Why Every VAR Should Attend RetailNOW

By Gregg Brunnick, Epson America

RSPA’s RetailNOW event is often called the “must attend” event for anyone selling POS and, at Epson, we couldn’t agree more. We have attended the show for many years and it has been extremely successful for both us and our partners. I have been in the industry a long time, and this year especially I have seen a lot of new challenges the POS industry has had to face.

The shift toward mobile POS and cloud services, the recent EMV compliance deadline, and other forces have left many VARs scrambling to keep up. VARs attending RSPA RetailNOW2016 will walk away with the education, training, and tools they need to help face these challenges and build a stronger network to get their business to the next level.

It’s The Place Where The Industry Meets

First of all, RSPA RetailNOW is a great opportunity for VARs to build their network. The show brings together industry leaders, innovators, and other channel players, enabling them to develop the relationships necessary for running a successful business. Whether they schedule time with us at Epson or other vendors, the show offers an incredible opportunity to talk with the companies that provide them with the equipment and software they sell. At Epson, we greatly value face-to-face time with our partners and welcome the chance to strengthen existing relationships and forge new ones that are mutually beneficial. Each type of encounter with a reseller or ISV allows us to learn critical information, enabling us to empower them to build unique solutions that will benefit their business.

Learn From Industry Experts

In addition to important networking opportunities, the show provides a great learning platform with the latest in industry education. Attending the various educational sessions and panel discussions will provide VARs with the education and tools they need to increase performance. At the 2015 show, there were a number of interesting sessions in the areas of payment, security, cloud analytics, and other new and noteworthy solutions. We had a chance ourselves to interact with the audience about how to “leverage transaction data to grow your business.” The audience members especially appreciated our examples regarding how the VAR and end user can work together to drive dynamic customer loyalty programs, inventory management sophistication, and increased profitability by leveraging receipt information that is extracted to a common cloud environment, analyzed, and served back to the business as actionable feedback.

Another interesting aspect of the education was a presentation by Michael Gerber, author of the business classic and best-seller The E-Myth. Gerber discussed how principles from The E-Myth Revisited apply to retail IT VARs, such as, “Luck and speed and brilliant technology have never been enough, because somebody is always luckier, faster, and technologically brighter,” and, “Unless your customer gets everything he wants every single time, he’ll go someplace else to get it.” Gerber also stressed the importance of building teams commenting how, “Great people are made at great companies.”

In conclusion, RSPA RetailNOW is THE place where VARs have access to live education, motivational speakers, and key exhibitors showing their latest retail technology solutions to the marketplace. It’s the ideal venue for a VAR looking to connect with other dealers and vendors, stay on top of industry trends and emerging technologies and learn how to penetrate emerging vertical markets. 2016 promises to be another great event. In addition to the signature tracks, the RSPA team has added an ISV track, which is sure to be a very valuable educational tool for VARs and ISVs looking how to forge mutually beneficial working relationships.

We hope to see you at RSPA RetailNOW2016 in Dallas on July 31st.