My takeaways from the National Retail Federation Big Show in New York
Javits Center, New York, January 12 – 15, 2024.
The NRF Big Show 2025, organised by the National Retail Federation, attracted around 40,000 attendees and featured around 450 speakers across 200 sessions. The trade show hosted around 1,000 companies. It was a conference and trade show about tech in retail, for retailers.
This year's theme, "Game Changer," highlighted the pressing challenges and transformations within retail and urgent need for innovation and adaptability in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the hot topic in presentations and on vendor stands. Only a few companies on the trade show flow did not include AI in their key pitch. From the small and niche to the large, AI was the headline. Those without it felt out of date.
Key discussions at the event focused on the integration of AI across a range of businesses and covering a variety of uses:
Conference sessions.
Workshops were packed, standing room only, often with 1,000 in attendance to hear from retailers and tech companies about their collaborative innovation and how it benefited the retailer.
AI driven inventory management was an often-covered topic. I sat in sessions on several different businesses (Dicks Sporting Goods, GAP clothing, Freedom Furniture (Australia), Men’s Warehouse, Academy Sports & Outdoors and more.
They covered how AI tools helped them cut inventory management labour costs, improve stock turn, make beneficial dynamic pricing decisions, have less out of stocks and increase sales by giving in-store associates easy access to information.
Most presentations talked about how third-party AI products were key to delivering these benefits, with the POS providing one of the data sources for the AI led innovation. On the trade show floor plenty of mid-tier POS software companies pitched embedded AI tools to help drive inventory related profitability. However, when asked two of these could not answer beyond a bland, canned, sales pitch.
The AI pitch from POS software companies to retailers in 2025 is reminiscent of the cloud pitch in the early 2000s except that the financial benefits of AI are tangible for all retailers, large and small – especially small given their limited resources and the easy access to the power of AI.
?AI is more interesting to retailers today than cloud was (and maybe is) because it is ubiquitous, we see ourselves interacting with it daily.
One software company was notable for not leading with an AI pitch on the trade show floor. Given their size, I expected they would. While they talked about it if asked, I suspect the marketing team that put together their stand and collateral failed to read the room on retailer interest in AI.
A cohesive omnichannel solution pitch was common among all POS vendors. It was clear that integrations are key here, offering flexibility.
Ease of staff learning was also covered in several presentations with retailers noting that onboarding new staff had been dramatically reduced. At Dicks, for example, their goal was a POS UX facilitating training taking < 10 minutes compared to the previous 6 hours experience.
It was interesting hearing questions from retailers in the conference sessions. Most related to AI. These were usually from mid-size retail staff:
·????? What’s the labour cost saving from AI?
·????? How long does it take to experience saving from using AI?
·????? What’s the transactional cost of the AI tools?
·????? How hard is it to use the AI tools?
?Each question has positive answers available. There was little contention or controversy. It left me with a feeling that for most AI was not a matter of if but more one of how soon can I.
The trade show.
Some notes about the trade show floor:
·?????? Shopify had a huge stand and prominent on the stand was their POS pitch, claiming that Shopify POS was cheaper a separate POS and Shopify. The stand was impressive, and always busy. On several slides they spoke to specialty retail and serving their needs.
·?????? The Toast stand was impressive. Anyone involved in hospitality would have found it fascinating, and competitive. Theirs was a small business focussed pitch. For anyone in hospitality tech in Australia, Toast is a company to watch.
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·?????? Dynamic pricing was a prominent pitch with several companies hosting large stands on which they demonstrated dynamic pricing tech that enabled retailers to adjust prices instantly and to do this by location in a multi-location setting.
·?????? Walmart had a big presence, pitching its commerce technologies covering store fulfilment, transportation and last-mile service. For years now Walmart has been acquiring nimble start-up in the retail space and leveraging their innovation.
·?????? Self checkout. A ton of vendors pitched self-checkout from what we’re used to in Aussie supermarkets to smarter, more modern tools that better connect with the customer journey as they like to call it.
·?????? Retail staff empowerment was a hot topic with plenty of POS companies demonstrating how they are bringing decision making and POS transactions to the shop floor on an array of devices including phones. The pitch here was: faster decisions, better decisions, less unproductive back-office time.
·?????? Integrations was another hot trade show floor topic. From the usual such as payments and e-commerce through to AI decision guidance tools and more, integrations are widely offered and expected.?
The small business versus big business challenge.
I was there from a small business perspective.?
Tech suppliers to big businesses pitch their tech, especially AI, as a means of providing a more personal and tailored experience with some likening this to a small business experience from a big business. Some big retailer representatives who spoke see the opportunity of winning more business.
With retail challenged in an environment of rapid change and in a bumpy economy it makes sense that big retailers are chasing business from smaller competitors. Equally, it makes sense that small retailers try and win more business from big retailers by using tools that match those of their big competitors.
Tech is more important than ever. The pressure on tech suppliers to deliver benefits retailers feel daily is vital.
Any software company competing with mid to large software companies or serving mid-tier and above retailers must have a strategy for AI today or in the very near term to be competitive. Retailers not seeking this are retailers not keeping up.
As a retailer.
I had a retailer badge for the show and engaged often through a retailer lens. Here are retailer specific takeaways from my notes:
·????? Change is faster than ever.
·????? Retail staff need easier access to decision support tools.
·????? Most shops don’t need a back office.
·????? We should be able to cut inventory by 25% and achieve double-digit sales growth.
·????? What you can sell should not be restricted by your type of business.
·????? More suppliers are going direct.?
Final observations.
This was my seventh or eighth NRF Big Show. I got more out of this year’s conference than any other. I think this is in part due to the almost singular focus on AI. I also felt that what others are achieving by using specialty AI tools can be achieved from within the Tower POS ecosystem.
This conference and trade show underscored the transformative power of AI in retail of all sizes, emphasising its potential to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive significant growth.
The rapid pace of technological advancements demands continuous adaptation by us and a proactive approach to embracing innovation to remain competitive in the evolving retail space.
Footnote: of course I am not sharing here insights that are commercially valuable for these are internal consideration in the businesses in which I serve. They're plenty I have to say. I have come away from the NRF Big Show optimistic with opportunity.
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