5 Key Takeaways from NRF's 2023 Big Show
The year’s largest retail industry event, the 2023 NRF Big Show, certainly did not disappoint. The Parker Avery Group was joined by thousands of retailers, CPG companies, brands, technology providers, and other industry professionals from across the globe, all eager to experience the event in person and in full force for the first time in two (very long) years.
We were particularly excited to meet with so many clients and colleagues at our inaugural Parker Avery booth, which not only provided a central gathering spot but also a welcome respite from the usual Big Show chaos. We also used this home base to demonstrate our Enterprise Intelligence analytics platform (more on that later).
Over the course of the Big Show, our team attended as many of NRF’s insightful presentations and panel discussions as we could, and like thousands of others, traversed the two floors of the Expo Hall loaded with new technology innovations.
For those who have experienced NRF, you know the hundreds of vendors and vast array of information showcased can be overwhelming. For this reason, we themed our booth, “What’s Next?” This theme underscores Parker Avery’s commitment to helping retailers deeply understand their desired capabilities and developing a prioritized roadmap toward achieving these goals. Implementing shiny new tech without these critical upfront steps results in failure to achieve the expected ROI.
In this post, we explore five takeaways our team experienced during the three non-stop days of the 2023 Big Show. The first two, customer experience and point of sale were obviously front and center as retailers both embrace and struggle with the influx of customers coming into the stores. The latter three takeaways, demand analytics, change management, and foundational elements, are key supporting factors that (when done well) help drive meaningful ROI and business results from investments in the shiny new tech.
Takeaway 1
Customer Experience Meets Reality
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.
At NRF we saw these hindrances reframed as opportunities. Opportunities to create a more singular experience for the customer—not just seamlessly blending in-store and online but combining the most effective elements of both. And we saw opportunities that make the store staff more efficient and less focused on operational tasks.
Yet the most prominent question is around the best way to drive consumer engagement against a backdrop of changing buying habits and a continually multiplying set of purchasing influences. Some of the more interesting customer-experience innovations at NRF included:
- Virtual try-on technology
- Computer vision to gain pricing insights through in-store customer product interactions
- “Lift and learn” digital merchandising displays
- Digital signage with recipe and product use suggestions
Customer experience capabilities 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 they are critical to delivering exceptional customer-facing solutions.
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.
Takeaway 2
Point of Sale Jumps Out of the Box
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.
Takeaway 3
Demand Analytics Takes Center Stage
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.
During one of the NRF presentations, we heard a retailer VP say they were less concerned with SKU-level forecasting accuracy as long as they were able to fulfill the customer’s order—with a substitute product. While this approach may work in some cases, demand transference is something that can and should be included in a retailer’s forecast models to understand the true demand signal and the implications of surrounding products. Some demand transference is an indication of customer preference and leads to a more optimized assortment offering. However, if it is forced due to lack of inventory, the customer may eventually move on and the sale is lost. The end-to-end precise understanding of demand needs, coupled with supply execution, is critical to achieving front-end customer experience goals.
The end-to-end precise understanding of demand needs, coupled with supply execution, is critical to achieving front-end customer experience goals.
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 Big Show, we engaged with industry-leading retailers and emerging businesses to demonstrate our analytic capabilities and gain valuable insights for future development.
Takeaway 4
Change Management Really Means Transformation
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 organizational impact of technological change was evident during many NRF panel discussions and with audiences, particularly during the Q&A segments. Some industry thoughts we heard regarding change management included:
- Humans add value to systems. System implementations and change management should not be separate conversations.
- The best way for both a system and your people to get better is to challenge what is provided, especially the status quo. Encourage healthy challenges in your organization.
- Find your internal champions and be intentional with change management.
- Just like technology can be iterative, so should change management.
Focus on the employee and end-user experience is a key tenet of the success of any system implementation.
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.
Takeaway 5
Foundational Elements Are (still) Boring but (still) Vital
In Parker Avery’s view, many of the retail technologies we saw at NRF 2023 have the potential to be part of compelling solutions that drive desired capabilities across retail functional areas. However, they must be built on top of a solid foundational data source, which may include core merchandising and product information management (PIM) systems, as well as solid data governance practices. Retailers and CPG companies also need optimized and consistent business processes to support next-generation tools.
These are indeed some of the “boring,” behind-the-scenes systems and initiatives that rarely deliver ROI on their own. However, these foundational elements are vital to achieving returns on the “sexier” technology investments showcased in the Big Show’s Expo Hall.
If retailers keep their technology strategies centered first on the fundamentals and foundational data needs, their implementations of the technologies showcased at the Big Show have a much greater chance of success and delivering the coveted ROI.
We loved connecting with clients, new acquaintances, and our partners at the 2023 Big Show. We look forward to continuing these conversations throughout this year and seeing everyone again at our booth at NRF’s 2024 Big Show!
Contributors
The Parker Avery Group is a leading retail and consumer goods consulting firm that transforms organizations and optimizes operational execution through development of competitive strategies, business process design, deep analytics expertise, change management leadership, and implementation of solutions that enable key capabilities.
