We listened carefully to everything that was said on the stage at the huge NY retail conference, dissected seven main topics of conversation, and summed up exactly what’s in it for you. Get all the juicy details below
NRF,
Retail’s big New York show, began on Sunday, January 12th, and once
again the major players in the retail world found themselves in Manhattan for
another edition of the industry’s flagship show. With over 100 educational
sessions and attendees from 99 countries, NRF is truly a hotbed of
ideas on the present and future of the retail industry.
Some retail marketers say that this information blitz is so
overwhelming that those who don’t attend NRF have a difficult
time catching up and even those who do find it challenging to make
sense of it all.
So,
whoever you are in this specific case, take advantage of the recap below – it’ll
help you get a good perspective of what the panelists were saying and why
it’s important this 2020 – with some added context and further reading
opportunities. Enjoy!
The Biggest Talks – Everything You Need to Know
Here’s
a quick overview of the 7 main discussions that we took note of and a brief
explanation of what this really means for retail marketers today:
Discussion
# 1: Empowering Customers
Customers
are more empowered than ever before. Access to all the information they
need – be it brand or user-generated – is at their fingertips. Today, customers
interact with brands through voice and messaging apps and are ultimately
looking to create their own paths to purchase.
What
It Means for You
Marketers need to create flexible strategies that facilitate customer-led journeys. These strategies must also be built and implemented based on customer micro-moments.
Discussion
# 2: Personalized Experiences
In the opening keynote, Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, pointed out that 80% of consumers expect retailers to provide them with personalized experiences and offers. And, the brands that succeed in doing so will be those that acquire the ability to unify siloed data.
What
It Means for You
Brands
need to unify their disperse customer data into a single source of truth via
platforms such as CDPs.
Discussion # 3: CX
Customer understanding is key for improved and optimized experiences and customer personalization. Chloé’s Brand President, Alexa Geovanos, among others, specified the importance of empowering internal customer-facing teams to facilitate great customer experience.
Customer
Data Platforms continue to be a common keyword in conversations with
marketers and media alike. However, use cases are beginning to shift from
a focus on traditional data unification to leveraging and activating that
data.
What
It Means for You
When evaluating vendors to partner with, marketers should be prioritizing orchestration capabilities instead of data attaining capabilities.
Discussion # 5: Innately Intelligent?
AI and ML continue to be a main topic of conversation, of course. Buzz aside, however, both Rent the Runway’s VP of Growth Marketing, Alicianne Rand, and Shopify’s CMO, Jeff Weiser, mentioned that it is best used to either automate well-defined tasks or provide insights for marketers to act upon.
What It Means for You
High-performing brands must provide their smart CRM teams with solutions that contain AI components focused on surfacing actionable recommendations on customer insights and interaction opportunities for employees. You can learn more about how online retailers are using actionable insights to power growth here.
Discussion
# 6: In-Store Lack of Data
Frontline employees might be the most
underserved employee set – in terms of access to customer data insights. Google
research shows that 75% of frontline employees feel that they
don’t have enough information to succeed in their roles. And,
in order to provide the best customer experiences in-store, they’re the ones
that need it most!
What
It Means for You
Getting the right data at the right time into the hands of employees at all levels, especially in-store, is key for future success. Stay tuned, as this will become an important topic around here in 2020.
Discussion
# 7: DMs
Fostering customer
relationships is of utmost importance for retailers – and direct messaging seems
to have many exciting opportunities to achieve this. Both Sephora’s SVP,
Amy Eschliman, and Rent the Runway’s VP
of Growth Marketing, Alicianne Rand, find channels such as
Facebook Messenger to be a key marketing communication tool for
customer engagement strategies.
What
It Means for You
Marketers need to look for technologies and platforms that provide authentic and valuable 1-on-1 interactions to care for their customers, at all times.
**
Stay tuned for more retail marketing analyses in the future. In the meantime, you can explore additional retail marketing posts here.
Rony Vexelman is Optimove’s VP of Marketing. Rony leads Optimove’s marketing strategy across regions and industries. Previously, Rony was Optimove's Director of Product Marketing leading product releases, customer marketing efforts and analyst relations. Rony holds a BA in Business Administration and Sociology from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
