Print Agenda
Tuesday, January 12
NRF 2021, Chapter 1: Retail’s resilience and moving forward together
Leading through crisis: A conversation with Secretary Condoleezza Rice
*This session is off the record and closed to the press.
Matthew Shay
Condoleezza Rice
2021 predictions on the role technology will play in stores produced by SES-imagotag
Keith Mercier
Chris Walton
Philippe Bottine
Consumer behavior shifts to online, How to deliver in 2021 produced by Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions
Right now, there’s an unprecedented opportunity for retailers to deliver the continuity and reliability consumers are craving. While at the same time seizing the chance to engage and inspire both the workforce and the customer.
A discussion with Karen Bomber, Honeywell’s Head of Retail Insights and Miya Knights, Retail Expert and Author, we’ll discuss evolving eCommerce trends and best practices so you can shape your future in 2021.
Karen Bomber
Miya Knights
Customer-driven commerce: How predictive, personalized digital fulfillment capabilities are transforming consumer experiences online and offline produced by Blue Yonder
Wayne Usie
Cheryl Williams
Hardeep Kharaud
Let’s get Phygital! Adjusting instore labor and performance models are key produced by StoreForce
Dave Loat
Cathy Cockerton
Jeff Ronald
Consumer behavior: Making sense of the aftermath of uncertainty
Andrea Bell
Remapping the customer experience: A reinvention imperative
Andrea Weiss
Krista Bourne
Fokke de Jong
Virtual Expo
Retail's greatest technology marketplace returns in a virtual format, giving you the opportunity to build new partnerships, explore the latest tech and discover the solutions that will help your business succeed.
The NRF 2021 - Chapter 1 Expo allows you to navigate hundreds of exhibitors by company name or product category, so you can easily find the next big thing before it's big!
Salesforce Unlock the Shopper Journey Lunch and Learn Session: From this day forward: How The Knot Worldwide delivers empathetic & personalized customer experiences
We all know Weddings are big business. According to The Knot, the annual US wedding spend is $100 billion between the event to jewelry. The Knot serves as a trusted advisor for wedding planning, vendors, registry, and must-have products. By using data to get a 360-degree view of their clients, they can connect and create meaningful experiences that are unique to each couple.
In this Lunch & Learn, hear how The Knot creates an empathetic and personalized experience through the power of Marketing Cloud.
Rachel Meyers
Rob Garf
Heather Grimstead
Delight your customers with experiences they can count on featuring PVH produced by Cisco
Amit Chetal
Eileen Mahoney
How a leading 3PL optimizes fulfillment for online retailers with robot-supported picking produced by Locus Robotics
Global retailers rely on Port Logistics Group (PLG), a leading omnichannel third-party logistics (3PL) provider, to fulfill orders on time and in full while continuously improving fulfillment rates despite a strained labor market and explosive eCommerce growth.
To help meet these expectation PLG deployed Locus Robotics Multi-Bot Fulfillment Solution. Hear firsthand why PLG chose Locus, and how the technology is utilized to improve accuracy, prioritize safety, and increase productivity in a cost-efficient manner while staying ahead of the unpredictable retail landscape.
Karen Leavitt
Sarah Drazetic
How Walgreens builds community through stores that are ready for what’s next produced by Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions
Fredrik Carlegren
Robby Schwanz
The cognitive retailer: Smart retail planning produced by Capgemini
Vito Labate
Lindsey Mazza
Joyce Chew
More than a manifesto: Building diversity and inclusion into your product, people and performance
Christiane Pendarvis
Ronda Carnegie
Chana Ginelle Ewing
Rebecca Allen
AT&T Business interactive discussion: Real talk about retail's accelerated transformation
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Industry growth is on the horizon, and today’s technologies need to support both the new consumer and the expanding retailer. Consumers expect contactless transaction options and curbside pick-up services, and expanding brands need to connect with those shoppers at every opportunity – in store, on mobile, and at home. With the power of a highly reliable, scalable, and secure network, it’s all possible. From safe and efficient shopping experiences to memorable brand interactions, learn how digital solutions can help retailers get on a path to growth.
Michael Colaneri
IBM interactive discussion: New operating models - Digitally connecting online and offline retail channels
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
This discussion will focus on how a hybrid-cloud approach can solve retailers and brands most critical challenges like omnichannel fulfillment and more frictionless customer experience. From more efficient pick and pack and curbside pick-up, to deeper personalization at every customer touch, the ability to integrate essential applications running on-prem with other cloud-based applications and data unleashes better customer experience and bottom-line boosting efficiencies. An open, hybrid cloud platform opens the door to increased innovation and automation, reducing time to market, so you can win any customer.
Brian Wilson
Lucidworks interactive discussion: Speaking your guests' language with lululemon
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
lululemon understands that you have to meet customers where they are. Rather than forcing guests to learn their lingo, lululemon leverages guest data to adapt its merchandising to mirror the language of its guests. By using customer signals to inform touch points throughout the journey, guests are provided with the easiest path from discovery to conversion.
Amanda Hanych
McFadyen Digital interactive discussion: Beating Amazon at their own game - Retail marketplace best practices
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Amazon will own 50% of the US ecommerce market in 2021 with over 65% of sales coming from third parties on the Amazon Marketplace. The best way to compete with Amazon is to fight fire with fire, or – in this case – fight marketplace with marketplace.
This interactive session features a discussion of the retail marketplace opportunity, how to build a quality seller network, what’s working for existing marketplace operators, and why 46% of online retailers will consider merging fulfillment networks to compete with Amazon.
Tom McFadyen
Microsoft interactive discussion: What does data and AI mean to you in your organization?
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Microsoft truly believes that data is the oxygen in the next era of retail. Older systems that generate or trap data make it hard to find new ways to know your customers, empower your employees, optimize your intelligent supply chain, and ultimately, reimagine retail.
So, what do data and AI mean to you in your organization? Join us to discuss ways in which retailers can realize the true value of data by enriching core business process and turning data in actionable insights.
Doug Stephens
Stibo Systems interactive discussion: Data transparency: Why the future of retail depends on it
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
You’ve seen the numbers - 90 percent of all data was created in the past two years. So, what’s next? How do you create value from mountains of data scattered across increasingly complex, disconnected systems? What role does data - about products, customers, suppliers, locations - play in digital transformation, or addressing evolving customer needs?
In this session, we’ll discuss data transparency and how making data accurate, visible and available everywhere became critical to winning customers across channels. And, why the future of retail depends on it.
Brian Cluster
Zebra interactive discussion: Maximizing associate productivity in today’s on-demand economy - A fireside chat with Zebra's CTO
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Learn how to create an intelligent collaboration network by enabling your associates to be visible, connected and optimally utilized. Sit down with Zebra’s Chief Technology Officer, Tom Bianculli, to discuss how to improve associate communication, increase labor efficiency and convert insights into actions.
Key topics to discuss include:
- intelligent workload optimization
- AI powered forecasting
- prescriptive task management
- enhanced associate engagement and communication
Join this session to discuss how to unify the frontline worker experience and optimize actions at the edge.
Tom Bianculli
Economic outlook: Truths and consequences
Chief Global Economist Ira Kalish will explore a multitude of economic factors weighing on the 2021 economy and how those influences are reshaping consumers’ shopping behavior. Kalish will be Joined by Janey Whiteside, Walmart’s Executive Vice President and first Chief Customer Officer. The two will discuss meeting today’s shopper where they’re at, potential business disruptions in the near term and how 2021 is likely to unfold at retail stores across the nation.
Ira Kalish
Janey Whiteside
How Google is helping retailers transform the shopping journey
In this session, Carrie Tharp, VP of Retail and Consumer at Google Cloud, and Vicki Cantrell, CEO and Founder of Vendors in Partnership will discuss key trends of today's consumers and how Google is helping retailers accommodate a digital-first customer journey. You'll hear insights about recent consumer behavior changes-- and what might stick-- in addition to conversations around digital transformation and how retailers are paving a path forward for success in 2021. Join us for a thoughtful and transparent conversation about today's retail landscape.
Vicki Cantrell
Carrie Tharp
How Zulily transformed SMS marketing into a platform for discovery and two-way interactions produced by Attentive
John Starke
Brian Long
The connected customer journey and optimizing store operations with Samsung displays produced by Samsung Electronics America
Daniel Hodges
Parrish Chapman
Dana Dundrea
The future of data management in a cookie-less world produced by Adobe
Retailers need to solve the problems of disparate data and disconnected journeys, and these challenges only get more difficult as we march towards a cookie-less future. Alongside a growing number of customer touchpoints, marketers must also solve for a growing number of disparate identifiers and data sources to build their view of the customer.
Join us in this Big Ideas session that addresses the challenges and solutions to better understanding your customer. Learn how Adobe’s Real-time CDP provides an integrated, robust solution for future-proofed data strategies across every stage of the customer journey.
Michael Klein
The future of digital: Engaging customers beyond the buy button produced by Salesforce
Today’s all-digital customer has never had more channels or brands to shop from. And as a result, nearly half of consumers are moving away from retailers they know and love to shop new brands and stores. As a digital leader, it’s time to rethink how you engage with your customers beyond the buy button.
Join Salesforce Digital 360 and JC Johnson, Sally Beauty’s Group VP of Digital Strategy and Innovation as we announce new product innovations and discuss how retailers can create lifelong customer relationships.
Kemberly Gong
Anna Rosenman
JC Johnson
AutoZone’s road to optimization: Improving labor scheduling and reducing labor cost produced by Reflexis Systems, Inc.
Tom Newbern
Kevin Tapscott
Brand awareness to brand love: Ulta Beauty advances next-gen personalization and loyalty produced by SAS
Kelly Mahoney
How customer experience has become the driving force for businesses to persevere through the pandemic produced by HappyOrNot
Ville Levaniemi
Kenneth Sorensen
The future of customer loyalty: Connected, personalized experiences produced by Salesforce
What drives customer loyalty? Our Trailblazers and Salesforce leaders share their thoughts on the future of loyalty. Learn how our Trailblazers rethought their Loyalty program to connect to shoppers and how Loyalty can be at the center of your customer experience.
Join us as we discuss:
Evolving loyalty beyond traditional earn & burn
The importance of personalization and experiential programs
Creating a connected ecosystem as a key component of successful loyalty strategies
How to build meaningful relationships with their customers through connected, personalized experiences
Matt Marcotte
Maria Humphrey
Doug Glazer
Opening Day Concert sponsored by Salesforce: Robin Thicke
Robin Thicke
Wednesday, January 13
Economic review and outlook: What can the industry expect in the aftermath of unprecedented disruption
Matthew Shay
Jamie Dimon
Navigating disruption to drive sustained growth and balanced business objectives, sponsored by Klarna
Sara Eisen
Indra Nooyi
7 New Years resolutions for retailers in 2021 produced by Oracle
Rose Spicer
How digital native brands master online product experiences produced by Adobe
Peter Sheldon
Sue Beckett
Retail responses to COVID-19 with lasting impact: Lessons from Shipt and other global brands produced by Scandit Inc.
Christian Floerkemeier
Retail’s first CIO fireside chat and witness protection program produced by enVista
Gene Bornac
Social responsibility initiatives at The Home Depot and Ulta Beauty build authentic relationships
Social movements taking place around the world are causing (and in some cases "forcing") retailers to reflect on what they stand for. Being a socially responsible company is no longer a point of distinction, it’s the expectation among stakeholders-- customers, employees and capital investors. This timely discussion is call to action to respond authentically to opportunities with collaborative solutions. Hear from leaders how they’ve developed framework for their programs by listening intently, asking the right questions, collaborating with internal departments and solidifying vendor partnerships-- to create a movement for positive change... and how you can too.
Stephanie Wissink
Ron Jarvis
Kendra Clarke
Dave Kimbell
The great compression
Mitch Joel
Virtual Expo
Retail's greatest technology marketplace returns in a virtual format, giving you the opportunity to build new partnerships, explore the latest tech and discover the solutions that will help your business succeed.
The NRF 2021 - Chapter 1 Expo allows you to navigate hundreds of exhibitors by company name or product category, so you can easily find the next big thing before it's big!
Salesforce Unlock the Shopper Journey Lunch and Learn Session: How e.l.f. Beauty builds lasting customer loyalty with Salesforce + Google
As one of the first online beauty brands, e.l.f. continues to attract a highly engaged audience and set benchmarks with new digital platforms.
In this lunch and learn, hear how e.l.f. earns and retains high-value customers through personalization at scale, while delivering best-in-class customer journeys across channels.
Andy Banks
Laura Fagan
Brigitte Barron
Driving agility in retail with AI produced by Dell Technologies
Azita Martin
Trey McMillian
From contact centers to profitable omnichannel experience hubs: Powered by real-time data produced by Treasure Data
Many retailers had to alter business operations and uplevel digital competency to accommodate pandemic-induced changes. Contact centers emerged as a critical engagement channel in the customer journey. To deliver a profitable, truly omnichannel customer experience, teams across the organization need real-time access to holistic customer data.
In this session, industry experts will address topics such as:
-Key trends driving the need for omnichannel experience hubs
-Use cases enabled by accessible, holistic, real-time customer data
-Opportunities for contact centers powered by customer data platforms
Nicole Leinbach Reyhle
Thomas Kurian
Retail 2020: Wow what a year! produced by Microsoft
Shelley Bransten
Christine Putur
Shoppers today are truly omni-channel - Learnings from the grocery segment produced by ACI Worldwide
In this session, we will discuss key learnings from the research, including preferred digital payment methods, differences in omni-channel buying behaviors by demographic, and how omnichannel payments can protect and enhance your brand.
Benny Tadele
More than mentorship: New ways to foster retail's future female leaders
As women move through their careers, they are seeking out mentors to help them advance and overcome gender barriers in the workplace. We know the traditional mentorship format isn't enough — what's missing? This conversation will explore what’s working and what’s not when it comes to preparing women to lead and rise up.
Shelley Zalis
Karen Beebe
Shannon Gordon
Gail Tifford
CI&T interactive discussion: Win customers, not just sales, with a connected retail experience
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
For years, consumers struggled to find the value in BOPIS and curbside pick-up, keeping their paths to purchase siloed. The pandemic taught consumers how to incorporate these connected retail experiences into their routines. CI&T’s latest retail study ranks 10 top retail brands on their blended shopping experiences to determine who the most connected retailers are and will continue to be.
Join CI&T’s Retail Industry Lead, Melissa Minkow & Nordstrom’s Stephanie Di Biase, UX Senior Manager, Enterprise Capabilities as we discuss and uncover how to win customers in the post-pandemic world.
Melissa Minkow
IBM interactive discussion: Winning consumer trust with blockchain
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Sustainability is at the heart of value for today’s consumers. They expect companies to take better care of the environment, source their products responsibly, align with values they believe in and demonstrate trust and accountability. Blockchain offers the ability to follow the lifecycle of a product from origin, to consumption, to recycle offering the unquestionable story of what we consume in this interconnected world.Jason E. Kelley
Microsoft for Startups interactive discussion: Get ahead, stay ahead with startups
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
During this birds-of-a-feather panel, Microsoft for Startups will host CEOs, Founders, and executives from some of our most disruptive startup partners. These leaders have transformed how retail operates in the modern world with their innovative solutions and adaptive nature. They will share their experiences and compounds for success helping some of the world’s largest retailers stay ahead of the innovation curve.
Microsoft for Startups welcome: Eon, Observe.ai, Turnpike Group, Uncrowd, and Tiliter.
Rachel Peck
Riskified interactive discussion: Account takeover attacks - A customer experience dilemma
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Store accounts are central to the merchant-consumer relationship. For merchants, an account represents a stream of future transactions from a loyal customer. And for customers, they’re vehicles for streamlining checkout and accumulating rewards. So when an account is compromised in an Account Takeover (ATO) attack, a customer’s entire lifetime value is at stake.
In this session, Riskified will facilitate a discussion between merchants, to share their experiences protecting their customer accounts. Then, Riskified will give a few tips on best practices for account security.
Ephraim Rinsky
Salesfloor interactive discussion: Why leveraging store associates for virtual selling is the competitive advantage in the future of retail
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
As retailers rationalize the store labor model, the winning strategy will be to redefine the role of the associate instead of cutting labor.
Virtual selling is reinventing the role of associates: they can engage in digital outreach, hold two-way conversations with customers, host virtual events, book virtual appointments, shop live with online shoppers, and send personalized product recommendations.
Join us and Ben Bridge Jeweler as we explore how critical trends in conversational sales, intelligent recommendations, and data-driven personalization are the competitive advantage in the future of retail. Regina Aiello, Vice President at Ben Bridge Jeweler will share how they are leveraging virtual selling to transform the way their store associates serve online customers.
Regina Aiello
Salesforce interactive discussion: Top 3 ways loyalty drivers have evolved and how retailers can adapt
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
The way customers interact with retailers is always evolving and many retailers have had to accelerate their path to digital transformation, with proximity and convenience no longer the sole determinants of loyalty. How can retailers best equip their loyalty strategy and programs to adapt to this evolution?
Join Salesforce’s retail and loyalty leaders and Trailblazers from our partner, PK to learn more about how Loyalty Management prepares you to best address the evolution of loyalty to create meaningful relationships with your customers.
Natasha Janic
Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions interactive discussion: CIO conversation on enabling digital commerce in the store
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
The global pandemic had accelerated the need to utilize stores for digital commerce, whether that’s for home delivery or pickup, curbside or in-store. This session will discuss the ramifications of these requirements, exploring how retailers have responded, and answer questions of whether home delivery can be profitable. Can retailers continue to outsource parts of the digital commerce value chain without sacrificing the customer relationship, data, and/or profits?
Kirk Goldman
Zebra interactive discussion: Harnessing the true power of optimized inventory performance
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Learn how to take a data-driven approach to your inventory transformation leading to greater visibility and accuracy. Sit down with Zebra’s VP of Corporate Strategy, Chip Yager, to discuss how to improve order fulfillment and on-shelf availability for greater customer satisfaction.
Key topics to discuss include:
- prescriptive analytics to identify out-of-stocks
- intelligent automation to reduce labor costs
- RFID to improve inventory visibility
Join this session to discuss how to tap into a full range of store inventory intelligence and kick start your journey to optimized inventory.
Chip Yager
How independent retailers will drive the revitalization of cities and communities in 2021
Susan Reda
Dax Dasilva
Tomorrow's consumer: Understanding the new normal of cultural and behavioral transformation
Eduardo Yamashita
Karen Cavalcanti
Juliana Azevedo
Future of retail produced by VMware
Sanjay Poonen
Identifying the opportunities COVID-19 has created produced by HP, Inc.
Sandip Kamat
Scott McCammon
Insights from the 2021 dunnhumby Retailer Preference Index for U.S. Grocery produced by dunnhumby
The Great Recession programmed lasting value-consciousness into the minds of consumers. How might COVID-19 rewire us again?
The fourth annual dunnhumby Retailer Preference Index for U.S. Grocery (RPI) sheds light on what makes a retail winner, and how the pandemic has impacted consumer shopping behaviors. Known as retail’s equivalent of the Gartner Magic Quadrant, the RPI surveyed about 10,000 consumers to understand what’s driving customer preference and rank the top 57 grocery retailers in the U.S.
Join dunnhumby CEO Guillaume Bacuvier as he dives into the latest study, revealing the levers for success, and which retailers are winning the hearts, and wallets, of shoppers today.
Guillaume Bacuvier
Jumpstart 2021 with touchless experiences produced by Amazon Web Services
In a post COVID-19 era, stores will leverage digital solutions more than ever to create experiences that balance the customer’s needs for safety versus empowerment. As customer preference for touchless grows and digital becomes more integrated with in-store and multi-channel shopping, retailers must be ready for a touchless future. Contactless payment is an important consideration as part of the shopping experience.
Kris Zanuldin
Andrei Rebrov
A perspective on global disruption and retail capabilities produced by DXC Technology
Deesean Wilson
Harnessing the power of young talent: Shaping the future of retail produced by SAP
Kristin Howell
Stacia Andersen
How The Home Depot engages frontline workers with Workday produced by Workday
Scott Smith
Jennifer Johnson
React and adapt - Transformation during COVID-19 produced by Retail Zipline
Jessica Siwy
Corey Bouyea
Taryn Racin
Thursday, January 14
The power of vision to reshape retail and the consumer experience
In separate fireside chats, hear from two of the industry’s most insightful leaders who have re-imagined their respective businesses with a stern focus on the customer first and foremost.
Marvin Ellison, President and CEO of Lowe's and a longstanding and successful retail veteran, will discuss how the home improvement retailer has sharpened the organization’s focus on operational excellence and delivered a safe and exceptional experience for customers and associates alike during an unprecedented year. Moderated by NRF President and CEO, Matthew Shay,the conversation will also look at some of the retailer’s newer strategies, such as "Making it with Lowe's" and small business grant programs for diverse entrepreneurs, among other initiatives.
Niraj Shah, Wayfair’s visionary co-founder and CEO, will discuss the home furnishing platform’s historic growth through strongly principled leadership on its way to a more than $25 billion valuation. In the conversation moderated by Bloomberg's Matthew Townsend, Shah will share how he favored long-term customer-focused strategies versus more short-lived market indicators on Wayfair’s enterprise journey and rapid growth trajectory.
Niraj Shah
Matthew Townsend
Matthew Shay
Marvin Ellison
Create a new retail world through experiences your customers value produced by SAP
Rob Wood
Nuno Pedro
Melanie Noronha
Enabling agility: How to make data-driven decisions on Azure produced by Cloudreach
The focus of this talk is how to enable retailers to make data driven decisions in response to changing markets.
This session will cover three major points:
- All data should be stored and available in its raw form;
- Data should be cataloged - an inventory of data assets helps break down organizational silos;
- The various forms of analytics - descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive.
We will illustrate each point with examples from engagements Cloudreach has delivered in partnership with Microsoft Azure.
John Loughlin
The new wave of retail necessities produced by Spencer Technologies
What does a vaccine for a global pandemic and retail shopping have in common? Learn how a small change can streamline operations, increase profitability and enhance the customer experience.
With a 45-year track record of supporting retailers, Spencer Technologies will share strategies that leverage RFID technology. From implementation to a global rollout, learn how Spencer can make your journey trouble free. Plus listen to industry experts from Lululemon, ENS and Ascential Retail Group discuss effective RFID strategies.
Susan Flake
David Strickler
Jonathan Lee
Why OMS is the key to omnichannel agility, profitability and transformation produced by enVista
Never before have agility and profitability been more critical to omnichannel operations. Retailers and distributors that can manage the lifecycle of a customer order, anywhere place and time, and maximize profitability are best positioned to thrive. An agile, next-gen order management system (OMS) is the key to delivering customer-centric commerce and maximizing gross margin return on inventory investment (GMROII). Without it, you are stuck looking in the rearview mirror.
Join Forrester Analyst Brendan Witcher and enVista CEO Jim Barnes for an interactive conversation, and actionable strategies to rapidly improve omnichannel order profitability, the customer experience and agility.
Brendan Witcher
Jim Barnes
Technologies bridging the e-tail-retail gap
The pandemic and rapid growth of e-commerce has put pressure on brick and mortars to reinvent their purpose while digital has needed to quickly develop creative ways to bring new shopping experiences to consumers. We'll explore how live commerce is helping retailers meet the moment.
Curated in partnership with:
Liyia Wu
Ophelia Ceradini
Al Sambar
Workplace wellness: Managing mental health in an age of uncertainty
Lorna Borenstein
Dave Zielinski
Stuart Poole
Virtual Expo
Retail's greatest technology marketplace returns in a virtual format, giving you the opportunity to build new partnerships, explore the latest tech and discover the solutions that will help your business succeed.
The NRF 2021 - Chapter 1 Expo allows you to navigate hundreds of exhibitors by company name or product category, so you can easily find the next big thing before it's big!
Salesforce Unlock the Shopper Journey Lunch and Learn Session: How Hibbett Sports stays agile in a changing marketplace
Kemberly Gong
Bill Quinn
Rob Garf
How Burberry is enabling digital transformation to transform customer experiences produced by Amazon Web Services
Tom Litchford
Rajeev Aikkara
How GSF is driving differentiation with a smarter, more resilient supply chain produced by IBM
Getting customers what they want and need, on their terms, has never been more important or more challenging.
Find out how Golden State Foods (GSF) is exceeding expectations by enabling real-time visibility and transparency across its supply chain to optimize product quality and freshness.
This session is perfect for supply chain leaders who want to understand top retail use cases for blockchain, IoT and advanced analytics.
When you interact with IBM, this serves as your authorization to NRF or its vendor to provide your contact information to IBM in order for IBM to follow up on your interaction. IBM’s use of your contact information is governed by the IBM Privacy Policy.
Kareem Yusuf, PhD
Bob Wolpert
Keeping your in-store experience safe while maximizing customer engagement featuring Meraki and Purple produced by Cisco Meraki
Gavin Wheeldon
Raj Krishna
Online shopping & economic nexus: Making - not breaking - your business in 2021 produced by Taxjar
Due to a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, South Dakota vs. Wayfair, a state can require companies to collect and remit sales tax - provided the company passes the state’s economic threshold for total revenue or number of transactions in that state.
The challenge is knowing how to track economic nexus and what to do once it's established. Join TaxJar Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Ryan Thompson as he explains economic nexus and provides steps to help you avoid costly mistakes and save time.
Ryan Thompson
Amplifying Black businesses through partnerships and collaboration
It's not just up to consumers to support Black businesses. In this discussion, we'll hear from leaders of brands and retailers who will discuss how they are transforming the landscape for Black businesses throughout the entire supply chain by way of pledges, partnerships, procurement and collaboration.
Jean Harvey Johnson
Shelly Bell
Katherine Danneberg Mattey
Check Point Software Technologies interactive discussion: Your e-commerce platform is high fashion, what about the security?
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Retail ecommerce sites are thriving and have become the de facto standard for shopping. These once monolithic applications have transformed into online microservices, like serverless functions and containers. Meanwhile, fraudsters continue to discover new security loopholes and are relentless with their attacks. Security and intelligence needs to evolve in order to keep up with new attack vectors. Learn how security teams are able to leverage the flexibility of new workload applications create better performance and greater efficiencies, and the strategies to secure them using AI.Yaffa Finkelstein
Grant Thornton interactive discussion: Driving growth - Strategically shifting M&A strategies for finance and operations
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Successful retailers are achieving growth by strategically approaching M&A with new precision as they look to protect their core and for new revenue sources. Finance and corporate development executives aiming to be even more effective value stewards are invited to engage in a lively discussion around driving profitable growth. Join Grant Thornton professionals, where perspectives will be shared across various retail subsectors to equip you with new skills for a reimagined M&A strategy.
Simon Jewkes
IBM interactive discussion: Climate change - Long-term tactics to consider in retail
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Consumers are willing to align their shopping habits to support their values of sustainability and healthy lifestyles, making it more important than ever for retailers to consider their environmental impact. During this interactive discussion, we will explore current tactics in place to identify and manage the impact of climate challenges within your supply chain and retail operations. Participants will be invited to discuss their own expertise, and frame questions they are facing within their role.John Bosse
Medallia interactive discussion: Agility, empathy, scalability - The 3 traits of today’s retail leaders
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
This year’s crisis caused a surge of new experiences, reinventing shopping for everyone. How have some retail brands been able to outpace and outperform the market, while others have not? Today’s leading retail organizations have capitalized on the unprecedented opportunity to use customer experience to propel the momentum of their innovations forward. Join this interactive session, to learn how the insights and practices experience management provides can hasten your ability to steer, adapt and scale solutions that will win customers in the new normal.
o9 Solutions interactive discussion: Optimizing merchandising decisions and end-to-end planning through digital transformation
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Change in the market is accelerating. How can online platforms create efficiencies in merchandising and optimize assortments across channels with real-time market and customer data?
Discover how o9’s AI/ML based Integrated Business Planning software platform, or ‘digital brain’ can streamline and automate your end-to-end planning. By predicting customer demand to improve forecast accuracy or using predictive analytics to determine the optimal omnichannel assortment mix, o9’s digital brain offers marked improvements on performance, profitability and customer experience.
Aleem Bandali
Salesforce interactive discussion: Building diverse & inclusive workforces
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Studies consistently show that diverse and inclusive workforces drive better business performance. In a 2019 McKinsey & Company analysis, companies with high ethnic and cultural diversity on executive teams outperformed those in the bottom quartile by 36% in profitability.
As retail reimagines its future, diverse and inclusive workforces are more imperative than ever for business recovery. Join this panel discussed hosted by Molly Ford, VP of Global Equality Programs at Salesforce, on how retailers are addressing and prioritizing equality to build better workforces.
Molly Ford
Team8 interactive discussion: The Walmart perspective: Ghost of Christmas past and future
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
This session topic has changed to:
The road to 24% eCommerce sales
Israel is a great case study for innovation and rapid agility. Join us for a discussion on how Shufersal, Israel's largest retailer, transformed their eCommerce so that it equals 24% of all income.
We will discuss the mechanics and technology, marketing objectives and methods, data models and AI, and best practices to make your eCommerce work for you and for your brick and mortar.
This 30-minute session intends to provide an opportunity for practical insights along with a peer-to-peer discussion, Chatham house rules.
Yuval Shachar
Winshuttle interactive discussion: Imperative of a product information management (PIM) solution as part of a digital transformation strategy
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
How to Position Your Business to Drive Growth in a Rapidly Evolving Digital Space
Today, more than ever, product businesses and retailers are positioning around digital. Digital is no longer a buzzword, it’s a transformational capability that attracts customers, drives sales, improves profits and separates the competition. Nevertheless, companies continue to underinvest in key IT systems that drive digital capability. Businesses running e-commerce sites and digital platforms without an integrated PIM solution, may be missing the boat. We will explore the power of PIM solutions to drive great customer experiences in a rapidly evolving digital space.
Jett Tackbary
Zebra Prescriptive Analytics interactive discussion: Beyond the buzzwords: How to generate real value through new technology investments
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Getting funding and business support for new technology like prescriptive analytics isn’t impossible, especially for critical operations like supply chain, store operations or loss prevention. You just need to convince your leadership to provide business support – which requires skipping the tech-heavy buzzwords and connecting with business-side leadership around what they value most: cost savings, efficiency and real, fast ROI.
Join Zebra Analytics GM Guy Yehiav to learn how to successfully secure budget for new technology by being strategic in your conversations with leadership.
Guy Yehiav
Change, made simple: How retailers adapt in a shifting environment
David Wilkinson
Becca Coggins
Luxury goes digital: Understand how Alibaba and Moschino are driving new innovations
Christina Fontana
Kati Chitrakorn
Stefano Secchi
Google Big Ideas Takeover: Beyond place: Adapting to a boundless retail workplace and shopping experience
Mike Daoust
Russell Harte
Google Big Ideas Takeover: Digital transformation strategies for what’s next: A conversation with Bed Bath & Beyond
The world of retail has rapidly shifted in the last year. As consumers began using digital to fuel their shopping more than ever before, inconsistencies in the online to offline customer journey were exposed and digital transformation roadmaps were accelerated . As we look ahead to 2021, many retailers are wondering “what’s next?” Join Google and Bed, Bath & Beyond to learn about the strategies they used to achieve their transformation goals and grow their business, and how they’re thinking about 2021 and beyond.
Featured speakers include Carrie Tharp, VP Retail & Consumer, Google Cloud in addition to those listed below.
John McAteer
Cindy Davis
John Hartmann
Google Big Ideas Takeover: How to drive online and offline sales with location intelligence solutions
Join Ben and Kevin as they talk through today’s unique customer journey, discussing solutions for businesses ready to meet shoppers’ needs in this new era of retail.
Kevin Wu
Ben Waltzer
Google Big Ideas Takeover: What’s the deal? Transforming the traditional circular
Jack Connors
Fred Chang
Marlee Infante
2021 predictions on the role technology will play in stores produced by SES-imagotag
Keith Mercier
Chris Walton
Philippe Bottine
Business agility through digital strategy: Dick’s Sporting Goods' perseverance during the pandemic produced by Redis Labs
Jay Piskorik
Allen Terleto
How retailers win on CX now: 2020 data, 2021 outlook produced by Verint Systems Inc.
· How the shift to digital changed customer expectations
· What’s driving trends in delivery, curbside pickup, and BOPIS
· How customers ranked the top 25 retailers on CSAT and NPS
We will also discuss how lessons from 2020 can inform strategies to lead with in 2021 and beyond.
Eric Head
Why supply chain platforms are the solution to retail's troubled supply chain produced by Suuchi
Suuchi Ramesh
Irina Kapetanakis
Pearl Malikul
Google Big Ideas Takeover: Data-driven innovation with Wayfair and Sensormatic
Phil Hall
Bill Dubois
Matthew Hartwig
Google Big Ideas Takeover: How Google Cloud helps retailers transform the shopping experience: Featuring Macy’s and The Home Depot
Lori Mitchell-Keller
Fahim Siddiqui
Naveen Krishna
Google Big Ideas Takeover: Innovation with Google: How Chrome Enterprise, Business Messages and AR can help retailers succeed in today's landscape
Bart Jenniches
Mike Daoust
Alana Vieira
Tuesday, January 19
Creature comforts: Serving consumers’ desire for life’s simple pleasures
What brings consumers comfort these days? Chances are most would say one of two things – food and pets. Each category is formidable in its own right, but during times of mandated social distancing and “bubble life,” consumers are drawn to the cozy warmth of their furry friends and the contentment of a great burger and smooth shake.
In successive fireside chats, the CEO of leading online pet retailer Chewy, and and iconic drive-in eatery Sonic will share their stories of recent successes and the challenges they have seen along the way. Chewy CEO Sumit Singh will discuss how his company has elevated its offerings to pet-parent fans, creating meaningful connections and increasing online engagement year over year. Chewy is not just an e-tailer-- rather it's an experience-led company, constantly inventing new ways to surprise and delight its customers.
In the following discussion, Sonic Drive-In president Claudia San Pedro will provide insights about how the world’s largest drive-in QSR franchiser positioned itself as an oasis for its guests at a time when dining inside restaurants became a health risk, leveraging a framework that is consumer-led, data-driven and operator-focused.
Bob Safian
Claudia San Pedro
Sumit Singh
Heather Haddon
4 Steps to creating an online experience that rivals in-store produced by Gladly Software Inc.
Andy Knosp
Blockchain fuels trust and transparency for consumers produced by IBM
Learn how visionary companies are leveraging the trust and transparency of blockchain to engage consumers in an increasingly competitive market.
When you interact with IBM, this serves as your authorization to NRF or its vendor to provide your contact information to IBM in order for IBM to follow up on your interaction. IBM’s use of your contact information is governed by the IBM Privacy Policy.
Raj Rao
Jose Antonio Camposano
Boost your on-shelf availability with Captana produced by SES-imagotag
Loic Oumier
Michael Unmussig
Oliver Grob
Burton Snowboards and Ariat International successfully navigate through the pandemic produced by Infor
Elaine Gaydosh
Rachel Grogan-Cook
Ryan Bezenek
How sustainability is changing the retail landscape
Abigail Kammerzell
Jordyn Holman
Jennifer Keesson
Retail’s hard reset: How cataclysmic events accelerate trends, transformation and innovation
Kate Ancketill
Virtual Expo
Retail's greatest technology marketplace returns in a virtual format, giving you the opportunity to build new partnerships, explore the latest tech and discover the solutions that will help your business succeed.
The NRF 2021 - Chapter 1 Expo allows you to navigate hundreds of exhibitors by company name or product category, so you can easily find the next big thing before it's big!
Salesforce Unlock the Shopper Journey Lunch and Learn Session: How digital service has transformed consumer engagement
Steve Dennis
Rob Garf
Tyson Brown
5 Steps to implementing mobile robots in your operations produced by Koerber Supply Chain Software
Richard Stewart
John Santagate
Spencer Earle
Create meaningful community impact with connected retail operations featuring The Co-operative Group produced by Cisco
Andrew Hough
Ken Hobbs
Data-driven retail trends: What the 2020 holidays taught us about offline retail in 2021 produced by Placer.ai
Deborah Weinswig
Ethan Chernofsky
Innovation at scale in the retail sector with Bestseller produced by IBM
Join this session and hear from international fashion company Bestseller, which leveraged the IBM Garage to create Fabric.ai, an AI-based tool to better forecast sales, improve sell-through rates and reduce waste from clothing that does not sell. Learn how retailers can generate ideas 10x faster, release 6x as many innovations, and triple their speed to market with a proven methodology, technology and industry expertise to quickly develop and deploy maximum-impact solutions and push towards full-scale digital transformation.
When you interact with IBM, this serves as your authorization to NRF or its vendor to provide your contact information to IBM in order for IBM to follow up on your interaction. IBM’s use of your contact information is governed by the IBM Privacy Policy.
Debbie Vavangas
Ranjan Sharma
Cathy Reese
2020's most creative retail campaigns for equality
There has been a huge shift in consumers demanding that brands take a stance on key social issues — namely equality. Marketers and brands across the globe are working overtime to figure out how to communicate this effectively. In this conversation, we’ll draw lessons and insights from this year's most creative retail campaigns and advertisements that drove home the message of equality and inspired people to act.
Shelley Zalis
Shelley Haus
Crystal Harrell
Alteryx interactive discussion: Emerging retail leaders post COVID-19 shutdown with Signet Jewelers
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
When the COVID-19 pandemic came in March, Signet Jewelers closed all its North American locations. A few months later they were back in business—and prepared for the transition.
They used data to help drive the decision; Brian Strickland, VP of Enterprise Analytics at Signet Jewelers will share how they analyzed market readiness, employee safety, customer needs, and more to create a strategic plan for re-opening.
Thanks to their digital first approach, use of advanced analytics and strategic reopening strategy, Signet Jewelers saw 15% growth in Q3 2020.
Anne-Queline Keller
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company interactive discussion: How to create hyper-aware stores for enhanced experiences and better outcomes
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
In today’s increasingly competitive environment, savvy retailers like Tractor Supply Company and H-E-B are creating hyper-aware stores – leveraging their networks to do more than connect devices and secure payment data. Edge IoT devices such as sensors, cameras, and voice communicators, combined with context such as location and identity, can provide real-time insights to understand space utilization, improve customer experiences, and drive better store operations. Join Tractor Supply, H-E-B, and Aruba to learn how you can begin making the transition to hyper-aware. US and Canada retailers will receive a $50 DoorDash gift card for attending!
Tim Vanevenhoven
BigCommerce interactive discussion: Maximizing business agility with innovative technology
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Even with a vaccine, we’ll be feeling the pandemic’s impact across the 2021 landscape. In this session, we’ll talk about the where, why and how of shopping today, and how retailers can stay agile to meet shoppers’ omnichannel needs. The strongest omnichannel strategy has to hold up inside the business as much as outside. That means orchestration of data and systems to keep all the parts of your business seamlessly connected. It’s time for technology to take its seat at the strategy table.
Sharon Gee
Medallia interactive discussion: How employee experience impacts your bottom line
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
The value of retail’s in-store associates is growing considerably during these ever-changing times. Research shows that positive experiences with employees not only improve consumer’s overall shopping experience but inspires them to visit more frequently and spend more with the brand. With success or failure so heavily tied to how well frontline employees engage with customers, retailers that invest in employees will reap dividends. Join this interactive session to learn how to implement a winning employee experience strategy for retail.
Merkle interactive discussion: Capitalizing on the growth of eRetail
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Over the past 18-24 months, there has been a surge in Retail Media Networks (RMNs) with retailers looking to maximize the use of first-party data, personalize experiences, build a new revenue stream and innovate across an evolving retail landscape.
Join this interactive session to learn about:
- The evolving landscape and how retailers should adapt to be successful
- The role of the retail media network
- The challenges retailers face and how organizations can scale their co-op or digital media offering
- The importance of partnership with CPGs, technology and platform partners
Janine Flaccavento
Planalytics interactive discussion: Forecasting and managing 2021 performance without meaningful comps
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
As a path out of the pandemic emerges, so too do the prospects for returning to more normal sales trends and operations. COVID-19 has created long-term impacts, but retailers also face a more immediate challenge: How do we gauge performance and plan ahead without meaningful comps? Coming off a year where consumer buying behavior changed so dramatically makes this difficult, but there are COVID-19-proof demand signals - such as weather - that retailers are using to clearly evaluate results and identify opportunities for sales growth.
Evan Gold
Salesforce interactive discussion: Transform retail operations faster with connected systems and real-time data
Open to Retailers with a Full Conference or Expo Pass. Space is limited to 50 individuals, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Shoppers are embracing digital shopping platforms faster than ever before and expect real-time engagement via every channel. Hear directly from global retailer Sally Beauty to learn how they were able to quickly pivot their operations to deliver a superior online shopper experience.
- Hear about their ship-from-store and BOPIS strategy
- Discover the steps they took to shift their B2B and B2C business online
- Understand the importance of connected systems and APIs to their retail operations
Paty Riquelme
Is your last-mile strategy up to the challenge?
With e-commerce experiencing a historic surge in demand, the pressure is on for logistics operations and the focus on the last mile is garnering more attention than ever. For companies to prevail, they need to reshape the state of their last-mile strategies. This means increasing supply chain visibility, leveraging new technologies and reinventing logistics ecosystems. In this discussion, experts shed light on ways companies are meeting the moment and the emergence of micro distribution hubs and services.
Curated in partnership with:
Bill Thayer
Erik Logerquist
Kelly Chen
Stephen J. Yalof
Pivoting with purpose: Lessons from DTC brands
Emily Heyward
Simon Huck
Lauren Chan
4 ways to power touchless retail with text messaging produced by Podium
A lot has changed for bricks-and-mortar retail this year. Retailers have been forced to undergo digital transformation overnight in order to stay connected with customers.
And marketing leaders have been tasked with finding new ways to acquire new customers at lower costs all while growing loyalty and transacting 100% digitally.
In a mobile-first world, one thing is certain: convenience wins. In fact, 86% of consumers expect even MORE convenient experiences with retailers when the pandemic ends.
Join this session to learn four specific ways retailers can provide a modern and touchless experience through 1:1 messaging. We’ll explore use cases and examples from real-life brands.
You’ll learn:
- Why texting matters to consumers and enterprises now more than ever
- The connection between mobile search, online reputation, and revenue
- How to leverage conversational commerce to deliver contactless experiences and win more customers at scale
Doug Regner
Katie Osberg
Driving the digital transformation superhighway produced by Fiserv
Steve Klebe
Scott MacKay
The future of analytics: Starbucks and Tableau - Adapting to drive innovation and connection produced by Salesforce
From accelerating business transformation to doubling down on what sets the brand apart, Starbucks relies on analytics to drive innovation and impact. And in a time when disconnection hit critical mass, Starbucks turned to analytics to find opportunities for human connection.
Join Starbucks VP of Architecture, Data & Analytics Technology, Rajesh Naidu and Tableau CTO Andrew Beers to learn more about how Starbucks has enhanced organizational adaptability through analytics. And hear what they’re most excited about—and what concerns them - when they consider the future of analytics.
Rajesh Naidu
Andrew Beers
The future of retail is all about always-on, everywhere support: Fireside chat with Zendesk and Birchbox produced by Zendesk
Teresa Anania
Leanna Nazzisi
How forward thinking retailers are responding to COVID-19 with Microsoft Business applications implemented by IBM produced by IBM
COVID-19 has shifted consumer behaviors in significant and unexpected ways. That creates challenges or opportunities, depending on how you respond. Learn how forward thinking retailers are responding to COVID-19 with data insights, enhanced customer experiences and innovation.
This session is ideal for retail leaders and IT and Customer Experience decision makers at retailers of all sizes.
When you interact with IBM, this serves as your authorization to NRF or its vendor to provide your contact information to IBM in order for IBM to follow up on your interaction. IBM’s use of your contact information is governed by the IBM Privacy Policy.
Stephen Laughlin
Chuck Schaeffer
Scaling up in the last mile: Meeting demand for more produced by Bringg
Explosive demand for last-mile convenience, safety and low-cost delivery are challenging every brand, retailer and logistics provider. This session will explore the strategies and technologies innovators are deploying to not just survive the new normal, but thrive.
Attendees will learn how retailers, delivery providers and CPG and D2C brands are scaling up their business and introducing new consumer-direct growth channels.
Daniela Perlmutter
Omer Waysman
Taking supplier collaboration to the next level produced by SPS Commerce
Brandon Pierre
Matt Terry
Chris Littlefield
The future of retail is here: Explore how quantum-inspired optimization delivers results for retailers produced by Fujitsu
Thierry Kahane
Dr. David Snelling
Opening concert replay sponsored by Salesforce: Robin Thicke
Robin Thicke
Thursday, January 21
Retail’s rethink moment: Reimagining business as UNusual with Saks Fifth Avenue and lululemon
The most opportunistic point of view is that "from crisis comes immense opportunity." This year that edict remains more relevant than ever. In this mainstage session, hear how retail has risen to the occasion to re-imagine the experience in the most unusual of times. In back-to-back fireside chats, leaders from high-end luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue and prominent athletic apparel company lululemon share their companies' journeys in thinking differently to meet the immense challenges this year has brought to bear.
First, Saks President and CEO Marc Metrick will share insights about the current luxury consumer mindset, the quick decisions and strategic actions taken to manage through the pandemic and beyond, and how his team is reimagining the shopping experience to solidify Saks’ position as the premier luxury shopping destination.
Next, lululemon President of Americas and Global Guest Innovation Celeste Burgoyne, will talk about the company's thoughtful COVID-19 response strategy, as well as how its global approach to omni channel and guest innovation and engagement experiences helped the company scale while many retailers pulled back.
Celeste Burgoyne
Marc Metrick
Colleen Taylor
How Europe’s top beauty retailer grew digital 10X and became their customers number 1 choice produced by Algonomy
Matas is Denmark’s one-stop beauty destination whose share of digital grew 10X in the last three years. A key reason for their success is connected, personalized buying experiences across digital and physical channels. As the online boom continues, the beauty giant recognizes transactions as the starting point for relationships.
Brian Andersen, eCommerce Director at Matas shares how retailers can plot a new trajectory, even as customer needs evolve. Understand the pillars of digital transformation and the importance of algorithmic customer engagement as retail enters the new, digital-first future.
Raj Badarinath
Brian Andersen
How Sally Beauty delivers continuous omnichannel innovation produced by IBM
When you interact with IBM, this serves as your authorization to NRF or its vendor to provide your contact information to IBM in order for IBM to follow up on your interaction. IBM’s use of your contact information is governed by the IBM Privacy Policy.
Kevin Reese
Joe Condomina
Mary Beth Edwards
Why frontline forward is 2021’s winning strategy produced by Axonify
Carol Leaman
Mark Chrystal
Jonathan Andrews
You had me at Hello produced by ULTA Beauty and TIBCO
Michael O'Connell
Kavitha Dhurai
Debra Coomer
Making moments that matter: How Hershey led with insights to meet the changing needs of consumers
Kristen Riggs
Nik Modi
Tech innovation: What consumers want and where retailers should invest
Tech advances create unprecedented change across consumer-facing industries. In this session, Euromonitor International provides a holistic view of retail tech adoption. Identify the consumer preferences influencing shopping behavior and the factors pushing industry innovation to pinpoint where retailers should make their tech investments. This session will reveal the tech investments that will best align with consumer expectations in the coming years.
Michelle Evans
Virtual Expo
Retail's greatest technology marketplace returns in a virtual format, giving you the opportunity to build new partnerships, explore the latest tech and discover the solutions that will help your business succeed.
The NRF 2021 - Chapter 1 Expo allows you to navigate hundreds of exhibitors by company name or product category, so you can easily find the next big thing before it's big!
Salesforce Unlock the Shopper Journey Lunch and Learn Session: Hästens delivers the store experience of the future
With the onset of COVID-19, there was a dramatic shift in consumer behavior and a digital acceleration as thousands of retailers were forced to shut their doors.
At some point, stores will fully reopen. To drive foot traffic, which was already waning pre-pandemic, retailers need to create highly differentiated, omnichannel experiences for today’s digital-first shoppers. Learn how world-renowned bed brand, Hästens is transforming their in-store customer experience through the Salesforce-Apple strategic partnership and how you can create the store experience of the future today.
Gavin Frank
Robert Carlen
Mikael Wennberg
Automated and adaptive supply chain planning: Big Lots’ successful forecasting and replenishment transformation produced by RELEX solutions
Johan Hoover
How PVH is reshaping its omnichannel retail experience to win and retain customers produced by Forter Inc.
Janelle Spatz
David Coates
Loblaw Companies Limited leverages IBM to modernize to the cloud produced by IBM
Retailers are facing new challenges and need to change how work gets done. Forward-looking companies like Loblaw utilize automation to create intelligent workflows and deploy digitally through hybrid multi-clouds. Intelligent workflows allow retailers to increase the confidence and speed in how decisions are made, create more meaningful experiences for customers and employees and improve productivity by empowering people to do higher-value work.
This session is ideal for retailers ready for a digital transformation.
When you interact with IBM, this serves as your authorization to NRF or its vendor to provide your contact information to IBM in order for IBM to follow up on your interaction. IBM’s use of your contact information is governed by the IBM Privacy Policy.
David Markwell
Stephen Laughlin
Patrick Antoine
Retail still rocks: And we built a store in lockdown to prove it produced by Capgemini
Steve Hewett
Robert Hollands
Gordon Young
The new ethics of tech: Equity, diversity and human-centered design
How can retail and tech companies find the best talent while keeping equity and diversity a priority? What is human-centered design and how does it affect people of color? In this discussion, leaders will talk about the women leading in retail tech, techniques for finding the best talent from recruitment to partnerships, and how companies can change their design processes to build more inclusive technology.
Rachel James
Sarah Thomas
Eiko Kawano
Cinemark's path to AI-optimized labor scheduling using Legion WFM sponsored by Legion Technologies
Sanish Mondkar
Marie Zablocki
Future of retail: Three trends and how AI can drive business success produced by Kinaxis
Kerry Liu
Waleed Ayoub
The hidden dangers of neglecting the NOW customer produced by Simplr
Phenomenal CX is one of the few remaining ways to stay competitive and keep your business afloat. Today’s “NOW consumer” is always ON – through chat, messaging, email and social media. Anything short of meeting the NOW consumer where they are amounts to nothing less than customer neglect.
Tune in as Simplr’s CMO, Daniel Rodriguez, reveals challenges and dangers that are emerging for CX professionals, and how to prevent and correct customer neglect so you can steer your company’s CX in the right direction.
Daniel Rodriguez
What shoppers expect to see in stores in 2021? produced by SES-imagotag
Jean-Christophe Solus
Ricardo Ponce
Pursuing rapid digital transformation in response to market adversity
Alberto Serrentino
Jorge Faiçal
Rachel Maia
Technologies shaping the store of 2025
Retailers have reimagined the use of the physical store leveraging technologies that not only enable them to inform and provide new levels of convenience to customers but also effectively measure the impact of in-store initiatives. By unlocking the power of in-store tech solutions, brands have the ability to drive customer loyalty and engagement, and heighten brand experience like never before. With a few years of testing now behind us, retail innovation leaders discuss what’s working, what's not, and how next generation technologies are solving some of today's biggest challenges while shaping the store of the future.
Curated in partnership with:
Pano Anthos
Travis Boyce
Leigh Sevin
Arpan Podduturi
Applying the Headless Commerce approach to AI to optimize every step of the customer journey produced by Algolia
Bernadette Nixon
Succeeding in the new normal and preparing for retail’s future produced by CDW
David Dobson
Andy Szanger
The intelligent business standard redefined with IBM-SAP Industry Cloud Solutions produced by IBM
A new era of innovation has arrived. In this session hear about leveraging truly open architecture for two key topics:
1. Seamless omnichannel customer experiences with real time product availability and pricing
2. How to enable exponential value with pricing and promotions intelligent workflows and collaboration
This session is perfect for CEO, CFO, COO, CMO who want to modernize their business operations to meet the post pandemic end-consumer behavior
When you interact with IBM, this serves as your authorization to NRF or its vendor to provide your contact information to IBM in order for IBM to follow up on your interaction. IBM’s use of your contact information is governed by the IBM Privacy Policy.
Jose Paredes Hernandez
The untapped ROI of caring post-sales produced by Shipup
Jeoffrey Jouannet
AI-enabled forecasting, planning, and merchandising for 2021 and beyond produced by Impact Analytics
Prashant Agrawal
Mark Mizicko
Bart Sichel
Enabling a retail renewable enterprise with digital core on SAP produced by Capgemini
We combine our Industry Path solution for SAP S/4HANA with surround intelligent technologies, enabling you to become a Retail Renewable Enterprise – a company that’s constantly able to adapt and grow.
Join us to hear Liam Durbin, CIO at T. Marzetti describe their own experience of this approach. The result? Functional improvements every six months, a boost to business, an end to technical debt, and the opportunity to exceed customer expectations, unlock further value, and outpace the competition.
John Waymire
Liam Durbin
Kimberly Frey
From the beauty counter to the cloud: The Estée Lauder Companies journey produced by IBM
With over 25 brands, The Estée Lauder Companies are supported by hundreds of beauty advisors and customer care agents around the world. When its employees began working from home in March, ELC had to find new ways to connect customers with associates, while still providing a high-touch, personalized experience through these new channels. Learn how ELC reimagined its in-store engagements to create premier digital experiences, from seamless, direct-to-consumer sales using social media, to troubleshooting customer care and order fulfillment challenges, to ensuring customers can stay connected to their favorite products, wherever and however they shop.
When you interact with IBM, this serves as your authorization to NRF or its vendor to provide your contact information to IBM in order for IBM to follow up on your interaction. IBM’s use of your contact information is governed by the IBM Privacy Policy.
Andrea Chin
Niki Sandhu
The need for hyper-personalization in the new retail digital customer journey produced by Twilio
Alex Bravo
Mauro Failli
Cooking with celebrity chef Michael Symon sponsored by Medallia
Join us for an interactive, family-friendly cooking class with chef Michael Symon.
This is your chance to cook alongside this award-winning chef and restaurateur. Here is a shopping list and recipes, so plan to make a new and tasty dish with family members and fellow retailers.
Michael Symon
Friday, January 22
Salesforce EMEA Lunch and Learn Session: How Picnic delivers seamless retail customer experiences in changing times
Steven Van de Ridder
Lorena Salamanca
Bhushan Puri
Power lunch: Mobilizing and succeeding in volatile times
If 2020 has taught us nothing else, deft leadership shines brightest in times of immense challenge. In successive fireside discussions, attendees will hear from influential female leaders who continue to steward large organizations with resilience and agility through a year of unprecedented change.
In the first discussion, WW President and CEO, Mindy Grossman and The Vitamin Shoppe CEO, Sharon Leite will discuss the new consumer mindset around health, wellness and mental wellbeing as a key driver to consumer engagement. Learn about the common goals between the two companies and how they are serving the wellness needs of a diverse group of consumers in a rapidly evolving retail landscape.
In the following fireside, Walmart International's President and CEO Judith McKenna will bring a truly unique perspective from her massive scope of responsibility leading more than 6,000 stores and 700,000 associates in 25 countries. Her leadership is illustrated by the swift implementation of Walmart's protocols in China when COVID-19's first wave of infections hit pandemic levels, serving as a blueprint for the U.S. and other countries—making sure associates stayed safe and customers maintained access to food and other essential supplies. The breadth of tangible lessons to be learned from these three powerful leaders is not to be missed.
Glenda McNeal
Sharon Leite
Mindy Grossman
Judith McKenna
Brands leading influencer marketing in 2021
Jarno Vanhatapio
Lauren Sherman
Jennifer Powell
From creator trends to inspired purchases - Inspiring a new purchase journey
Jeremy King
Aya Kanai
Virtual Expo
Retail's greatest technology marketplace returns in a virtual format, giving you the opportunity to build new partnerships, explore the latest tech and discover the solutions that will help your business succeed.
The NRF 2021 - Chapter 1 Expo allows you to navigate hundreds of exhibitors by company name or product category, so you can easily find the next big thing before it's big!
Fashion's digital transformation
Jessica Murphy
Chris Field
Karin Tracy
Kevin Jiang
The innovation playbook: Driving technological and innovative change within an enterprise
In a drastically and quickly changing retail environment, it's more important today than ever for retailers to lean into innovation in order to be adaptable and remain competitive. Driving technological and innovative change within an enterprise requires smartly designed teams equipped with effective processes and buy-in from leadership. It also requires an investment in research and development to identify new business opportunities and develop new products and initiatives. Our experts identify what makes some organizations more effective at transformation than others, how to navigate the rapidly evolving startup ecosystems, and more.
Curated in partnership with: