Walmart’s SVP of Cross Border Trade Keynoting 2019 Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum New York (GELF NYC 2019)

The sixth annual GELF NYC conference is being held on Thursday, September 19^th. The New York conference brings together a community of digital and international executives from global brands and retailers across the U.S. This follows GELF conferences in Los Angeles and Miami (GELF LATAM) earlier in 2019.

Ben Hassing, Walmart’s recently appointed SVP of Cross Border Trade will be giving the keynote address. Ben has recently returned to the U.S. after four years with Walmart China, including his last role as SVP of E-Commerce & Technology. Ben’s keynote, The Rise of Global E-commerce Platforms, will explore how Amazon, Alibaba and Walmart are offering unique ways to help their brand partners identify and execute on cross-border e-commerce opportunities.

GELF NYC 2019 will feature multiple perspectives on China’s e-commerce market and how brands such as New Balance, AB InBev and Revive Skincare are evolving their strategies as macro-trends create tension and competition intensifies in the largest e-commerce market in the world. GELF will share research findings from the 2019 GELF China E-commerce study. The study included analyses of Chinese consumers shopping behavior for U.S. and other foreign brands, as well as U.S. brands’ perspectives on the unique e-commerce landscape in China. This year will also feature a China E-commerce afternoon workshop, in collaboration with Pattern, as U.S. brands seek to dive deeper into the intricacies of selecting key business partners and navigating the complex social commerce and mobile-first channels, all in addition to Tmall and JD, the dominant online marketplaces.

Other key themes of the GELF NYC 2019 program include disruption from rapidly growing global e-commerce on distribution partners of global brands, and how these brands are managing long-term relationships while building bridges with digital-first distributors and platforms. Latin America and SE Asia will be featured in regional spotlights as digital retail and e-commerce captures a greater share of the total retail market and brands seek new customers—regardless of where they reside.

Jim Okamura is a Partner at McMillanDoolittle, leading digital transformation and global e-commerce projects for retailers and global brands. He also co-founded the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum in 2014 and contributes to programming and research.