This year looks likely to be an often interesting one for retailers. While on some levels the economy seems to be improving, the boost doesn’t seem to be fully trickling down to consumers’ spending patterns and retailers are seeking new ways to respond to this.

In December the Office for Budget Responsibility upgraded its forecast for growth in the British economy for 2014 to 2.4%, compared with an earlier prediction of 1.8% in March. But December’s like-for-like retail sales edged up only 0.4%, according to the BRC, and retailers are clear on how difficult it can be to encourage shoppers to part with cash. Retail Week Live in March will take a close look at how the industry is responding to this conundrum.

Jigsaw chief executive Peter Ruis, who is speaking at the event, says: “It’s an interesting year, because the economy is getting stronger, but it’s not like the old days where the economy would go up and down and there would be a consistent response from consumers.

“There’s a strengthening, but there are lots of winners and losers and it can be hard to work out when that strengthening will go to the bottom line.”

He observes there is little evidence of shoppers opening their wallets more readily, despite the improved economic forecast. “There isn’t really a sense of consumers feeling better, even though the statistics say they should. Even things like rising house prices aren’t really improving the home industry,” Ruis says.

Finding an answer to this problem will be a central question for Retail Week Live to address: “I don’t know if this will start to cut through in six months’ time, so a key theme will be about whether the economy will play a more beneficial role in the next year, or whether it will be the same as the last couple of years.”

A connected era

The way retailers are responding to consumers’ careful approach to spending varies, and Jacques-Antoine Granjon, chief executive and founder of fashion etailer Vente-privee.com, says there are two things that retailers must do. One is to stoke desire among consumers, by either creating a brand they want to buy into or selling products they want to buy. The second is to develop a business around their lives, focusing on factors such as convenience and service. He says: “Everything is about the consumer, the desire the brand creates, and how it facilitates the life of the consumer.”

He says another pertinent topic this year will be the evolution of how traditional retailers think about ecommerce. “Ten years ago everybody thought ecommerce would kill shops and we can see now that is not true. The shops that reinvent the way that people shop will be the ones with the brightest future.”

This will be a prominent theme at Retail Week Live - preparing business for ‘a connected era’ will be the subject of Twitter UK managing director Bruce Daisley’s plenary session at the event.

Daisley will share his predictions for the future of digital and the challenges and opportunities for retailers.

As mobile, ecommerce, social media and data all play an increasingly critical part in brand building and customer engagement, Daisley will discuss how retail chiefs can play their part in building a brand for the digital era, how innovation can be brought into the planning stage and how conversations can be turned into transactions.

International expansion

In addition to the wider trend debates, Retail Week Live will also tackle many of the practical challenges retailers are facing in 2014.

Asos chief information officer Peter Marsden, for instance, says one of the big themes for the online fashion giant this year will be its continuing international expansion into countries such as China, where it launched in October 2013. He says: “The big thing for me will be the globalisation trend. It will vary enormously for retailers, but for us it’s about really understanding global customers.”

This was even more of a challenge than Asos expected, especially in the case of China. “It was far more difficult than we ever expected it to be,” he says. “Chinese consumers are incredibly different to people here. They are far more demanding.”

This means expectations are sky high, he says. “They expect same-day delivery, not next-day delivery. There are fleets of guys on bicycles who will come and meet you wherever you want to be.

“The customer tries the clothes on there and then sends them back straightaway if they’re not right, and the guys on bikes all have credit card readers.”

In addition, Chinese shoppers are big users of social media. They don’t, however, use Facebook or Twitter, preferring instead to use Chinese networks such as Weibo. Chinese characters can fit far more information into 140 characters than the Roman alphabet, meaning consumers are used to in-depth communication.

This has implications for the amount of information needed on the website. Marsden says: “From a website perspective you need three times as many images per product, and five times as many measurements. They want every dimension possible.”

Work will continue on improving Asos’ offer in China, which will have repercussions across the etailer’s international sites, says Marsden. “As retailers are getting to understand China and try to crack it, that will impact on how we work with other parts of the world. It will start driving up quality.”

In times of change there is little that is more useful than hearing from peers who are tackling the same issues. Retail Week Live will be the industry’s must-attend event in 2014.

Speaker highlights

• Philip Clarke Chief executive, Tesco
• Theo Paphitis Chairman of Ryman, Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue
• Andy Street Managing director, John Lewis
• Tim Steiner Chief executive, Ocado
• Bruce Daisley Managing director, Twitter UK
• Andrew Robb Chief operating officer, Farfetch.com
• Susanne Given Chief operating officer, SuperGroup
• Peter Marsden Chief information officer, Asos
• Brandon Lewis Minister for High Streets
• Simon Calver Chief executive, Mothercare
• Sebastian James Group chief executive, Dixons
• Euan Sutherland Group chief executive, the Co-operative Group
• Holly Tucker Chief executive, Notonthehighstreet.com
• Shingo Murakami Managing director, Rakuten’s Play.com
• Vernon W Hill II Founder and chairman, Metro Bank
• Adrian Letts Chief operating officer, Blinkbox
• Dan Cobley Managing director UK & Ireland, Google
• Nadia Shouraboura Chief executive and founder, Hointer
• Kate Ancketill Chief executive and founder, GDR Creative Intelligence
• Scott Weavers-Wright Big cheese, Haatch
• Jacques-Antoine Granjon Chief executive and founder, Vente-privee.com
• Peter Ruis Chief executive, Jigsaw
• Chris Sanderson Chief executive, The Future Laboratory
• Sally Elliott Senior client partner, Korn/Ferry Whitehead Mann
• Andy York Ethical trading manager, N Brown
• Simon Mottram Chief executive, Rapha
• Lysa Hardy Chief marketing officer at Holland & Barrett owner, NBTY Europe
• Robin Proctor Group supply chain director, Travis Perkins
• Robert W Foster Managing director European co-head consumer and retail, Jefferies
• Rick Darling Executive director, government and public affairs, Li & Fung
• Peter McAllister Executive director, Ethical Trading Initiative