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RSR partner Brian Kilcourse is fond of saying after a bad holiday season, retailers come to NRF’s Big Show to drown their sorrows; after good ones, they come to celebrate their success. Even though retail’s numbers aren’t off-the-charts great, the overarching feeling at the show was I survived the Great Recession! and good cheer seemed to abound. The following is not intended to be an exhaustive review of the show. Instead, it’s an overview from an exhausted analyst who attended twenty-eight meetings in 2 days!

iPads Everywhere

Many have called the coming of the iPad a Gutenberg Moment (thanks to Greg Buzek for providing the reference here). While the device hasn’t exactly rung my own personal bell, I was able to see what he meant as I looked at all the new offerings available on the iPad. In short, for retailers, the iPad is something like an electronic real-time clipboard, bringing executives, store employees and field managers digestible information including tasks, product information, exception alerts and KPI’s right on the selling floor or in the office hallway. The form factor is big enough to be eye-catching yet small enough to be manageable. We saw applications that varied from pure BI, to workforce management, to customer relations and employee task management.

Mobility is in the Customers Hands, Not in the Retailers

Retailers Ñ it’s time to go wireless. RSR partner Steve Rowen tells a story of being in a very large electronics retailer, touring the store with other European retailers. As the manager attempted to engage with the customer he found himself at a distinct advantage. The shopper had a smart phone with him, and the manager had nothing electronic at his fingertips. This caused the manager to recommend the wrong products, and be subjected to the shopper showing him the error of his ways. I don’t know if this particular shopper was converted to a customer, but I do know that retailers are going to be faced with this problem more and more frequently.

Everyone Seems to Have a Demand Forecast Engine, Make Sure it’s a Useful One for You

Science-based merchandising is here to stay. One legacy of the Great Recession is the recognition that inventory has to be productive. And Moore’s Law has made computers faster, cheaper and smarter. Hence, it seemed almost every vendor we talked to had a special new tweak in its demand forecast engine that made it better than everyone else’s, and usable as input into existing systems. Our recommendation Ñ don’t lose retailing fundamentals in the face of fashionable calculators. If you’re sourcing your product half a world (and half a year) away from the point of demand, make sure what you’re getting can genuinely help improve Return on Invested Capital (ROIC). Start with the process. Then move on to the science.For example, we’re really bullish on size pack optimization for apparel and footwear, because as a general rule the combination of demographics, location and size profiles aren’t very volatile. Or to put it in simpler terms the neighborhoods surrounding a particular store aren’t going to see dramatic shifts in shoe sizes over the course of a year. Over three-five years maybe, and in any case, many retailers haven’t done a size pack optimization analysis in decades, if ever.So we do have a word or two of caution on that one. If a vendor is offering to optimize your already optimized assortment, take a deep breath and make sure you can actually execute on its recommendations.

How Can We Keep the Store Relevant in the 21^st Century?

This is one of RSR’s personal favorites. The explosion of smart phones and improvements in web technologies threaten to turn stores into showrooms. Sort of like test driving a car. You go to the nearest dealer to do the drive, and then turn your attention to finding the lowest possible price provider in your geographic area. For retailers, this is terrible news. It means a decade of continued reductions in payroll-to-sales ratios may have to be reversed. It means that the payroll added back in must also add VALUE. Employees have to be educated. Store managers must be on the selling floor. Digital signage must be more than just TV commercials in the store. Intel had a powerful example of the Connected Store. Retailers really have to make the shift. Marketing and Merchandising are converging, and suddenly, the Chief Marketing Officer is right at the center of retail action. These two groups must work together to create a differentiated store experience, and like it or not, they’ve got to keep IT in the loop.

Rock and Roll Retail is Here to Stay

This year’s Rock and Roll Retail event was bigger and better than last year. DVD’s will be available for sale, with proceeds going to RetailROI (which also hosted a GREAT Super Saturday event). Look for tweaks in the format and announcements over the coming months.

Sad Farewells Said Far Too Soon

Retail is a lot like a big family. We more often look at each other’s name tags to see which companies we’re part of this year, rather than to see our names. So it is with sadness that we heard in a span of two weeks, of the deaths of two mainstays of the retail industry.Brian Scott, most recently World-wide General Manager of Health and Life Sciences for Microsoft, passed away suddenly on December 29 at the far-too-young age of 49.Then, this morning, we learned that Ed Soladay, most recently President of ParTech, Inc. died suddenly late last week.These events put conventions, holiday sales, and meetings in the right perspective. Life is meant to be enjoyed and savored. And it’s good to tell your friends how much you appreciate them, whenever you can. We knew both Brian and Ed for many years. RSR sends deepest sympathies to both their families.