Coming Soon: Retail Industry 2023 with Sandra Campos and Mark Meister

The retail industry is gathering again in New York City for The NRF Big Show ! This year’s theme is Breakthrough, so it seemed appropriate to reach out to my friends at IBM to take the pulse of the industry. As a leading technology and innovation company and decades-long strategic partner to the retail sector, they are a platinum-level sponsor for this year’s event. If you happen to be at NRF, stop by the IBM booth #5139 or catch their Big Idea Session on Monday, January 16 at 11:45 am ET entitled “The adaptive retailer: putting innovation at the center of your business ".

For NRF this year, IBM is focused on four key themes: hybrid retail, intelligent supply chain, sustainability, and enterprise modernization. These topics led to the production of this month’s exciting Digital Transformer interview with 3-time CEO and 2-time entrepreneur Sandra Campos and IBM Supply Chain Transformation Consulting Partner Mark Meister .

The full interview will be released later this month, but I couldn’t wait to share some great nuggets from the conversation. Ms. Campos has been on CNBC multiple times and featured as the AL DíA News Media cover story last month. That article highlights her journey from birth in California to Mexican immigrant parents to her success with Polo Ralph Lauren, launching the Selena Gomez lifestyle brand, and restructuring Juicy Couture and Bebe. During our interview, she talks about the retail challenges of working through the pandemic and how technology is dramatically changing the industry.?

Mark Meister focuses on Next Generation Supply Chain Technology at IBM. Based out of Lafayette, Colorado, he is also a retail industry expert specializing in the supply chain, e-commerce, Omni channel, and technology integration technology. Sustainability is his passion, and the interview revealed some crucial aspects that decision-makers need to focus on in 2023. He also gave me some insight into some examples of how IBM is helping retailers transform digitally, including:

• Optimizing productivity across Frito-Lay by centralizing and modernizing its tools with Salesforce.
• Implementing blockchain technology for Home Depot to improve its communications with vendors.
• Automating virtual machine placement and sizing for Carhartt, improving overall performance while reducing resource consumption by 15%.

So don’t miss my conversation with these two leaders later this month. They helped me to understand better the challenges facing retailers today. Following the overwhelming disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2023 is shaping up as a time to rethink business models and leverage retail technology to expand digital customer engagements. Technologies such as hybrid cloud, automation, IoT, and artificial intelligence should be on this year’s implementation list if you need to transform into a more agile business.

Sponsored by IBM Consulting