Insights

This is one of the market shifts to be explored at NRF’s Annual Convention & Expo 2016, nicknamed “Retail’s BIG Show,” coming up on January 17-20 in New York City.

The event, which began in 1911 (yes, that’s more than a century!), gathered 33,000 retailers from around the world in 2015, and is expected to grow this year.

Touted as a one-stop-shop and “the only place” to see and experience all things retail, the event offers what you’d expect from an annual convention, but super-sized: education, networking, and a massive expo hall.

Among the cutting-edge intelligence and technology to be featured at the conference is IBM’s cognitive computing: a way to make your eCommerce data as easy to search as Google, and to create “serendipity” moments that delight customers with the right offer at the right moment, across all channels.

To that end, IBM will offer education, case studies, peer-to-peer sessions, and demos at its booth (#1720), covering:

• How to “talk” to your eCommerce data like a trusted advisor
• Going from data to insight to action to results
• Omnichannel fulfillment
• Empowering store associates
• Digital marketing trends and buyer behavior shifts
• Changing the way you engage with customers for better results
• Creating moments of serendipity, seemingly by chance, through cognitive commerce

Among its many sessions (which you can view here), we highlight one intimate, peer-to-peer discussion facilitated by IBM’s John Mesberg:

The Era of Cognitive Commerce: The Challenge of Invisible and Unstructured Data
Monday, 01/18/16, 2-3 p.m.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• what to do with that 80% of customer data that’s never analyzed
• how to convert that data into actionable insights as easily as you’d perform a Google search
• how retailers are using digital analytics, social sentiment, and other data sources
• how to increase customer engagement to meet changing demands

BlueSky eCommerce experts will also be on-site to answer questions, share lessons learned, and dish out free consulting over coffee or between sessions.

You coming? Let’s connect. Let’s talk to schedule a meeting with BlueSky. You’ll walk away with more clarity on next steps, whether or not we end up working together.