For those who’d like to boost their knowledge of the potential of m-commerce, the Mobile Shopping Europe conference later this month is a must. Taking place 31^st January – 1^st February at the Hilton London Bankside, the event shines a spotlight on exactly how far m-commerce has progressed, and what leading brands and retailers are aspiring to next.

The two-day conference and exhibition will bring together the sharpest minds in m-commerce from around the world, to advise and inspire. Speakers from Facebook, Vodafone, Google, Adidas, John Lewis, Canon, Virgin Media, Lidl, Amazon and more will give their take on how the channel is advancing, the challenges faced, and key learnings achieved in recent years. Delegates can also expect a focus on the next wave of tech and behavioural developments affecting m-commerce – social commerce, wearables, mobile payments, the convergence of offline and online, to name a few.

This content-rich event really has an eye on the future of m-commerce, and the kinds of innovations that will shape it.

What’s on the agenda?

Day One opens with the Editor’s Welcome Speech, where Lucy Bradley, Editorial Director of Worldwide Business Research, will set the scene, and outline what’s coming up over the next 48 hours.

Our own Chris Field – CEO, Retail Connections – will be on hand as chairman and will introduce a host of high profile m-commerce experts. He’ll also chair a panel discussion, exploring the vital imperative of driving profitability through the mobile shopping channel, while keeping customers fully engaged and happy.

User experience and customer engagement

Keynote speaker Stuart McMillan, Deputy Head of E-Commerce at footwear retailer Schuh delivers a fascinating presentation entitled ‘Lessons learnt from legacy’. He’ll be discussing how traditional retailers can take advantage of their heritage to fully harness the advantages that mobile can offer.

Later in the day David Ironside, Senior Product Manager at ASOS.com explores the issue of simplicity, asking: ‘How can you further enhance your UX with visual search functionalities that take personalised product discovery to the next level?’

Want to master mobile marketing?

Day Two is equally packed with powerful content. Don’t miss the morning panel discussion on how to master mobile marketing. This brings together John Connelly, Senior Manager, Digital & eCommerce, Coca Cola, and Mark Apter, eCommerce Innovation Lead at L’Oreal. They will grapple with the issue of how leading brands are leveraging the 24/7 mobile shop window, to educate, inform and drive consumers in-store – something multichannel retailers really must master in the coming years.

Expect a big crowd for the morning keynote delivered by Mario Viviani, Technology Evangelist, Amazon. He’ll be looking into voice search – the new frontier in online discovery, and asking: ‘How can you blend your visual digital services with voice to provide the optimum customer UX?’

Monetising mobile

There is also a session on ‘Streamlining Customer Service to Better Monetise Mobile’. For this, speakers from Google, Adidas and John Lewis will focus in on how to increase conversations and conversions with m-commerce, and how to streamline customer journey while staying on brand, and continuing to meet wider business objectives.

Julie Austin, Head of Ecommerce at Mamas & Papas certainly has her eye on the future. She’ll be sharing a ‘Futuristic Case Study’ and discussing how to better engage with your shoppers on their personal devices. Her thinking is that much more attention must be given to meet expectations of increasingly tech-savvy customers and drive conversions on big ticket items.

The afternoon (on both days) takes the form of workshop streams that offer a rich choice of subjects. The aim is to explore very specific disciplines within the m-commerce space, with case studies and the opportunity to ask questions and learn directly from the experts.

Future-proof your m-commerce strategy

We’re on the cusp of a big push towards m-commerce excellence in Europe. Are you on board? This is the newest, most innovative channel in retailing and there is a lot to learn. Mobile sales are forecast to increase by 85% in Europe and retailers are looking into how best to capitalise on this exciting mobile-first landscape. If you want to be ready, make sure you attend Mobile Shopping 2018. We’ll see you there!

You can download the Maximising Mobile benchmarking report here. Retailers facing the next stage of m-commerce investment, fine-tuning and growth will find the report an excellent benchmarking tool.

Mobile Shopping is taking place on the 31^st January and 1st February 2018 in Hilton London Bankside. Find all the details here.

Retail Connections readers can get 15% off the total price of a ticket to Mobile Shopping by using the code MSRC18 when booking here.