Internet Retailer 2006 Exhibit Hall is sold out—with 172 exhibitors

Internet Retailer announced today that it has completely sold out the exhibit hall at its Internet Retailer 2006 Conference & Exhibition, which will be held in Chicago June 5-7. A total of 172 vendors to the e-retailing industry have purchased 228 10-by-10 foot exhibit booths at the show, making it the largest exhibition of technology in the history of the e-retailing industry.

“It’s hard to believe we have just filled a 70,000-square-foot exhibit hall with booths more than four months before the show,” says Jack Love, publisher of Internet Retailer. “We have nearly five times the number of exhibitors signed up than we had last year, which means that in addition to experiencing a conference agenda loaded with practical tips to improve e-retailing profits, our conference attendees can also experience a world-class exhibition of technology designed to implement the strategies they learn in the sessions.”

Love said he expects that the Internet Retailer 2006 Conference & Exhibition will attract more than 2,000 attendees, which he says would set a record for an e-retailing conference. The three-day conference features 75 experts in online retailing speaking on a wide variety of e-retailing topics, all related to the theme of the conference: Taking E-Retailing to the Next Level. “The agenda is designed to get e-retailers thinking about the improvements they must make to their web businesses as online retailing enters its second decade of growth,” says Love. “The industry’s first decade has been remarkable, but the practices that produced e-retailing success in the last 10 years will not guarantee survival, much less success, in the next 10.”

In addition to the five-fold expansion of the exhibit hall, the Internet Retailer 2006 Conference features three times as much general session and break-out conference space as last year’s show. Three concurrent afternoon sessions tracks will operate on both days of the main conference (one more than last year) following the morning general sessions. This year’s conference also includes a workshop entitled “Marketing Your Web Site,” which takes place on June 5, the day prior to the main conference. “We believe that the most important thing e-retailers can do to enhance and expand their online retail businesses is to employ more of the web marketing resources that are available to them,” says Love. “The marketing workshop will teach them how.”

E-Retailers and others can now register online for IR2006 (at www.internetretailer.com/IR2006) and obtain early bird discounts that are 20% below onsite registration fees. The discounts expire at the close of business March 31.