This is our sixth preview of what Cisco will be showcasing at the 102nd National Retail Federation Convention and Expo on January 14 and 15, 2013 in New York City.
Today’s retail stores need be more technology enabled than ever before supporting new generation of shoppers that expect a convergence of physical and digital experiences. Today’s retail information technology teams need to enable mobility, cloud computing and video technologies to create a create a compelling shopping environment.
Being a resident of San Francisco, one advantage of is the amount of shopping within walking distance. This year several retailers timed their store openings and remodel to coincide with the holiday season shopping, which is expected to grow 4.1 percent over last holiday season, according to National Retail Federation.
These retailers understand they are competing against “showrooming” with E-commerce only retailers and consumer uncertainties over the economy. Many have developed unique shopping experiences to attract customers and here are some that stood out for me this holiday season before I head over to New York for the NRF 2013 Convention in January.
Uniqlo is a Japanese based international fashion retailer which opened its San Francisco store this October with great fanfare, including enlisting Japanese YouTube feline star Maru to promote their San Francisco store opening.
Some of the things that stood out for me at the store are:
For NRF 2013 and we conducted surveys in multiple countries for our next release of consumer research.
Jon Stine, director of Cisco IBSG and Lisa Fretwell, senior director of Cisco IBSG will be presenting the results at NRF Big Idea session on Monday, January 14, 2013 at 9:15 – 10:00 a.m at Room 3D04, EXPO Hall, Level 3
Recently Jon Stine with Cisco IBSG wrote in the Cisco Retail blog an article titled “In Between the Numbers: Bring Your Own Device Do we know what that means?” where he talked about the changes that the BYOD concept brings to the change in the culture of employees leveraging technology to get their job done, and how it not just impacts the end point technology but all the network and information technology infrastructure.
I recently went to New York for the National Retail Federation Conference and I took a picture of all the devices (excluding my laptop) that I carried with me for use at the hotel, in the booth, and while I was at 30,000 ft.
As I think back about working with multiple devices (both issued to me and owned by me) during the week, here are some areas that impacted IT.
The National Retail Federation’s BIG show had another record-breaking year receiving over 25,500 attendees from 78 countries. With over 100 educational sessions and a jam-packed EXPO floor, energy was high.
The innovative demos in the Cisco booth attracted a great deal of traffic offering retailers new ways to generate revenue, create a consistent user experience across all channels, and maximize operational efficiency.
Cisco Interactive Services was very popular. This demo, developed by Cisco and partner Array Interactive, delivered interactive applications allowing attendees to build a wardrobe of outfits, receive fashion advice, and through video collaboration capabilities, connect with a live fashion expert on-demand.
The StyleMe virtual fashion mirror also received great interest as retailers “tried-on” their outfits of choice using gesture-based navigation to make their selection from the inventory of clothing. Attendees could even capture images of themselves in their new outfits to share over social media and email. Read More »
