NRF

Washington, D.C. - The National Retail Federation (NRF) has asked an appeals court to uphold a judge’s ruling that the Federal Reserve set its cap on debit card swipe fees far higher than intended by Congress and that the cap needs to be recalculated at a lower level.

The malicious attack on Target which resulted in a massive data breach has spawned a “we’re all in this together” attitude among the nation’s retailers with the National Retail Federation spearheading the charge for common sense consumer protection measures.

Foremost among them is usage of the more secure Chip and PIN technology in credit and debit cards that offers better encryption of data than the magnetic stripe cards that are prevalent in the U.S.

Big data, the cloud and cognitive systems that learn are transforming the future of retail and IBM chairman, president and CEO Ginni Rometty explained during a stimulating and insightful presentation at the National Retail Federation’s annual convention.

“We’ve clearly entered a world that is mobile first,” Rometty said. “It is easy to say, but hard to do.”

New York -- Despite severe winter weather travails during the holiday shopping season, the National Retail Federation said Tuesday that December retail sales didn’t take the hit that many feared.

In fact, taking advantage of heavy promotions and last-minute deals, shoppers were able to move the December retail sales needle up 0.4% month-to-month, excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants, and up 4.6% year-over-year.



New York – Nicolas Franchet, head of e-commerce global vertical marketing at Facebook, said that compression of screen sizes as consumers switch to mobile devices is the biggest upcoming challenge retailers will face during a session titled “Data the Matters: The Future of Personalization” at the NRF 2014 Conference & Exposition on Sunday, Jan. 12.

The NRF 2014 Conference & Exposition kicked things off Sunday, Jan. 12 with sessions examining both how social media will continue to evolve as a dominant means of customer interaction and how the brick-and-mortar store will remain a highly relevant part of the retail environment in the 21st century. Let’s look at a few highlights from each session.

Picturing Social Success

New York -- In a hugely attended address kicking off the National Retail Federation’s 2014 “Big Show” at Javits Center in New York City, shopping center developer Rick Caruso challenged attendees – most of them retailers from the technology side of their companies – to remember the “human” side of retail.

Walmart CEO Bill Simon was among a group of six senior excutives added to the National Retail Federations board of directors.

Simon will be joined by Beall’s CEO Steve Knopik, J.C. Penney CEO Myron Ullman, Tractor Supply CEO Greg Sandfort, SAP SVP Lori Mitchell-Kell and Utah Retail Merchants Association president Dave Davis.

The retailers were elected to the board Sunday, the opening day of NRF’s 103rd Annual Convention and EXPO. They will serve three-year terms.

Hayward, Calif. – Posiflex is announcing an intelligent foldable base for its XT series of 15-inch touchscreen terminals, now available for purchase, at the National Retail Federation Conference and Exposition 2014. The sleek new fold-flat design optimizes height and viewing angles to satisfy a variety of cashier and user viewing positions. This foldable form results in a 40% reduction in the package size and weight to reduce deployment shipping costs.  

Washington, D.C. - Jim Sinegal, Costco co-founder and board member, will receive the Gold Medal Award in 2014 during the National Retail Federation (NRF) Annual Conference and Expo in New York City. In addition, NRF has named South Korea’s Lotte Shopping as the International Retailer of the Year.

Nike has been named Retail Innovator of the Year, and Half Price Books’ Executive VP  and chief strategy officer Kathy Doyle Thomas has been selected as 2014’s Silver Plaque recipient.