This year, NRF hosted their annual PROTECT conference in Philadelphia, where I was joined by customers, retail executives and loss prevention professionals to discuss the state of the industry and what we can all do to improve. Events like these provide a platform for industry experts to share ideas and best practices while connecting about the topics that matter most to their business. I especially enjoyed the event this year because there was a noticeable attention and focus on customer-centricity and innovation – two things I feel very strongly about.
If you weren’t able to make it to NRF PROTECT this year, I outlined the 3 key conversations that were taking over the show floor:
“All Vendors Have an Analytics Offering – What’s the Difference”
At this point, it has been made increasingly clear to retailers that they should implement some form of an analytics system. No matter the size of the company, big data and analytics are becoming a necessity for retail success. However, what I also noticed is that every hardware, service or a data analytics provider offer some form of analytics. There was a discrepancy in terms of what customers will actually be receiving in return for their investment. Buzzwords like ‘analytics’, ‘omni-channel’ and ‘big data’ were repeated throughout the event more times than I can count – but it wasn’t made clear exactly what solutions many of the vendors were providing to prospects and customers.
“We Need New Technology”
During a big trade show like NRF PROTECT a key focus was undeniably the companies exhibiting and buying new technology – but with one caveat. It was made clear that the types of solutions that were most exciting and interesting all were focused around automation and usability. A big takeaway was that the attendees want improved technology, but they are being strategic with what exactly they consider. Newer forms of analytics like prescriptive received a greater amount of attention during the show. Attendees were interested to learn about prescriptive analytics for example, since it identifies a solution and the right person at the organization to solve the problem. It’s not surprising that Gartner predicts the market will reach $1.1 billion by 2019!
“Is That a Food Pavilion?”
While Philadelphia is certainly known for it’s soft pretzels and cheesesteaks (and NRF PROTECT did have those!) At the event this year, there was a designated food pavilion. Historically, restaurants have shied away from putting themselves in the same loss prevention category as fashion, beauty, lifestyle and even grocery. However, this year, at NRF Protect there was an entire pavilion dedicated to this industry. We are certainly seeing restaurants shift their focus to loss prevention techniques can help them achieve their goals of experiencing less shrinkage.
NRF Protect this year proved to be a valuable event filled with intelligent retail professionals. The Profitect team had a great time during the show – check-out some of our favorite images:
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