It’s another January in New York City, and retailers everywhere are converging on the Javits Center for the National Retail Federation’s 2017 Big Show. 2016 was an up and down year for retailers: Off-price retailers were thriving while department stores continued to struggle. e-Commerce was working for almost everyone, but Amazon continues to be a step ahead of most. What will 2017 bring? That’s what we’re sorting out at NRF this year.
As I plan my session (and social) schedule for this year’s event, I’m trying to step back and see the forest for the trees. What’s trending up and down? Are we still talking about omni-channel? What does it all mean? I wonder what food trucks will be lining up for lunch? To help sort this out for myself and anyone else who is wondering about retail in 2017, I’ve made it easy with a word cloud of the entire event for your quick reference:
As you can clearly see, Customer is at the center of attention – and appropriately so. Digital continues to dominate, and I think we’re going to see a significant emphasis on innovation and artificial intelligence this year. I hope you will follow along as I blog and tweet on #NRF2017 over the next few days. And if you’re at the Javits, please look me up!
Get Ready for Retail’s Big Show!
by Jim Hertzfeld on January 14th, 2017 | ~ minute read
