Arlington, Va. (PRWEB) June 24, 2016
Ten additional companies have confirmed their engagement in the forward-thinking Vision 2027 attraction in the Exhibit Hall at the 2016 National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Total Store Expo – which will be held August 6-9 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
Vision 2027 will provide insights into the future of retailing and trading-partner collaboration, with a unique blend of technology, interactivity, and even celebrity. The total number of companies participating in Vision 2027 currently stands at 14, with additional announcements anticipated.
“Vision 2027 will be a must-see destination for retailers and suppliers in the NACDS Total Store Expo Exhibit Hall,” said NACDS President and CEO Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE. “The NACDS Total Store Expo presents a remarkable transaction of ideas and Vision 2027 will be a tremendous part of that forward thinking at this year’s event.”
The new participating Vision 2027 companies announced today include:
Catalyst – A Li & Fung Company, Catalyst provides a variety of electronic article surveillance (EAS) solutions for use in retail. As a complement to its EAS enterprise, the company has create a range of radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems that help retailers keep an accurate account of inventory, enhance the customer experience and prevent theft. The RFID tags allow retailers to take more accurate inventories more rapidly via automated robots or handheld scanners. Also, smart technologies detect the RFID tag on a product and provide customers additional information about the product and options for complementary purchases.
EnterWorks Holdings Commerce and Content Platforms – The EnterWorks master data management (MDM) and product information management (PIM) solution enables companies to acquire, manage and transform product information into persuasive content that drives higher sales and new competitive strengths. By leveraging a company’s products, associated images and videos, brands and other marketing assets, the EnterWorks Enable platform delivers powerful content through e-commerce Web, mobile, print and various electronic channels.
Eventable – Eventable enables brands and retailers to engage with their customers via the digital calendar. By integrating events directly into customers’ daily schedules, brands can drive sales and boost engagement. Eventable's marketing platform provides the analytics and targeting tools necessary to understand and communicate with a brand's customers. Eventable works with clients ranging from e-commerce sites to Fortune 500 companies, and has been featured at AD THINK, ad:tech New York, the Intel Global Challenge, and more.
Everfave – With Everfave, shoppers can use their mobile phones to recommend to their friends their favorite products and brands carried by their favorite stores. Their friends get a personal referral from the shopper and earn a reward when they become a customer. Everfave’s platform enables shoppers to share their in-store retail experiences, talk about the brands and products they love, and enjoy special offers and exclusives from their favorite retailers and brands. Everfave has earned the “Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs” Innovation Award, among other honors.
GSK Consumer Healthcare – The company will showcase “The Migraine Experience” – a revolutionary augmented reality migraine simulator. By giving non sufferers a controlled glimpse of what it's like to experience a migraine, the simulator is contributing to a culture of empathy for the 36 million people in the United States who suffer from the debilitating headaches. The simulator gives non-sufferers the insights that come from safely experiencing disorientation, aura, sensitivity to light and blurred vision.
INTURN – The INTURN online B2B inventory management platform enables brands and retailers to confidentially buy and sell excess inventory on a global scale. It reduces manual work processes, expands accessible product information, and integrates sophisticated analytics, thus improving inventory management and increasing profitability. INTURN is designed and led by retail industry veterans and technology experts and is located in New York City.
retSKU – Retail Store Data helps brand manufacturers and retailers audit retail stores for pricing checks, shelf space, promotions, end caps, and more. The platform delivers a rapid platform to collect in-store data and confirm planogram execution. The technology helps to empower sales teams, store managers and brokers.
Shopic – Shopic is a self-checkout mobile app that enables an easy, quick and convenient purchase of goods from anywhere in the store – without having to wait in line. Shopic’s solution, already operational with some reference customers, integrates easily with any point-of-sale/retail management system. The retailer gains increased revenues, better customer satisfaction and loyalty, a direct channel for personalized promotions and savings in operational costs.
Trendalytics – Trendalytics is a merchandise intelligence platform that helps to create a better understanding of what consumers want. It aggregates and analyzes patterns across social media, online searches and SKU data. Dynamic insights are gathered at the product category, classification and SKU levels to support decisions on assortment planning, product pricing, promotional activity and marketing. Trendalytics was a 2015 Top 5 Future of Retail Disruptor at SXSW and a finalist in The Wall Street Journal’s Start-up of the Year series.
WiGO Analytics – WiGO Analytics helps to translate video surveillance into business analytics. In so doing, the company prevents the waste of installing cameras that are not watched, or that are not utilized as fully as possible. It leverages a retailer’s in-store video capabilities for loss prevention and business analytics for use in cases such as heat mapping, dwell time, out of stocks, and more – in real time. WiGO Analytics helps diverse companies get a quick and accurate view of everything that happens in each of their stores.
The companies whose participation in Vision 2027 was announced previously include:
Fung Global Retail & Technology – Led by Deborah Weinswig, executive director and head of global retail technology, the company will introduce 12-15 innovators that provide solutions for consumer goods, the pharmacy, clinics and patient engagement. Their insights will appeal to attendees interested in enhancing the shopping experience, engaging patients through omni-channel strategies, and optimizing data analytics and cloud computing. The company also will bring to Vision 2027 elements of its Innovation Center in Shanghai, highlighting some of the leading-edge retail technology companies that have demonstrated success.
Kantar Retail – The company will provide a view of what the “perfect shopper interaction of tomorrow” will look like. This aspect of Vision 2027 will deliver a forward-looking view at virtual reality’s power to serve up both retail environments and testing capabilities, and a view of the ways in which best-in-class companies will link analytics into compelling economic and shopper-centered solutions.
Nielsen – Marketers are navigating a world of unprecedented complexity and are searching for ways to make sense of all this data. The answer is one platform that brings consumer and media data together, making it possible to cut through the clutter to connect more deeply with customers and audiences on the right devices. Nielsen will demonstrate how a cloud-based system helps companies spend less time connecting the dots and more time making decisions that drive bottom-line results.
Shark Branding – Entrepreneur, investor, author, speaker and television personality Daymond John will highlight opportunities for companies to grow as truly innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises – today and into the future. He also will participate in the popular “Meet the Market” program on Saturday, August 6.
The similarly named precursors of Vision 2027 consistently have drawn significant interest among attendees, as well as among local media. In 2015, when the NACDS Total Store Expo was held in Denver, the Denver Business Journal covered what was then known as Vision 2026 with an article titled “The drug store of the future is on display now at Denver convention.” Colorado Biz published a bylined article by NACDS titled “Health, Wellness and High-Tech.”
In 2014, when the NACDS Total Store Expo most recently was held in Boston, the Boston Business Journal reported on what was then known as Vision 2025, and WBZ NewsRadio 1030 – a CBS affiliate – also covered Vision 2025 extensively.
Accessible to all attendees, Vision 2027 will be open during the Exhibit Hall hours of the NACDS Total Store Expo.
More information about the NACDS Total Store Expo is available at tse.nacds.org.