By Beth McGarrity
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity as we prepared for one of the biggest retail shows of the year. More than 24,000 retailers, technology providers, suppliers and partners gathered for the retail industry’s premier event, NRF 2012. For any professional in the retail sector, the “Big Show” is the go-to affair for networking, business development, educational opportunities and much, much more.
What is most exciting about an event like NRF 2012 is seeing, first-hand, key innovations and learning about the future of the industry. As I walked the show floor, networked with colleagues and attended breakout sessions, several major themes resonated that will clearly shape the years ahead:
- Developing More Customer-Centric Approaches: In today’s competitive marketplace, retailers need to better engage with customers, build stronger relationships and influence them through targeted and highly personalized communications and promotions – clearly tying back to the multi-channel theme.
- Don’t Forget “The Brand:” In a philosophical reversal of the multi-channel approach, some thought-leaders played up the importance of brand, especially when consumers are faced with many choices and channels. As CNBC pointed out: “Shoppers don’t think about shopping a ‘channel.’ They think about shopping, and if you’re lucky they think about shopping a specific brand.”
- Big Data Goes Big Time: Retailers will step up their data gathering and mining processes to unleash the science behind truly influencing consumers. This means that vast amounts of customer data, whether it is personal information, credit card data or purchasing patterns, will be collected, managed, sifted and acted upon. While this data will certainly be used to develop more targeted marketing programs, it underscores the need for the most sophisticated data security solutions.
- Customer Are Willing to Share: Along the lines of “big data,” many retailers are seeing that customers are actually willing to share more personal information these days. This will create the perfect storm of copious amounts of new data mining techniques and the use of algorithms for fully understanding how consumers interact with brands.
- Going Mobile: While this one is clearly not a surprise, the development of next-generation mobile apps, and the payment security challenges that come with this new horizon, was top of mind at the event. Convenience and efficiencies will certainly abound when retailers arm their sales associates with iPads and other mobile payment gadgets for instant credit card processing from any location within their stores.
- Zappos Breach: The Zappos breach news certainly made waves at the event and reinforced the hard reality that data breaches can happen to any retailer. Fortunately, customer credit card numbers were not compromised because they were stored on a separate server. And, as our SecurityCents readers know we always urge merchants to securely store all necessary payment data in a server outside of their network.
- Columbia Sportswear: Along the lines of payment security, we were very excited to announce that Merchant Link, along with our partners Equinox Payments and Voltage Security, has implemented a cutting-edge, reliable, cloud-based solution to protect sensitive payment data. And, retail giant Columbia Sportswear served as pilot implementation partner – implementing this solution across its nationwide retail network.
- Protect All Points: In support of the Columbia Sportswear announcement, we also developed a unique microsite called “Protect All Points,” which highlights all the key points about this implementation.
Finally, be sure to check out the sessions from the event streamed here. It’s almost as good as being there in person. And, NRF has a highly active blog, so be sure to check out posts like this one that highlights digital retail trends.
The “Big Show” certainly delivered and clearly there will be many exciting times ahead for the retail industry. See you all back at the Javitz Center next year!
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