i3 - January/February 2017 - 99

By Steve Smith

Business

R E TA I L ST R AT EG I E S

The Retail Connection at CES

 A

s CES marks its 50th year in Las Vegas, attendees may
not know that the show debuted in New York in 1967
created for retailers by the show's founder, the legendary
Jack Wayman. He saw that with booming sales
of transistor-based audio products and color TVs, the industry's
suppliers needed a show to display, debut and sell wares to retailers

YAACOV DAGAN/ALAMY

as well as distributors and buying groups. specialty stores and dealers expanding
and going public.
CES moved to Chicago and was
I looked at some old issues from the
renamed Summer CES. Several years
90s of Home Furnishings
later, Winter CES
Daily's (HFD) CES Daily
debuted in Las Vegas in
Retailers
when I was an editor.
January due to retailers'
must attend
The summer CES format
need to replenish
CES to see
included stories about
inventories of goods.
the latest
retailers: Highland
CES was a "buying"
technologies. Superstores, the growth
show where suppliers
of office superstores like
cut deals with retailers
Staples, and Best Buy.
and distributors.
Cover profiles of Circuit City, J&R Music
While new technologies and suppliers
have always been the stars of CES, retailers World and Fretter's in the next couple
also shared the spotlight through the mid- of years reflected the expansion of these
specialty chains.
1990s, with so many regional electronics

But, the over-expansion by some
specialists and competition by national
merchants like Walmart impacted sales.
Amazon.com and online sales by new
retail players and some suppliers,
diminished the specialty chains.
Retailers now must attend CES to see
the latest technologies, network, and,
yes, to make an occasional deal or order.
Much of the old need for retailers to
"replenish inventory" at CES has been
replaced by constant online communication between suppliers, distributors,
buying groups and retailers.
The audience for CES began to
change as the digital revolution impacted
the industry's technologies and the
internet affected nearly every aspect of
daily life. Content providers of all stripes
and political leaders - domestic and
international - plus car manufacturers,
fitness and health companies, the list
goes on and on, now all go to Vegas.
Retailers are still a vital constituency
for CES. Best Buy and others have
evolved into online retailers that interact
with today's consumers on social media
and also making their brick-and-mortar
stores a "social experience."
And today's retailers have to,
because they are no longer the only
place where consumers can buy the
latest technologies. But with the trend
towards millennials "shopping local,"
traditional retailers with the proper
online, social media and in-store
strategies may thrive in today's diversified technology market.
CES is "the world's leading innovation event." But don't forget that CES
was founded to sell retailers the latest
technologies, and retailers continue to
innovate to compete in the marketplace
today as well as position themselves
for tomorrow. n
Steve Smith is editor at large of TWICE and
was its longtime editor in chief.

C TA . t e c h / i 3

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

99
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