The National Retail Federation's NRF '25: Retail's Big Show attracted an estimated 40,000 attendees for its 175 sessions, a show floor packed with 1,000 exhibitors and one huge surprise -- a bustling AWS booth.
In the past, to say that retailers were bitter toward AWS because parent company Amazon siphoned business away from physical stores would be an understatement. CIOs, analysts and others would describe to me "anyone but AWS" strategies of enterprise IT purchasing of ad platforms, AI services, cloud infrastructure, contact center platforms -- running instead to Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Salesforce and even Meta. Working with AWS meant supporting a competitor.
That has changed in the last few years, leading up to AWS' booth this year looking like a happening place, as opposed to a lonely wall of video displays five-plus years ago. Part of the reason is that retailers now routinely work with multiple cloud providers and are comfortable with that, said Justin Honaman, AWS head for worldwide retail, restaurants and consumer goods business development, in an interview at the NRF show.
Budgets, not bias, rule the day
AWS and another "enemy" of traditional retail, Walmart, had large footprints at NRF, hawking their digital sales platforms and advertising businesses. Some retailers are buying into those companies' platforms for bedrock business reasons, said consultant Michael Klein of Klein4Retail. The whole situation reminds him of consumers and sustainability: They say one thing, but sometimes their actions reveal a different perspective.
"Retailers have said for years that they won't support AWS, but when they vote with their budget, they realize that AWS is not only more cost-effective, but it also supports the volumes, performance, speed, etc., that a retailer needs," he said. "[Just like] consumers say they want to support sustainability -- but when they vote with their wallets, sustainability goes out the window."
Recognizing that CIOs cannot make the margins that they need to make if they run [IT] on-prem, where are they going to go?
Rebecca WettemannAnalyst, Valoir
Analyst Rebecca Wettemann of independent research firm Valoir said retailers are still migrating IT operations into the cloud, and there are limited choices: Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle and ... AWS.
"I think, initially, a lot of it was, 'Yeah, I don't want to go to Amazon, because Amazon is in direct competition with me,' but now it's, 'I've only got a couple of choices,'" she said. "Recognizing that CIOs cannot make the margins that they need to make if they run [IT] on-prem, where are they going to go?"
Honaman said AWS' retail outreach sometimes encounters pushback from grocery retailers, who feel that Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods makes the company a competitor. There are occasional other prospective customers, too, who still harbor animosity.
They're getting fewer and farther between, and AWS has customer references such as Mondelez and Carter's to back up things it says -- such as how AWS sequesters data so that Amazon doesn't get access to retailer data and vice versa. That is how AWS answers the question, "Will Amazon steal my data and use it against me?" There's more work to be done if AWS wants to combat negative perceptions among retailers. But the company is making progress.
"This morning, six leaders from a very large retailer that had, in the past, not wanted to even talk to us came and did a booth tour," Honaman said. "The fact that they stepped onto the carpet in our booth was a bit monumental in my mind."
Don Fluckinger is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget. He covers customer experience, digital experience management and end-user computing. Got a tip? Email him.
