The National Retail Federation's Convention and Expo, held earlier this month in New York City, drew 25,500 industry professionals excited to hear what the next steps were for retail in a marketplace growing increasingly hostile to physical stores. One common thread presented at the show is the need to know customer habits intimately and engage with them directly - a job for business intelligence software.
Reaching customers both in person and online and gaining insight from those transactions was a key theme of the conference, as reported by Apparel News. Numerous executives and industry insiders told the source that analytics were a point of acute interest for business representatives on the show floor.
Tech industry executive John Clark told the source that businesses were in search of game-changing technologies. "They’re looking and thinking about what could they adopt to fundamentally change and take advantage of new consumer buying habits," said Clark.
Analytics are being wired into the traditional tools of the physical retail trade. Point of Sale News reports that new point of sale hardware such as cash drawers with on-board analytics made their debut at the show. Such products are designed to provide immediate, accurate data for business intelligence software to turn into insight.
