Mark your calendars: September 13, 2016 will be more than an ordinary Tuesday. It also will be the first National Merchant Day, designed to celebrate retailer innovations in payments, loyalty and customer engagement.
Sponsor PYMNTS.com will hold a full-day conference in New York City that day, bringing together retailers and solutions providers to discuss their latest technologies.
The conference, to be held at Manhattan’s Tribeca Rooftop, also will feature the inaugural Merchant Awards, with categories including:
Advertisement
• Game Changer;
• Rookie of the Year (for retailers in business less than three years);
• The Best 360 Award;
• The So-Loyal Award;
• The So-Different Award;
• The Redeemer Award; and
• The Big Returns Award.
Retailers can be nominated by solution providers or payment industry executives, or they can nominate themselves, via the web site. Nominations are being accepted through August 15, and award finalists will be announced on the site on August 22, 2016. Winners of each award will be determined by votes from merchants and others within the voting public, with the polls open through midnight, September 10, 2016.
The conference, #NMDNYC, will feature a wide range of speakers providing short, TED-talk style presentations, according to Mary Ann Antonelli, Director of Digital Marketing and Special Events for PYMNTS.com. There also will be “hackathons” designed to show off coders’ skills, with a cocktail reception to follow.
PYMNTS.com is seeking to spread National Merchant Day’s impact beyond the event: “Some of the sponsors we are working with are waiving processing fees for the day, and are devising special promotions that they can push out to consumers to get them into the stores and shop,” said Antonelli.
