Jönköping University brings together the world's leading figures in retail

On 26-27 June, Jönköping University (JU) hosted the Colloquium on European Research in Retailing (CERR) conference. World-leading international researchers in supply chain management and marketing gathered to explore innovative strategies and methods that will shape the future of retail.

“It feels great and exciting to be back at JU today. Development in retail needs to happen through collaboration between academia and businesses,” says Reza Shomali, one of the keynote speakers at the conference, Country Business Development & Transformation Manager at Ikea Sweden, and former JU student.

Around 60 participants from across Europe, the United States and Canada gathered at the School of Engineering (JTH) at JU to discuss the transformation of retail.

Participants from around the world

This was the first time the conference was held at JTH, which delighted Hamid Jafari, Associate Professor of Logistics at JTH and one of the conference organizers.

"The conference strengthens our position in terms of attracting international researchers and is in line with our strengths and strategic goals. It's very exciting that we have so many international participants," he says.

Most of the participants were researchers in supply chain management and retail marketing, but there were also professionals with an interest in retail among the participants, who came from France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, the United Kingdom, the United States, Morocco, and Canada.

One of those who has been involved since the first CERR conference was held in Paris in 2012 was Xavier Brusset, Professor of Supply Chain Management and Director of the Centre for Analytics and Management Science at Skema Business School in France.

“I look forward to meeting the most important people in retail research in Europe and networking with them during these two days,” says Xavier Brusset.

Retail in rapid change

The theme of this year's conference was “The Transformation of Retail: Human-Centred Innovation,” and on that theme, the first day began with Reza Shomali talking about Ikea and how retail is evolving in response to digital innovation, changing consumer behaviour, and demands for sustainability. He also discussed how physical store premises are being redesigned to fulfil new roles in the changing retail landscape.

One of the participants who appreciated the theme and had travelled a long way to attend the conference was Yu Chen, from the State University of New York, FSC College.

“The theme of the conference is very interesting to me, and I am curious about how the European market works with virtual customer experiences. I look forward to hearing my colleagues' perspectives and opinions on the development of retail, interacting with them and getting feedback on how they view my research,” she says.

Hamid Jafari explained that the theme symbolizes a forward-looking approach to the changing retail landscape and emphasizes that, although technological and market changes are crucial, the human factor is at the heart of successful and sustainable change.

“Human-centredness means that innovation in retail should prioritize and revolve around people's needs, experience,s and well-being, especially customers, employees, and society as well as the local community in a broad sense,” says Hamid Jafari.