NRF, Retail Customer Experience announce pavilion partnership

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — NetWorld Alliance, publisher of Retail Customer Experience magazine and RetailCustomerExperience.com, and the National Retail Federation have announced a partnership to design and launch the Customer Experience Pavilion at NRF's 98th Annual Convention & Expo, to be held Jan. 11‐14, 2009, at Jacob Javits Center in New York. (Convention: Jan. 11‐14; Expo: Jan. 12‐13)

This pavilion will showcase solutions retailers can employ to better connect with today's consumers to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. The central feature of the Customer Experience Pavilion will be a concept store that uses cutting‐edge technologies and community‐building activities to give retailers ideas on how to enhance the customer experience and extend a more effective brand.

"We're going to be taking the most interesting technologies and other retail factors that enhance the customer experience and showcasing them in a real‐world and effective retail environment," said Susan Newman, vice president of conferences for NRF. "This year it will be an environment where we can feature gaming technologies, social networking, digital signage, interactive kiosks — really, anything that captures the customers' attention while they're in the store and keeps them coming back."

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Working with Virginia‐based design firm Hybridia Design as well as the editorial staff of Retail Customer Experience magazine and RetailCustomerExperience.com, NRF is developing a concept store that offers new insights and ideas to retailers of all types and sizes.

"We want retailers to be able to take what they see in the store and envision how they can implement those strategies themselves," Newman said. "It's about how to attract the customer no matter what the environment is — music, clothing, etc."

Tom Harper, publisher of Retail Customer Experience magazine and RetailCustomerExperience.com, believes the pavilion comes at the right time.

"Today's shoppers are more demanding and have more choices of where to spend their time and money than ever before," he said. "For a retailer to be successful now and in the future, they must create an effective and differentiated multi‐channel shopping experience that keeps customers happy and loyal."

The Customer Experience Pavilion will include more than 48 exhibitors. Companies interested in exhibiting in the pavilion should contact Tami Sakell at 202‐661‐3044 for more information. Companies interested in sponsoring a technology in the Customer Experience Concept Store should contact Susan Newman at 202‐626‐8154.