January’s NRF retreat featured the demos, experiences, networking opportunities, and sessions retail pros look forward to each year. From AI-powered personalization to the trends shaping 2025, industry leaders and innovators spent the weekend exploring what’s next.
But the weekend's biggest takeaway? AI-powered personalization is gaining momentum fast—and that’s big news for retail.
Trends turn on a dime, making it difficult for retailers to adapt. Why? Because the industry is historically constrained by slow-moving channels. But AI-powered commerce can enable retailers to break through traditional retail limitations.
AI also has the power to unify customer and product data in real time, offering shoppers personalized recommendations and updates. By adapting to the nuances of e-commerce and shoppers’ changing behaviors, AI helps create new paths to conversion. And it’s already paying off—but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
We partnered with Bloomreach to learn about its NRF experience, AI-powered commerce, and what’s next in retail. Let’s get started.
Recharging at NRF
Connecting with peers and learning what’s next in the industry? Great. But crowded, chaotic conferences? They’re a little overwhelming. That’s why Bloomreach, Google Cloud, and Shopify provided attendees with a break from the hustle and bustle of the show floor. The answer? The Retreat.
Hosted at The Equinox hotel (just around the corner from the main conference), The Retreat provided a sanctuary for customers, partners, merchants, and retail leaders to recharge. Inside, attendees had opportunities for meaningful conversations and in-person connection.
Attendees also enjoyed a day of low-key networking, meet and greets with the Bloomreach team, a curated lunch + cocktail hour, and the chance to experience AI-powered personalization in action.
Want a sneak peek at what they learned?
IRL success stories
At The Retreat, NRF attendees came face to face with the brands on the cutting edge of AI personalization. In partnership with Bloomreach, these brands have already proven how much personalization can impact bottom lines.
Retailers like Nasty Gal, PrettyLittleThing, Revolution Beauty, and Benefit Cosmetics UK have seen big-time jumps in conversions, revenue, and engagement through Bloomreach's AI-powered personalization across their digital shopping experiences.
The big takeaway: AI-powered commerce works. With personalized communication and a personalized strategy, retailers can ditch the limits of traditional strategies and bring in more revenue.
Power up + get personal
AI-powered personalization helps retailers break through the limits of traditional channels. No more impersonal site visits or ordinary email flows. Say goodbye to disconnected cookie-cutter campaigns and (ugh!) the dreaded batch-and-blast SMS “strategies” of yesterday.
Bloomreach’s Clarity empowers retailers to take the next step into personalization with conversational commerce. It’s more than just another chatbot: Clarity’s AI-driven conversational shopping extends across customers’ entire experience. Clarity lives beyond the chat window, connecting with customers where and when it matters most.
From the search bar to product pages, Clarity adapts the site experience in real time as customers engage, providing personalized product recommendations. And when shoppers finish browsing, Clarity’s AI connects across SMS, email, and more to drive them to checkout.
With Clarity’s conversational guidance, retailers can boost:
- conversion rate
- average order value
- revenue per visit
Ready for checkout
Don’t stick with the same old retail limitations. AI-powered personalization (and a little help from the personalization pros) can help your brand drive customer connection and revenue. That’s where Bloomreach comes in.
Bloomreach integrates real-time customer and product data with AI so brands can create personalized shopping experiences. No more data silos or disjointed tech stacks: From marketing and product discovery to content and conversational shopping, Bloomreach has you covered with one solution.
Wanna learn more about what went down at NRF? Here’s what you missed at The Retreat. And don’t forget to check out Clarity in action.