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The backdrop for the 98th NRF Annual Convention, which concluded yesterday, is a retail economy that many industry veterans describe as the most turbulent they’ve ever seen. Reinforcing this point, the last day of the event happened to be the same day the Commerce Department released its December retail sales report estimating that sales dropped 2.7 percent. To say that this was an extraordinary time for such an industry gathering is an understatement.
Despite this backdrop, what I observed were sessions with standing room only crowds and a bustling exhibit hall filled with retail executives looking for the next solution to enhance their business or at least reduce costs. My hope is that the retail industry proves to be as resilient as this event.
Congratulations to NRF on putting on a great show. One could argue that this was the worst possible time for an event like this. I completely disagree. I think It was the perfect time. The event provided an opportunity for dedicated retail professionals to collaborate with peers and partners to get a better understanding of where things stand and begin pressing forward.
As I’ve already written, I believe that e-commerce is the one area worthy of investment. The crowd at the event seemed to agree. Shop.org programmed five digital sessions and all of them attracted strong crowds – even up until the second to the last session of the event on Wednesday morning. This last session summarized well the role of digital in retail. It featured Kelly Mooney, President and Chief Experience Officer of Resource Interactive and Kevin Ertell, SVP, E-Business, Borders.com, who, together, made a compelling case for how the Internet can be a growth engine for retail. Kelly provided a blueprint for how retailers can fully leverage digital (download a free copy of a Shop.org research paper on this topic) and Kevin shared a number of examples of how Borders has embraced digital and seen strong results. A large crowd of attendees gathered around Kelly and Kevin after the session ended to continue the dialogue.
I am excited that Shop.org had the opportunity to contribute digital retail content to the NRF Big Show. Hopefully, these sessions armed the attendees with a few more good ideas to help their businesses during these trying times.
For those of you who are less familiar with Shop.org and would like to learn more, please feel free to visit http://www.shop.org/involved to learn how to get involved.
Of course, if you’re looking exclusively for digital retail content, Shop.org has a full schedule of events in 2009 beginning with our Strategy and Innovation Forum, February 2-4, in sunny, warm Orlando, Florida.
5 Comments
I was at NRF and I don;t know where you saw a “bustling” exhibit hall. At best it was lightly attended. Reporting the truth is usually better than sugar coating a sad state of affairs. I do agree that there were some high points among the exhibits, but sadly attendance was poor.
I am anxious to continue this conversation among industry leaders at Shop.org Strategy and Innovation Conference on February 2 through 4 in Orlando. These are exciting times for our segment.
Michael – I walked the hall on Monday and Tuesday and went end to end. Not all sections were full, but most were. I also talked to exhibitors who said that they had a lot of good conversations. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of putting this event in the context of what retailers are calling the worst holiday season in DECADES. Many people expected the event to be like a ghost town and it was far from it.
As a Shop.org member, I also spent time in the exhibit hall and found the hall to be very busy. For all the downturn in sales and the mood of many attendees, I expected much of the convention to be a ghost town. However, events were well attended, the online forums sponsored by Shop.org were typically all full and I found the exhibit hall to be very busy – except for the last hour of the day on Monday.
As an exhibitor we saw steady traffic. It didn’t hurt being in Green Concept Store featuring allEtronic, our Digital “Paperless” Receipts System. It was definitely worth exhibiting.