Focus on “Multi-Channel Shopper” and “Mobile Commerce” The E-Commerce-Center Handel at IfH, Institut für Handelsforschung GmbH, will cooperate with Messe Düsseldorf at EuroCIS 2012. Since 2002 ECC Handel has carried out studies on multi-channel management and is at Messe Düsseldorf’s disposal as a competent partner for designing the content of the Multi-Channel Forum to be held for the first time now.
Even at this early stage trade fair visitors can look forward to a wide and varied programme of lectures from the areas of retail, services and industry.
Describing the concept Elke Moebius, Director EuroCIS 2012 at Messe Düsseldorf, says: “A comprehensive multi-channel strategy is a major challenge for every retailer. By launching this new forum we would like to show ways of responding to consumers’ changed information and purchasing behaviour in a beneficial way and of efficiently dovetailing the individual distribution channels with each other”. She then went on to underline: “We are delighted to have found a competent partner for the organisation and design of the lecture programme in the form of ECC Handel.”
The EuroCIS Forum “Multi-Channel in Focus – Strategies and Challenges for Tomorrow’s Retail” addresses issues and opportunities in multi-channel marketing in depth. The event will focus on questions, strategies, consumer behaviour and customer approach. Consumers opt for different distribution channels to satisfy their different needs. From the shopper’s point of view these channels do not exist side by side but are combined at the shopper’s discretion at the time the purchasing decision is taken. Where consumers purchase at the end of the day depends on a variety of factors. “Prior to roughly one in four purchases at bricks-and-mortar stores consumers have obtained information on the Internet. Addressing shoppers online therefore also becomes a central success factor for traditional retailers,” says Dr. Kai Hudetz, General Manager at IfH Cologne.
Another focal theme of the Forum revolves around “Mobile Commerce” issues. The volume and reach of mobile devices such as Smartphones confronts retailers with new challenges. The mobile Internet is yet again another sales channel that needs to be smartly integrated into the distribution system. “Smartphones will trigger the next revolution because they are taking the Internet to the store. In future consumers will no longer only search for information online before they shop but also while they are shopping,” stresses Hudetz.
Participation in the Multi-Channel Forum is free of charge. EuroCIS in Hall 9 of the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre is open to trade visitors from Tuesday, 28 February 2012, to Thursday, 1 March 2012, from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm daily. 1-day tickets cost Euro 22.- Euro (Euro 15 when ordered online beforehand), 2-day tickets cost Euro 38.- Euro (Euro 25). Students and trainees pay Euro 10. All admission tickets include free return trips to the Exhibition Centre using local public transport marked VRR. For further information related to EuroCIS go to www.eurocis.com.
On the E-Commerce-Center Handel (ECC Handel)
ECC Handel was established in 1999 as a research and consultancy initiative under the auspices of the IfH Institut für Handelsforschung GmbH. The aim is to provide especially small and medium-sized retail companies with well-researched and neutral information on E-Commerce themes. Individual questions of companies, associations and public institutions are answered by ECC Handel in the framework of contract projects. Furthermore, ECC Handel has researched numerous E-Commerce aspects in own studies. It receives funding from the German Ministry for Economy and Technology (BMWi) for specific projects and forms part of the Netzwerk Elektronischer Geschäftsverkehr (NEG) as a sectoral competence centre with a thematic focus on retail. For detailed information go to: www.ecc-handel.de.
Dr. Cornelia Jokisch
