NRF 2017: Retail Technology blog

It’s just 5 days until NRF’s BIG Retail Show in New York, and we’re looking forward to sharing our insights. As with any technology expo, NRF Expo promises to showcase latest innovations in technology for revolutionising the retail sector and enhancing the customer experience.

However, after reading articles from CES 2017 in Las Vegas, some of the “innovations” demonstrated were somewhat questionable, honestly reviewed by the BBC here. Would you wear a pair of “tickle jeans”, vibrating to direct you to your destination instead of getting out your smartphone? Or perhaps a smart bin, able to tell you exactly what you’ve thrown away in order to automatically create shopping lists.

Very interesting with some spot on observations about when can technology can become pointless BBC News – CES 2017: https://t.co/7BOsTC8TBO

— Alan Morris (@Alan_R_Morris) January 4, 2017

So true! Am hoping NRF next week won’t fall into the same trap. Trick will be to sort the wheat from the chaff https://t.co/zyfGprc91u

— Andrew Busby (@andrewbusby) January 5, 2017

Lesson #1: identify the need being satisfied.

“Just because you can monitor an activity doesn’t mean you should […] A lot of times we see products that are trying to solve a problem that just isn’t there.” – tech analyst, Caroline Milanesi.

Lesson #2: make it unique, but not tech for tech’s sake. Purposeful deployment, where a need is satisfied, must be the goal.

Lesson #3: technology is an investment, so returns must be tangible.

It’s no use introducing new technology that promises a new experience for the customer, unless the end result is profitable. Magic Mirrors perhaps declined for this reason, outplayed by interactive fitting room technology able to upsell and increase conversion rate.

You can be assured that our retail technology blog and NRF vlogs from Head of Marketing, Alex Broxson, will combine new perspectives on issues in the retail sector with purposeful, easily deployable technology solutions. It’s the same thinking behind our retail technology pop-up, Nexpo, hosted a few months ago with Karen Millen.

Not attending NRF? Don’t miss an update! We’ll be tweeting @RetailAssist, posting Facebook Live videos and compiling NRF 2017 vlogs on our Youtube channel.