As teased in our most recent Canadian NRB, last week our team attended the NRF Big Show 2023 in New York City. This year’s show was MASSIVE, with:

• 15,900 industry professionals,
• 6,100 retailers, and
• 24% C-Suite representation.

With over 50 keynote sessions, 100 “big idea” sessions, and 950 exhibitors, it took us some time to absorb all the learning that took place over just 3 days at this year’s Big Show.

This year’s conference can be broken down into 3 main categories, which also align with this year’s Retail Innovations 18 book (sign up here). These key themes are:

Innovation for Hyper-Efficiency

• This includes robotics, just-walk-out technologies, artificial intelligence, and supply chain efficiencies.

Innovation for Enhanced Experience

• Expanding on the shoppertainment conversation, this includes human-centric design, web-3 created experiences, and creating micro-experiences.

Innovation for a Better World

• There was significant conversation around utilizing resale, but more importantly on the integration of sustainability into all business strategies.

We will be looking deeper into each category, and how the NRF Big Show exemplified each through their sessions and exhibitors.

On top of all that, we stayed busy during our off time exploring the best retail that Manhattan and Brooklyn had to offer. Watch for more blogs highlighting our New York tour, and the learnings from these experiences. These stores include:  

• The Lucid Studio,
• The Starbucks Roastery,
• The Google Store Chelsea,
• Work Café Santander,
• R13 Denim,
• The Canal Street Market,
• abc carpet and home,

And many more! We will be discussing our personal favourites and trends seen throughout these tours in another upcoming blog.

Stay tuned to our blog for NRF Big Show, New York Retail Tours, and much more!