Last week, the NRF (National Retail Federation) had its annual event Retail’s Big Show. The event is one of the largest trade shows in the world, where the world’s top retailers, industry leaders, and technology experts come together to showcase the latest products and explore ground-breaking consumer trends.

So, of course, we were there.

Our very own Head of Sales, Casey Drake, and Partners Manager, Madeleine Anderson joined the Teamwork Commerce booth for 3 days of fun. From hearing CEO Jason Buechel discuss the theater of retail to how Neiman Marcus creates enduring, luxurious relationships, they got an up-close view of the retail industry's top talent. I sat down with them to discuss their experience at this year’s convention and got all the details.

Casey: Clienteling and personalization is a huge buzzword in retail right now. When we first started Endear, smaller retail stores always understood and valued clienteling, but for the bigger brands it was often seen as an inefficient process. Being at NRF this year, it was great to talk to bigger brands, sometimes with 100+ store footprints, and just see how they’ve grown to value clienteling in the same way that smaller retailers always have.

Madeleine: I wasn’t at the booth as much [as Casey], but when I was, it was great to see them in person and solidify our relationship.

Casey: It was great working so closely with Teamwork. We’re their clienteling add-on. Obviously, not every one of their customers needs clienteling, but when a customer brings up clienteling, we are the experts, so it was great to be at the booth with them. I could be pulled into a demo on the fly and explain the way Endear works and how we connect to Teamwork. 

Endear is only a part of modernizing a lot of these brands and bringing them into the digital future. Point-of-Sale is another huge part of that, so it was really great to let retailers visualize the entire transition of customer data from point-of-sale to clienteling, instead of seeing each piece separately.

Madeleine: From the Partner side, it was beneficial to have that face-to-face experience with partners, and put a face to the online relationships we’ve been building. Being at NRF energized the relationships by talking in person after seeing each other for so long only online. I had some really great talks.

Casey: 2020’s NRF was canceled and 2021’s NRF had a big COVID scare right before it, so even though it went on, it was down in attendance numbers. I think the biggest success of this year’s show was that so many people were there and excited to be there. We talked with many new people, and surpassed our goals.