Insights shaping the future of commerce

Online ordering can be the deciding factor in whether customers come to your restaurant or visit one of your competitors instead, so it's important to meet potential customers where they are. Social media is effective in community building, but one of the first (and best) places to reel guests in is through a search engine.

Many retailers look to NRF as a source of inspiration and information for the year ahead, and this year’s show was no different. From the expo floor to speaker sessions, NRF 2025 covered all the topics on retailers' minds, and this year, one of the hottest topics was change—from applying AI to meeting consumer demands and adopting new solutions.

As the holiday rush settles down and 2025 kicks off, retailers are looking ahead at the trends that will shape their business this year. Like many of our customers, our team spent three insightful days at the 2025 NRF Conference and Expo exploring the key factors shaping today’s retail landscape.

It’s January, which means it’s time for NRF: retail’s big show to kick off the year. Retailers from around the world will gather in New York City to discuss industry trends, discover emerging technology, and make connections.

In grocery retail, delivering a superior consumer experience has become a critical differentiator in an increasingly competitive market, especially as today’s consumers have more options than ever. Consumers have choices ranging from how they shop—from in-store shopping to mobile apps and online platforms—to where they shop, with more competition on loyalty, price and range.

Millions of people dream of opening a restaurant, but running a restaurant of your own is a big step, and a huge accomplishment! As you know, the work doesn’t end at opening—figuring out what does and doesn’t work in a restaurant is a job of its own, not to mention understanding what it takes to expand to make your business bigger and better.

Shrink. It’s a word that many retailers don’t like to hear or even think about too much. Also referred to as merchandise loss, this major challenge carries with it many secondary problems, from compromised operational efficiency to diminished revenues. Often cited in earnings reports as a cause for tighter margins and other unfavorable outcomes, shrink affects retailers everywhere: from small and mid-sized businesses to larger enterprise operations.

The holiday season is upon us, and for many restaurant operators, this can be the busiest and most profitable time of year. With people dining out more often to celebrate or save time, the increased demand presents a golden opportunity to maximize profits and reward your staff with increased tips. However, this time of year can also present challenges, and it’s important not to let the busyness of the season negatively affect your restaurant’s operations or the customer experience. The holidays are the season of giving, so here are a few key ways to give your guests the holiday experience they want:

At the beginning of October, a team from NCR Voyix attended the 2024 NACS show in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was an exciting year for the annual show for convenience and fuel retailers, showcasing advancements and trends in five overarching categories: in-store merchandise, technology, facility operations, fuel equipment and services, and food service.

One frequently asked question that shows up in my inbox more and more often is: When moving from on-premise to cloud-hosted Loyalty, will my users still have direct access to the SQL database? Of course, the short answer is No. But there’s so much more to it than a binary yes or no answer.

Self‑checkout has become essential to modern retail, but securing it requires more than alerts and deterrents. We’ll explore how you can reduce both accidental and intentional shrink by combining AI‑driven technology with well‑trained, customer‑focused store teams.

Retailers can no longer afford architectures that fail fast and recover slowly. Edge‑enabled architectures—built on immutable operating systems and containerized workloads—offer a safer, more agile path to managing risk in distributed retail environments.

Discover how Wai Kai lowered labor-to-sales 13% with Aloha OrderPay

Salad and Go offers a unique premise: a drive-thru salad restaurant with a mission of making fresh, nutritious food affordable and convenient for everyone. After a phase of rapid expansion, the leadership team at Salad and Go turned their attention to fine-tuning their operations.

When dining rooms closed due to COVID-19, Fresco's needed a new online ordering system to make up sales–fast. NCR Voyix Aloha Online Ordering to the rescue.

When Allegiance needed customized, personalized eCommerce for their members, Freshop stepped in. And helped them experience double-digit growth 5+ years running.

In order to stay ahead of the competition and continue to serve its customers’ changing needs, the family-owned and operated convenience store chain, Mach 1, wanted to improve speed of service. They decided to create a fast self-service checkout option in their stores to address this need. NCR Voyix helped to turn this goal into a reality.

NCR Voyix helped Chipotle Europe deliver online and mobile ordering with local languages and currencies to serve up the same delicious experience, everywhere.

Texas Born Stores (TXB), a well-known chain of convenience stores, is recognized for its fresh food offerings and modern design that celebrates Texan values. To enhance the shopping experience for all their customers, TXB sought to provide diverse checkout options that cater to different customer preferences.

How Aloha OrderPay increased The Trade’s table turns by 30% with mobile POS

Online shopping service NCR Voyix Freshop enables smooth curbside pickup with Pronto! Curbside