The Customer Is the Channel – NRF 2023 Takeaways for Retail

Put the customer at the center of the channel strategy: unify in-store, online, and mobile experiences, and enable seamless checkout across spaces. NRF 2023 highlighted that brands that treat every touchpoint as a channel see higher conversions and stronger loyalty because following steps stay consistent, reducing busy moments and guiding shoppers toward checkout. Thoughts from retailers point to rapid wins when you align data and operations around the customer.

rfid delivers real-time intelligence on inventory and spaces. Brands that deploy RFID across warehouses and stores report higher stock accuracy, faster replenishment, and fewer mispicks. Resulted improvements include up to 40% fewer stockouts, and checkout times shrink by 20–35% when associates pull items from RFID-queried shelves, boosting sell opportunities and customer loyalty.

Make checkout a channel, not a bottleneck. Deploy mobile wallets, frictionless payments, and BOPIS to move many shoppers toward purchase without leaving your brand experience. NRF 2023 shows shoppers prioritize speed and convenience, and this is important for teams optimizing this path, which typically see higher basket sizes and repeat visits.

Use data intelligence to tailor experiences in the following ways: personalize recommendations by product category, location, and season. Your data streams from stores, apps, and loyalty programs should align to deliver consistent experiences and make it possible to reduce confusion across spaces.

Actionable steps for brands and businesses: map touchpoints with customers across channel experiences without relying on the store as the sole path, pilot RFID pilots in a handful of stores, measure uplift in checkout speed, stock accuracy, and loyalty metrics, then scale. This shift is happening now for many brands, resulting in stronger brand equity, deeper loyalty, and a more efficient business model that can move onto new markets.

NRF 2023 Takeaways for Retail: The Customer Is the Channel

Make the customer the channel: pick a unified, consent-aware architecture across online, in-store, and warehouse data to drive personalized experiences and measure success by customer lifetime value. This approach works well, because it centers the shopper and yields tangible results for these efforts.

NRF 2023 highlights that many leading field teams mature this model by aligning product, service, and tech around customer paths. theres no need to wait to act.

• Pick a single data layer that harmonizes identity across touchpoints, while ensuring consent, privacy, and opt-out options; align incentives to bottom-line results and customer satisfaction.
• Drive design forward by borrowing cues from museums and retails spaces to create intuitive navigation, clear wayfinding, and tactile product storytelling; pilot in york flagship stores to validate concepts.
• Implement video experiences that blend online and offline, with interactive screens, product demos, and AR try-ons; these moments reduce friction and accelerate decision-making.
• Activate artificial intelligence and technology to forecast demand, optimize staffing, personalize offers, and reduce checkout times; you might run several experiments to validate impact.
• Coordinate field operations with mobile devices and in-store associates to bridge the gap between digital signals and physical service; without silos, you bring consistency across channels, and you might realize measurable uplift.
• Define concrete KPIs that map to bottom line: the ones tied to loyalty, conversion, and repeat visits; track progress weekly and adjust quickly.
• There are no static templates; the ones who win move fast, and results can suddenly appear when teams learn from each iteration. Simply align ownership, data, and execution across teams to scale.

Theres no static template for NRF 2023 takeaways; the customer is the channel, and success comes from listening, acting quickly, and iterating across touchpoints. Simply implement a 90-day plan, pick two core paths, and assemble a cross-functional team to lead design, technology, and field execution, with a clear metric view on the bottom line.

Map the customer journey across touchpoints to unlock revenue moments

Create a cross-channel map across six touchpoints: search/advertising, video, aisle experiences in stores, in-store signage and offers, chat, and deliveries. Here, assign an owner, pick a learning-based KPI for each node, and define a moment to capture–before, during, or after purchase.

Attach first-party information signals to each touchpoint: consented preferences, recent interactions, and purchase history. Use that data to deliver personalized offers and tailored information in real time, both in video and at the aisle. Theres a path to stronger connections and longer engagement with the brand.

Design experiences that move consumers from awareness to decision: chat prompts help shoppers compare options, video explains benefits, and in-store offering highlights complementary items. Tie these moments to a wider brand story and a loyal rewards loop, so the shopper sees continuity as they move between channels and stores.

Operational rules: assign data ownership across groups and channels, ensure privacy controls, and synchronize inventories and deliveries data so offers reflect live availability. Align analytics feeds so teams act on the same information in near real time.

Measurement plan: track revenue share from moments across touchpoints, monitor cross-channel conversion, and run experiments on formats–video, chat, and fireside chat sessions with a loyal group of consumers. Use learnings to double down on what works and prune what doesn’t.

Practical targets: aim for 8-12% uplift in cross-channel conversions within 90 days, grow loyalty signups by 10-15%, and lift average order value by 3-6% when personalization improves relevance. Focus on long-term value rather than one-off wins.

Execution tips: run a 12-week program, test two channels at a time, and implement rapid iterations. Use a fireside chat with a group of loyal customers to surface insights and feed back into the offering, ensuring the brand stays authentic across every touchpoint.

Close: by aligning information across stores, online, and deliveries, you create a consistent brand experience that helps consumers shop wider and stay engaged with your offering long after the initial visit.

Restructure the organization around channels for faster decision-making

Reorganiseren around channels by forming cross-functional squads aligned to in-store, brick-and-mortaren in-person touchpoints, and grant them fast decision rights at the point of customer interaction.

Establish a channel governance model with a weekly decision cadence, a shared backlog, and a program that routes requests to the right squad. Cut labor by standardizing templates and pre-approved deal parameters that speed approvals without sacrificing control.

Use channel dashboards to surface answers in near real time, align on expectations over brands, and connect in-person data to a wider view of customer behavior. Build a community of practice across stores and digital teams to accelerate learning.

Becoming truly channel-led requires changes in org design, incentives, and hiring. The teams become the first point for customers at the point of engagement, whether in-store, brick-and-mortar, of in-person; without these shifts, competition remains high.

Track transformation with a wider set of metrics: speed of decisions, deal conversion, labor hours saved, in-store en in-person satisfaction, and cross-channel scores. Capture ideas from frontline teams and brands to fuel continuous improvement and sustain a community where answers inform broader decisions.

Roll out a changes in a pilot in a few markets, then scale across all locations, supported by a transparent feedback loop and a practical transformation plan. This approach helps brands become more responsive and competitive, delivering exceptional experiences without slowing the business.

Measure channel performance with customer-centric profitability metrics

Define profit per customer by channel and use it as the primary KPI to guide investment, because that single number keeps management aligned with customer value across channels.

Build a data fabric that ties sales, returns, and experiences to the customer profile to reveal true profitability by channel. Use avensia templates to stitch experiences across the aisle, storefront, and digital shelf so trends, return rates, and brand interactions feed the same number.

Link POS, online, and loyalty data to the customer profile to reveal true profitability by channel for the retailer. Tie that data to a clear cost view to avoid misallocating promotion spend and to inform management strategies across teams.

Looking at themes across channels helps you identify where to invest next, while trends and customer experiences point to where to adjust brand programs and community touchpoints, keeping the number of experiments small to avoid overcommitment.

Break down data at the front line; talk with store managers about what drives profitable actions, then translate those findings into playbooks for the field and e-commerce teams.

When teams feel confused, revert to the single number and re-allocate budgets where the best performers show value across aisles and digital touches.

Calculate return on channel investment by customer segment again to avoid double counting and to clarify what to stop, keep, or scale.

Keep the strategy practical: share useful dashboards with brand teams, avensia in mind, and align channel management with customer outcomes.

Talk with field teams, build a community of practice around these metrics, and iterate on the approach to stay aligned with customer experiences across channels.

Prototype sustainable business models: rental, resale, and subscription services

Roll out a three-track pilot for rental, resale, and subscription in one category and market. Here is a concrete, data‑driven plan to lock in value quickly without disrupting core channels.

• Model design and pricing: define clear terms for each track (rental with daily/weekly options, resale with buyback and refurb, subscription with monthly access and tiering); use RFID to create information about asset health, age, and refurbishment eligibility; ensure customers see a good, predictable deal.
• Operational play: deploy autonomous sorting and curbside returns where feasible; set a rollout cadence of 4–6 weeks per location; train staff to handle exchanges, cleaning, refurbishment, and data entry; balance labor with automation to keep costs in check.
• Commercial framework: strike deals with vendors to share risk and upside; bring vendors into the program with defined SLAs and transparent margins; aim for a useful experience for customers that supports community goals and organizational sustainability targets.
• Measurement and governance: track asset turns, resale margins, subscription retention, rental utilization, and labor efficiency; use a contextual dashboard that ties unit economics to customer data; stage gates gate the expansion to additional lines and markets to scale.
• Risk and quality: establish product-condition standards, warranty coverage, and frictionless return policies; ensure information is centralized and accessible, away from silos; maintain clear accountability across teams and partners.
• Implementation tips: start with a small, relevant line of items to test pricing and terms; train staff thoroughly; monitor balance between speed of rollout and service quality; stay close to the community to refine offers and messaging.
• Momentum and mindset: remove the burden of rapid pace from teams, since RFID and autonomous processes move assets without horses; here a steady, data-backed rollout proves more reliable than rushing to scale.

To accelerate impact, keep training ramp simple, ensure information flows to leadership, and bring vendors into a shared roadmap. Increasingly, customers treat rental, resale, and subscription as channels, not add-ons, and that shift helps organizations having scale to tap new revenue streams while strengthening loyalty. The approach works best when it remains contextual to each store footprint and community needs, with a clear line of sight from frontline staff to executive decisions.

Build a data and technology backbone to orchestrate unified commerce

Implement a centralized data fabric and a unified API layer to enable cross-channel visibility for brick-and-mortar and online purchases, with a pragmatic 90-day rollout that you can assess in a transparent program dashboard.

Create a cross-functional group that owns data definitions, quality, and governance across their organizations, establishing use cases that connect POS, ecommerce, loyalty, and supplier systems, and assign clear ownership to the ones responsible.

Adopt a stack of technologies and data strategies that support both real-time streaming and batch processing, to break data silos across channels, then define a single source of truth to scale and empower teams to act on the same signals.

Design a transformation program that links data to merchandising, supply chain, and store operations, with a clear purpose and change-management approach to minimize friction.

Looking at what works, Marcus notes investing in the data backbone shifts traffic toward more relevant experiences and improves bottom line results.

Capture ideas from field teams and executives to build a practical program of pilots, measuring purchases, traffic, and conversion while expanding the same capabilities across brick-and-mortar and digital stores.