A look ahead to Retail's BIG Show
NRF's 98th Annual Convention & EXPO

Retail's BIG Show -- NRF's 98th Annual Convention & EXPO -- will be held Jan. 11 to 14 in New York City. Retailers and vendors from around the globe will meet to attend educational sessions, network with industry peers and experience the latest retail products. The show offers two concept stores this year: the Seeing Green Concept Store and the Customer Experience Concept Store. Attendees will be able to check out the EXPO Hall and the NRF DESiGN STUDiO from Jan. 14 to 16. Attendees also should check out the "Inspiring Leadership: What Differentiates Great Companies and Why" session at 11 a.m. Wednesday. This session discusses what inspires an executive to lead and how a company's leadership culture affects the bottom line.

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• NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin offers convention insights: Tracy Mullin, NRF's president and CEO, discussed the annual convention's theme, "Inspiration Starts Here," which reflects the attitude needed now that retailers are facing such crucial times. Mullin also elaborates on her picks for inspirational retail leaders: Starbucks' Howard Schultz, Crate & Barrel founder Gordon Segal, McDonald's founder Ray Kroc and Wal-Mart's Sam Walton, among others. To read more about NRF's 98th Annual Convention & EXPO, check out the NRF Event blog. NRF Blog (12/29)

The Customer Experience

Borders tries to create in-store experience on screen
Shoppers on Border's Web site are shown a virtual bookshelf tailored to their interests as the book retailer tries to re-create the sense of discovery of a brick-and-mortar bookstore. Said an executive for the company's online business: "We wanted a much more browse-focused experience, something that allows people to explore." STORES magazine (12/2008)

Focus on the customer
Customers are key to the success of any retail organization, and several sessions at the BIG Show highlight ways to optimize the customer's experience. Below you'll find just a few of the sessions that spotlight customers. See a full list of all the sessions organized by track here.

• Are You Truly a Customer-Centric Retailer?: Research by IDC Global Retail Insights will describe the state of customer-centricity in the industry. DemandTec and Precima will highlight best practices for merchandising and marketing. Leading retailers Best Buy and PharmaPlus will present practical case studies of their own customer-centric initiatives. 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

• Men are from Mars, Women are from Aisle 3: Attendees will learn and gain a design perspective on industry best practices and recent research about how to tap into the differences between the ways that men and women shop and balance them with influences such as trip mission and time constraints. 10:30 a.m. Monday.

• Community Centric Retailing: Getting Closer to Where Your Customers Live: Learn how national retailers get the most out of their journey to their own backyards doing things such as enabling and empowering local resources and intelligence; optimizing your "media neighborhood"; and building your brand's relevance by becoming a local. 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Sustainability

Marks & Spencer takes environment into account
British retailer Marks & Spencer is in the midst of a five-year plan to become more environmentally responsible. And it is seeing success: In a trial, having shoppers pay for bags reduced their use by 70%. STORES magazine (12/2008)

• Greentailing in Tough Times: How Are Consumers Reacting and Retailers Responding: Neil Stern and Will Ander, co-authors of "Greentailing and Other Revolutions in Retail," will discuss the key retail trends in sustainability and present consumer responses to the trade-offs between saving green and conscientious green. Office Depot's director of environmental strategy will present the company's sustainability initiatives and how it is responding to green in today's very tough retail climate. 1:45 p.m. Monday.

• The sustainability track: Check out all the sessions at the BIG Show on sustainability.

Wal-Mart encourages eco-friendly manufacturers
Wal-Mart is rewarding makers of eco-friendly products by giving the merchandise prominent display. The retailer also places recycling receptacles for ink cartridges in its stores. In-Store Marketing Institute (12/2008)

Packaging is an opportunity to go green
Well-chosen packing materials can help retailers become greener. They're using products such as envelopes made from recycled milk jugs, mailers padded with recycled newspapers and hybrid packaging. Multichannel Merchant (12/1)

• LEED for Retail and The Portfolio Program Update: The U.S. Green Building Council will present a brief overview and update on the highly anticipated LEED for Retail rating systems and the USGC Portfolio Program. With both systems launching in 2009, now is the time to get up to speed on LEED and how it can be used in your business. Learn what your opportunities are and what benefits come about with LEED certification. Also, learn about the economies of scale that the Portfolio Program offers through the volume certification process. 1:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Other News

• Women willing to spend on green products
  MarketingVOX (12/29)

Global Trends

U.S. retailers try to keep up with Tesco
With Tesco's entrance into the U.S. market, Wal-Mart and other retailers are considering some of the company's ideas. Wal-Mart, for instance, introduced a convenience-store format after Tesco launched its Fresh & Easy concept in the West. Bloomberg BusinessWeek (12/29)

Overseas retailer outsources to the U.S.
When The Collective, a men's lifestyle store, opened its first location in India, it turned to a U.S. company for its retail technology. Though India is known for its technology expertise, that expertise doesn't include retail needs, the company's CEO says. STORES magazine (1/2009)

Global Powers of Retailing 2009: Who Shows Promise to Rise Above?
For more than a decade, Deloitte's Global Powers of Retailing study, in conjunction with STORES Media, has provided rankings of the world's top retailers together with insights and outlooks for the industry. Looking back at a year with enormous economic challenges, rising commodity prices, the green movement still going strong and record growth in retail's emerging markets, this year's report promises to be particularly compelling. As before, Deloitte will take a long view of how the retail industry has fared in these tumultuous times -- who's still here, who is not, and which individual retail segments and markets are likely to power global retailers to success. This analysis will be augmented by a look at some key emerging markets, the annual Q ratio rating, and insights on what's ahead for the retail industry. 10:15 a.m. Sunday.

• Check out the Global Trends and Forecasting track: See all the sessions in this track here.

• Check out Deloitte's Global Powers of Retailing study, in conjunction with STORES media. 

Branding

Consumers look to private labels for value
Marketers will find out how much brand names are worth this year, Brandweek says. In its outlook for 2009, Brandweek notes Starbucks is getting ready to launch Frappuccino Lite through Pepsi, supermarket chain Wegmans is increasing its branded products, Walgreen sees more people saving money with its private-label brand, and Wal-Mart reports Sam's Choice and Equate brands were growing 2.5 times faster than national brands late last year. Brandweek (1/2)

• Brands that Have the Power to Change the Retail World: For 10 years, Interbrand has joined forces with BusinessWeek to rank the world's most valuable brands. This session will unveil the first ranking of the top-performing North American retail brands. Attendees will understand the current trends and challenges in the industry, obtain insight into how retail brands create value for their owners, and gain better awareness for the importance of the role of brands in becoming a market leader. 9:45 a.m. Wednesday.

Bringing better branding online
While banner ads are splashed all over Web sites, few of them are memorable, according to Nielsen Online CEO John R. Burbank, because marketers tend to focus high-profile branding efforts on television. Burbank thinks the answer is more quality ad space. He writes, "As long as publishers offer small ads in a cluttered environment, advertisers will continue to invest elsewhere." Brandweek (1/5)

• Creating a Sweet Spot for Sustained Profitable Growth: Highlights from the Holiday 2008 National Shopping Behavior Study will set the stage for this session. In spite of the environment in which they operate, some retailers are able to generate sustained, profitable growth, while others live on a sales and profit roller coaster. This session is designed to help retailers get on a stable, predictable path. Case studies will be presented to show how retailers, large and small, created Sweet Spots that have made the economy, fuel prices and competition almost irrelevant. Participants will learn how to identify a niche and turn it into a Sweet Spot and how to define their Must-Have Customers. 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

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