In the same week that we see Yum! Brands, parent company of restaurant brands including Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver’s, opening another seven KFC restaurants in Mainland China, VP Global IT Dickie Oliver met with North Americas most respected retail leaders at the illustrious Next Generation Retail congress last week in California to discuss how the industry can capitalize on the growth of Ecommerce.

A representative from the closed NG20 consortium chaired by Abdi Dhar – CTO –Walgreens said that the meeting “was a success” and “had a positive air for the first time since the economic crash”. And they have every right to be positive as retail sales via the internet are set to increase in value by $13 billion between now and the end of 2012, accounting for 10.4 per cent of total sales revenue.

Guests from Amazon - Rick Batye, VP Retail Systems, eBay - James Barrese, VP Architecture, Best Buy - Jeff Peterson, VP Store Operations and Starbucks - Elizabeth King, VP Global HR shared ideas to capitalize on the growth of “e-tail” and invited thought leaders from HP, Intel and Comcast to share their thoughts on development.

The NG20 announced future plans, owing to a general consensus that “the consumer clearly trusts that the Dollar goes further online” and have all agreed that “adhering to this notion to bring people back into stores would be the next step”.

Ordering online to pick up in store, has been tested and proved moderately successful, but is this the future? One thing is for sure, convenience will always remain key to any retailers success.

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