Takeaways NRF - Resilience

A Look Back at NRF 2023: Retail’s Big Show

Last month, the gicom team flew to New York City to present out technology at NRF 2023

Retail’s Big Show in partnership with SAP. This conference was a great opportunity to meet with customers, prospects, colleagues and industry experts from around the world. The event was also another chance to showcase how we are partnering with SAP to shape the future of cloud technology, agreement lifecycle management and retail profitability.

As we spoke with fellow attendees a few major trends stood out – all centering around resiliency and adaptability. Across the speaking sessions and conversations with retailers, we heard a lot about supply chain challenges, inflationary concerns and a growing focus on sustainability. While none of these topics were too surprising, it was refreshing to speak with industry leaders that are developing new methods of combating these difficulties, and retailers that are looking at these issues from a fresh perspective.

Let’s take a look at these major trends from NRF 2023 and how gicom can support retailers as they overcome these challenges.

Themes From NRF 2023

Supply chain disruptions have been a common theme since 2020, and unfortunately, these challenges are not yet behind us. At NRF, Microsoft executives Alysa Taylor and Shelley Bransten spoke about how “a resilient mix of technologies like AI, media advertising, dynamic pricing, capabilities and analytics” can help retailers excel, despite industry-wide supply chain concerns.

Similarly, Michelle Evans, global lead of retail and digital consumer insights, Euromonitor International, spoke about inflation and the solutions that allow retailers to remain profitable during the economic downturn. As consumers continue to protect their wallets and seek affordable products, the retailers that invest in ways to keep costs down will develop stronger customer loyalty. This could be through tighter supply chain management, strategic CPG promotions and more.

Finally, sustainability and environmental issues remained top of mind at this year’s NRF. According to Suzy Davidkhanian, principal analyst, Insider Intelligence, said, “If you’re a retailer, you no longer have a choice to think about the environment.” Consumers are willing to spend more when an item is made with reusable materials or travels through a sustainable supply chain. Retailers will need to incorporate sustainability in their strategies across the board to meet growing customer expectations.

How gicom Helps Retailers Approach These Trends

At NRF, we spoke with retailers about how gicom’s technology is uniquely positioned to support these issues. gicom’s advanced suite of solutions aid retailers through the end-to-end agreement lifecycle management experience. During these agreement discussions with supply chain partners and CPGs, retailers have the opportunity to plan for challenges related to fulfillment, rising prices and sustainability.

For example, with increased supplier transparency made possible by gicom’s Agreement Negotiation Workbench and Agreement Documentation solutions, retailers can evaluate how well a potential supply chain partner will react to disruption. With Real-Time Margin by gicom, retailers can strategize CPG partnerships and determine how a change in price from the CPG company will impact margins ahead of time. Finally, by automating the agreement lifecycle process with gicom, retailers and their CPG partners can be more sustainable by reducing printed contracts and increasing efficiency.

We’re looking forward to our next chance to meet face-to-face with the retail community. Until then, please contact us to schedule a meeting and learn more about how gicom can boost your profits.

Or, if you’re looking to see our technology in action, check out our events page to register for upcoming webinars.