How NRF’s Karlie Frank learned to love the dreaded annual report.

“Annual report.” The words alone are enough to put some to sleep. For trade associations, annual reports are a bit different — less focused on finances and more focused on the group’s achievements in the past year — but the very format implies predictability and sameness.

When we started the annual report project at the National Retail Federation last year, we didn’t see why it had to be so boring. In our world, we’re constantly talking about the evolution of the retail industry. We’re obsessed with innovators, customer engagement and reinvention, so why should an annual report be any different? As a show piece for an organization’s work the year prior, these books should be anything but routine. A good annual report lifts an association’s successes while reading like a story.

When we set out to create our 2017 annual report, we wanted it to be more than a glorified coffee table book. Luckily, we have a creative agency partner who isn’t afraid to push boundaries. Add me into the mix — someone who’s never created an annual report before — and we had the perfect recipe for a report refresh. Here’s a few tips you can use to do the same with your next “boring” project.

Steal ideas that excite you

The retail industry went through a major transformation in 2017, driven in large part by the growth of technology that allows retailers to better serve customers. We’re talking about stuff like robots leading you around the store to check items off your shopping list and 3D scanners that recommend a pair of shoes based on the size of your foot.

NRF spent so much time talking about the incredible impact these innovations had on retailers and consumers, and we wanted to integrate some of that technology into our annual report. We debuted an augmented reality element in which readers can see four videos come to life throughout the book, including one on the cover.

Here’s how it works: Readers download a special app that allows them to unlock four AR “triggers” throughout the book. When they see a red retail tag, they can hold their mobile device’s viewfinder over it to see a video pop up and play. We provided clear and concise instructions on the inside cover of the book, and on a paper band that comes around the outside of it, to make sure readers understood how to take advantage of the experience.

Think like a consumer

Few people enjoy reading long blocks of text. You may or may not still be reading this post, and I’ve only just clocked in at 434 words.

Recognizing the competition for attention in today’s world, we drastically cut down on word count in this year’s annual report. This eased the burden on readers and helped shift the spotlight to the images and the augmented reality experience throughout the book. Readers are more likely to make it through the entire book if each page feels manageable to digest. And let’s face it — some of us are only looking at the pictures anyway.

As a writer, cutting words can be difficult, but this selectivity brought focus and clarity to the report.

Showcase engagement

Social media is ubiquitous today, and so important when it comes to measuring influence with different audiences. To showcase some of the key stakeholders we engaged with on Twitter and Instagram, including reporters, conference attendees and even celebrities, we embedded images of these posts into spreads. Somewhere between a screenshot and an illustration, they pop off the page and add an interesting visual element other than the photos and block quotes that dominate most other pages.

Another cool thing about including these posts is the credibility it provides. We can talk about how great we are as much as we want, but it’s much more powerful to hear it and see it from other reputable people or groups.

The end result was an annual report that took a bit longer than usual to put together but was totally worth the wait. So far, the feedback from our members and other industry stakeholders has been incredibly positive.

How have you brought a fresh perspective to an otherwise routine project? Let us know in the comments below.

Read the latest annual report:

Annual Report

See more cool tech at NRFtech:

NRFtech 2018

3 ways to make that boring project the best one ever was originally published in NRF Events on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

From artificial intelligence and conversational commerce to robots and the future of payments, technology is helping retailers improve the customer experience and create a competitive advantage. These topics will be covered in depth at the upcoming NRFtech 2018, where technology and innovation leaders will explore the latest retail tech and find new ways to connect with their digitally savvy customers.

While blockchain was developed a decade ago, it has been compared with the internet in terms of the impact it could have on business and society. Michael Carney, principal at venture capital firm Upfront Ventures, says blockchain and decentralized systems give retailers an opportunity to drive efficiency and establish an advantage. Here are his thoughts on what retailers need to know about blockchain and ways it can be put into use.

When thinking about the opportunity to implement blockchain, every retailer should seek to answer a few basic questions:

1. What are my highest-leverage business problems that could benefit from greater trust, transparency and collaboration between stakeholders?
2. Where and how am I using data in my business, who controls that data and what risks am I undertaking in its storage and utilization?
3. What are my internal capabilities to test and implement these emerging technologies? If inadequate, what is my plan to bring in additional expertise?

At its core, blockchain is primarily exciting for its ability to enable greater trust, transparency and collaboration across constituencies that would otherwise struggle to achieve as much. Additionally, the use of “smart contracts” offers a never-before-possible means of automating and auditing transactions. For retail, these benefits can be realized from vendors to employees to customers.

A few areas stand out as those likely for retailers to see the greatest near-term benefit from embracing blockchain:

Supply chain and inventory management

As supply chain complexity increases, there’s an obvious opportunity to drive efficiency through greater collaboration and transparency between multiple constituencies including manufacturers, distributors, shipping carriers, insurers, importers, wholesalers and retailers. Knowing in real-time the exact source, location and state of all inventory in the system could be a game-changer for most businesses, particularly those dealing in perishable or luxury goods.

Unlike current systems, which rely on each constituent to maintain its own distinct and disconnected database — meaning limited and often delayed insight into the status of goods elsewhere in the system — blockchain facilitates real-time and trusted data sharing among constituents and can offer consensus about the true state of the system to all parties. That is especially transformative for categories that deal with counterfeiting or questions about social responsibility in sourcing and manufacturing. Layering on other technologies such as Internet of Things can further supercharge these impacts.

Payments and accounting

Blockchain enables the use of cryptocurrencies — sometimes also called tokens — as of a means of exchanging value or data. The most natural and widely adopted initial use case of these tokens today is for payments, specifically those for which the current financial infrastructure is either too inefficient or expensive to facilitate effectively. For example, cryptocurrencies offer real advantages for both cross-border payments and micro-payments.

Most attention is focused on consumer payment applications, where customers complete transactions in cryptocurrencies rather than traditional currencies. But these benefits are even more applicable today in the business context, where the size of payments and the large number of international transactions make cryptocurrency settlement an attractive proposition.

Additionally, the end-to-end data trail that blockchain provides will dramatically ease the accounting and finance burdens on organizations when applied to areas such as supply chain and inventory management. And relatedly, smart contracts will ease the hassles associated with collection and enforcement under traditional transaction structures — think instant collection and payment, automated refunds, automated insurance settlement and payout, and the like.

Loyalty and rewards

It’s a near-certainty that the loyalty programs of the future will be tokenized. Most loyalty programs today create frustration and friction rather than improved customer experiences. Tokens can dramatically simplify the tracking and managing of loyalty points, rewards cards and paper or digital coupons. Additionally, blockchain offers real-time liquidity, making points more easily swappable between consumers and across retailers. Retailers will still be able to reap the customer insight benefits, but in a more consumer-friendly way.

Retailers who choose to adopt blockchain could expand loyalty partnerships without adding complexity, driving increased brand awareness and program adoption while making it possible for smaller retailers to compete effectively with larger competitors. A welcome side effect for many program operators will be a reduction in the balance-sheet liabilities associated with unredeemed points and rewards.

Advertising and consumer data

Consumers are increasingly fed up with perceived abuses of their personal data and regulators are beginning to ask hard questions about data security. We should expect blockchain to underpin the consumer data and advertising systems of the future, enabling collaboration between stakeholders and reducing fraud while also giving consumers greater transparency and control over their own data — how it’s used and by whom. For retailers who collect and retain consumer data today, getting ahead of this coming shift by embracing open and transparent blockchain-based models will have a positive impact not only on operations, but at a public relations level as well.

Michael Carney is a principal at Upfront Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in technology-led businesses in digital media, consumer internet and retail innovation.

Learn more about NRFtech 2018:

NRFtech 2018

More about blockchain from NRF:

Blockchain technology could bring visibility, efficiency and security - STORES: NRF's Magazine

4 ways retailers can use blockchain to their advantage was originally published in NRF Events on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It’s not just voice and robots. Here’s the cool tech you haven’t heard about yet that’s ready to change the way you shop.

Walking around the National Retail Federation’s annual convention and expo provides thousands of examples of retailers “improving the customer experience.” It’s a nice line, but what does that really mean for all of us consumers? NRF’s Sarah Neale Rand reports from the “Retail 2020” exhibit in the Innovation Lab at NRF 2018: Retail’s Big Show, where some of the coolest emerging tech that will shape the near-future of retail is on display.

It’s my lucky 13th trip to Retail’s Big Show, and retail looks a lot different than it did in 2006. But things look different for me, too: In addition to working full-time for NRF, I’m back in grad school and a mother of two. A great shopping experience for me is all about efficiency and convenience, so when NRF’s Vice President of Technology Jason Hoolsema and Tusk Ventures’ Managing Director Seth Webb agreed to give me a tour of the Innovation Lab at Retail’s Big Show, I wanted to see what upcoming technologies were going to make shopping faster and easier for me.

The grocery store experience

These days, with two kids under six distracting me, I’m lucky if I only have to crisscross the grocery store twice in a trip. Five Element’s DASH Robot Shopping Cart maps out the most effective route, leads me around the store and stops at the items on my list (no more crisscrossing for me). I pay at the cart (no lines!). Then it follows me to my car and returns to the store all by itself. Sign me up.

Comparing features and exploring products

When it comes to buying technology for my home, I could spend days reading reviews, watching demos or looking at products in stores. Spacee and June20 are going to make all that research so much easier. Spacee’s simulated reality uses light projection to make any surface a 3D interactive experience — I can “demo” a Nest thermostat that’s actually just a piece of plastic or touch a table top to interact with information.

June20 brings physical and digital displays together with an informative sliding tablet that lets the customer move between products, call up the right information about each product and effectively compare their features. I won’t admit how much time (or how many trips to the store) I spent buying a smart lock a few years ago, but I bet this would have limited my shopping research to 20 minutes. Pluses for retailers: reducing shrinkage, reduced inventory display costs and a content-rich online experience in store.

Take the trip out of the equation

Whether it’s a quick trip to the grocery store for milk or that lunch I didn’t have time to run out and buy, Starship Technologies’ robots are making local delivery easier than ever. I can order last-minute groceries for tonight’s family dinner, and follow the robot online as it navigates to my office. The win for retailers: Packages can be delivered for a fraction of the cost a more traditional delivery service would require.

The right fit — the first time

The last time I needed a new pair of boots, I ordered FIVE pairs — multiple styles and sizes — to make sure at least one fit. And of course, I returned four pairs. Volumental is solving that problem. Their fast and accurate 3D foot scanning system and advanced AI ‘Fit Engine’ can recommend a pair of shoes based on individual foot shape, size and preference. Say goodbye to wasted time and energy trying on shoes that aren’t going to fit anyway. The win for retailers: shoe returns decrease 25 percent.

Completing the outfit

A cute blue and brown skirt has lived in my closet for (at least) the last year, with no tops to match. It’s all I could think about at FINDMINE and Slyce’s booth. FINDMINE’s machine leaning platform and Slyce’s image recognition tech come together for a “Complete the Look” tool that would let me take a picture of that lonely skirt and see a complete outfit to keep it company. The win for retailers: Both FINDMINE and Slyce’s tools are increasing engagement and conversions.

I once made the rookie parent mistake of furniture shopping with a toddler. I was only able to focus on all the options around me for the five minutes I convinced her to run laps around a display couch, and I left empty-handed in the end. Now when I need to buy a couch and want lots of options, I can — from the comfort of my soon-to-be-old couch — turn to a retailer using EverThread and its visualization software. EverThread’s technology takes photoshoots out of the process and lets retailers show products (like the couch I now need) in every possible color. While I’m at it, I might try out a new rug and curtains to match. The win for retailers: Since multiple product views increase sales by 58 percent, this is sure to give conversions a bump. And if I want to make sure my new couch and rug look good and fit properly in my living room (so I don’t have to worry about returning any furniture … no time for that!), ecommerce visualization platform Tangiblee will take care of that.

My mall assistant

These days my trips to the mall are intensely purposeful. I know exactly what I need to accomplish, though that doesn’t mean I don’t need help. Satisfi Labs’ AI conversation platform can be that help. Its chatbot might help me find deals, answer questions about stores carrying certain products and help me navigate right to a cookie shop at the end. The win for retailers (and malls): bringing customers back with a unique experience.

The supply chain that delivers

I’m in awe of my mom and every other woman in history that raised children without the ability to order diapers online, often at 3 a.m., and know it will arrive that day — or at least in the next two days. Add in the days I forgot to buy a textbook before the new semester started or the mitt my 4-year-old needs for tee-ball practice, and some days it feels like magic that the thing I absolutely need shows up on my doorstep. That’s why I was so enamored with Locus Robotics’ warehouse robots. They work alongside people to more than double human productivity. That means the pipe cleaners I need for this week’s science fair are headed my way that much faster. Bonus for merchants: Retailers are already seeing a reduction in operating costs by 30–40 percent.

I used to think of 2020 as far in the future, but it’s almost here. Most of the Retail 2020 exhibitors I talked to are already working with retailers. That means all the cool technology that makes shopping more convenient and efficient is accessible now. I’m looking forward to all the time I’ll save — maybe I can find room for just one more commitment in my life. Or maybe I’ll just take a nap.

Hear how the Innovation Lab was curated:

Tomorrow's cool retail tech, today

More from NRF 2018: Retail’s Big Show

Recap

7 ways shopping will get better by 2020 was originally published in NRF Events on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Scott Harrison is the brains behind charity: water, a nonprofit working to solve the global water crisis one innovative step at a time.

In an unlikely journey from nightclub promoter to social entrepreneur, Scott Harrison made a drastic change to focus on giving. After a life-changing trip to Africa, Harrison came back determined to find a solution to the global water crisis. He founded charity: water to help bring clean water to people in developing nations.

But the story of charity: water isn’t just a story of one guy turning his life around to do something good — it’s a story of reimagining charitable giving. From smart branding to transparency through technology to creative partnerships, charity: water is connecting with donors and doing business in a new way. The organization uses innovative campaigns and experiences to inspire its audience to give, with 100 percent of public donations going directly to water projects. In 11 years, the charity has raised about a quarter of a billion dollars, delivering clean water to more than 7 million people. It’s a business case study in innovation that actually does the world good.

Ahead of Harrison’s session at NRF 2018: Retail’s Big Show, he spoke to us about the inspiration behind charity: water and how he’s disrupting the way people and organizations think about giving back.

What inspired you to start charity: water?

After spending 10 years living a very selfish life as a nightclub promoter in New York City, I realized I was spiritually and morally bankrupt, and decided to make a drastic change. I spent almost two years in West Africa as a photojournalist aboard a hospital ship through the organization Mercy Ships, where I saw firsthand the horrors that can occur when people don’t have access to clean water. These two years truly changed my life, and I returned to New York City determined to find a solution to the global water crisis.

charity: water gives 100 percent of all public donations to fund water projects. How do you make this possible?

Our 100 percent model is core to what charity: water is, and we’ve always stayed true to it, never using a single dollar of the public’s money for anything other than water projects. We’re able to keep this promise thanks to a dedicated group of donors called The Well, made up of generous families around the world who fund our overhead costs. This amazing group has made it possible for more than 1 million donors to have a pure giving experience, knowing every penny of their donations is going to fund more than 24,000 water projects for 7.3 million people over the 11 years since charity: water’s founding.

How does the holiday season impact donations and your operations?

The holiday season is incredibly important — nearly one third of annual giving occurs in December, and 12 percent of all giving happens in the last three days of the year. That’s part of the reason why we launched our subscription program, The Spring. In addition to creating a community of donors committed to giving on a monthly basis, the program gives us a baseline of recurring funds so we don’t have to start from zero on January 1 and are able to more accurately predict cash flow for the coming year.

Tell us about your success with brand and corporate partnerships. How do you approach these relationships?

To develop holistic, multi-year campaigns and experiences that inspire our audiences to bring clean water to people in need, we find brands who have values and objectives that are aligned with ours. On our end, we want to raise money and awareness for clean water, while companies want to use their businesses to drive good and help a cause they care about. We work together to develop a concept — be it a co-branded product, percentage of sales, an employee fundraising campaign or an event — that will engage their company, employees and customers, and be a win for both sides.

“Learn how to tell stories.”

What makes a great brand partner and why are businesses working with you in this way?

A great brand partner genuinely cares about making the world a better place. In order for a partnership to be successful, it must feel authentic. We evaluate fit based on a company’s values, mission and vision, as well as their interest in pursuing a multi-faceted, multi-year campaign. Businesses look to us to help reach Millennials, engage their employees and show their customers that they stand for something.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned through your work with charity: water?

Getting people to care about issues that they don’t personally face is hard. At charity: water, we’re storytellers at heart and I attribute a lot of our success to being able to inspire people through powerful stories from the communities we serve.

What inspires you? Where do you get new ideas to grow your organization?

I’m inspired by the act of giving, and the joy it brings. That’s why I’m passionate about inspiring others to give and changing the way we think about charitable giving.

Some of my best ideas come during long car rides in Africa. I wish this solution wasn’t 3,000 miles away, but some of my favorite creative breakthroughs have come in Malawi, India, Niger or Ethiopia in the back of a Land Rover. When I’m back in New York, I still try to carve out time for quiet thinking and reflection, stepping away from devices and screens when I can.

What advice would you share with young social entrepreneurs?

My best advice would be to learn how to tell stories and speak publicly about your mission and vision with passion and authenticity. These skills are incredibly useful in building a company or nonprofit. Another thing I’d mention is that integrity is everything — much more important than what you do is how you do it.

More about retail’s biggest event:

NRF Retail's Big Show

How charity: water is changing the way we think about charitable giving was originally published in NRF Events on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Innovation” is the buzz word that just won’t go away. And for retailers constantly compared to Amazon standards — no matter their size or niche — it’s an obsession.

Like every other industry, retailers are hungry for the formula that will create the kind of business and culture that innovates at the speed necessary to compete. It’s a topic that will be covered thoroughly at the upcoming NRF 2018: Retail’s Big Show, and one retailers are eager to discuss. We turned to John Squire, CEO and co-founder of Digital Commerce Startup of the Year winner DynamicAction, to get the conversation started with insights and experience from building a startup and working with retailers who are getting it right.

Creating a culture of innovation in retail’s era of disruption

Innovation is the number one topic among successful retail executives in this Amazon era. Facing relentless competition and disruption on multiple fronts, retailers and brands know they must push toward intelligent advancement to stay a step ahead of their customers’ constantly evolving expectations and their shareholders’ demands.

At its core, innovation means change, and progressive retailers and brands realize they must shift their strategies, processes and overall mindset. It’s essential for retailers to understand that they are not alone. This is the most challenging time in the industry’s history, and it is only getting more complex. While the path ahead is difficult at times, and not always clear, there are consistent strategies in place that characterize the most advanced and innovative retail organizations.

Empowered teams, fast decisions

Progressive companies that consistently deliver great results are generally operated by management teams that seek new opportunities through obsessively analyzing the details and data of their business. They tolerate the discomfort of change and incomplete knowledge, but compensate for that with nimble decisions based on a constantly updated view of their business and the market.

Those that lean the furthest forward constantly look for tools and frameworks to give their entire team an advantage, not just management.

They are on a quest toward improving their team’s ability to compete, innovate and repeatedly make smarter and faster decisions in a business that shows no signs of slowing down. Leaders at these companies empower their best people and seek to identify every wave of new talent with a full understanding of the power that technology can bring to amplify human decision-making. Additionally, they seek ways to multiply their team’s best efforts as they look for methods to reduce inefficiencies, waste and missed opportunities that arise from the natural biases inherent to every organization.

A connected culture

While an organization’s culture starts at the top, it also bubbles up from the bottom. In an industry where complexity, speed and competition are ever increasing, successful cultures value the actions of many independent decision-makers across the organization. Consistent and connected views of the business’s performance are critical to unite the organization across all levels, from the showroom to the boardroom. Once this information is communicated, employees can then interact on a set of interrelated subtasks that constantly drive to meet the plan.

Focus on the future

Innovative companies know how success is measured and are relentlessly evaluating areas of the business that are not aligned to meet those success criteria. They focus on future innovations and are never satisfied to rest on their laurels.

Retailers and brands today welcome the challenges presented by the exciting, engaging and increasingly demanding consumer, as they are constantly driving innovation beyond what retailers had ever dreamed up. The best companies are never satiated. Innovative leaders must live in a constant state of restlessness that keeps the entire organization focused on being greater tomorrow than it is today.

Technology that drives innovation

Beyond consumer shifts, technology is the greatest single catalyst propelling retail forward at a blistering speed. The challenge for every retail executive is understanding the benefit of the technology and how it will impact their business as it relates to their objectives. If technology is clearly part of a business imperative and is endorsed fully by the executive team, the entire organization will adopt the philosophy in order to reach a higher level of operation. The rising value of advanced retail analytics systems, not just workflow accelerating software, is requiring executives to rethink how their own management paradigms will need to change to lead a blend of human-driven and machine-driven decisions.

Retail is a business of people, and the top retail companies realize that their very best people will be the future of their business.

Whether they are in charge of customer interaction or managing any point along the product or customer journey, the next generation of great retail will certainly spawn from the careful enablement of people with better tools to operate the business.

Many of the skills fostered by retail organizations will continue to be relevant, while new highly valued skills will certainly be introduced. The digitization of retail has created precise data about every product, every SKU, every customer and every touchpoint across all channels. As a result, the amount of information has exploded exponentially, allowing retailers to get a deeper and more accurate picture of their business immediately. Innovative companies will need to invest in technology to improve the decision and service capability of their people at a rate far faster than their global competitors.

While the term “innovation” may hold an entirely different meaning to a pure ecommerce player than a multichannel retailer, one thing remains true: A nimble leadership and culture, as well as an employee base empowered by technology, are the vital elements to embarking on a journey not only toward innovation, but securing a successful (and profitable) future.

John Squire is the CEO of DynamicAction, a retailer-built prescriptive analytics solution that connects data to get to fast, profitable actions for retailers, and the winner of NRF’s Digital Commerce Startup of the Year competition.

Learn more about NRF 2018:

NRF Retail's Big Show

More from Squire:

What the startup scene tells us about retail

4 strategies for creating a culture of innovation was originally published in NRF Events on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A new class of female entrepreneurs is connecting with women while creating better products and customer experiences — and a culture of support. NRF’s Susan Reda reports from Shop.org.

Sessions like “Women Rule: Entrepreneurial Inspiration” at NRF’s Shop.org conference in Los Angeles last month typically feature intimidating, take-no-prisoners-style presentations. From where I sit, they can go one of two ways.

Either I leave feeling like a classic underachiever, harboring feelings of inadequacy about everything from a lack of education to the inability to walk in four-inch heels, or I am stirred by stories that challenge traditional thinking, embrace new behaviors and are imbued with perseverance and passion. I’m happy to report I left this session feeling the latter.

Speakers Gregg Renfrew, founder and CEO of Beautycounter, Mariam Naficy, founder and CEO of Minted, and Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, co-founders and co-CEOs of theSkimm, are entrepreneurs and thus relatively new to the corner office — Minted set up shop in 2007, theSkimm in 2012 and Beautycounter in 2013. But don’t let their new-kid status color your view: Each has made customer centricity the linchpin of their business — working to understand what’s most important to their largely female customer base, and shaping everything from product development to engagement to better serve her needs.

Gregg Renfrew founded digital beauty brand Beautycounter after years of researching the products women put on their faces and bodies. She learned that there were some 1,500 potentially harmful ingredients in the products most of us use, yet only 30 have been banned in the United States (versus 1,400 in the European Union). “Beauty is a $62 billion industry here and it’s governed by one and a half pages of legislation,” she said. “That’s just not acceptable. We need to create a movement that gives women access to better products, makes them feel beautiful and protects our greatest asset — our children.”

Beautycounter was born of that passion, and Renfrew has built the brand on three pillars: education, product and advocacy. All Beautycounter products have easy-to-read labels that provide ingredient transparency. The products are high-performance; Renfrew wouldn’t have it any other way. And, while she’s committed to delivering great products that are safe for a woman’s health, she’s equally focused on using commerce as a voice for change. “Current laws don’t allow the FDA to recall products in this industry,” she said. “We need to update laws.”

Women should never compromise their health in the name of beauty; Renfrew believes women want “direct, transparent and authentic relationships. It’s not just products, it’s a movement,” she said. “Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.”

Mariam Naficy has spent the last 10 years building Minted, a competition-based marketplace that curates designs from a community of artists, makers, and hobbyists around the world. She tapped into what was then a nascent trend: Consumers seeking deeper meaning in the products they purchase. Today, the concept of the “consumer as creator” is embedded in shoppers’ psyche and thousands, if not millions, are using YouTube, social media and the like to teach themselves multiple art forms. “Minted is where the power of technology meets design,” Naficy says.

A digital retail veteran, her goal was to “build a retail company where the merchandise is always fresh and completely right,” she said. “At Minted we search for hidden talent and we utilize the power of crowdsourcing to predict trends.” In the early years, Minted sold mostly stationery; today the designs have been extended over various lifestyle categories.

Naficy affectionately labels those who share their work on Minted a “design army” and told the audience of retail decision-makers that she believes “consumer style is highly elevated. The consumer knows better than we do.” She then debuted a new extension of the business, Minted Wholesale and Licensing, inviting retailers to tap into the creative genius of the company platform for their own businesses.

The co-founders and co-CEOs of theSkimm have managed to connect with millions by rethinking the idea of morning news and editing a laundry list of stories down to just a handful of topics most likely to spark conversations among friends and colleagues. Danielle Weisberg attributes theSkimm’s success to being “a voice that today’s consumer can relate to first thing in the morning. We like to say that we disrupted the news, but we did it with love — and we fit in to the way our generation embraces technology.”

Having cut their teeth at NBC News, the entrepreneurs had a gut feeling that Millennial women, in particular, would embrace something different, something better suited to today’s give-it-to-me-in-five-minutes pace. “TheSkimm makes it easier to live a smarter life,” Carly Zakin said. “It turned out to be what so many were craving — an authentic voice that provided some value-add, in a way that was simple to access.”

“TheSkimm is like that friend you don’t mind hearing from at 5:30 in the morning,” Weisberg said.

To say theSkimm went viral quickly is an understatement. While investors couldn’t see past what they deemed a niche market, today theSkimm boasts more than 5 million readers — along with some 25,000 “Skimm’bassadors” who help promote the brand. Listening closely to their audience has helped the co-founders build a culture around theSkimm; they now lend their collective voice to everything from books and wine recommendations to a “No Excuses” voter registration partnership with Rock the Vote last fall that resulted in 110,000 people registering to vote.

These entrepreneurs are rewriting the rules of retail from a woman’s point of view. They’re concerned about women’s health, passionate about providing new vehicles for creative expression and reorienting the exchange of news while building a culture that celebrates sharing and support.

Check out the official recap for Shop.org

2017 Recap

More from the speakers:

• How theSkimm and its founders are growing into their success
• Making Beauty Better: Gregg Renfrew - STORES: NRF's Magazine

The new entrepreneurial Wonder Women was originally published in NRF Events on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

There’s a new stop on the customer’s path to purchase — planning, visualizing, searching and finding things they don’t have a word for.

At NRF’s Shop.org conference in Los Angeles, Pinterest’s Amy Vener and Wayfair’s Mike Festa talked about the role visual technology plays in the “I’ll know it when I see it” stage of shopping.

Pinterest’s 200 million members have become accustomed to thinking (and searching) in images, and Pinterest delivers: Anything you see leads to more ideas you’ll find appealing — the company was founded in 2010 with the mission to help people discover the things they love and inspire them to do those things in their daily lives.

In a way, that’s not too different from the traditional store experience — it was all about browsing and developing relationships — with a focus on transactions and increasing foot traffic. Ecommerce is all about getting the right products to the right people faster — it’s optimized for transactions. At Shop.org, Pinterest’s head of retail strategy Amy Vener talked about the platform’s focus on inspiration through visual discovery technology.

“There’s a need for helping consumers discover possibilities in their lives,” Vener said. “It’s less about the actual transaction, and more about what could that product represent in my life … . In that process, Pinterest has done a lot around visual discovery technology that allows the consumer to imagine what possibilities these products could have in their lives.”

New technology is enabling even more opportunities for retailers in the inspirational phase of the customer journey. Target and Pinterest recently partnered to place Pinterest’s visual search technology, Lens, into Target’s apps and website. The tool will allow Target shoppers to take a photo of any object and find similar items at Target.

Wayfair uses augmented reality to help people dream within the boundaries of their physical spaces. It’s integrated into the company’s mobile app; customers looking for furniture can choose a product and click to use their device’s camera to see how it will look in the room. Mike Festa, who leads Wayfair’s research and development team, said technology like AR lets shoppers get a good sense of how a piece of large furniture will look and “have the confidence to order it directly.”

The challenge to using the technology broadly, Festa said, is content. Wayfair has been working with suppliers to create content, but ultimately the company’s been doing it themselves to demonstrate the viability. “The technology needs to give us the data to say, ‘Yes, having this 3D content is going to drive certain metrics,’” he said.

Wayfair makes its 3D models available to companies doing location staging or new construction; it’s straightforward product placement in people’s dreams of a new life. They may not buy that new apartment, but they can get that table — or one that looks like it. “Our hope is that getting more content out there will drive more traffic to buy the physical thing,” Festa said.

The most successful retailers driving incremental growth, Vener said, are those that take insights around consumer behavior and create contextually relevant and personalized content “in a way that courts the consumer through that process, from inspiration to discovery to evaluation all the way to going to your stores and buying. That is a different kind of communication.”

See the show recap:

2017 Recap

More stories from Shop.org:

How theSkimm and its founders are growing into their success

I’ll know it when I see it: How visual tech inspires shoppers was originally published in NRF Events on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The industry’s most promising young tech companies weigh in on the future of retail

Startups are known for turning industries on their head. The problem-solving nature of their very existence makes them a fascinating reflection of where an industry is — and where it’s headed. As the retail industry continues to undergo a transformation and traditional bricks-and-mortar stores reinvent to meet the needs of a digitally demanding customer, a look at the startups in retail tells us a lot about the industry’s future.

Each year as part of its Digital Commerce Startup of the Year competition, NRF looks for companies poised to significantly improve or radically alter how retailing is done. These are the folks helping retailers transform the industry, and though our competition finalists all have different perspectives, one thing is clear — effectively competing with the likes of Amazon and Walmart is top of mind for all retailers, big and small.

For more insights on the challenges and opportunities in the industry, we chatted with Startup of the Year finalists Rob Gonzalez, co-founder of Salsify; Christopher Day, co-founder and CEO of DemandJump; and John Squire, CEO and co-founder of DynamicAction. We’ll be announcing our Digital Commerce Startup of the Year September 27 at Shop.org in Los Angeles.

How do you describe what your company is all about to people outside the retail industry?

Rob Gonzalez, co-founder of Salsify:

When was the last time you saw a TV commercial? Traditional brand advertising is dying. The primary way that consumers find brands and build loyalty to them is online. When you shop, you search on Amazon or Google or Walmart, open like 50 tabs, read product specs and reviews and pick a product. Then you re-order the ones you like.

The future of brand marketing is digital-first. Salsify helps thousands of iconic brands like Coca-Cola, LEGO, Levi’s, Hallmark, Bosch, Johnson & Johnson and 3M manage and optimize their product experience everywhere consumers search for and purchase their products online.

Christopher Day, co-founder and CEO of DemandJump:

DemandJump’s mission is to help brands deliver more qualified traffic than their competitors. Today’s marketers wake up every day with one of the toughest jobs in business. They are accountable for revenue, yet they are not equipped with the right tools and solutions to help them achieve optimal results.

DemandJump set out to fix that. Our Traffic Cloud technology maps out a brand’s competitive digital ecosystem, and shows marketers where and when to invest to drive the most qualified traffic and revenue. By overlaying your data with competitive insights, we deliver truly prescriptive analytics and prescriptive attribution across digital channels.

John Squire, CEO and co-founder of DynamicAction:

When speaking with friends and colleagues outside the industry, you merely need to ask if they have shopped on Amazon, and why. That gives you a basis for their expectations as a consumer, and a starting point for explaining how incredibly complex it is for other retailers — with hundreds of physical stores, who sell online and on mobile — to earn a customer’s business, to do so repeatedly and, most importantly, to do so profitably. We help retailers do just that — connect their entire organization (their data, their technology stack and their decision making) — in order to understand, decide and act at the speed of Amazon.

Our advanced analytics system amplifies the efforts and actions of their greatest experts to make their best people better, their smartest decisions faster, their customer understanding more powerful and their business more profitable.

From your perspective, what’s the most interesting challenge facing the retail industry as a whole?

Gonzalez:

Consumers are now in complete charge of when, where and how they shop, and increasingly, they’re not starting their journey with an ad. They’re starting it in a search bar. That means that retailers need to stop talking at consumers and instead engage with them. That takes a deep, individualized understanding of the customer and the right content to personalize the entire journey, from discovery to purchase.

If you want a consumer to enter a store, retailers will need to give them a good reason — something they can’t get digitally: Touching and feeling the product, advice with humanity, a sense of community and connection. Price and convenience are table stakes. The winning opportunity, and challenge, is experience.

Day:

Retail is facing an intense era of challenges. The vast number of marketing channels continues to expand, the marketing technology landscape is inundated with silo-based tools, there’s so much data yet no good way to make sense of it and the competitive matrix continues to splinter and grow.

The single greatest challenge is knowing where to focus your time, investments and resources to drive the best return. How do we determine what really matters and what is merely noise? Meanwhile, internet behemoths like Amazon are learning about your business at your expense. Once they learn the industry, they start competing head-to-head. And massive ad networks show you data the way they want you to see it so they can sell more ads.

Squire:

The pace of change for retail is beyond what anyone expected who entered the industry five years ago, and it will only get faster in the next five years. The simultaneous digitization and globalization of retail and consumers has created a monumental challenge for the people who manage these businesses.

Retailers are challenged with the shifting economics of omnichannel, the complexities of consumer behavior, increased operating costs, declining store performance and the Amazon effect, and they are facing this challenge with siloed systems and data sources. It takes a customer-centric executive team focused on profit to transform at the rate at which the industry is shifting.

What do you find most fascinating about how retail is transforming?

Gonzalez:

Honestly, the “me-too” behavior of retailers. Everyone seems super-focused on what Amazon (and, to a lesser extent) Walmart does, and just plays catch-up. I don’t understand that strategy; you can’t out-Amazon Amazon. You can’t out-Walmart Walmart.

The only real way forward is to forge your own path and offer an experience that is unique and great and not available from those big players. So what I find fascinating is how few retailers — especially the big ones — are even trying to innovate in this way.

Day:

Artificial intelligence is here, and it’s here to stay. But it is hard for companies to decipher who is truly delivering these capabilities versus who is not. Also, there is still a significant portion of companies that aren’t willing to embrace AI. A clear sign of this are teams that don’t embrace ROI-focused solutions, strategies that challenge the status quo, companies that continue to blindly trust black-box agencies, the list goes on.

Successful companies of the future are ones that have marketing leaders maniacally focused on total data independence and using that data to inform strategy.

Squire:

There are certainly people who envision a world where retail is 100 percent automated and self-driving (Amazon is ever headed in this direction). What I believe in is the ability for data action and understanding to amplify the intelligence of the individual people and the collective knowledge of an organization.

My vision is to deliver semi-automated commerce, where we automate the tedious tasks and proven decisions, but humans remain an integral part of continually honing how to inspire the desire of consumers to shop their brand or retail offering. Native to DynamicAction is complete transparency through the advanced retail analytics and a growing universe of algorithmically driven insights, alerts and actions.

We fundamentally believe people want to confirm their hypotheses, receive feedback on their actions and have a framework for easily multiplying their successful strategies in the days, weeks, quarters and years ahead.

What do you think the retail industry will look like in 10 years?

Gonzalez:

There will be far fewer big-box, lowest common denominator-type stores that try to be all things to all people. The top few — Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, a few others — will consolidate their leadership positions, and many more stores will go bankrupt.

On the flip side, there will be many more specialized, more niche retailers that see huge success. Primark, lululemon, Uniqlo, Huckberry, Bonobos, Everlane and Hot Topic all represent great — and very different! — strategies to thrive in an Amazon-led world. This is going to be awesome for the consumer. On the one hand, you’ll have your go-to store for purchasing commodities — probably Amazon — and then you’ll have a whole array of specialty stores that make awesome stuff that you, specifically, love.

There is huge opportunity in retail to innovate, and we’re only seeing the beginning of it.

Day:

Brands will be relevant to a niche within someone’s lifestyle and they will be community contributors. Companies will deliver to consumers what they want, when they want it and how they want it. We will see a serious reduction in noise and waste, while relevant, useful customer experiences will become the norm rather than the exception. Interestingly enough, those brands who master digital now will end up owning bricks-and-mortar in 10 years as channels, technology and online and offline worlds collide.

Squire:

From the sharing economy to the increased capabilities of artificial intelligence, the future of retail is already in its early stages of evolution. As I look forward to 2027, I see the lines blurred between brand, influencer and shopper and between consumers sharing, renting, recycling or owning products.

There will need to be a drastic change in distribution (be that drones or otherwise) and supply chain that allows for shoppers in all areas of the country to experience localized or same-day receipt of purchases. Consumers will be able to utilize natural language search and conversational user interface in nearly every area of life. They will think of something they want to purchase, express that however they choose (with their voice, by typing) and retailers will be able to answer that need exactly as the consumer envisioned.

And there will be stores. Yes, I said it … physical stores. But these stores will be highly curated experiences [and] incorporate augmented reality, where retailers understand their customers innately and optimize their product assortment to the most profitable level through artificial intelligence.

• Startup of the Year
• Shop.org Digital Retail Conference
• Startup of the Year Alumni

What the startup scene tells us about retail was originally published in NRF Events on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin were two young NBC news producers when they started theSkimm, a news roundup email designed to keep time-starved Millennials in the know.

Then, it was two women sending an email from their couch. Now, it’s a force of innovation, changing the way more than 5 million readers consume news (and avoid looking out-of-touch at cocktail parties). The company has grown to more than 50 employees and 25,000 “Skimm’bassadors” (fans who help promote the brand), and offers a mobile app and a new video series where celebrities deliver theSkimm from the tub.

The two will be appearing at Shop.org in a panel about female entrepreneurs, alongside Beautycounter founder and CEO Gregg Renfrew and Minted founder and CEO Mariam Naficy, moderated by former Macy’s CMO Martine Reardon. We spoke with them prior to the event to learn more about how they grew their company from the ground up.

theSkimm has gone from scrappy startup to successful tech favorite. What has been your biggest leadership challenge as your startup grows up?

When we first started theSkimm, it was just the two of us writing from our couch. As the company has scaled, one of the most exciting — and challenging — parts has been growing the team. As first-time managers, the learning curve was steep. We’ve worked hard to create and maintain theSkimm’s culture 50+ employees later, and we’re constantly learning and growing with our employees.

How has the company infrastructure evolved, and how have you decided where and how to invest in new hires?

We’ve always been a company focused on tech and analytics — our first hire was a head of growth and analytics. We’re continuing to hire across the board, but are really focusing on building out those teams in a meaningful way.

How were you able to make theSkimm a community instead of just an email list?

We listen to our audience. It’s important to us that we take time to understand what our audience wants, and to acknowledge their feedback. In the early days Skimm’rs would write in to let us know how much they loved it, and instead of just saying “Thank you,” we’d say, “Thank you! Can you share with 5 friends?” And they did. Today, our community of Skimm’bassadors (Skimm’rs who have referred people to theSkimm using a unique link) is over 25,000 strong.

What accomplishment or milestone has meant the most to you personally thus far?

Looking back on the past five years, the thing we’re proudest of is the team we’ve built. They are truly the best in the business, and we’re so excited about what’s to come.

What’s the most important advice you would share with young female entrepreneurs?

Know your audience and what your product’s value is to them. And take a coding class.

As news junkies, what do you find most fascinating about the retail industry right now, and what would you like to know more about?

As a media company based in tech and analytics, we’re interested in the ways traditional retail outlets are adapting to consumers’ new and evolving buying habits. As consumers frequent bricks-and-mortar retail locations less and less, how do you capture their attention when there is so much other information vying for it?

To continue the conversation with Carly and Danielle, attend Shop.org in Los Angeles, Sept. 25 to 27.

Learn more about Shop.org

Shop.org Digital Retail Conference

How theSkimm and its founders are growing into their success was originally published in NRF Events on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A lightning-quick look at pitches from startups at NRFtech 2017 and why you should care.

All big ideas start small. And often, the biggest innovations or ideas begin at the smallest companies.

For the third consecutive year, NRFtech featured a collection of startups in the “Tour of the Possible” program curated by Iterate Studio, a marketplace of startups indexing more than 162,000 companies focused on digital innovation.

NRF’s Tony Fontana takes a look at the 2017 class, each startup’s area of expertise and what they can bring to the table for catalyzing innovation in any organization.

Artificial Intelligence

Vue.ai — By combining visuals with online behavioral data, this “AI-powered personal stylist” is built to help companies create intelligent retail optimization in three core areas: dynamic personalization, shoppable videos and image generation for garments and other merchandise.

AR and VR

NanoVR — Imagine a virtual brand ambassador interacting with customers inside a store, or a store window that showcases products and imagery without blocking merchandise. The “nanoscale precision” software is built to provide retailers with interfaces like these.

Theia Interactive — The company has made immersive VR experiences for several non-retail clients in the Northeast, bringing real renderings in architecture, engineering and construction to life. It could change the way store designers and merchandisers conceive the layout of retail stores, before and after shelves are stocked.

Big data and machine learning

Narvar — From order tracking and proactive customer communications to seamless returns, this turnkey solution keeps customers engaged from the buy-button to delivery. The platform also applies machine learning across billions of interactions to improve supply chain efficiencies, future transactions and customer experiences.

Persado — Powered by cognitive computing technologies, the platform leverages “emotionally tagged content” (images, words, phrases) in its database to help retailers understand which elements of a message work and how. The “cognitive content” approach helps automate marketing messages to deliver the right content across channels in a consistent brand voice and up to 23 different languages.

Sentiance — This machine learning and behavioral modeling platform uses first-party IoT sensor data to create highly specific and unique customer segments. The raw data, collected from smartphones, connected cars and similar devices, is obtained with explicit consumer consent and within compliance of global data protection regulations.

Qubole — Cloud infrastructure meets big data management in this platform, co-founded by members of the original Facebook Service Team, with the purpose of taking the pain out of data management by creating applications to streamline personalized experiences, consumer segmentation and more.

Chatbots

Reply.ai — This platform does more than provide an enterprise solution to chatbot creation and management. It uses AI to help bots learn from conversations over time while also providing them with the “smarts” to let customer service know a more personal, “human” touch is needed.

Robotics

Bossa Nova — Formed in February 2005 as a spin-off from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, the robot roams a store collecting terabytes of data about the products already on the sales floor. By scanning products on the shelves, making a map of the store and helping employees keep track of where items are located, the technology underscores how humans and machines can work together to make educated inventory management decisions.

Learn more about NRFtech:

NRFtech 2017 Retail Tech Innovation Summit for CIOs, CMOs and CDOs

See which startups made an impression at last year’s NRFtech event:

18 startups poised to disrupt and drive the future of retail

These 9 startups are pushing the envelope of retail innovation was originally published in NRF Events on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.