Nothing new in NY? My Take on NRF Big Show 2024

So this is it. The umpteenth takeaway report from National Retail Federation 's big show - content is king ;). Nonetheless, I hope I can add some bits from my perspective as food for thought.

Conference report: Damn it, this 2024 is busy

The conference is back at its prime, that's for sure. Soaring attendance, bustling fairgrounds, massive spending on booths, merch, dinners, cocktail mixers... Despite the challenges retail has gone through in the past 5 years, at least the vendors seem to (still?) have impressive war chests to entertain and win over old and new clients.

And to be fair: there was that "2024's gonna be all better" vibe throughout the venue. There's the amusing observation that practically every exhibitor felt the need to include "AI" in their marketing copy as often as possible (even if their product was... let's say thermo labels for POS printers). However, I personally did not identify groundbreaking, never-seen-before highlight innovations. AR mirrors, anyone?

Spotted: Tech talk of the town

Maybe you can postulate that many formerly futuristic prototype-ish technologies have matured and are close to or at market readiness.

Be it cashierless stores ( 东芝 , 亚马逊 ), fancy self-checkout systems and other nice in-store tech ( HP , 英特尔 ), store and location analytics and location management SaaS ( Placer.ai , Mastercard Data & Services , Quorso ), RFID ( Nedap , 艾利丹尼森 )... there's plenty of mostly infrastructural tools that - also cost-wise - could improve the way we manage stores in the future or at least make it more efficient.

AI'nt no sunshine on the fairgrounds

To make sure I'm not leaving the two golden letters unmentioned - yes, (gen)AI is relevant. It will change the way we work, especially for jobs like mine that generate value mostly by sitting in front of a screen, typing and clicking. It will most likely redefine the way we think about almost every backoffice task. I had a good chat about that with Tobias from Akeneo: The Product Experience Company just to name an example.

However, in retail, a large part of the value proposition also still happens at the good old point of sale. And until robots become advanced enough to replace the store associate (which judging by the showcases I've seen will take a while), this is where the magic of human interaction happens.

My key take-aways: humans matter

Which leads to my - very subjective - take-away for 2024. Since you have read at least 20 articles on the AI and tech stuff already (most of them written by ChatGPT ;) I'll focus on the frontend-part of things, particularly the differentiator that is real people.

The power of human interaction

So often during these 3 short conference days I was reminded why, in an age where digital is omnipresent, human interaction is an undervalued currency. In-person encounters, particularly those enriched by body language and cultural nuances, are irreplaceable in building strong, lasting relationships.

And since good and meaningful conversations ultimately lead to business, that's one to think about while you're busy working on automating your complete e-mail communication with the help of a large language model. Just saying. And by the way don't read this as criticism, as I am probably busy doing the exact same thing.

Instead of an either-or situation, I strongly believe in using the technological advancement in AI to get rid of tasks we don't like in favor of tasks that we can create value with. Like interacting with each other.

Successful Retail = Consumer Engagement

This doesn't just mean networking and cocktails after all. Something that I always find magical about NYC retailers is the maturity of their consumer engagement. From the moment you enter through the door someone will be interacting with you, trying to make your experience more personal (and ultimately making you buy ;). Don't get me wrong - there's a cultural aspect to this and the US saleshumanship can't be single-handedly applied as a blueprint to... let's say Germany or France.

Regardless: all of it goes back to the essentials we sometimes like to forget or take for granted. If you invest in a quality retail space with skillful, well-trained and appropriately compensated employees that care about consumers, people will feel nice about shopping there. And when you feel nice, you're spending more.

1-to-many is possible, if you do it right

To add to that: the brilliant demo with Bambuser and Salesforce (read more here) showed how interactive live shopping adds value to the proposition of luxury OCR circular play What Goes Around Comes Around. The heartfelt storytelling of their host was a wonderful example that even when your consumer is on their own couch dressed in something that you would not call "Soho-appropriate", there is opportunity to create meaningful and personal interaction if you're willing to invest in it.

Management summary

As for now, I'll end with a management summary in bullets for those lazy folks that don't want to read the whole novel. Nino Bergfeld and I will share more about our take on consumer and community engagement best practices over the next weeks by showcasing some of the stores we saw and liked in New York and talking about learnings that we derived, stay tuned.

• 2024 edition displays resilience and energy: NRF Big Show 2024 displayed the resilience of the retail industry, evidenced by high attendance and significant investment from vendors in booths and networking events
• Optimistic Atmosphere, AI omnipresent: A general sense of optimism for 2024 was evident, with many exhibitors incorporating AI into their marketing, albeit at times lacking product relevance
• Absence of Groundbreaking Innovations: The event did not yield major innovative breakthroughs, with many showcased technologies already familiar within the industry
• Advancements in Retail Technologies: Technologies such as cashierless stores, advanced self-checkout systems, and location analytics are gaining on their market readiness, indicating potential future improvements in store management efficiency with increased adoption
• Impact of AI on Backoffice: GenAI is widely recognized for its potential to significantly alter digital and backoffice operations, and wow it's moving fast
• Significance of Human Interaction: The enduring value of human interaction in retail remains prominent, especially at the point of sale, highlighting the importance of personal customer service
• Professionalisation of 1-to-many digital retail engagement: Well-crafted showcases of interactive live shopping demonstrate the ability to create personal connections with consumers, even in digital settings
• Consumer Engagement still maximally relevant as Retail Success Factor: Effective consumer engagement, particularly in dynamic retail environments, is crucial for enhancing customer experience and driving sales.

I'm ending this by tagging some new and old industry peers I had the pleasure to humanly interact with during the show. Don't be strangers! Looking forward to our next conversations.

Nino Bergfeld Safi Keshvargar Luis Miguel Gisbert Philip Hall Yael Kochman ??? Kajsa Skinnarmo Kajsa Hernell Orla Ormsby Marc Mathieu Liam Buswell Charles Brun Keith Dipple Christian G. Amy Darlison-Lee Kate Duty Guenther Lina Thunberg Tobias Schlotter Michael Cervell Staffan Olsson Espen Karlsen

What's your take on all of this? Let me know if there's something you'd like to learn more about or simply reach out if you have any questions.

For now: all the best, Nicolas.