5 Key Takeaways from NRF's 2023 Big Show

There was a definitive focus on the in-store customer experience as consumers return to brick-and-mortar shopping. However, retailers learned that pre-pandemic customers are not the same ones walking through their stores today. Today’s, and most certainly tomorrow’s, consumers are showing up with heightened expectations for a seamless shopping experience that requires both a different customer service mindset and technological capability to meet those expectations.

Helping customers answer the question: “Why should I go to the store?” is also top of mind for retailers and solution providers. As retailers look to change the narrative about customer engagement, they also face staffing shortages that could be viewed as roadblocks to that goal.

Additionally, CPG and retailers continue to push the bounds of artificial intelligence to create a more engaging and efficient store experience. Some of the most impressive revolved around the customer shopping and checkout experience.

• Amazon’s “just walk out” store allows the customer to scan their payment (credit card, mobile pay, etc.), enter the selling space to select their products, and then just leave the store. Cameras and intelligent shelves track the customer and their selected products, and most importantly, accurately charge the shopper for their purchases.
• There were multiple other examples of autonomous cabinets that would allow purchase/vending similar to Amazon’s walk-out technology.
• We saw another cabinet technology that was more for theft deterrent, supplying unassisted customer access to controlled products that are typically behind the counter or locked (e.g., razor blades, alcohol, smaller cosmetics). Products were accessed by simply entering a cell phone number to obtain an entry code. Facial recognition was also used for monitoring.

While these types of technologies are already appearing in grocery and convenience stores, other conventional retail spaces are next to be tested.

A key aspect of customer experience is providing the ability for shoppers to easily find the products they are looking for in the right sizes, colors, and other key item attributes. The capability must be supported by modern technology and efficient business processes in inventory management, forecasting, planning, allocation, and replenishment. These “behind the scenes” systems are not the sexy, AR-driven tech that dazzled NRF attendees but are critical to delivering exceptional customer-facing solutions.

Closely related to customer experience, modern and flexible point of sale (POS) solutions stood out at NRF, spanning from simply enhancing efficiency in the checkout process to creating a personalized customer experience. It was evident that retailers and CPG companies are looking for more agile POS systems that put greater control for servicing customers in the hands of their front-line workers.

Mobile POS and more pioneering self-checkout options were just some of the solutions designed to remove customer frustration with long lines and staff shortages. Shining through those innovations were smart carts for grocery stores. With this technology, shoppers checkout as they shop, providing the ability to skip long grocery lines, as well as key in phone numbers for personalized coupons and product recommendations.

Table stakes for today’s POS systems include the ability to service omnichannel customers with seamless support for BOPIS, ship from store, and other order fulfillment methods as well as easy integration to loyalty programs. As with customer experience capabilities, there are critical integration, data, and business process ripples throughout the enterprise that must be addressed upfront.

The Parker Avery team at NRF had discussions with several retailers about modifying store roles and responsibilities to empower store staff to make decisions that promote checkout efficiency and customer experience. In addition to modern technology, retailers continue to embrace new ways of structuring and empowering their store staff to address one of the most core shopping expectations: getting customers efficiently out of the store with their purchases.

Analytics and demand planning solutions continue to be top of mind at NRF. Around the Expo Hall, many veteran technology providers showcased their analytics solutions, and each has its merits.

Intrinsically, all the customer experience and related initiatives will yield much better business results when a retailer has the products customers want: when and where they want them. This seemingly simplistic (yet for many, evasive) objective can only be enabled through effective and accurate demand planning.

In our own booth, we enthusiastically demonstrated Parker Avery’s Enterprise Intelligence solution. Used at some of the world’s largest retailers, our platform sets a new bar for next-generation integrated business planning. Before and during the NRF 2023 Big Show, we engaged with industry-leading retailers and emerging businesses to demonstrate our analytic capabilities and gain valuable insights for future development.

Change management is not a new topic with retailers, CPG companies, or brands at NRF. Change management is also not a feature that technology companies can showcase in a trade show booth. However, we are pleased to hear it is increasingly a meaningful part of the conversation when the prevailing topic is enhancing capabilities and driving transformation.

The Parker Avery Group firmly believes a focus on the employee and end-user experience is a key tenet of the success of any system implementation. Further, leading retailers and some technology partners are finally understanding that to truly enact transformational change and achieve meaningful business results, they need to strategically adopt a change management mindset.

While retailers shore up budgets and fine-tune roadmaps for technological investments and transformative initiatives, it is important to remember these conversations and ensure ample time and resources to support their employees through system changes.