BOSTON — Ten more companies will exhibit at Vision 2027 at the 2016 National Association of Chain Drug Stores Total Store Expo, which will be held from August 6 to August 9 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

NACDS’ upcoming Total Store Expo will offer insights on retail’s future

Vision 2027 will provide insights into the future of retailing and trading partner collaboration, with a blend of technology, interactivity and even celebrity. The total number of participating companies stands at 14, with additions anticipated.

“Vision 2027 will be a must-see destination for retailers and suppliers,” said NACDS president and chief executive officer Steve Anderson. “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 Vision 2027 companies include:

• Catalyst — A Li & Fung Co., Catalyst provides a variety of electronic article surveillance (EAS) programs for retail. As a complement to its EAS enterprise, the company has created a range of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems to help retailers keep an accurate accounting of inventory, enhance the customer experience and prevent theft.
• EnterWorks Holdings Commerce and Content Platforms — EnterWorks’ master data management (MDM) and product information management (PIM) enable companies to acquire, manage and transform product information into persuasive content to drive higher sales and new competitive strengths.
• Eventable — The Eventable marketing platform enables brands and retailers to engage with customers via the digital calendar. By integrating events directly into customers’ daily schedules, brands can drive sales and boost engagement. Eventable provides the analytics and targeting tools necessary to understand and communicate with a brand’s customers.
• Everfave — With Everfave, shoppers can use mobile phones to recommend to friends their favorite products and brands carried by their favorite stores. 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 experiences, talk positively about brands and products, and enjoy special offers and exclusives from favorite retailers and brands.
• GSK Consumer Healthcare — The company will showcase “The Migraine Experience,” an augmented reality migraine simulator. By giving non-sufferers a controlled sense 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, 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 stores for pricing checks, shelf space, promotions, end-caps and more. The platform rapidly collects in-store data to confirm planogram execution. The technology helps to empower sales teams, store managers and brokers.
• Shopic — Shopic is a self-checkout mobile app enabling an easy, quick and convenient purchase of goods from anywhere in a store — without having to wait in line. Shopic’s program, 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 — The Trendalytics merchandise intelligence platform 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.
• 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 such cases 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.