Consumer insights conference comes to NWA

A first of its kind conference focused on shopper behavior is scheduled for May 12 in Fayetteville, Ark., home of the Center for Retailing Excellence within the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. The conference is called SHOP and features a number of thought leaders in the field of consumer research and shopper insights and was designed to complement the Center’s Emerging Trends in Retailing Conference that is held each fall.

“Our board was looking for a way to build on the success of the Emerging Trends conference and determined that assembling a group of thought leaders to share the latest insights on consumer behavior would be a good way to accomplish that objective,” said Center director Claudia Mobley. “Shopper behavior is typically an area we address at the fall conference, but with this new event the shopper will be the sole focus. That is an important distinction because shoppers behavior is changing rapidly we felt it was time to have an event exclusively devoted to it.”

Among those slated to speak are best-selling author Paco Underhill who serves as CEO of Envirosell, a behavioral research and consultancy firm who wrote the book Why We Buy and the more recent What Women Want. Joining Underhill on the program will be Ken Nisch, chairman of JGA, a brand strategy and retail design firm, Herb Sorensen, scientific advisor with TNS Global Retail and Shopper Practice and author of the book Inside The Mind of the Shopper: The Science of Retailing and Bridget Brennan, CEO of Female Factor and author of the book, Why She Buys: The New Strategy for Reaching the World’s Most Powerful Consumers.

SHOP runs from 8 a.m. until noon and will be held at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development at the Sam M. Walton College of Business. For more information visit: http://cre.uark.edu/hh4.asp.