As we look to the future of retail, several trends emerged from NRF 2025 that are set to shape the industry landscape. These trends underscore the evolving relationship between technology, data, and the human element in retail experiences.

• Retailers are leveraging AI to analyze customer data, offering hyper-relevant recommendations and tailored experiences. Walmart demonstrated AI-integrated digital twins providing daily operational insights across 1,700 stores, revolutionizing inventory management.
  
  
• Brands are reimagining physical spaces as "inspiration hubs" that prioritize community over commerce. IKEA's CEO described stores as interactive environments that heighten customer engagement and loyalty.
  
  
• With 80% of consumers more likely to remain loyal to brands offering personalized experiences, retailers are moving beyond traditional points-based systems. They're creating unique, value-driven rewards that resonate with individual preferences.

In our time at NRF, we shared the Customer Journey Builder with retailers – our tool that personalizes experiences at scale, creating journeys for loyalty members based on their unique preferences and data powered by AI.

The star of our booth this year was undoubtedly the Loyalty Personality Assessment – an innovative approach that's redefining how retailers understand the motivations of their customers.

We understand that in today's retail environment, simply tracking purchase history is no longer enough. Retailers need deeper insights into their customers' motivations, preferences, and behaviors to create truly engaging experiences. By gamifying the data collection process, we're helping retailers gather rich, actionable insights in a way that's both fun and engaging for customers.

Here's why the Loyalty Personality Assessment matters: it gives brands the blueprint they need to pull the right levers for the right segments of customers to build stronger bonds, engage, and stretch spend.

For instance, if you have a very engaged and points motivated segment of customers, these the Points Geeks, your brand can generate a points multiplier campaign just for this segment. By offering the multiplier only to this segment, you're maximizing campaign engagement and performance while limiting your points liability by only offering the deal to members that engage with them.

For retailers at the beginning of their loyalty journey, the Loyalty Personality Assessment can help inform program design. If you know the large majority of your customers are

Gamers, then you can create a more experiential and action-based program rather than a simple earn and burn program. Or possibly your customers are Socialites who crave VIP

treatment, then your brand can center your program on tiers and exclusive benefits or experiences.