NRF 2019 review: News vs nonsense

2019 won't be the year that robotics, IoT and blockchain disrupt retail and the customer experience. That’s one of Forrester analyst Brendan Witcher’s key takeaways from NRF 2019, which was held in New York last week.

In a LinkedIn post, he says: “In 2019, tech that helps innovate the art & science of learning retail will have better business impact than retail learning the art and science of innovative tech. It’s time for retailers to stop dumping resources and money into trying to be tech firms – buy (don’t build) core technologies, and get back to focusing on customer connections (rather than custom tech connections).”

As for other ‘nonsense’ worth ignoring at the show, Witcher rails against the claim that “the CMO/CIO roles are becoming one”. 

“Yes, CIOs must understand business applications, and CMOs must become technically-savvy, but a single “CM/IO” role would likely turn a retailer’s organisation into something resembling a freight train full of lemon juice crashing into 300,000 gallons of expired milk,” he argues.

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