Axios former Senior Reporter Hope King speaks with Rent the Runway CEO and co-founder Jennifer Hyman at NRF 2025.
NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show brought together industry leaders to discuss the future of retail, highlighting key themes and insights that will shape the industry. From Jan. 12-14, retail strategists, C-suite leaders, futurists and more convened on the future of customer-centric AI, brand loyalty and what it means to create meaningful customer experiences.
In response to a growing desire for authentic human-to-human connections, businesses will design for communities, ensuring that artificial intelligence “works with us, not against us,” said WGSN futurist Cassandra Napoli, “creating a balance that feels both seamless and meaningful.”
Successful digital transformation should be impossible to see but easy to detect, Levi Strauss & Co. Chief Digital Officer Jason Gowans said during a panel discussion with Starbucks Chief Technology Officer Deb Hall Lefevre and former Ralph Lauren Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dr. Janet Sherlock.
Starbucks Chief Technology Officer Deb Hall Lefevre and Levi Strauss & Co. Chief Digital Officer Jason Gowans speak at NRF 2025.
Building community means curating understanding, anticipating needs and developing solutions before concerns arise for both customers and associates. One way Levi’s is solving this problem is through its platform called BackPocket that gives in-store associates a 360-degree view of the shopper across all channels. Levi's stylists can view customer sizes and style preferences to help provide smarter and more personalized recommendations — and determine the most convenient method of delivery if a particular product isn't in the store, Gowans said. Levi’s has seen its direct-to-consumer business grow by utilizing purchase and in-store data, among other datasets, to improve view rates and evolve its product assortment.
Computer vision — a kind of artificial intelligence that allows computers to recognize and interpret visual data, can provide information that “has the power to transform how we think about store design, merchandising, store associate training and even labor productivity,” said Trang To, vice president of omni at Tapestry.
AI’s ability to create accurate visualizations of stores or distribution centers allows the possibility to test different simulations to observe human and tech behavior. That helps retailers make important investments, said Azita Martin, vice president and general manager, retail and CPG at NVIDIA.
While presenting research from Euromonitor International, Michelle Evans, global lead of retail and digital consumer insights, said 30% of digital consumers buy from brands that align with their values, with 27% saying they’d boycott brands that didn’t share their political or social beliefs.
For brands to win in today’s climate, they must invest in — and not deviate from — their intentional customers, and lean into heritage, said Jennifer Hyman, CEO and co-founder of Rent the Runway. When introducing new tech or experiences, aligning a potential solution to the things your customers care about most will always be embraced, said Agata Ramallo Garcia, vice president, enterprise sustainability with Target. Affordability, ease, quality and convenience are always top of mind for consumers.
Due to limitless options, customers are less brand loyal than they have ever been post-pandemic, said Best Buy Inc. CEO Corie Barry. The instant access customers have to the best resources for reviews and products means retail teams should strive to be adaptable and consider ways to make a customer loyal, said Vice President of Nordstrom Media Aaron Dunford. Ask, how does the customer see your brand? Can you create shopping journeys that are less transactional and more experiential? More importantly, is there cohesion in brand perception?
“They don’t see (the brand) as Nordstrom online, Nordstrom in-store or even in the Rack business,” Dunford said. “They see it as one Nordstrom. And they see our enterprise media the same way as they see our retail media.”
"Our love of innovation is not what sets us apart, it’s our willingness to fail.”
Because today’s consumers don’t require a barrier between the brand, the product and themselves, companies get to refine their brand identity with each new experience, said Burberry CEO Joshua Schulman. The brand is surprising and delighting customers by focusing on how the legacy makes the customer feel. “The best brand evolutions make you think, ‘that’s what I’ve always loved about the brand,’” he said.
Generating bold ideas and thoughtful risks in the pursuit of those ideas means retailers must be willing to accept failure for the sake of innovation, believes Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores. “Our love of innovation is not what sets us apart — it’s our willingness to fail. A lot of companies say they love innovation, but they also really dislike failure ... . If you get too good at eliminating failure, you're probably walking away from a lot of great things."”