Empowering retail innovation
Each year, the Retail Council of Canada (RCC) stages its annual conference, better known as STORE. This year, the theme of the event was “Harnessing Disruption”, a concept that plays well to Microsoft’s capabilities as a productivity company with a Cloud First, Mobile First perspective.
The two-day event featured some notable industry speakers and an exhibit hall where nearly 2000 attendees visited with wide range of suppliers that focus on the Retail vertical. This year Microsoft returned to the event with a renewed focus on how we enable “The Customer Journey”. In our booth we partnered with three great partners; Infusion, Orckestra and SweetIQ. With them we developed a three-part story that spoke to each step of a customer’s interaction with a retailer.
SweetIQ is a Microsoft Cloud Partner and ISV that specializes in a Local Marketing Intelligence Platform that helps Retailers: Drive in-store shoppers, Increase online findability, Gain competitive insights and Optimize online-to-offline conversions. analytics on Azure and visualizes the data using Power BI. Their pedestal in the booth was associated with the title “Target”, where attendees learned about how this solution helps to build brand awareness and inform the retailers’ marketing campaign.
Orckestra is a Montreal-based partner that has been integral to eCommerce successes with clients like Sobeys and Panago Pizza. The title for their area was “Orchestrate”, which in addition to having fun with their name, is also the way in which they enable retailers to run their on-line and in-store business through merchandising and marketing solutions based on Dynamics AX.
The in-store element of our booth showcased a mobile POS solution developed with Infusion. Using the scenario of a customer who had added an Xbox to the wish list on their mobile device, we showed how geo-fencing can deliver interactive promotions on digital signage. It also gave us the opportunity to demonstrate how a store associate can use a mobile device to process a transaction. This was a story that really captured the interest of our visitors.
To help ensure a steady flow of booth traffic, we worked with the RCC to learn the names of the companies that would be in attendance. With that information, we were able to pre-arrange a number of visits with clients. Our executives also worked the floor of the conference to connect with industry contacts as a way to engage them in our booth.
With an audience of nearly 2000 attendees, the traffic in the booth was fantastic and generated some solid leads. The event was also a great opportunity for Microsoft to make a statement about our commitment to the retail industry and where we see ourselves in the Canadian market. Working with the Retail Council of Canada, we supplied two HP ElitePads that were used as items available in the event’s Silent Auction. Proceeds from the auction are used to fund scholarships for Canadian students pursuing a career in retail. Our willingness to contribute these devices not only demonstrated our commitment to the future of the retail industry in Canada, it was a nice fit with the ongoing relationship that we are building between Microsoft and the Retail Business undergraduate programs at the University of Alberta and Ryerson University, both of whom were also present at the conference.
With a year under our belt, the plans for next year are already underway. We look forward to an even stronger partnership with the Retail Council of Canada and Canada’s Premier Retail Conference in the coming year.
Feel free to reach out if you have any question:
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