RetailNOW 2016 - Day 1 Recap

By The Business Solutions Network

Despite Monday being technically the first day of RetailNOW, I’ve been here since Saturday, participating in various meetings and event-related activities. While this is my day 1 recap of the event, it’s really my notebook for what’s transpired over the first day, as well as the unofficial previous two days.

I was honored to be a part of the leadership forum held on Saturday. This meeting takes place each year and is made up of the RSPA board, executive committee, and various industry thought leaders. We spent three hours discussing the most significant trends facing the industry (both resellers and vendors). Talking points included the convergence of payments and POS — and what that means from a competition standpoint, omni-channel and how it fits tier 3 and 4 merchants, and security standards. Of course, there was also plenty of talk about EMV, the as-a-Service model, and the cloud.

What’s particularly exciting to me is that the RSPA holds these meetings not just to gather intelligence, but to adapt the association to be able to continue to meet the needs of members. By holding these sessions, the RSPA can stay relevant and ensure that your needs are met now and into the future.

On Sunday, the event held its new member reception prior to the official opening reception. The new member reception was packed due to the impressive number of first time attendees this year. All told, there are approximately 500 new attendees this year, which is very impressive.

The first full day kicked off with Kelly Funk, CEO of the RSPA taking the stage to encourage a packed room to innovate, change, and disrupt. Her primary message was to challenge one’s self to adopt the common character traits of disruption. More specifically, she says the retail channel needs to look inward, ask the right questions (why?), identify customer pain points, and follow through and deliver.

After Funk opened, Greg Buzek, president of IHL Group presented on some very interesting trends in the retail industry. I could write thousands of words on Buzek’s presentation, but to boil it all down, he says many retailers are struggling to solve the problem of competing with Amazon. His question is, should they try to compete? With the market share Amazon possesses, it’s probably better for most retailers to partner with Amazon rather than competing.

Now, that’s not to say that retailers shouldn’t be focused on having omni-channel capabilities and an emphasis on customer experience. Indeed, Buzek strongly urges VARs to help retailers with solutions that address customer experience.

NFL Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith delivered a keynote midmorning. Many athlete-turned-speaker rely on tales of their sporting careers with loose tie-ins to the business world. Smith was great. While he did tell old stories of his career, they were the right combination of humor, charm, and seriousness — all brought back to business and leadership lessons. For a thorough overview of Smith’s talk, check out this full recap.

Another day 1 activity is the board election. Check out the full article on the election results here.

It wouldn’t be a RetailNOW without a show floor and this year’s is awesome. Here are some quick notes I jotted down while on the floor:

• Vantiv has a ton of people here. 90, in fact. Plus one virtual employee. Check out this short video to see what I mean. I’ve never seen anything like this.

• Back in 2007, I interview Terry Selkirk, a grocery-focused VAR at the time. Since then, Selkirk’s company has developed its own software for the grocery vertical. I was surprised to see him exhibiting at this event now selling software and hardware. Selkirk has partnered with an overseas company to bring a line of solutions to the market. One really unique product he’s offering is a receipt printer with a 7-inch Android tablet embedded into the top. Or, look at it as a tablet with a receipt printer on its bottom. In either case, Selkirk says the unit can operate as a small form factor POS system. Look for a video demo in the coming week.
• Glad to see lots of mobile solutions on the floor. Of course, if someone doesn’t have a mobile solution, they’re in trouble. Most vendors are now bringing second and third gen mobile solutions to market. The result is, the solutions keep getting better.
• Android-based solutions continue to gain on Windows. One VAR told me how Windows requires many more gigs of storage to simply install compared with the light footprint of Android. One vendor told me how it’s more affordable to use Android as the OS.
• Another great trend is the shift to recurring revenue. Many exhibitors aren’t just showing off new products, but also revealing plans to offer those solutions as-a-Service. Just a few years ago, VARs in this market had few to no avenues to easily offer subscription-based solutions (particularly those that include hardware). This seems to be changing quickly.

For more event coverage, news, and analysis, visit www.bsminfo.com/go/InsideRSPA.