Web Design & Merchandising Summit

08:00 - 08:30 Networking Breakfast & Registration

08:30 - 08:40 Welcome Remarks & Benchmark Survey


08:40 - 08:55 Chairperson’s Opening Remarks for Summit

Donald Foss, CEO at Blue Triangle Technologies

Donald Foss

CEO
Blue Triangle Technologies

08:55 - 09:25 Keynote: The Science Of Website Design – Merging Creativity And Experimentation For Better User Experience


Stephanie Pertuit, VP Customer Experience at Blinds.com

Stephanie Pertuit

VP Customer Experience
Blinds.com

09:25 - 09:55 Keynote Panel Discussion: Evaluating The Trade-Offs Of Responsive vs. Adaptive: Selecting The Best Approach For Your Business

Consumer expectations are so high these days- if they use one device to interact with your brand, they demand (not even expect) the same experience on another. Take an in-depth look at different design approaches to ensure you are crafting digital experiences that exceed your customer’s expectations. Weight the pros and cons of responsive vs. adaptive as our panelists reveal their strategies.

Did you go native? A hybrid version? Did you go mobile web?
Why did you decide to go this route? What factors should be considered?
When should someone be considering making this change?
Are you using responsive or adaptive design?
How do you evolve a non-responsive site to a responsive site? What was your journey?
What pitfalls should be avoided with either strategy? What were your lessons learned?
Tari Huddleston, Director eCommerce & Digital Strategy at VF Corp.

Tari Huddleston

Director eCommerce & Digital Strategy
VF Corp.

Scott Perry, Director eCommerce at Jerome's Furniture

Scott Perry

Director eCommerce
Jerome's Furniture

Frank Dalton, Senior User Experience Strategist at Perficient

Frank Dalton

Senior User Experience Strategist
Perficient

09:55 - 10:10 Examining The Top Site Search Best Practices For Greater Customer Engagement

In this session we'll talk about tried & tested site search practices that can dramatically impact customer engagement for online retailers. The session will touch upon top usability guidelines as well as recent innovations in site search and how these have impacted customer engagement & conversions for various retailers.



Monal Patel, SVP Sales at UNBXD

Monal Patel

SVP Sales
UNBXD

10:10 - 10:35 Keynote: Evolving Your Site Merchandising Strategy To Engage And Convert Customers

Online revenue for Carolina Rustica, a leading furniture retailer, has increased over 25% YOY with an increased emphasis on merchandising. In-store traffic has realized a doubling of conversion rates due to better online merchandising that drives brick and mortar purchases from the website experience. And Carolina Rustica has been recognized as a “Beyond the Top 100” achiever by Furniture/Today for the last two years due to its omni-channel merchandising vision. This session is an opportunity to redefine product merchandising in an analytical fashion that will appeal to marketers, webmasters and even heads of finance. Richard will review this process in detail, in the context of a 10 year pioneering effort in omni-channel evolution.

Recognize that your home page, product categories and site taxonomy are the first determinants in your merchandising strategy
Base your site merchandising on empirical data provided by your analytics program AND in-house marketing and financial objectives
Use on-site data provided by ALL third party technology partners to find the hidden gems: on-site search, product reviews, Q&A, email campaigns, chat, and abandoned carts
Look to offline sources for valuable input into creating an engaging merchandising experience: in-store sales, telephone inquiries, and press mentions as well as off-site social cues

Richard Sexton, CEO at Carolina Rustica

Richard Sexton

CEO
Carolina Rustica

10:35 - 11:00 Keynote: Optimization Of Payment Pages And On-Boarding Flows For High Involvement Products

Ancestry.com typically requires a high level of engagement and usage. When people first come to Ancestry they want to prove something or discover something new but that can be challenging when they don't know what they don't know. The company created an onboarding wizard to reduce the barriers to engagement by focusing on what visitors know and translating that into a feeling of confidence about using our product. That positive experience drives subscription purchases and will lead to a journey of family history discoveries. At the payment step, they focused on reducing friction and creating incentives to continue the final purchase step. Developing new ways to introduce and onboard customers to their product lifted conversion by double digits.

At the bottom of the conversion funnel at the time of payment, we have found ways to increase sign up conversion in A/B tests 3-6% by focusing on reducing friction and targeting forms based on user intent.

Attendees will learn about how they broke a complex problem into small steps and optimized each of them to increase conversion and revenue.

Learn how to analyze payment pages to improve conversion at the point of online sale
See how qualitative techniques and tools can help you understand quantitative behavioral
data
Top quantitative A/B testing opportunities on a payment page
Learn how to take a complex product and simplify it to engage customers early
Laura Dansbury, Director Product Management at Ancestry.com

Laura Dansbury

Director Product Management
Ancestry.com

11:00 - 11:30 Coffee & Refreshments


11:30 - 12:20 Interactive Usability, Testing & Design Workshop: Tips And Recommendations To Optimize Your User Experience

This super interactive, hands-on session focuses on three different levels of user testing AND a free evaluation of your mobile site performance. Take away best practices to overhaul your site, and enter to win a chance for FREE USABILITY SOFTWARE WORTH OVER $5000! Looking for impartial feedback on your site usability from leading usability experts? This session is for you!

Go beyond theory and look at real world examples in action – both desktop and mobile
Key takeaways that can help drive more revenue for your business
Tangible usability tips in a multi device world
Greg Johnson, Operating Partner &  VP User Experience and Design at Digital Fuel Capital

Greg Johnson

Operating Partner & VP User Experience and Design
Digital Fuel Capital

Erick Barney, Former VP Marketing at Motorcycle Superstore

Erick Barney

Former VP Marketing
Motorcycle Superstore

12:20 - 12:35 Design Technology Session - Oculus360

Learn about the latest technology innovations in this high impact presentation.

12:35 - 13:00 Keynote: Let’s Hold Hands: Branded Conversion

Managing a brand experience across channels for one brand is a challenge - now multiple that by twelve! Dig into this challenge with Kelley and find out how IHG approaches branded online conversion through a combination of content, brand service design and usability.

Brand experience design and conversion optimization require continuous care and imagination - real value is created when making the sale also makes the customer happy. Kelley will talk about her philosophy of branded conversion, how IHG’s global digital team approaches design and how love - customer love, that is - really does conquer all.

Kelley Mitchell Price, Director Digital Experience & Design at IHG

Kelley Mitchell Price

Director Digital Experience & Design
IHG

13:00 - 13:55 Lunch & Networking For All Attendees


13:55 - 14:30 Usability Panel Discussion: Rethinking Usability Testing And Focusing On Long-Term ROI Drivers For Your Organization

If you are going to test, what is it that you do first? How are you structuring and executing your tests? Our usability specialists review best practices, including keeping testing as a key focus area for your business, using the appropriate KPIs with your test results and the means to communicate the results internally to improve your overall customer experience.


How are you structuring your tests, and who is involved?
How to think about internal communication and how UX fits into the larger organization?
How are you thinking about ROI from a UX perspective?
What KPIs are you using?
Laura Dansbury, Director Product Management at Ancestry.com

Laura Dansbury

Director Product Management
Ancestry.com

Jeff Palumbo

North America eCommerce Optimization Lead
Lenovo

14:30 - 14:55 How Modcloth Is Tackling Fit

With the online retail industry seeing 50% of return rates attributed to fit, ModCloth is tackling fit satisfaction head on. ModCloth has always been a brand that’s led by their customers. They listen very closely and in return, have provided platforms for her to have a voice and to be a part of our company. Their engaging crowdsourcing programs have not only built brand loyalty, but can suggest product based on her measurements and help their community find products that she not only loves but that flatter her body. 78% of all ModCloth products have reviews, and 58.5% have customer measurements.

Gathering data from these programs allows their lean, responsive supply chain to act quick and constantly improve upon the assortment and the fit details they are providing.

How to use and interpret data gathered through crowdsourcing features to gain an
understanding of the size and quantity of products to carry
Leveraging consumer insights to understand what fit means to her and how she shops with
her measurements in mind to drive sales and profitability
Sharing their approach to perfecting fit by constantly learning from and partnering with our
key vendors to put the best assortment forward
Nicole Haase, Senior Director of Merchandising at ModCloth

Nicole Haase

Senior Director of Merchandising
ModCloth

14:55 - 15:30 Merchandising Panel Discussion: The Importance Of Online Assortments To Allow Your Customers To Easily Find Products And Complete The Sale

Optimizing your online merchandising strategies is critical to providing an optimal customer experience. Learn how both B2C and B2B brands tackle this challenge head on, and leave with detailed tactics to ensure your programs facilitate a quick and easy shopping experience.

What is the strategic importance to your business to expand your assortment?
How can data power this?
What is your current online merchandising strategy?
What is driving this change for your business?
Richard Sexton, CEO at Carolina Rustica

Richard Sexton

CEO
Carolina Rustica

Courtney Maglaras, Site Merchandising Manager at Nastygal

Courtney Maglaras

Site Merchandising Manager
Nastygal

Sada Kshirsagar

Product Management & Data Science – eCommerce
The Home Depot

Amanda Kendrick, Director eCommerce at Pep Boys

Amanda Kendrick

Director eCommerce
Pep Boys

When creating your user experiences, how do you balance promoting and enhancing brand health while driving eCommerce? What is the difference? What are the considerations? Do you have to choose one or the other? Charis reviews user experience optimization in this dynamic session.
Charis Márquez, Head of eCommerce and Digital, Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard at Sears Holding Corporation

Charis Márquez

Head of eCommerce and Digital, Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard
Sears Holding Corporation

15:55 - 16:30 Afternoon Coffee & Refreshments


16:30 - 17:15 Conclusion Of Merchandising, Design, & Usability Summit

17:15 - 17:59 Retailer-Only Networking: Meet With Retail Peers From Similar Sized Organizations- Find Your Match

Kick start the conference with tons of retail contacts. Meet with retailers who are in similar size organizations to network and discuss challenges (and solutions). Spaces are limited for each workshop.

1. 0-25 million in online revenues – Hosted By Brandon Finch, Director eBusiness, Jelly Belly

2. 25 – 100 million in online revenues – Hosted By Shana Kelly, Digital Marketing Manager, Black Lapel

3. 100 – 500 million in online revenues – Hosted By Jodi Kahn, Chief Consumer Officer, FreshDirect

4. 500 million in online revenues – Hosted By Traci Inglis, VP CRM and Research, JustFab, Sean Popen, Sr Director, Ecommerce Marketing, Office Depot
Danielle Harvey, Director Customer Insight and Optimization, Wyndham Worldwide

17:59 - 18:00 Conclusion Of Retailer-To-Retailer Networking Workshops

Kick start the conference with tons of retail contacts. Meet with retailers who are in similar size organizations to network and discuss challenges (and solutions). Spaces are limited for each workshop.

1. 0-25 million in online revenues – Hosted By Brandon Finch, Director eBusiness, Jelly Belly

2. 25 – 100 million in online revenues – Hosted By Shana Kelly, Digital Marketing Manager, Black Lapel

3. 100 – 500 million in online revenues – Hosted By Jodi Kahn, Chief Consumer Officer, FreshDirect

4. 500 million in online revenues – Hosted By Traci Inglis, VP CRM and Research, JustFab, Sean Popen, Sr Director, Ecommerce Marketing, Office Depot
Danielle Harvey, Director Customer Insight and Optimization, Wyndham Worldwide

18:00 - 19:00 eTail Official Welcome Reception For All Attendees Sponsored by Certona


19:00 - 23:59 Registration Closed