Microsoft is gearing up to show off its latest internet of things (IoT), mobile and cloud retail solutions at the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Annual Convention and Expo, which kicks off on 11 January.

From 11-14 January, on booth 2803, Microsoft will be showcasing the latest Windows devices available on the market to help retailers enhance the customer experience and empower their employees.

It will also be demonstrating solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics, Azure Machine Learning and Azure Intelligent Systems Service, aligned with its mobile-first, cloud-first vision.

On Tuesday, Karen Garrette, global industry director of retail for Microsoft Dynamics, and Ashvin Mathew, Microsoft’s general manager of retail and commerce solutions, will present a session about the future of retail and the impact of rapid technological change. Together, they will share real-life customer insights from leading global retailers and strategies, demonstrating how the industry can deliver amazing customer experiences.

IoT is expected to be a particularly hot trend at NRF this year. Speaking in a blog post about the impact of two technologies impacting the development of IoT – predictive analytics and machine learning – Colin Wright, principal program director of the big data ecosystem within the retail team at Microsoft, explained that both are helping retailers to plan for more successful product launches and targeted promotions.

“The right tools that include machine learning capabilities can analyse massive amounts of data – and use more interesting sources of data – and that gives a retailer an edge,” he said. “From transaction volumes to number of mentions on twitter or ‘likes’ on Facebook, these tools help retailers to segment and target customers more specifically and offer guidance on what those customers want.”

OnWindows will be reporting live from the NRF show next week. Be sure to check out our tweets and please re-visit our site for all the latest announcements.

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