Sage Pay's Moving Money magazine becomes Internet Retailing Expo 2011 Media Partner

JumpStart your online competition in 2011 - at IRX

Ian Jindal, Editor in Chief of Internet Retailing, considers the challenge for etailers in 2011 and looks forward to March's Internet Retailing Expo (IRX) at the NEC.

For the last few years the pressure has been simply to "be online" and growth would come. The British consumer, however, is increasingly sophisticated and demanding and this Christmas' trading shows clearly that customers:

• will stick with retailers they know and have cause to trust, based on experience.
• are inherently cross-channel, adopting mobile, web, catalogue and store visits with ease, and ruthlessly to their own convenience.
• price is important to get into their consideration, but no longer the ultimate determinant of sales success - customers demand more than simply the best price.

Against these trends we also see that some old marketing truths are asserting themselves: sites with greater traffic can sell more, and for late entrants to the market the costs of customer acquisition can erode margins completely. This is a world of big brands and marketplaces.

Niche, specialist and unique still have a vital place - but we need to work harder. We need capabilities to match the best, ruthlessly capable operations... and then that certain 'magic quality' to set ourselves apart.

With this in mind we've constructed IRX, and we're pleased to continue our longstanding partnership with SagePay to promote it. Over two days, 23 and 24 March 2011, at the NEC we'll focus on how late adopters, high-growth companies, entrepreneurs and specialist companies (as well as the UK's top retailers) can get to 'best practice' in the shortest time, and then improve from there.

Two conference streams, three JumpStarts, six Workshops, 100+ of the best suppliers in the sector, the M-Retailing Zone and InternetRetailing.TV - all dedicated to making 2011 the year your multichannel business flies.

More information at http://www.internetretailingexpo.com - I look forward to seeing you there.