DCA Annual Summit

What a rollercoaster start to this decade with more change in two and half years than we have ever seen. Long-established, well-loved brands have collapsed, changed hands, stores gone. Administrations and headcount cuts, it has been gruelling. Licensing brands to others, losing unique identities and direction. Consumers under financial pressure, the repercussions that came from getting Covid under control only then to deal with the inflation incurred because of Russia’s war to take Ukraine. But, we’re still here together, looking to win back consumer confidence and find new channels to market, new partnerships and the route back to positive, profitable trading.

So what is next? Over the course of our day together you will get to hear first hand from numerous experts and practitioners who have great inspiration and insight to share.  You will meet potential new partners and trusted suppliers who can help you to grow your business.

It is no secret that repeat customers are more valuable than a one-time purchaser. The world of eCommerce is highly competitive and in order to survive and flourish, companies need to create brand loyalists. But how do you do that effectively?

In this session, we will cover the best practices to increase your LTV as well as take a deeper look into the world of subscriptions

There are a lot of decisions you make that impact how your business operates and performs. But there is also a world around you that has subject causes and events completely outside of your control. We want to show how using data we can account for the world around us giving us better ability to forecast demand thus resulting in a wide range of potential benefits that this knowledge enables.

Founded in 2005, Rarewaves.com is an award winning cross border eCommerce seller of entertainment and consumer products. It recently received The King’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2023 and is one of the fastest growing retailers in the world. During this session, Brad will share the story of Rarewaves’ meteoric rise.

Panel Session chaired by Tim Curtis. 

We have all faced a steep learning curve in these past few years and had to radically overhaul many of our processes to regain our ability to compete on a level playing field with market leaders. What can we learn from our peers and apply to our own businesses? Where are the major gains to be found? What can be achieved in a relatively short timescale? What are the pitfalls to avoid?

Panel Session

In inimitably British ‘coals to Newcastle’ style, many UK businesses view the US market as the one to crack. Some have made the leap and had their fingers burned. Others have carved out a significant presence, albeit with high investment behind them. In this session we look at the realities of entering such a potentially large and fragmented market – reviewing different approaches, what is working and what isn’t, which channels may prove to be the least risky to test – as well as a few new ideas to help you take your brand into this potentially lucrative market.

These days consumers expect to see that their favourite brands are not merely greenwashing, but instead have an honest commitment to managing their social and environmental impact.  How do you starting in creating a strategy for your business that serves your stakeholders and how does your strategy support the global strategy? From our investors to our customers, learn how we ensure that we are effectively setting up and monitoring our pathway to become more sustainable for the future. Mirry will focus on what you need to do to get started, some tips for success and what constitutes best practice and there will be a chance to answer any questions you might have.

Roundtable:

Are you closer to understanding your customer journeys? How? To what benefit?

In this roundtable discussion, we can share the impact that complex customer journeys are having, how we can go about untangling customer journeys and discuss the benefits that businesses have gained – or expect to gain – from understanding customer journeys better.

As people, we recognise the significance of active listening and clear communication. Over half of UK brands are already on-boarding social media listening services to inform their marketing activity. But what about paying attention to your brand’s target market? Without searching endlessly for answers, you can finally utilise a customer’s social media behaviour to drive highly personalised communications. Join this session to understand the power of social listening.

Sophie will present brand new research on catalogues – what’s changed and how it impacts consumers.

Roundtable:

Learn how to shift your focus from Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) to Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) using data-driven strategies. Discover how prioritising CLV can drive sustainable growth for your Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) business.

During these tougher times, it is vital not to allow business growth activity to slip down the agenda. Arguably those who invest now in developing and implementing the right business growth strategy stand to gain measurably as the market improves. But it is vital that the strategy is both well considered and that the business can both fund and manage growth in demand.

Well thought through KPI’s can transform the way you view business performance, the wrong ones can lead you very quickly down the wrong path. Learn how to distinguish between the two and see the difference they can make.

This session will cover getting the best out of your tech stack and how you can leverage on-site optimisation. With spotlights on a mobile first approach, conversion rate optimisation and A/B testing with key takeaways for your business.

Most organisations understand the importance of being customer – not product or channel – focused.  But very few have access to the data we have around the complex multi-channel journeys that customers take on their way to making a purchase.  We would like to present our customer journey findings based on the evidence we have collected.  We can show how insights on customer journeys reveal opportunities to increase conversion, reduce cost per sale and ultimately drive growth.

Panel Session chaired by Allie Oldham

With campaigns costing far more to execute and response falling from many channels, we need to ensure that every penny is well invested. The ever-increasing number of channels at our disposal and the need for specialist skill sets within our teams should never lead to compromise when it comes to consistent branding, tone of voice, and communication style. Whilst there is much talk today on post-campaign analysis, which we all rely upon, here we focus on leveraging and communicating our brand values, ensuring that all of our marketing team members fully appreciate the big picture, in addition to their own specialities.

Roundtable:

How do I know what return I am getting on my marketing spend through each of my channels in this increasingly complex multichannel world of retail. We will discuss proven strategies to understand channel incrementality and how that impacts on attribution.

In this session, Oliver will share:

• Understanding levers to grow for any D2C business
• The basics of attribution
• The current state of attribution
• What GA4 offers
• What to do next! 

We’ll show you why activating TV advertising for your business costs less than you might think … and how 2023 TV trading conditions are advantageous versus digital marketing. Measure and optimise TV performance campaigns just like PPC. Plus, TV ad creative – don’t underestimate its importance and what makes for a great DRTV commercial.

Roundtable:

When we strip back to the basics, we’re all in the job of creating or sourcing products which we can sell at a profit to customers. We are merchants. We aim to build a brand that will make customers prefer to shop with us. We work to ensure that we spread our marketing message to those most likely to be in the market for what we offer. Then, having successfully reached and sold to a customer, and delivered the goods, we then aim to create more sales opportunities with that customer. These days we’re so engulfed in terminologies, technologies, channels, territories and logistical challenges that we are potentially overlooking the basic building blocks for businesses like ours. This session explores how getting back to the basic mission, regardless of channel, can help build a more robust business.

Panel Session chaired by Peter Gardner.

There are many new and exciting tools to improve online sales. These include: one that helps capture buying intent that may otherwise become (yet) more abandoned baskets. Seamless order building prompts, invitations to share news of purchases with others, & other well thought through and effective solutions that work with most web platforms. In this interactive session, our panellists will share their knowledge to give you new ideas to boost online sales.