Retail Technologies for SMBs
● The NRF Big Show offered a variety of solutions for e-commerce, supply chain, store operations and more.
The NRF Big Show last week is the retail industry's largest trade event. It's a must-attend for the sector's leading companies — including everyone from Macy's, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus to Home Depot, Walmart and Target — and everyone in between.
But the NRF Big Show is also a big deal for smaller businesses. In fact, the NRF says 98 percent of all retailers are businesses with less than 50 people.
For these businesses, the event's sessions offer valuable insights into consumer behavior, industry trends, thought leadership and the current and future state of retail, among other topics. In the multilevel Expo portion of the event, which consumes all of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, vendor exhibits tout the latest technologies and solutions that are endemic to today's modern retail model.
Companies that were on hand this year included Blue Yonder, Amazon Web Services, Aptos, IBM, SAP, Salesforce, BigCommerce, StoreForce, Microsoft and Zebra Technologies, among many more. Also on hand were solution providers and technology companies, which were small businesses.
The NRF Consumer Product Showcase served as “a forum for small businesses to feature their consumer-facing products for national merchandisers,” NRF said in a statement, adding that the majority
(84 percent) of the products showcased were from “minority-owned, womenowned, veteran-owned, disability-owned or LGBTQ+-owned companies.” About 50 companies were exhibiting.
Susan Newman, senior vice president of conferences at the NRF, said, “Retailers are continuously looking to diversify their suppliers and portfolio of product offerings to their customers.” Newman said the Consumer Product Showcase facilitated “these invaluable connections, providing the opportunity for dynamic products from suppliers, entrepreneurs, small businesses and brands to shine on a national stage.”
Inside the main Expo hall, vendors presented solutions relevant to omnichannel retailing in this postpandemic period. Underpinning it all was the digitalization of retail.
For example, the theme at the booth of Avery Dennison, the material science and digital identification solution provider, was to “See Beyond.” The company showcased how its digital solutions “unlock the value of data-driven insights.”
The demonstration let attendees learn about a product's complete, end-to-end journey. The journey began with raw materials, where “they will see how the company's innovative digital ID platform, featuring Avery Dennison's connected product cloud Atma.io, and its broad portfolio of digital triggers, including RFID, to track the products' full chain of custody along the supply chain,” the company said in a statement prior to the event, adding that the interactive demonstrations “will illustrate how brands and retailers can benefit from real-time insights to help businesses make informed decisions to improve supply chain accuracy, and efficiency, reduce waste, enable circularity and meet net-zero targets.”
The NRF Big Show is not solely for displaying products. At the PTC booth, the company demonstrated its latest version of FlexPLM while also spotlighting integrations with Higg and Made2Flow. Aside from integrations and partnerships, many exhibitors brought along brand clients to offer in-person case studies of how well their solutions work.
There were also solution providers on hand to help retailers cope with supply chain and logistic issues as well as the ongoing challenge of workforce shortages. Regarding the latter, scheduling, in particular, has been a headache for smaller-sized retailers.
At the StoreForce booth, Dave Loat, cofounder and president; Chris Matichuk, cofounder, and the team met with retailers and brands to explain the company's all-inone, integrated retail operations solution. The platform helps retailers optimize labor expenditures and retain employees and other benefits. The company also offers solutions specific to retail workforce management and employee engagement.
This year, the company handed out a booklet, “The Role of the Field Leader,” which covered recruiters, communicators, compliance officers, cheerleaders and coaches. The booklet noted the importance of these roles in attracting talent, inspiring others, developing managers and leading initiatives. Industry expert and author April Sabral was also on hand signing copies of her book “The Positive Effect: A Retail Leader's Guide to Changing the World.”
Also in the workforce management solution space was Zipline, which launched a “shift swapping functionality” to its platform “that gives frontline retail workers the ability to manage their schedules in real-time and give up or pick up shifts from coworkers, all within Zipline,” the company said, adding that by offering employees this benefit, “brands can better engage and retain employees.” The shiftswapping capabilities also help managers.
“Store managers can simply approve or deny the swap in Zipline, eliminating the back and forth that's common today when making schedule changes,” the company said. “In a competitive retail marketplace, perks like shift swapping reduces administrative burden and increase morale.”
While many of the solutions presented at NRF are designed for SMBs of a larger size — say, retailers with a few hundred stores — the annual show allows for small businesses to meet and interact with industry leaders, some of whom are renowned experts.
At the Aptos booth, for example, Nikki Baird, vice president of retail innovation, shared insights about how consumer behavior has changed this past year. She also discussed the evolution of cloud pointof-sale solutions. Baird is a retail influencer and former analyst who buries herself in research about consumers, retailers, brands and technologies.
Regarding what shoppers are doing,
Baird said there is a definite shift to in-store shopping from online shopping as well as a sustainability call to action from consumers.
“Consumers are excited to go back to stores and to engage with stores,” she said. “And I would say that retailers are definitely trying to position themselves to meet those expectations when they come. At a macro level, we do see consumer expectations of retailers changing. So, especially for brands, this idea that it's not enough for you to say that you have sustainability objectives, I actually want you to make the world a better place, actively making the world a better place.”