ChannelAdvisor’s Catalyst Americas conference just wrapped up in Las Vegas, Nevada, and after sponsoring and exhibiting two years running, we at SkuVault can say we’ll definitely be sponsoring and exhibiting next year as well.
What is Catalyst Americas 2014?
The tagline for Catalyst Americas 2014 is “accelerate your online growth”, which we feel was pretty representative of this year’s event. Catalyst is an eCommerce conference designed to educate eCommerce retailers and identify new strategies and actions they can take to grow their business and brand. As aforementioned, this is our second year sponsoring and exhibiting, although we’ve been attending the conference for years. Our product, SkuVault, integrates with ChannelAdvisor, so for us it’s a great opportunity to meet up with current and prospective clients.
Why is Catalyst Americas 2014 so Exciting?
Not only were we able to speak with several dozen of our current clients, but we were able to make valuable connections with new partners, and strengthen our ties with our current partners as well. One of the most unique aspects of Catalyst is that of the partners we make at this conference, many of them we're able to forge integrations with, which opens the doors to many opportunities for the growth and expansion of SkuVault, as well as our partners.
By far the most fun was at the Catalyst Party at XS in the Encore in Las Vegas. This was a private party for Catalyst attenders and we used our Wingo dollars to attract potential clients and Scot Wingo, ChannelAdvisor's CEO, even ”made it rain” with us on the dance floor! He loved the Wingo dollar so much that he whipped one out at the closing speech.
Some of the More Interesting Topics Covered
- The flow process of drop shipping
- Growth of mobile device usage for online shopping
- Mercado Libre platform growth
The most valuable thing I took away from Catalyst Americas 2014 is something that we understand well here, but that can never be reinforced too often: the importance of meeting up with clients face-to-face. Some clients, whose warehouses are located on the west coast and who had chosen to be launched remotely, I'd never met in person. Finally being able to put faces with names, shake hands, and get direct feedback, was extremely valuable. It is so important to create these lasting relationships with our clients; this allows us to take in their feedback, and to help make SkuVault even better for both our existing and new clients.
Highlights:
It's always fantastic getting to catch up in person with our partners - ShipStation and Amazon in particular were very close to our booth. Ebay’s booth was right next to ours which created traffic in their booth from our overflowing demonstration times - we were packed. Our booth was filled with not only potential clients, but also current clients, and other vendors looking at our booth and inquiring about our business.
The Buzz Lab was the video team for this year’s Catalyst and we were featured in every video. They made a video of the Catalyst Party at XS, and also interviewed me for a separate video. Not only were we a feature, but Scot Wingo brought us up on stage a few times, which was very exciting!
Why We’ll be Going Back Next Year:
We’ll be going to Catalyst next year because primarily because it's an exciting networking event that allows eCommerce platforms to join forces and unite as a whole. Scot Wingo not only loved our Wingo Dollars, but even used one in his closing speech. This year was a tidal wave of great networking opportunities, both with potential partners and integrations, as well as with potential clients. We'll be sponsoring Catalyst EU on April 10th, so if you're not yet ready to be done with Catalyst, come visit us at our booth in London!
