Day 2 of NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show

The second day of NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show was buzzing with energy, creative solutions, and groundbreaking innovation! While there’s no doubt that the last few years have brought challenges for retailers, the future of our industry appears bright. From the conference rooms to the expo floors, industry leaders and tech experts were brimming with fresh ideas for navigating an ever-changing retail landscape.

Market insights from Rachel Dalton at Kantar Group really set the scene: growth is slowly but surely picking up and shoppers are feeling more positive around spending, with a greater focus on value and quality.

Target Executive VP and CCO Rick Gomez summed up today’s consumers in three words: resilient, resourceful, and intentional. Although they’ve faced unprecedented pressures in recent times, from a global pandemic to a cost-of-living crisis, they’re becoming increasingly savvy around how to stretch their budget to get the things they need, as well as splashing out on things that are important to them.

With that in mind, these are my rapid-fire takeouts from a few of today’s discussions:

●????? Bold leadership is crucial: high-performing organisations are led by visionaries who are ready to disrupt the status quo and embrace new ways of working.

●????? As Gen AI and AI/ML transcend from idea to practical reality across the retail industry, many businesses are looking beyond experiments to scaled use cases—from computer vision to sensor tech.

●????? Transactional shopping is out: the modern retail store is an immersive experience centre that enable customers to meaningfully engage with the brand.

●????? While many consumers are budget-conscious, they’re willing to pay more for quality, customer experience, and brands that align with their values.

●????? Customer obsession is more critical than ever: new technologies are only valuable when they are delivering what customers want and need.

Here are some highlights from Day 2 of NRF 2025!

Recognising visionary leadership

For more than 100 years, the National Retail Federation has honoured an individual who has served the industry with distinction throughout their career.?The Visionary is the most coveted award in retail, and this year was presented to legendary fashion icon and innovator, Tommy Hilfiger in celebration of his remarkable 40-year brand journey.

Tommy joined Mathew Shay, President and CEO of NRF, to look back on his enduring legacy in blending classic American style with pop culture. From selling clothes out of the boot of his car to building a global lifestyle brand, Tommy has consistently pushed the boundaries of style—revolutionising retail in the process. A true trailblazer, he pioneered “fashion-tainment”, transforming pop stars, athletes, and Hollywood actors into brand ambassadors.

Under his inspirational leadership and ethos of lifelong learning, the Tommy Hilfiger fashion house has consistently evolved and adapted to changing consumer expectations, embracing technology to disrupt and stay ahead of the curve—without abandoning the core DNA of the brand. According to Tommy, leadership is about building a team that is fearless, is always looking forward, and won’t take no for an answer.

Tommy’s parting advice for business leaders was to lean into their strengths and surround themselves with smart people who complement the leader’s skillset to deliver the best practitioner for other areas of the business, i.e. a creative leader being paired with a strong business leader. He reflected that there have been may brilliant creatives who never flourished because they didn’t find the ‘yin’ to their ‘yang’ in their business structure.

These insights resonated in an uplifting keynote address from Tracee Ellis Ross, CEO of Pattern Beauty. An award-winning actress and producer with little business experience when she founded the brand, Tracee sought out the best retail experts, bringing on co-CEO Christiane Pendarvis to execute business strategy so she could stay focused on the company’s vision.

Now a multimillion-dollar global beauty brand, Pattern has never lost sight of its mission and purpose: to centre Black beauty and celebrate the richness of curly, coiled, and textured hair. By empowering individuals to embrace their natural hair with pride, Pattern is fostering a deeper conversation about identity and self-acceptance. Revealing that 65-70% of the world’s population has textured hair, Tracee dispelled the myth of Black hair care as a niche market—with Pattern stepping up to a fill a blank space in the beauty industry.

Leveraging game-changing technologies

While generative AI has been the hot topic for the last couple of years, future-focused retailers are already thinking about the next phase of technological development. A panel discussion with Karen Etzkorn from Qurate Retail Group, Trang To from Tapestry, and Ellen Svanstrom from H&M explored how AI capabilities are driving a new wave of innovations in two key areas: enhancing customer experience and boosting productivity.

Trang opened up about Tapestry’s use of computer vision which simulates the way humans experience the world, including how they walk through stores, and engage with products and associates—with the power to transform store design, merchandising, and employee training. Meanwhile, Qurate is investing into low-cost, AI-enabled sensor tech that can generate rich data insights, connecting the dots between physical and digital retail.

One of the greatest challenges for retailers is tackling consumer demand in the most efficient way possible. In a fireside chat with RELEX Co-founder and CEO Mikko K?rkk?inen, Andrew Connell from C&S Wholesale Grocers, Camille Fratanduono from Lowes, and Kim Ramsey from Family Dollar, discussed how AI-based technologies can be leveraged to respond rapidly to changes in consumer demand—from predicting inventory needs to pricing products smartly to optimising store shelves effectively.

Creating meaningful in-store experiences

Even with the strong year on year growth in online sales, the physical store remains the jewel in the crown of the modern retail landscape. Innovative businesses are turning stores into immersive experience centres that captivate and engage customers like never before. Industry visionaries Martin Urrutia, Head of Global Retail Experience and Innovation at LEGO Group, and Javier Qui?ones, CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA U.S are reshaping the store of tomorrow as a hub that brings the brand to life for consumers.

Despite being very different kinds of retailers, both Martin and Javier emphasised the focus on building community—whether it’s creating treasured family memories at a Lego store or meeting friends at an in-store IKEA café. Again, it comes back to knowing your customer: Javier described the way IKEA’s room setting designs and architectural features are unique to each store, based on real-world visits to people’s homes to understand the demographic they’re serving in each area.

A new partnership between Amazon Just Walk Out and GIGATONS, a leading EV charging business, has also transformed the retail experience for consumers. Toddington Harper from GIGATONS and Nathan O’Neill from Just Walk Out shared how GRIDSERVE’s Gatwick Electric Forecourt has transformed a basic EV charge point into an inviting retail space and community hub, complete with barista coffee, meeting rooms, a lounge area, and free Wi-Fi.

Why customer obsession is key

The first Amazon Leadership Principle is “customer obsession”: we start with what the customer needs and work backwards from there. This struck a deep chord alignment with the talk from Target CEO Rick Gomez, as he revealed the simple secret behind the “Tar-zhay” magic: listening to the consumer. As a company, they are obsessed with what is happening in the culture, providing value to shoppers through on-trend assortment including owned brands and loyalty offerings.?

Rick explained how Target is laser-focused on helping consumers navigate challenges in three primary areas: affordability, ease and convenience, and inspiration. Because the brand appeals to a broad customer base, Target products are tailored to meet specific needs for each consumer segment. He gave the example of Target apparel which favours durability for young children, self-expression as they age into early adolescence, and style choices when they become teens, then evolves into corporate wear for entry into the workforce—offering something for all life stages so that customers can literally grow up with the brand.

To really consider the importance of customer obsession, I rounded out my day at a panel discussion with Scott Rosencrans from AWS and Rajiv Mehta from Amazon, as well as James Leach from Sainsbury’s and Neil Folgate from iHerb. These retail and CPGs are adopting customer-centric technology from Amazon, to reach, attract, convert and retain consumers across all channels.

Day 2 was invigorating and I can’t wait to see what the final day, Day 3 has in store!