Shoptalk Europe: envisioning the future of retailing

Last week, Shoptalk Europe took place in Barcelona, the must-attend event for retail professionals to keep up to date with the latest trends and innovations in this sector. Nearly 200 top international executives gathered on various thematic stages in round tables and individual interviews to share their experiences with the expert audience from 65 countries and discuss the challenges and solutions for the future of the sector. In three content-packed days, representatives from FMCG companies and brands such as Carrefour, Sonae, Pepsico, Unilever, Danone, Nestlé, fashion companies such as COS, Camper, H&M, Frasers Group, e-commerce giants such as Amazon, Zalando, Ocado, ebay, Farfetch, Shopify, Shein, department stores such as Printemps, M&S, Ikea, sporting goods such as Adidas and Decathlon and perfumery such as Puig and Rituals, to name but a few, shared success and failure stories and the strategies they will focus on in the future.The focus of the event was on the digital transformation of retail to meet the changing demands of the new generations: the millennials and generation Z. A large number of hot and emerging topics were addressed such as Retail Media, the circular economy, solutions for overproduction and waste in food and fashion, omnichannel enhancement, new roles for staff in shops, social media shopping such as video and livestreaming shopping, the metaverse and NFTs, artificial intelligence (AI), marketplaces, artificial intelligence chatbot (chatGPT) with actionable conclusions on the strategies to be defined by industry decision makers.But that's not all: the Shoptalk is a great platform for networking between start-ups and industry players. During the three days of the event, some 20,000 micro meetings were held in a large space specially set up for this purpose. In addition, a panel of experts selected the best startup proposals, which were put to the vote of the expert audience.Born in 2016 in the United States, Shoptalk became the benchmark retail event in that country in just three years. From there, it created a European version of the event, which was held for the first time in London last year. However, the organisers decided to move the event from the banks of the Thames to the shores of the Mediterranean, which has probably also helped to achieve record attendance at this second edition and to reaffirm the city of Barcelona as a meeting place for the future: the next edition will be held again in Barcelona from 3 to 5 June 2024. Take note!

Shoptalk Europe: envisioning the future of retailing

The focus of the event was on the digital transformation of retail to meet the changing demands of the new generations

Barbara Jäger

Specialist in Retail Marketing and Retail Innovation