The 2010 Shop.org Online Merchandising Workshop tackled the challenge of achieving online merchandising harmony by embracing the array of available new technologies while simultaneously optimizing merchandising tools that are already in place.  The over 250 attendees at the Shop.org Online Merchandising Workshop enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery of Huntington Beach California while being treated to inspiring keynote presentations, tactical retail panels, interactive roundtable discussions, and numerous networking opportunities.

The workshop began with an evening of networking and fun at our Opening Reception.  Many of the conversations revolved around the growth of digital commerce over the past year and how it continues to play a crucial role in overall retail.  Day 1 began with three keynote presentations beginning with Chris McCann of 1-800 Flowers.com discussing how they have embraced change and technology to improve the customer experience and increase customer interactions.  Chris was followed my Brian Bradley of HSN who shared in detail their strategy of cross channel merchandising.  The morning ended with author and long time Shop.org supporter Bryan Eisenberg discussing his 21 secrets of top converting websites that he has learned in his 12 years working in digital commerce.  The afternoon was filled with retailer panels tackling a variety of hot-button issues including when to re-design your website, tweaking and testing to site optimization, and best practices for online video.  While these sessions were going on, some of our retailer attendees enjoyed one-on-one website critiques with our Doctor Is In sessions that occurred in the Huntington Ballroom.  The education portion of the day concluded with a series of interactive roundtable discussions that were moderated by speakers and other industry experts.   After a full day of learning, attendees enjoyed our cocktail reception and dinner and a special thanks to our sponsors Adgregate Markets and Certona for making this possible.

On Day 2, we had the pleasure of welcoming to the Shop.org community the COO of Buy.com, Greg Giraudi.  Greg offered a detailed description of Buy.com’s retail marketplace, ever-evolving customer and merchant-centric tools, including online video, mobile applications and social media, which have helped the company stay competitive in an increasingly crowded industry.  Greg was followed by a panel moderated by Carrie Johnson from Forrester Research that featured Polyvore, Wet Seal, and Etsy that showed examples of how social tools are being used to create to the new trend of community based merchandising.   The Workshop concluded with a panel discussion on best practices for online photography and a series of Vendor-Retailer Case Study roundtables at lunch in the EXPO Hall.  At these tables, attendees learned specific examples of how retailers partnered with our exhibitors and sponsors to optimize their online merchandising efforts.

We would like to thank our attendees, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors for making the 2010 Online Merchandising Workshop a great blend of learning and networking in a fun, relaxed environment.  We hope all of you that attended were able to walk away a bit inspired and armed with some research and key tactics you can implement to make sure your merchandising efforts are firing on all cylinders.  For those of you that missed it, we have included some highlights, blog entries, and a few presentations from the Workshop for you below.

Blogs.
We are blogging before, during and after the event. Check out the most recent posts. 

Presentations.
Below we have included the presentations we are permitted to share with all attendees. Enjoy and thanks again for attending!

- Keynote:  Chris McCann, President, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM
Embracing Change to Build Relationships and Drive Customer Engagement
Presentation (Large presentation - takes a few moments to load)

- Keynote: Brian Bradley, EVP of HSN.com and Advanced Services, HSN
Customer Centric Merchandising:  The HSN Way
Presentation (Large presentation - takes a few moments to load)

- Keynote: Bryan Eisenberg, Managing Partner at Eisenberg Holdings, LLC and Author, Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results
21 Secrets of Top Converting Websites
Video clip of similar presentation courtesy of Bryan & MarketMotive!

- Tip-Toe, Tweak and Test Your Way to Site Optimization
Moderator: Jason Billingsley, Founder, Flip Retail
Panelists: Janis Lanka, Formerly -  Front-end Manager, Vancouver 2010 Olympic Online Store and Lynn Stetson, Formerly - Manager of User Experience & Product Optimization, Zappos.com
Presentation

- Using Online Video to Optimize the Customer Experience
Moderator: Rob Lane, CEO and Founder, Overlay.TV
Panelists: Pinny Gniwisch, Founder and Chief Motivational Officer, Ice.com and Paul Zaengle, Sr. Director, Ecommerce, Columbia Sportswear
Presentation coming soon!

- Keynote: Greg Giraudi, COO and General Counsel, Buy.com
Marketplace 2.0: Empowering the Customer and the Merchant
Presentation (Large presentation - takes a few moments to load)

- Innovation in Community Based Merchandising
Moderator: Carrie Johnson, VP, Research Director, Forrester Research
Panelists: Katherine Crane, Director, Advertising, Polyvore; Jon Kubo, VP and CIO, The Wet Seal, Inc., and Nizzi Renaud, Director of Marketing, Etsy
Presentation

- Online Photography in the Age of Digital Commerce:  Best Practices to Drive Conversion
Moderator: Joe Barrett, CEO, Sandbox Studio
Panelists: Georgia Christensen, SVP, Creative Director, Talbots; Colleen Stokes, VP, Creative New Media, Coach and Scott Wilson, Director of Photography, Video and New Media, The North Face
Presentation

Attendance.
Not only did we surpass last year's numbers but we crushed our record-breaking 2008 year as well. Check out who made the trek to Huntington Beach.

Twitter.
Yup, we've been chatting up this event but so has everyone else. See what folks are saying about the Merch workshop. Use #Merch10 as the hashtag. Follow us as we tweet.

The Shop.org Promise
We are confident that retailers attending Shop.org events will acquire valuable strategies and tactics to improve their online and multichannel retail business. If not, let us know and we'll refund your registration fee.

Questions?
Contact us with questions or help with registration.

Sponsor/Exhibitor Information
Contact Fabien Rabanal, Director, Exhibit & Sponsorship Sales, Shop.org at  (202) 626-8103 or rabanalf@shop.org.