
• Overcoming the key mistakes retailers make with their buy now pay later implementations  
• What BNPL means for retailers and how to execute a successful BNPL strategy

• Redefining the online and in-store customer experience 
• Improving your customer experience strategy to differentiate from competitors and ensure brand messaging and authenticity
• Making both online and store visits more experiential, entertaining and inspirational through face2face connectivity
• Bringing the best of in-store to online shoppers
• Personalising for your customers today and always
• Increasing sales conversion, reduced cart abandonment and reduced returns

• Why returns are on the increase in retail
• What is the environmental impact of returns and reverse logistics?
• What are the hidden costs of returns and how could these be mitigated?
• What are the opportunities to reduce returns and what are the best practices?
• What are the new and emerging technologies which could help reduce returns?
• How can you reduce the environmental impact of returns and hence help reach your sustainability goals in a cost-effective manner?

1. What are the key benefits of Open Banking Payments, and when will they become a real option for consumers? 
2. What are the key open banking use cases in the market today and how will this develop over the next two years?    
3. What is blocking Payment Information Service within mainstream retail and how can integration and adoption be best supported? 
4. How can retailers best ensure their customers choose open banking as a payment method? 
5. What value does the approval by the CMA of variable recurring payments bring to the consumer and the retailer? 
6. How can retailers consolidate payment options and payment providers to optimise costs and maximise customer choice?

1. How has Coronavirus impacted customer expectations from retailers over the last two years?  
2. Which tools and techniques can retailers use to better understand the expectations of customers in the current environment? 
3. What do customer service teams need to do to meet these increased expectations? 
4. How has the sustainability agenda impacted what customers expect of retailers and how should retailers respond?  
5. How can retailers use their brand identity to meet customer expectations? 
6. How can retailers maximise loyalty when customer expectations are so high? 
7. How are customer expectations likely to develop over the next 18 months and what should retailers be doing today to prepare? 

1. The title of our session mentions perishable products, could you share some more detail around the key differences between perishable vs non-perishable deliveries when it comes to the final mile?
2. Given the perishable nature of your product, how do you go about selecting the right carriers to partner with?
3. Is there anything beyond just selecting the right carrier that makes a tangible difference to customer experience?
4. What else does Hello Fresh use data for in logistics?
5. Are there any other businesses, whether perishable or non-perishable, who you look up to up in the final mile space, and what is it that wins your admiration?
6. How, if at all, has the pandemic changed the way Hello Fresh approaches final mile delivery?
7. What is the innovation you would most like to see to support the development of perishable delivery?

1. What are the key drivers and risks for putting purpose at the heart of business from a colleague, customer and brand perspective? 
2. Given the very real challenges on society with rising costs in supply chain for retailers and increased prices for consumer ….is this being put on hold for a while or how are businesses responding ?
3. There has been an increased focus on ESG from shareholders – which of the E, S or G are companies really focused on – is it not all about the impact of climate change?
4. Can you highlight for those who don’t know, what the Pennies charity does and how retailers can leverage existing payment systems to support delivery of authentic purpose in action?
5. What are the real benefits that micro donations offer to retailers, charities and technology partners?
6. Have micro-donations been used to support the humanitarian relief efforts fall out from Ukraine crisis? Who decides ? How long would it take to change charities?  
7. What are the multichannel considerations when leveraging micro donations? 
8. Is 2022 a tipping point for micro-donations and what should the retail sector be doing today to prepare themselves for the ongoing landscape change?    

The moderator will ask some of the following questions as well as asking the audience to offer some questions of their own :

1. How will the online customer experiences of 2025 differ from 2022 and how can the industry prepare today to deliver upon them?
2. How will AI be used to improve online customer experiences over the next three years?
3. Which recent technology innovations will deliver the best experiences for customers online in three years times and how can retailers embrace them effectively?
4. What will customers expect of the delivery experience in 2025 and how can this best be achieved?
5. What role will social media play in excellent customer experience over the next three years?
6. How will we take the best experiences of stores and translate them online by 2025?
7. How important will AR and VR be in the online customer experience of 2025?
8. What brand values will be a more important part of online customer experience over the next three years?
9. How can omnichannel retailers best compete with the pureplays in the area of online customer experience?

The moderator will ask some of the following questions as well as asking the audience to offer some questions of their own :

1. What are customers’ expectations from delivery in 2022?
2. How can retailers and delivery companies best manage their relationship to maximise efficiencies and reduce friction?   
3. Which new delivery options should retailers be paying most attention to and which new ones are coming down the track? 
4. How seriously should retailers be taking robots and drones as an effective mode of delivery?
5. How will fulfilment by Amazon develop by 2025?
6. How can retailers best keep the costs of delivery at acceptable levels but still meet their customers’ lofty expectations?
7. How can retailers decide on what to charge for delivery in a demanding marketplace?
8. How will acceptable delivery timescales change over the next three years? 
9. What best practices should retailers adopt to maximise sustainability with their delivery strategies?
10. How should retailers best communicate with their customers throughout the delivery process? 

The moderator will ask some of the following questions as well as asking the audience to offer some questions of their own :

1. Which new innovations will we see in retail payments by 2027?
2. What will the self-checkout vs staffed checkout vs walk out landscape look like in 2027?
3. How will the cloud impact the payments landscape over the next five years?
4. Which new payments methods will become expected by customers in five years' time?
5. What proportion of store payments will be cash and credit/debit cards by 2027?
6. How will buy now pay later develop over the next five years?
7. How will retailers be reducing their costs of acceptance by 2027?
8. Which new value-added payment services will dominate the payments landscape over the next five years?
9.  How will payment security develop by 2027?
10. What role will cryptocurrency play in within retail payments over the next five years?