|
 |
NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin speaks at the Convention.
Photo by Paul Brozen. |
Known as "Retail's BIG Show," the annual
event hosted by the National Retail Federation
(NRF) attracts retailers from around the
world. This year's show, held on January 10
to 13 in New York City, marked the centennial
100th convention with over 18,000 in
attendance - up 27% from last year - with
an audience from 64 countries.
Retail's BIG Show featured educational
sessions by retailers and industry experts
covering the most relevant and forward
looking topics as well as networking for
every level of retail professional. This year
472 companies exhibited their technologies
and services. More than 300 media outlets
covered the show, including The Wall Street
Journal, NY Times, Women's Wear Daily and
USA Today to name a few. Eight retail
CEOs gave live interviews from the show
floor that were broadcasted on the financial
channel CNBC.
In addition to remarks from NRF President
and CEO, Tracy Mullin, some of the major
presentation topics included: data analytics
trends, what makes a retail winner, global
retailers now cautiously optimistic, position
the customer at the center, top 10 retailers
for customer service, USA Holiday season
retail sales results, NRF annual retail award
winners and cases studies of retailers and
their winning strategies.
Case studies focused on the 2009 retail winners which included:
- Walmart: Encourages consumers
to save money, maintains decluttered
stores, strives to improve customer
experiences, and focuses on
simplicity.
- Inditex: Keeps customer at the
center of its strategy.
- Dollar General: Focuses on keeping
customers happy and acquiring new
customers.
- Tesco: Developed in-depth consumer
understanding. Allows customers to
use in-store technology to submit
feedback, which is analyzed and used
to improve the customer experience.
Analysis on the top 250 global retailers was
presented, which focused on the top 10:
- The top 10 U.S. retailers are more
diverse than the top 10 retailers in
any other country.
- The top European retailers are primarily
food retailers, largely from
Germany.
- The top 10 Asian Pacific retailers are
showing more geographic diversification
than before, although Japan is
still the leader.
- The top 10 fashion retailers are
dominated by department stores.
- Latin America had a top 10 retailer
list in the report for the first time.
Hot, general technology topics were mobility
(connecting to customers and mobile
devices to free up staff) and data analytics
applied to multiple pain points throughout
the store. The "Future Store" from last
year was replaced by the "Innovation
Station". Exhibits in the innovation station
were focused on building customer loyalty,
bottom line and customer experience,
mobility and connectivity. Key themes
reflected the reality of the current retail
environment - solutions that drive down
operational cost and improve connectivity
to customers.
Focused on operations and
Information Technology (IT), the
BIG Show was an ideal forum for
ADT to showcase its Sensormatic
intelligent technologies including the
Item Level Intelligence real-time inventory
visibility solution, integrated people counting
analytics and advanced data capture
technology, and Sensormatic Analytics
comprehensive store business intelligence
across multiple data sets including integration
with video surveillance. These solutions
are designed to help provide retailers
the actionable intelligence needed to
enhance store operations and drive profits.
An exciting BIG Show highlight was a CIO
retail event ADT sponsored, featuring a
contest where CIO's took inventory of 108
items using a handheld with the Item Level
Intelligence solution powered by VUE
software. The winning CIO completed the
exercise in 4.3 seconds. Avery Dennison
provided the RFID tickets used for the
event and funded the prizes. Attendance
for this event was substantially higher than
last year.
As part of an ongoing effort to expand
industry visibility, ADT hosted review meetings
with industry analysts and research
firms, including several that conducted
previous studies for ADT. To support their
solutions demonstrated in the booth at
BIG Show, ADT issued three press
releases: Retail Systems Research (RSR)
reveals areas where retailers can reduce
theft and improve store efficiencies;
Microsoft collaborates with ADT on
Sensormatic Analytics; and EPC Global
Echt RFID Lab Certification in Europe.
NRF BIG Show Convention. Photo by Paul Brozen.
|
