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What We Learned From NRF 2023: Retail’s Big Show

26th January 23

Recently, our co-founders, Simon and Sue Hedaux, visited New York City to attend NRF 2023.

Taking place this year between 14th-17th January, the National Retail Federation (NRF) is the biggest global exhibition relating to retail. As the self-titled “Voice of Retail”, NRF is retail’s big show which allows you to discover all the hottest trends, together with innovative technology that could help your business.

More about NRF

Firstly, unless you’ve attended NRF, it’s difficult to appreciate the sheer size of this event. Taking place across two enormous halls (not including the additional areas), over 15,000 industry professionals attended.

It is an incredible event; not only because it is an amazing opportunity to catch up with friends, customers and partners, but also because it enables you to discover innovative ways that can help you and your business.What We Learned From NRF 2023: Retail’s Big Show

Some brief reflections on NRF

There was simply so much to see and do during our trip that it would be impossible to cover everything in one blog post. So Simon and Sue have made a podcast dedicated to their experiences during the trip. However, some brief takeaways include:

  • There was no new amazing technology or solutions – instead, existing technology has been improved and refined, although there seemed to be a gap between requirements versus solutions
  • There was a lot there for online retailers looking for solutions to make processes easier, such as returns, for example
  • Throughout, there was a strong message surrounding “Fixing Retail Operations”, and ultimately this boils down to core products such as workforce management and task management. And whilst there are many analytical companies displaying their visualisation technology, there is a risk that this will overwhelm people with data, rather the fixing the operations

Whilst we were there, we were also invited on a store tour and some of the outlets we visited included Stew Leonards and Trader Joe’s.

Want to know more?

If you want to hear more about the whole experience – directly from Simon and Sue – be sure to listen to our NRF 2023 Reflections podcast where we cover:

  • The key trends and takeaways
  • Observations on retail in New York
  • The car showroom that you can’t buy a car from!

Listen to our podcast here.