Seen, Heard and Tweeted: The Best of RTC 2013

Whenever you gather some of retail's top executives in one location, it's easy to pick up some great information – from intelligent to humorous, the content is indispensable. At the 7th annual RIS Retail Technology Conference, held April 10-12 at the Omni Championsgate in Orlando, FL, 125 retail executives heard from top retailers including Target, Build-A-Bear Workshop and AT&T Retail, and got first-hand real-world advice on "Relevant Retail: Cracking the Code" in educational sessions and hands-on workshops.

The RIS team also kept its ears open, eyes peeled and Twitter feeds up-to-date to gather some of the sharpest comments heard over the event's three-day span. Here's some of the best of what was seen, heard and tweeted at RTC.

 

"Retailers have traditionally grown by scaling up – buying new companies or expanding their real estate. Now it's more important to get into the head of the individual customer. When you can do that, sales just naturally happen." – Leslie Hand, research director, IDC Retail Insights

 

"Retailers will undergo the most transformative period in their careers over the next three years." – Jeff Roster, vice president, Gartner

 

"Retailers may wonder why they would want to look back over customer data spanning the last 15 years. Maybe it's to more accurately predict how consumer shopping patterns will change when the next financial crisis occurs." – Tim Simmons, VP, retail industry marketing & solutions, Teradata Aprimo

 

"Today in retail, personalization and loyalty happen at the end of the transaction. At Build-A-Bear it happens within 60 seconds." – Dave Finnegan, chief interactive and information officer, Build-A-Bear Workshops

 

"Retail Stores will remain relevant as long as the need for instant gratification exists." – Paul Roth, president of retail sales and service, AT&T Mobility

 

"The people responsible for social media at Cabela's quickly discovered that just posting about a new product isn't effective. What works is starting a social media conversation with a question like 'What's the biggest fish you've ever caught?'. It's been a big change." – Cory Keen, retail programs manager, Cabela's

 

"Retailers need to learn from current events. Who is in the driver's seat in retail? It's not the CEO, as JCPenney found out. It's the consumer." – Frank Zarrello, planning specialist, Retail Systems & Services

 

"Omnichannel is here now. Reinvent the shopping experience, the about the future and not just today." – Rob Baugh, director of store application delivery, Finish Line

 

"The customer is the center of the universe and can achieve their goal on any channel they choose." – Ken Morris, partner, Boston Retail Partners

 

"You are the change agent, embrace your job! Catch the nexus, ride the wave, make the change." – Jeff Roster, vice president, Gartner

 

"The mom of today is more digitally connected than ever before. Behind every digitally connected kid is a digitally connected mom." – Dave Finnegan, chief interactive and information officer, Build-A-Bear Workshops

 

"Traffic is the first aspect, but visual customer intelligence is the other half of the equation." – Paul Roth, president of retail sales and service, AT&T Mobility