The Electronic Retailing Association gains a new chairman as Jeffrey Knowles, head of the government division and adverting and marketing practices group at Washington, DC-based law firm Venable LLC, moves up from a year as chairman-elect.
“My primary goals for the year involve increasing the impact the organization has throughout the industry,” says Knowles. Additional objectives for the ERA over the year include extending the reach of the group’s Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation program, a year-old initiative designed to resolve consumer issues before they require government intervention, to include back-end functions such as refund and cancellation policies, Knowles says.
He also wants the organization to increase member services and benefits for Internet-based companies and to strengthen relationships with ERA’s ex-U.S. members.
Knowles helped found the ERA in 1990 and previously served as its first general counsel. He has been a voting member of its board of directors since 2002.
”The electronic retailing field is a rapidly growing and diversifying industry,” Knowles adds. “The entire industry perspective is changing—successful campaigns now frequently utilize multiple channels of electronic marketing to drive retail and continuity sales.”
Membership in the ERA, which launched as the membership organization for the direct response television industry, now represents the broader aspects of electronic retailing with members from Internet companies such as eBay, Internet marketers such as AOL Interactive Marketing, as well as affinity companies, and infomercial companies in addition to the television shopping channels QVC, HSN and ShopNBC.
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