Featured Session

Some of the luxury market’s biggest competitors are teaming up in a bid to dominate China’s booming online market for high-end luxury.  Alibaba and Richemont announced plans to pour around $1 billion into the e-commerce marketplace and establish a new China-focused joint venture. This session featuring a luxury brand, ideally Gucci who launch on the luxury pavilion at Christmas, will examine the opportunity available to luxury brands among Chinese Gen Z consumers.

The recent surge in adopting more sustainable practices is no longer a trend, but an inevitable shift that brands need to begin implementing within their businesses. Embracing the circular economy may help businesses rethink and redesign ways in which they can keep current products and materials in use, eliminating waste. It is important for brands to think about all stages of their supply chain, from the design of their products to distribution and beyond.

Join us for this educational discussion from retail sustainability experts as they reveal the most effective ways to achieve your sustainability goals. Hear how these companies have become successful at reducing their carbon footprints and other related sustainability initiatives as they share their ah-ha moments, what worked and what didn't, who needs to be at the table for these discussions and how to best work with vendors.

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GDR Creative Intelligence CEO, Kate Ancketill will address the trends she sees developing and affecting us  after one of the greatest disruptors of recent times. She will identify the most important shifts and retail innovations, and provide incredible insights as to where this will lead us in the next few years. 

As some successful players become over reliant on China and others struggle, companies should consider spreading their risk by expanding to other high-growth geographies. According to BoF and McKinsey & Company Global Markets report highlights: India continues to present an exciting opportunity particularly for price competitive players – H&M & Adidas have been successful here.

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New York City hosts the opening of many incredible new retail environments each year, and in spite of global challenges 2020-2021 were no exception. Please join the Retail Design Institute’s Ray Ehscheid as he presents some exceptional experiences and enhanced features on a curated, virtual tour of store openings over the last two years. NRF and RDI seek to inspire each of you to physically visit these “must see" spaces as you walk the city of New York.  

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In this session we will examine how the worlds of tech, media and eCommerce are colliding opening up new business opportunities for brands and retailers. We will explore the roll of gaming, virtual reality and avatars and explains how brands can capitalize on these trends.

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Four key trends grabbing the attention of Chinese consumers today and how your brand can capitalize on them: Live streaming, Gamification, Augmented reality and 3D shopping. 

In the eyes of the consumer, sustainability is now a company's responsibility and no longer just a nice idea. Resale partnerships, solutions that can quickly create a resale marketplace on your existing online store, as well as programs that reward customers for returning previously worn goods are just a few tools to expand your sustainability accomplishments and potentially create new revenue streams. Partnerships and solutions such as these are providing a convenient pathway for retailers and brands to move the needle toward a more sustainable world. 

Well-known business ecosystems like JD.com and Alibaba have transformed the Chinese retail landscape in recent years. Integrating physical and digital retailing, payments, financial services, marketplaces, media and entertainment, these tightly connected technology platforms are spawning new retail business models that are built on expansive consumer bases and data. In addition, emerging ecosystems promise to reshape retail businesses amid competition among established and new platforms.

Brands need to have smart and sophisticated personalization strategies in place to win. But how far should you go with personalization for your customers? And is connecting emotionally with your customers winning out over personalization? 

Packing healthy, high-end products into small space and winning over urban shoppers.

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Tech & in-store services find the right fit. Why are returns still so high and what does the future of fit-technology look like? 

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A new dimension between the store and the customer is growing at an accelerated rate. Third party retail services are set to take on major e-commerce retailers. There is an interesting play between consumers and these intermediaries--an opportunity to influence brand and/or retailer selection. What is the ramification to stores? Building relationships with customers, will aggregators such as Instacart, Shipt and Drizly become the next retail platform?  This session explores these questions and more to understand how retailers can provide a richer branded shopping experience.  

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AI driven fashion design improves sustainability and inclusivity through greater efficiency with faster ideation and design processes; greater input makes for better fit and sizing--for to fewer mistakes and markdowns, as well as decreased inventory and less returns. 

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A lot of buzz and excitement surrounding these unique tokens have to do with digital art and creative work, but does the rise of NFTs bring forward new opportunities for brands to interact with a new younger audience? We will be exploring ways in which brands can utilize NFTs and understand what this means for businesses moving forward.

Amazon is both the leader in US e-commerce and runs the most successful marketplace. Despite their success, they are not one to follow for inspiration. Will they bring us the future of retail innovation? For everyone else trying to stand out, that entails building a different marketplace, one that looks at the supply and demand parts of the two-sided system differently.

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The market for plus-size fashion is worth nearly $30 billion in the US alone. But while brands are upping marketing rhetoric and imagery to include a wider range of body types, many companies are still failing to serve the plus-size consumer. 

Retailers and manufacturers pivoted to e-commerce in huge numbers during the pandemic. On the upside, it accelerated sales, but it also brought a reoccurring issue to the forefront: gray-market activities and counterfeits gained momentum. In 2020, Customs Border Protection seized "26,503 shipments containing goods that violated intellectual property rights.

As several huge retail chains have made high-profile forays into virtual care over the past year, many stakeholders have wondered what effect these moves may have on health services. The rise of telemedicine during COVID-19 has brought forth easier accessibility to healthcare for many people, establishing itself as a valuable method of care for future years to come. We are seeing traditional healthcare like medical office settings evolving into virtual, and even asynchronous options. Healthcare is becoming increasingly tech focused as major retailers have ventured into virtual care.

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One of the new marketing buzzwords today is ‘community’. Some brands have managed to create a community of loyal brand followers who buy their products and act as ambassadors – or even evangelists – promoting the brand in their personal and digital lives. So how did these brands do it?

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The quest for the growth of sustainable products is real, but changing customer behavior is hard. Can niche friendly retailers and suppliers steal market share from industry stalwarts?  

No question the plant-based segment is growing, but how big can it get and what will it take to reach some level of critical mass.

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As travel was slowed for many of us recently, we would like to take you on an international store tour of awe-inspiring store concepts. Join Accenture's Karen Voelker to learn how retailers are delivering best-in-class experiences powered by technology and design to better understand and connect with shoppers along the customer journey.

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