Our retail team spent last week in New York City, first enjoying the company of more than 500 clients and colleagues during Forrester's Consumer Forum, and later discussing multichannel retailing with 500 Shop.org members. You'd think that after five days and nights of speeches, panels, conversations, and cocktails, I'd be full of newfound wisdom, ideas, and industry scoop. Well, I am. But more important, my week in New York reminded me that the best thing about my job is the people. So hats off to some of the people who inspired me ¿- and our industry ¿- last week:

To Amy Curtis-McIntyre, VP of Marketing for JetBlue Airways, for showing how to behave in a world fraught with ethical lapses and business pressures. Her candor in discussing how JetBlue is handling its privacy crisis drew applause from the crowd during a Forrester panel discussion about consumer loyalty. "We made a mistake; we are dealing with it," said Curtis-McIntyre.

To Alan Lacy, Chairman and CEO of Sears, for getting multichannel retail. It's one thing to turn around a struggling $40 billion retailer, but it's another to fully understand how to take advantage of the Internet ¿- and to do so within such a large organization. "Sears is Sears, regardless of how you experience us. We're happy to be evolutionary, not revolutionary," said Lacy. Sears is creating a great multichannel shopping experience by integrating channels, tapping its Lands' End Internet talent, upgrading its POS systems, and relaunching sears.com.

To Michael Dell, for giving people what they want. Dell pioneered the build-to-order PC market, changing how people buy PCs and proving that mass customization works. This roll-your-own trend will accelerate, particularly in apparel, autos, electronics, and home furnishings, as today's tech-wise youth move up the income ladder and become tomorrow's "custom consumers." Dell's not standing still; It's entering the consumer electronics market, promising to make it easier for the masses to enjoy everything digital.

To Jeff Bezos, for founding Amazon.com. While we didn't chat with Bezos last week, we did talk to him and other Amazon executives this summer to research our report, The Future Of Amazon.com, and Mark Stabingas, VP of worldwide business development and services sales discussed Amazon's strategy at our Forum. Nearly everyone we met this week wanted to talk about Amazon -- and there's plenty to discuss as the company navigates some tricky shoals. If you want to learn more about Amazon, watch Carrie Johnson's VideoView for The Future Of Amazon.com   

Finally, thanks to everyone else we saw. Our retail team had a terrific time and headed home loaded with ideas, insight, and optimism about this great industry we all know and love.


Kate Delhagen
Principal Analyst, Retail

P.S. As of October 1, I'm heading back to the frontlines to do some research. During the next few months, I'll be developing some smarter store case studies and looking at key multichannel retail technologies like kiosks and POS systems. Send me an email to volunteer your stories or make research suggestions.

Research Referenced In This Issue If you printed this email, get links to the research featured in this week's issue by going to www.forrester.com/go and entering the five-digit number of the report you'd like to read. 2003 US Online Holiday Sales: Merrier Than Ever (32618) Canadian eCommerce Sputters Along (32312) Dell: Welcome To CE. Here's What To Do (32768) Do Your Shoppers Want Custom Products? (16844) Email Metrics Beyond Opens And Clicks (16727) How To Sell Consumer Electronics (16080) Jump-Starting RFID Initiatives With Hosted Solutions (32739) Multichannel Best Practices: Sears And REI (15485) Privacy Red Alert: Learn From JetBlue's Crisis (32737) Sears + Lands' End = Multichannel Success (15086) Smart Screens Boost Stop & Shop's Store Experience (32528) Telemarketing's Reprieve Is Only Temporary (32772) The Future Of Amazon.com (16873)    Verified By Visa: Right Idea; Lame Execution (32631)

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