NRF 2025 Recap: What Luxury and Jewelry Retailers Need to Know
The world’s biggest retail event revealed a clear formula: AI for efficiency, human expertise for conversion. Here’s what it means for high-touch retail.
The Retail Industry’s Biggest Gathering
NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show brought together 40,000 retail professionals from 105 countries at New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The event featured leaders from Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, IKEA, and hundreds of other retailers sharing insights on the technologies and strategies shaping the future of retail.
For luxury and jewelry retailers, NRF 2025 delivered a critical message:
Technology is transforming retail — but human expertise is more valuable than ever.
This article breaks down the key themes from NRF 2025 and what they mean specifically for high-consideration retail.
Theme 1: AI Has Matured — With Clear Limits
The biggest shift at NRF 2025 was the move from AI hype to AI implementation.
What Major Retailers Are Doing:
Walmart has deployed AI-integrated digital twins across 1,700 stores, delivering daily operational and inventory insights. CEO John Furner explained: “This technology is going to change the way we all manage our inventory.”
Lowe’s created digital twins of all stores for virtual space planning and equipped every associate with AI chatbots to answer customer questions. As their Chief Digital Officer noted: “We’re giving superpowers to associates. Everyone becomes an expert.”
IKEA uses real-time analytics to map customer movement patterns and dynamically optimize store layouts.
The Critical Insight:
These implementations focus on operational efficiency — inventory management, space optimization, associate productivity.
What they don’t do: replace human judgment for complex customer decisions.
Target CEO Brian Cornell articulated this perfectly:
“It’s the balance between technology and human interaction in retail that’s going to pave the way for the future.”
What This Means for Jewelry Retail:
AI excels at:
- Product search and discovery
- Inventory management
- Routine customer questions
- Personalized recommendations
AI struggles with:
- Building trust for high-value purchases
- Explaining nuanced product differences
- Reading emotional cues
- Providing confidence for milestone decisions
The opportunity: Use AI for what it does well, and double down on human expertise for what it doesn’t.
Theme 2: Human Connection Increases in Value
One of the most significant insights from NRF 2025: as AI handles more routine tasks, human connection becomes more valuable — not less.
The Workforce Reality:
At Walmart, AI is changing how people work rather than eliminating jobs. “They were doing really physical jobs, and now they’re bot techs,” Furner noted. “It’s helping people work with their head more than their back.”
Dick’s Sporting Goods Executive Chairman Ed Stack emphasized: “Right now, we’re looking at AI really as a productivity tool more than a replacement of personnel.”
The Customer Experience Reality:
Retailers highlighted that customers increasingly value genuine human interaction, particularly for:
- Complex purchase decisions
- Emotional or milestone purchases
- Products requiring expertise to understand
- High-value transactions requiring trust
The Luxury Retail Implication:
For jewelry retailers, this validates what you already know:
An AI can find a diamond ring under $5,000. It cannot explain why one cut sparkles differently than another in the light your fiancée will wear it in.
An AI can show specifications. It cannot reassure a nervous buyer making a once-in-a-lifetime purchase.
An AI can process transactions. It cannot build the relationship that brings customers back for anniversaries, milestones, and generations.
Human expertise isn’t a cost to minimize — it’s your competitive advantage to maximize.
Theme 3: Experiential Retail Drives Results
NRF 2025 showcased data on experiential retail that should capture every luxury retailer’s attention.
The Numbers:
Stores incorporating experiential elements see:
- 40% increase in dwell time
- 30% higher sales compared to traditional formats
What “Experience” Means:
At NRF, retailers showcased:
- Interactive displays and AR/VR integration
- Live shopping events
- Personalized in-store moments
- Expert consultations
Bloomingdale’s CEO Olivier Bron stated their “best marketing investment is the experience in the store.”
For Jewelry Retailers:
The purchase of fine jewelry is inherently experiential. The question is whether you’re maximizing that experience.
Consider the journey:
- Discovery: Customer finds your store online or in person
- Exploration: Customer browses options, narrows choices
- Decision: Customer needs guidance to make final selection
- Purchase: Transaction is completed
- Relationship: Ongoing connection for future milestones
Most e-commerce optimizes steps 1, 2, and 4. But step 3 — the decision — is where luxury sales are won or lost.
That’s where video commerce becomes essential.
Theme 4: Gen Z and Gen Alpha Are Different
By 2025, Gen Z and Gen Alpha represent over $140 billion in annual U.S. spending power. Their expectations are reshaping retail.
What They Want:
| Traditional Expectation | Gen Z/Alpha Expectation |
|---|---|
| Polished marketing | Authenticity |
| Separate online/offline | Seamless everything |
| Static content | Video and interactive |
| Transactions | Values-aligned brands |
The Social Commerce Explosion:
Social commerce is growing 3x faster than overall e-commerce, projected to exceed $100 billion in 2025.
New Balance CEO Joe Preston: “There is nothing stronger than someone pulling out their phone and looking for your product.”
For Jewelry Retailers:
This generation will buy engagement rings, anniversary gifts, and milestone jewelry. But their path to purchase is different:
- Discovery happens on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube
- Research is video-based, not text-based
- Trust comes from authenticity, not polish
- Purchase can happen anywhere — but confidence requires connection
The implication: Your video presence matters. Your ability to connect authentically matters. Your digital experience must be seamless.
Theme 5: Unified Commerce Is Table Stakes
“Omnichannel” has evolved into “unified commerce” — a seamless ecosystem where digital and physical retail merge completely.
The Data from NRF:
- 48% of consumers used store/brand apps in-store during holiday shopping
- 55% used self-checkout
- 27% used in-store navigation kiosks
Customers expect retailers to know their preferences, remember their history, and provide consistent experience regardless of touchpoint.
For Jewelry Retailers:
The customer who browses engagement rings on your website at 11pm should have that context when they walk into your store the next day.
The customer who starts a video consultation should be able to continue that conversation in person — or complete the purchase remotely with the same advisor.
Unified commerce for jewelry means:
- Website, in-store, and video consultation connected
- Customer history and preferences shared across touchpoints
- Seamless handoff between AI-powered discovery and human expertise
- Consistent experience everywhere
The Hybrid Model: AI + Human Expertise
The overarching lesson from NRF 2025 is that the winning retailers aren’t choosing AI or humans — they’re optimizing both.
The Formula for Luxury Retail:
Stage 1: AI-Powered Discovery Let customers explore your catalog through intelligent search. Surface relevant products. Make discovery effortless.
Stage 2: Intelligent Qualification Identify when customers need human guidance:
- High-value items (engagement rings, luxury pieces)
- Complex questions (comparing options, customization)
- Extended browsing (serious consideration)
- Explicit requests (wants to talk to someone)
Stage 3: Human Expert Connection Connect them with a jewelry expert via live video consultation. No friction. No waiting. Immediate expertise.
Stage 4: Expert-Guided Decision Your expert does what AI cannot:
- Shows how pieces look in real light
- Explains the nuances between options
- Asks about the recipient’s style
- Provides reassurance for the decision
- Builds relationship and trust
Stage 5: Confident Purchase Customer buys with full confidence — because a human expert provided the guidance they needed.
The Conversion Advantage:
| Channel | Typical Conversion Rate |
|---|---|
| Traditional e-commerce | 2-3% |
| Live video consultation | Up to 30% |
For high-consideration purchases, the ROI of human expertise is extraordinary.
Implementation Roadmap for Jewelry Retailers
Based on NRF 2025 insights, here’s a practical roadmap:
Immediate Actions:
-
Audit your customer journey: Map where AI adds value vs. where human expertise is essential
-
Evaluate your high-value segments: What percentage of revenue comes from purchases needing human guidance?
-
Assess video commerce readiness: Can you connect customers with experts seamlessly?
Short-Term Priorities:
-
Implement video consultation: Start with engagement rings and highest-value categories
-
Train your team: Virtual selling requires different skills than in-store
-
Create handoff protocols: Define when AI discovery should transition to human expertise
Medium-Term Strategy:
-
Expand AI-powered discovery: Implement intelligent search across your catalog
-
Build intelligent routing: Use AI to identify customers who need human guidance
-
Develop expert matching: Connect customers with the right specialist
Long-Term Vision:
- Unified hybrid experience: AI and human touchpoints working seamlessly together
How Immerss Helps
At Immerss, we build the human layer that complements AI-powered retail.
Our live video commerce platform helps jewelry retailers:
Connect: One-click video consultations from any product page Convert: Expert guidance that turns browsers into buyers Build Relationships: Every interaction strengthens customer loyalty Scale Expertise: Extend your best salespeople to every customer, anywhere
The Integration:
Immerss integrates with your existing systems:
- Embedded directly in your e-commerce site
- Connected to inventory and CRM
- AI-powered matching to the right expert
- Analytics on consultation performance
The Result:
- Higher conversion on high-value purchases
- Lower return rates (customers buy with confidence)
- Stronger customer relationships
- Competitive advantage that AI alone can’t replicate
Conclusion: The NRF 2025 Message for Luxury Retail
The retail industry’s biggest event delivered a clear message:
Technology is transforming retail. But human connection is more valuable than ever.
For luxury and jewelry retailers, this means:
- Embrace AI for discovery, search, and operational efficiency
- Invest in human expertise for high-consideration purchase decisions
- Build seamless handoffs between AI and human touchpoints
- Recognize that video commerce is the bridge that connects efficiency with expertise
The retailers who understand this — and build systems that optimize both — will define the next era of luxury retail.
AI handles scale. Humans provide meaning.
That’s the formula. That’s the future.
Ready to add human expertise to your AI-powered discovery?
