NRF 2025: What Have We Learned?

It’s late January, and the retail circus that is NRF in New York’s Javits Center has come, been and gone, but what have the attendees at “Retail’s Big Show” learned from their Big Apple jaunt this past Jan. 12-14?

As in most years, the faithful all turn up in search of a silver bullet that will lead inexorably to increased revenues, decreased stock losses and a generally rosier future. If this is indeed the intention, then many will have been disappointed.

Jason Dixson Photography/Courtesy of the National Retail Federation

If, however, the plan is to confirm intentions about the direction that a retailer is taking front-of-shop in-store or, indeed, behind the scenes, then there is much to consider. A caveat however. Those expecting to find VM en masse may struggle as over the past few years NRF has morphed, in many ways, into a retail tech show.

Unsurprisingly, at the top of the list is Artificial Intelligence (AI). All too frequently, this is used by many as a term to indicate that they know what’s happening in the tech arena as it applies to retail. The problem is that the term is nearly as broad as the different parts of retail itself, meaning that any survey of AI as a whole would be astonishing in its breadth.

Jason Dixson Photography/Courtesy of the National Retail Federation

It is fair to say, however, that the sheer profusion of vendors offering AI “solutions” indicates not only that there is a massive market for this aspect of retail but that retailers en masse arrive knowing pretty much what they are looking for. The outcome is a show in which AI in all of its forms has been normalized as part of the retail armory, whether it’s dealing with loss prevention or creating 3-D avatars that enable the user to imagine what they might look like wearing the latest must-have pair of jeans.

And perhaps this is the purpose of NRF as a whole: To start the year by getting a summary of everything that’s out there is a good way of returning to work after the holidays. Whether it’s the latest checkout methods, shelf-edge pricing or what you can do with screens in-store, there is a lot for almost everybody in the world of retail.

NRF will be back in January 2026, and as ever, the trick will be knowing where and how to look when understanding what the show has to offer.