As e-tailers, agencies, and service providers descend on Chicago for this year’s Internet Retailer Conference, optimism and growth seem to be recurring themes across the eCommerce space.

As we gear up for this year’s conference where the theme has shifted from last year’s “avoiding getting you’re a** kicked in a bad economy to kicking a** in a rebounding economy,” here’s 5 key sessions that will feature great speakers discussing relevant topics that can impact your bottom line. So jump into these sessions and countless others, but make sure you take advantage of the great networking and conversations as well.

Session #1: Issues for Top E-Retail Executives
Wednesday, June 9th – 1:45 PM – 2:15 PM
Understanding the New Consumers—and creating a strategy to reach them
Gian Fulgoni, Chairman, comScore Inc.

The Groove Commerce team continues to pride ourselves on our efforts and ability to understand our clients’ customers’ buying experience. As eCommerce shopping becomes more of a regular practice for consumers, understanding and respecting the importance of how your buyers “experience” your website is critical to continued growth and success.

This session will tackle, “who’s buying online, by gender, income and other measures; how groups are changing their online spending patterns; what they’re buying and how much; where they are buying it; and how the always-connected generation will change online retailing soon. This session will provide a deep look into the data behind the statistics—and ideas on how retailers can shape their strategies to fit the shifting market.” (Internet Retailer)

Session #2: Advanced E-Marketing Strategies
Wednesday, June 9th – 2:15 PM – 3:00 PM
Using niche stores to grab opportunities
Paul Boisvert, Lead Product Manager, Yahoo Merchant Solutions
Pavel Shvartsman, Co-Founder and President, OpticsPlanet Inc.

The ability to launch smaller, more focused stores has long been a best practice for a lot of our clients. The SEO value, conversion data, and ability to focus your customer’s attention thus giving you better visibility back into their “buying experience” has allowed our clients to see a strong ROI on these efforts. In addition Groove’s partnership with the Magento Professional and Enterprise Platforms continues to makes these efforts even easier and is an opportunity we will continue to explore with our clients.

This session will discuss, “… the rationale behind such sites, how to identify opportunities, how to create such stores quickly and cost effectively, and how to market them to achieve fast, profitable sales.” (Internet Retailer)

Session #3: Small E-Retailers
Wednesday, June 9th – 1:45 PM – 2:15 PM
Lean and mean customer engagement strategies
Rob Snell, Co-Owner, Gun Dog Supply
Julie Swatek, Founder and President, Scrap Your Memories Inc.

Now it might be a little bias, but we’re really excited about the speakers in this session. Rob and Julie are both long time friends of the Groove family and so shameless plug or not, we’re excited to hear their thoughts around engagement strategies on a budget. The truth is that despite the continued evolution in offerings of reporting tools and various metrics and media for your online business the common truth across all e-tailers is that 3 elements impact your bottom line; traffic, average order value, and conversion rate. Anything else “is for the birds…”

“This session will detail customer engagement strategies that don’t require expensive technology. Our speakers will discuss how to communicate to customers in a way they can relate to, how to increase customer loyalty and order frequency with social media channels and how to use every touch point to keep customers engaged.” (Internet Retailer)

Session #4: Search Marketing
Thursday, June 10th – 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM
The search marketing see-saw: SEO vs. SEM
Jamie Smith, CEO, Engine Ready Inc.
Brandon Proctor, Vice President Marketing, Build.com

My favorite question I get asked when discussing ongoing marketing efforts with a potential clients is “How long do you anticipate I have to do paid search for?”  And my response, “As long as it makes sense.”

Across industries the number varies, but the cliché goal behind PPC is to figure out how to spend 10 cents and turn it into a dollar. And with this mindset, comes the overriding goal behind doing paid search forever. On the other side of the fence sits, SEO the proverbial golden child, which seemingly allows e-tailers to acquire customers/sales at “no cost” per click. The truth is anyone doing this correctly knows they are spending dollars in some form or another, it’s just a question of whether your checks are going to the boys at Google (excuse me while I forget other search engines for now) or your SEM & SEO partner. Where good e-tailers differentiate themselves from great e-tailers is using the analytics and data available to you from your paid search to help shape your SEO strategy. (Insert shameless plug: If you’re not taking swing by Booth 744 ☺ and we ‘ll be happy to explain this school of thought some more).

I’m excited to hear Jamie and Brandon discuss how these two elements can coincide and exponentially drive your business to the next level when managed, studied, and understood.

This session will discuss, “Almost all online retailers use pay-per-click search engine marketing while also optimizing their web sites’ pages to rank high in search engines’ natural results. But there is often debate as to which works better. The answer is both, depending on such factors as the e-retailer’s budget, the quantity of merchandise available, the season and others. This session will walk retailers through how to analyze which approach to prioritize given your own situation.” (Internet Retailer).

Session #5: Social Media
Thursday, June 10th – 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM
Putting on your best face: How to design effective brand pages on social media
Vibhav Prasad, Vice President, Web Marketing and Merchandising, 1-800-Flowers Jon Kosoff, Director of Ecommerce & Direct Marketing, Wet Seal Inc.

Come on you thought I’d pick 5 sessions and not one would talk about everyone’s favorite buzzword of the last two years? But before you plan your trip to pay homage to Mark Zuckerberg or begin a tweeting spree that will have you in rehab before the holiday shopping season, attend this session.
We are constantly looking at Social Media and how it can impact our clients. However, the key is to identify these networks and communication channels as new areas to establish a new presence and engage current and new customers in a new kind of way. How you speak to them and how you look to them will ultimately determine your ability draw your Social Media Strategy back to one of those 3 driving principles that stand to impact your business.

This session will cover, “The online retailing industry has established design standards for sites that create sales. But now retailers face new challenges in designing social media sites that engage consumers and encourage them to buy. Our speakers have created compelling social media sites. They will discuss the elements of effective social media design, the trial-and-error to create sites that consumers like and what changes they anticipate as retailers and consumers become more sophisticated in their social media usage.” (Internet Retailer)

So here’s to a great show and some great momentum as we enter the second half of 2010. While you’re in between sessions or overwhelmed from everything you heard at one, stop by Booth 744 and visit with us. We’d love to hear about your experience at the show and tell you more about the exciting things going on with Groove Commerce and our clients.