A surf shop in New York in January sounds like a bad business plan… But at NRF 2027, TruRating is opening one anyway!
Last year we brought a soccer field to the show floor. This year we’re the retailer: the TruRating Surf Shack takes over booth #1818 at the Javits Center, January 10 to 12, with racks of beachwear, a checkout counter and a live payment terminal.
After years of helping stores hear from their customers, we get three days on the other side of the counter, ringing up purchases and answering to the people who just paid (go easy on us at checkout!) Want time with the team at the show? Book 20 minutes at the Surf Shack.
Fast Forward, with the customer in the room
NRF has built the 2027 show around one theme: Fast Forward. The organizers ask whether faster is always better, and what happens when businesses prioritize speed at the expense of the customer experience.
Agentic AI runs through the agenda, from sessions on AI agents that browse, decide and buy for shoppers to a dedicated AI Stage on the Expo floor.
Picture the agent your team switches on next year. It reads your customer scores, decides where staff and stock should go, and acts on it by Monday. Now look at what it’s reading: feedback from the few shoppers who loved the visit or hated it enough to say so. It never hears from the ones who stayed quiet. And now you’re using that incomplete picture to make decisions across every store.
Our part in that conversation is the data going in. TruRating asks one anonymous question at payment. On average, 84% of in-store shoppers answer it, so you hear from the quiet majority too. Every answer arrives with the transaction attached, so your teams and your models start from what customers experienced and what they spent.
Come see it working at booth #1818, before you hand your next decision to an agent.
What you’ll find at the TruRating Surf Shack
At booth #1818, you get to experience TruRating from both sides of the sale. First as a customer, then as the retailer trying to understand what happened and what to do next.
- Check out at our counter: tap through a purchase on a live payment terminal and answer the question a shopper sees at payment.
- See the questions an apparel store asks: from greetings and fitting room assistance to product recommendations, see how our agents choose the right question, for the right person, at the right time.
- Step behind the counter: follow customer answers into the data and see what’s happening across stores, which service behaviors go with bigger baskets, and which shift to coach first.
- Meet the people behind it: Co-founders Georgina Nelson and Christian Nelson will join the TruRating team at the booth.
The most important moment in retail
Every sale ends at payment. The shopper has the whole visit fresh in mind: the greeting at the door, the help in the fitting room, the wait at checkout.
Your sales data records that moment as a basket. It tells you what was bought, where, when, and for how much. It never tells you why.
TruRating fills that gap with one question on the payment terminals you already use, with no new hardware. Shoppers answer with a single tap, and every answer arrives joined to the purchase.
That connection helps you see where service gaps are affecting conversion, which behaviors are associated with higher spending, and whether customers return after a good or poor experience.
More importantly, it shows you where to act: the shift to coach, the category to fix, the region that needs attention.
A first look at what’s next
This winter we’re changing how TruRating answers reach your teams, and the Surf Shack is the first place to see it. You’ll meet TruDi (TruData Intelligence), the agent that answers questions about your stores in plain English, in the channel you choose. You’ll also see how TruRating data plugs into the AI tools your team already uses.
Book 20 minutes at the Surf Shack
NRF week fills your calendar fast, so we’re keeping meetings short and specific to your business.
In 20 minutes, we’ll walk you through:
- The questions we’d ask your shoppers, chosen for your retail format and the service standards you want to measure.
- A worked example of the commercial opportunity, connecting what customers experienced to basket value and the next action a store team could take.
- A first look at TruDI, showing how your teams ask questions about store performance in plain English.
Bring one question your sales data can’t answer. We’ll show you how we’d find the answer, and what you could do with it.
Find us at NRF 2027
- Event
- NRF 2027: Retail’s Big Show
- Dates
- January 10–12, 2027
- Venue
- Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, NY
- Booth
- #1818 · TruRating Surf Shack
Book 20 minutes at the Surf Shack
Bring one question your sales data can’t answer. We’ll show you how we’d find the answer and what you could do with it.
Having trouble with the calendar? Book directly here.
