This Friday I will be meeting with some of the senior management from a major branded retail chain in the US to talk about how the web and mobile are impacting their business.  In preparation, I am thinking about key relevant trends.  Here are some that are top of mind:

• Reaching people via mobile as they are at or near a store (for loyalty, specials, etc).
  
  

• Ability for people in-store (again via mobile) to share their experience, comparison shop, and even place an order from the retailer itself or from a competitor.
  
  

• Social discovery of products to purchase via Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and others person-to-person vectors becoming more important relative to traditional advertising and marketing.
  
  

• Rise of group purchasing / daily deals.
  
  

• Merchandising (or is it really attention routing?) via celebrities and others with an existing audience.
  
  

• Growing interest in customized experiences and differentiated or even unique products.

Would love to hear from others what I should be adding to this list of trends impacting retailers both online and offline (realizing that with mobile the notion of “offline” is really beginning to break down).

This Friday I will be meeting with some of the senior management from a major branded retail chain in the US to talk about how the web and mobile are impacting their business.  In preparation, I am thinking about key relevant trends.  Here are some that are top of mind:

• Reaching people via mobile as they are at or near a store (for loyalty, specials, etc).
  
  

• Ability for people in-store (again via mobile) to share their experience, comparison shop, and even place an order from the retailer itself or from a competitor.
  
  

• Social discovery of products to purchase via Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and others person-to-person vectors becoming more important relative to traditional advertising and marketing.
  
  

• Rise of group purchasing / daily deals.
  
  

• Merchandising (or is it really attention routing?) via celebrities and others with an existing audience.
  
  

• Growing interest in customized experiences and differentiated or even unique products.

Would love to hear from others what I should be adding to this list of trends impacting retailers both online and offline (realizing that with mobile the notion of “offline” is really beginning to break down).