Inside NRF Big Show 2026: Tech, Data and the Store Experience
Thousands of retailers, technology providers and industry leaders filled New York City’s Javits Center for NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show, where more than 1,000 exhibitors and dozens of sessions explored the latest tools shaping store operations, customer experience and retail technology.
The National Retail Federation’s NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show drew about 40,000 retail professionals and more than 1,000 exhibitors to New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center from Jan. 11-13. The annual event brought together retailers, suppliers and technology providers for three days of product demonstrations and education focused on topics such as artificial intelligence, inventory management, omnichannel strategy and customer experience.
More than 1,000 exhibitors filled the show floor with offerings that ranged from point-of-sale systems and inventory software to logistics tools, retail media platforms and AI-driven marketing and analytics. For independent hardware retailers, many of the solutions on display were aimed at addressing familiar pressures, including margin management, labor shortages, inventory risk and changing customer expectations.
Amazon Goes Into Orbit, AI Solutions Abound
One of the technology platforms highlighted at the show was Amazon’s Leo satellite internet network, formerly known as Project Kuiper. The system is designed to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband through a constellation of more than 3,200 low Earth orbit satellites, targeting areas where traditional internet service is unreliable or unavailable. For retailers operating in rural or hard-to-reach markets, the technology could eventually offer another option for connecting stores, job sites and remote locations.
Artificial intelligence continued to be a major focus across education sessions and the exhibit floor, with a strong emphasis on practical uses rather than experimentation. Retailers saw examples of AI being used to improve demand forecasting, personalize digital marketing, optimize labor scheduling and refine product search and recommendations. For hardware store owners, these tools are increasingly positioned as ways to reduce waste, improve in-stock performance and operate more efficiently with limited staffing.
Customer experience also remained a central theme. Several sessions focused on how service, product knowledge and local relationships continue to be important differentiators, even as more transactions move online.
Technology providers at NRF reinforced that message by presenting tools designed to support store teams rather than replace them. Solutions ranging from AI-driven customer service platforms to digital “concierge” systems were positioned as ways to help employees serve customers more effectively across both physical and online channels, pointing to a future in which technology and human service work side by side.
The NRF Innovators area spotlighted emerging retail technologies, bringing together startups and established providers showcasing new tools for ecommerce, in-store operations, analytics and logistics designed to scale in real-world retail environments.
AI Moving Into Store Operations
Innovation in store data mining was on display throughout the show. One example: London-based Quorso showed how its management platform is being used to turn overwhelming store data into clear, daily priorities for retail teams. The system connects into a retailer’s existing data and replaces dozens of reports and dashboards with a short list of actions that tell store leaders where to focus.
At Tractor Supply Company, where Quorso is now fully deployed, the platform highlights sales leaks, category issues and specific SKUs that need attention, allowing managers to act quickly instead of digging through spreadsheets. Store, district and corporate leaders all work from the same view, with tasks and follow-ups automatically coordinated across levels. For independent hardware retailers operating multiple locations, this type of capability harnesses AI-driven tools to simplify operations and keep teams focused on what will have the biggest impact on performance each day.
What NRF Innovators Says About Where Retail Is Heading
The NRF Innovators section of the Big Show showed how retail technology is shifting from isolated tools to connected systems built to scale. The companies featured in the Innovators area met four criteria: it had to be new to the market (within two to three years), already tested in real environments, ready to scale, and tied to one of four retail pillars—ecommerce and online experience, business analytics, logistics, or in-store shopping. The Innovators showcase brought together 37 North American companies, 10 European firms and three from Asia, underscoring how global the retail tech race has become.
This year, a recurring theme within the Innovators pavilion was physical-digital blending as part of the customer experience. Another big conceptual theme rolled out here is called “gentle commerce”—a future where large language models (LLMs) and non-human agents will begin shopping directly from retailers. More simply: Retailers are being told to prepare for AI — not people — initiating purchases. That raises big questions about pricing, data control, merchandising, and brand loyalty. It’s quite possible that in the future, retailers will need to maintain visibility, pricing control and data alignment when AI systems, rather than people, are initiating transactions.
Customer experience took a decidedly high-tech turn with Hypervsn, a company which pairs holographic display technology with an AI agent. The system can interact in real time, switch languages, and provide guided customer service.
In marketing, Backstroke showed how retailers can use AI to generate and A/B test dozens or even hundreds of email and SMS campaign variants automatically, integrating directly with platforms such as Klaviyo and lifting performance by 10–40 percent.
