The NRF’s 96^th (yes, 96^th!) Annual Convention and Expo took place at the Javits Center in New York this week.  Congratulations to NRF for a great event and record-breaking attendance. 

The NRF Big Show brings together C-level executives from major retailers.  The themes at the event reflect the current or soon-to-be strategic priorities of big retail. Therefore, it’s worth thinking about the type of strategies and trends being discussed at this event and how your online or multichannel initiatives can support them.

There were a number of themes swirling around the 15,000+ retail professionals who gathered for this annual event.  Retail technology is always at the center of this show, however, this year, one of the most interesting technology themes and the one that I believe is most relevant to multichannel retailing was the emphasis on in-store technology – Web-based and otherwise – focused on the store shopping experienced.  It’s a huge, multi-faceted show and it’s impossible to see everything, but, below are some relevant highlights.

• While Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer’s keynote address on Monday morning lacked the sweating, screaming and jumping that I was hoping for, he did paint a vivid picture of a future shopping experience in which customers’ wireless devices are used to give them a route through the store based on their shopping list.  He referenced a number of other in-store technologies to provide selling assistance and simplified payment.
• Circuit City CEO Philip Schoonover showed how his company is making the most of their best store associates.  Populating stores with well-trained associates with deep product knowledge is an ongoing challenge for retailers.  In his example, kiosks in the store connect customers to store associates with specialized product expertise via videoconference.  He gave another example of a store associate using Web-based parametric search on a tablet PC to help a customer select the flat screen TV that best meets their needs (as well as all of the related high-margin installation and warranty options).  The tablet PC interface was clearly inspired by Circuit City’s online site search, which makes you wonder what other online innovations could be repurposed for other parts of retail.
• My favorite demonstration, however, was something called “social retailing” featured in the X07 Store of the Future area of the exhibit hall.  The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal did a nice story on this complete with the necessary photographs.  The demonstration, developed by digital agency IconNicholson, is described as a mash up of “social computing and near-field communications technologies with youth shopping habits.”  Imagine a teenager trying on a new outfit, coming out of the fitting room and then standing in a area where a Web cam sends streaming video to a social networking site where people vote a “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” on the outfit and use IM and text messages to send comments such as “makes you look like rock star!”  This reminds me of an online scenario depicted by Kelly Mooney in her Digital Millenials keynote address at the Shop.org Annual Summit last October.  Interestingly, the person giving the demo described the application as bringing the online retail experience to the store!  If only such sophisticated online shopping experiences were widespread today.

Please feel free to share your ideas for how the online or multichannel retail initiatives can support efforts to improve the in-store shopping experience.