From creating selfie-worthy in-store experiences, to brands becoming “allergic” to retailers, to radical transparency, there was plenty to discuss at NRF’s annual conference.

As with every year, there was a plethora of technology on display, ranging from VR-enabled store tours to smart-tech-enabled denim jackets.

However, the big talking points of the conference were less about gadgets and more about the themes and challenges facing the sector.

What is the value of the store for 21st-century shoppers? How are start-ups and power brands in the making reaching their customers? And where does that leave traditional retail?

Here’s a look at the key themes that emerged throughout the conference from the keynote stage to the exhibition floor.

Brands falling out of love with retail

The direct-to-consumer trend will gain significant steam in the year ahead, if the consensus at NRF is anything to go by. The more worrying implication for retailers was the attitude from up-and-coming brands that was driving this trend.

Serial entrepreneur Marcia Kilgore, who has founded Bliss, Soap & Glory and Fit Flop, has actively circumvented retailers with her latest venture Beauty Pie.

“The big retailers that used to give big opportunities to new brands just aren’t taking that chance anymore,” she says.

When mulling the prospect of going to beauty giants like Sephora and Boots to negotiate getting Beauty Pie, which touts itself as a business selling ‘luxury products at factory prices’, Kilgore says: “I just couldn’t muster the energy to have that interaction anymore.”

And Kilgore’s not the only one that’s sick of the status quo when it comes to wholesale and retail relations.

Chief executive of Hint Water Kara Goldin, which she founded as a healthy alternative to fizzy drinks in 2005 and had estimated revenue of $90m (£64.7m) in 2016, says: “The supermarket model is not welcoming to smaller brands.”

Although Hint Water is now stocked in supermarkets including Target and Whole Foods, Goldin says 40% of its sales come from its direct-to-consumer arm.

And it’s not just a hard bargain and margins that are turning some brands off big retail tie-ups.

Forrester principal analyst Sucharita Kodali says: “Some brands are really allergic to big partnerships because they feel like they could lose a share of their voice.”

Brands including sportswear upstart Outdoor Voices to family-run lingerie stalwart Cosabella also spoke about the importance of their direct-to-consumer propositions, supercharged by Instagram and artificial intelligence respectively.

Until recently, the relationship between retailers and brands had a very clear power balance, as the former was the latter’s only feasible way to get in front of shoppers eyes and wallets.

However, with the rapid rise of online retail, social media and new technologies, it has never been easier for a newcomer to get scale without ever having to be put on a retail titan’s shelves.

AI will help, not hinder

Artificial intelligence has reached a tipping point in the eyes of retailers, if the tone of discussion around it at NRF was anything to go by.

Until recently the technology and associated terms like big data and machine learning had been treated with a level of scepticism and even nervousness by retailers. But now it seems that businesses large and small have been convinced of its potential.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud chief executive Jeff Barnett says that while he used to meet with ecommerce or online directors to discuss investing in technology in their businesses, he now speaks to chief executives.

“When I talk to retailers now I don’t get ‘convince me’ about digital or anything else, I get ‘help’,” he says.

“Retailers want to get a sense of what is actually working and are also asking us about AR, VR and voice – those are the kinds of interactions I’m having with retailers globally now.”

Tommy Hilfiger, NRF 2018

Tommy Hilfiger at NRF 2018

This sentiment is echoed by Tommy Hilfiger, the founder of the iconic eponymous brand.

“I read in the press and saw retail was going through a very rocky time, but we were the reverse of that change and we were on a trajectory which was much different from that.

“And it all happened because we embraced different technology and we weren’t afraid to take risks.”

The fashion giant has incorporated AI into its new fashion designs through its partnership with IBM and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), which allows it to identify upcoming trends and forecast demand.

“It’s always a risk when you do something brand new, but the advanced technology has been a tremendous benefit to the brand,” says Hilfiger.

Lingerie business Cosabella also used AI to pivot its business proposition from a pure wholesaler to a direct-to-consumer brand.

Chief operating officer Silvia Campello says the brand used the technology to determine the layout of all of its advertising as well as segment customers into categories ranging from first-time buyers to active and defecting shoppers, and cater communications to them accordingly.

Transparency and authenticity

From American pharmacy giant CVS unveiling its plan to stop airbrushing its own advertising, to Levi’s executive vice president JC Curleigh crediting the brand’s resurgence to re-engaging with the cultural zeitgeist, authenticity and transparency were two big buzzwords at NRF.

Whether that be offering clarity on how much a product a retailer is selling actually costs, where it came from or advertising with ‘real people’ rather than through big-name celebrity partnerships, the brands that were being talked about were those that were honest and sincerely engaged with their customers.

“Transparency is the new cool,” says Kilgore, who founded Beauty Pie as an antidote to the “massive mark-ups” in luxury beauty.

Everlane, a direct-to-consumer fashion brand that prides itself on ‘radical transparency’ on pricing and provides in-depth information about every factory it sources from on its retail website, was one of the most talked about businesses at the conference.

James Curleigh, Levi's, NRF 2018

“Remaining culturally engaged is critical if you want to be a lifestyle leader” – James Curleigh, Levi’s

And Oracle’s vice president of retail strategy Jeff Warren said that new technologies like blockchain could enable grocers to dynamically price their products based on freshness in the not-too-distant future.

But authenticity and transparency can do more than just give a retailer the ‘cool’ factor – they can positively and tangibly impact the bottom line.

Shoppers are three times more likely to buy something based on a recommendation from a friend or trusted source than through a traditional marketing channel, according to Salesforce.

And Curleigh stresses that Levi’s recent TV advertising campaign was one of the brand’s most successful precisely because it put authenticity at its core.

The advert was in the top 10 most-viewed adverts on YouTube the week it launched and the song featured was the most-searched-for on Shazam in the UK.

“When we look back we’ve always been energised by the cultural moments that take place, and engaged in them,” says Curleigh.

“Remaining culturally engaged is critical if you want to be a lifestyle leader, so businesses need to be commercially aligned to make that happen.”

Actually innovative innovation labs

A retailer that was on every delegate and speaker’s lips at NRF was US grocery titan Walmart, which has undergone a transformation in recent years that has seen it square up to Amazon.

Its acquisition of etail marketplace Jet.com and launch of its innovation lab Store No 8 has attracted top talent and a rapidly climbing share price.

Walmart’s senior vice-president of next generation retail corporate strategy Lori Flees spoke at NRF about how the grocer has put innovation back at the heart of its business.

“It’s not Walmart’s size that has enabled us to do this, it’s our senior leadership team looking at where retail was going to go in the next 20 years and deciding we needed to disrupt ourselves rather than letting others disrupt us,” she says.

Lori Flees, Walmart

“How do you lean into the tech that will disrupt your business earlier rather than later, and see it as an opportunity rather than a threat?” – Lori Flees, Walmart

“How do you lean into the tech that will disrupt your business earlier rather than later, and see it as an opportunity rather than a threat? It’s a mindset that is not limited or enabled by our size.”

Flees also credits Walmart’s resurgence to putting genuine entrepreneurs at the top of its business – Jet.com founder Marc Lore was appointed to the grocer’s board as president of its ecommerce arm in 2016.

The retailer’s innovation lab Store No 8 operates independently of Walmart, which Flees says has been critical to its success.

The hub is focused on creating retail technology that will be relevant in five years, rather than in the immediate future – and voice commerce is one of its current core focuses.

Big data, brand and big bets on retail technology dominated NRF this year – and gave a glimpse at the unrelenting pace of change in the industry that is set to continue in the year to come.