Retail Roundup: NRF Big Show and EuroCIS 2025
The two largest retail events of the year kicked off 2025, and IoT is clearly going to play an important role for store operations this year
There is a reason they call it the Big Show. With over 40,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors, it is the largest gathering of retail professionals and brands each year. While you can easily get lost in the sea of retail media tools and AI-powered shopping assistants, we found IoT and specifically electronic shelf labels had a strong presence. In fact, Grocery Dive recently declared "Electronic shelf labels will hit mainstream adoption" in their 2025 trends watch.
All of the major ESL suppliers had significant displays, and Rigado was invited to exhibit within the SoluM booth. While we support an open approach to edge connectivity and will work with any ESL that supports the Bluetooth® 5.4 standard, partnering with SoluM at the event was a great way to network with their team and lead conversations with end-customers, many whom are actively considering the best way to deploy IoT technology throughout their stores. You can watch an overview of our display in the SoluM booth here.
A variety of other IoT solution providers were exhibiting at NRF, notably our partners at Wiliot showing their Ambient IoT capabilities that service many supply-chain use cases. Digital locks, temperature and conditions monitoring, and a multitude of asset tracking solutions were on display.
The Rigado team ready for a week of demos and discussions
at the NRF Big Show 2025
In February, Europe hosts its major retail exhibit with EuroCIS in Dusseldorf, Germany. Once again Rigado was hosted within the SoluM booth to show the "one access point" solution, which also featured our recently announced Cascade 5000.
Like the NRF Big Show, EuroCIS has a broad spectrum of exhibitors and theme areas including a cybersecurity hub, startup hub, and foodservice innovation hub. Large retail brands continued to promote enhanced shopping experiences, AI integration, and IoT-powered operations and supply chain efficiency.
As it relates to electronic shelf labels, it is worth noting that Europe has already deployed a significant number of ESLs (outpacing North America by more than double) and many customers are already deploying their second or even third generation devices. This led to some great conversations with Rigado at the show on why Bluetooth has become the leading choice for ESLs, as well as the tradeoffs of deploying dedicated IoT Access Points as opposed to leveraging existing WiFi network infrastructure.
The SoluM exhibit at EuroCIS hosted hundreds of retailers exploring the latest in shelf label technology
Rigado VP of Global Sales Russell Corvese presents the
"All-in-One Access Point" at EuroCIS 2025.
Looking Ahead: Retail IoT Trends for 2025
Combining the vast exhibit halls at the NRF Big Show and EuroCIS with coverage from industry analysts leads us to several emerging themes for retail technology in 2025. A few that stand out:
- The continued growth of e-commerce, in particular online grocery shopping which rose 19% last year. This is having a profound affect on how stores are laid out to service both in-person customers and facilitate delivery mechanisms that rely on IoT for accurate order fulfillment.
- An in-store experience that continues to incorporate AI and IoT. While some retailers are pulling back from self-checkout, improved experiences including ESLs and automated locks are on the rise.
- Larger retailers continue to focus on supply chain automation and inventory quality monitoring. The recently announced Ambient IoT Alliance is a good example of a focused effort to standardize the IoT approach to tracking assets from production to the shelf.
In summary, transitioning to smarter stores has become a priority with more sensors, automation, and analytics influencing the way customers and staff interact across the modern omni-channel retail environment.