Shoptalk is one of the largest and most progressive retail conferences available to retailers. The Remodista team had the pleasure of attending and hosting a slice of innovation for our community.  It was an exciting few days where we explored new retail ideas and connected with some new retail friends. Here are a few take-aways we came home with as well as a recap of some of the events we ran. Take a look!

Marketing and sales expert Jerry Talamantes is back with the final article of his three-part blog series about the in-store Customer Experience. He discusses how stores can leverage the in-store event to create experiences that solidify their connection with the customer.

Meet Stacey Head, founder and managing director of she wear, and a 2018 Women2Watch Innovation Award winner. In this month's W2W spotlight, Stacey talks about how an unexpected accident led to the creation of she wear, a company specializing in safety and fashion footwear for women. Stacey is  one of the biggest disruptors and innovators in retail, and we're proud to have her in our community!

You can connect with Stacey and other leaders directly in our HALO community.

There's no stopping the march of technology.  And there's no denying that retailers have invested heavily in legacy systems.  A clear gap is emerging and in the chasm is the technical debt that will, at some point, swallow consumer-direct companies whole. 

We worked with our partners at Capgemini to learn more about the transition from legacy to cloud-based applications.  Here are a few highlights:

Marketing and sales expert Jerry Talamantes returns for the second installment of his three-part blog series about the in-store Customer Experience. In part two, Jerry shares a few easy-to-implement ideas for small- to mid-size stores to create memorable in-store experiences.

Author, innovator, retailer, marketer and self-proclaimed experience nerd Amy Roche is this week's featured Women2Watch honoree. Learn about how she redefined the in-store experience for retailers and consumers through her company, Retail Rockstars. 

In a world where consumers can breeze through the online checkout process in a matter of minutes, does it still pay to invest in the perfect sales specialist to work in your brick and mortar establishment? Talent expert Jerry Talamantes believes it absolutely does. In the first article of his three-part series about the in store Customer Experience, Jerry explains why sales specialists are still necessary for brands to win customer loyalty and complete the art of the sale.

​Highlighting the success of our community is a key tenet at Remodista. (We’re incredibly lucky to be surrounded by people who deserve highlighting!) In our new series, “Disruption Spotlight,” we will take a closer look at what makes our collection of professionals so special. In our first installment, we’re highlighting Draper James, a lifestyle brand launched by actress Reese Witherspoon. We spoke with Katherine Brodie, Draper James’ Director of Ecommerce to find out more about the challenge they faced and how they solved it. 

From augmented reality to robots to holograms, brands today have no limits on new and exciting ways to elevate their store experience with technology. However, in order to ensure successful implementation, brands and retailers need a strategy for testing before a full-scale rollout can take place. If you represent an organization that is planning to leverage technology to better connect with your audience, there are a few things that you should do to prepare for a successful effort:

• Assess key questions up front
• Build a clear understanding of consumer behaviors 
• Allow for an appropriate testing period