A few of you dedicated blog readers may have noticed a lack in postings last week. Apologies for that – ’twas due to yours truly taking a much appreciated holiday in England after our awesome eTail Europe show!

But as many of you probably are as well, I’m back and ready to blog about what’s been going on in retail and what was buzzing about at our London show. I have some great video interviews with some of the top online retailers in Europe coming your way shortly. I spoke with companies like Vonage, Topman, House of Fraser and Oasis about their very cool marketing programs – some of which I haven’t seen much of stateside so hopefully you’ll get something out of their ideas as did I. In the meantime, an overview of some of the topics discussed…

As an article in Internet Retailer put it, European e-commerce is poised for a dramatic change. On a panel about understanding customer interactions across channels in the coming years, all speakers agreed that consumers will demand a personalized and easy shopping experience and that mobile really is the future.

According to Don Nisbet of Argos, the U.K. is the biggest m-commerce market in Europe, worth an estimated 5.4 billion euro (US$6.7 billion) and the smartphone will continue to be what drives all channels in the coming years.

“Retailers need to look at the customer’s journey as a whole, in context and examine every touch point they have with the consumer,” said Nisbet. “If any one stage of the sales process is not meeting or exceeding the shopper’s expectations, then the whole experience will collapse.”

Sean McKee, head of e-commerce at shoes retailer Schuh, also added to the panel, talking about the large opportunities available with shipping programs where orders are placed online, fulfilled in store and delivered same-day.

Much more was discussed, and further to come on it all…for now…back to deleting thousands of emails from two weeks out of the office!