Deduction Management: Processes, Resources, and Tools Used as CPG/FMCG Brands Grow
Executive Summary Driven by promotion spending, logistics complexity,...
I headed into NRF Big Show 2026 with one goal: to understand how the next wave of retail innovation will reshape pricing & promotion… two areas relevant to our Gross-to-Net Revenue Management platform, BluePlanner. I went to anticipate how new pricing models, smarter stores, and emerging commerce protocols will change the way brands plan, execute, and measure customer & retail pricing and trade spending.
This year made one thing clear: Promotions can’t stay static when the store is becoming more dynamic. Here are three takeaway themes from the show and what they signal for the future of trade:
Pricing as a living, responsive system.
Digital labels and signage took center stage at the Big Show this year. What impressed me was how seamlessly they now tie into pricing engines and loyalty systems. These displays aren’t just operational tools, they’re evolving into “experience surfaces,” capable of:
In TPM/RGM solutions like BluePlanner, this unlocks the potential for dynamic trade promotions that can adjust based on shopper behavior, store conditions, or performance thresholds.
This, however, is part of a bigger narrative. Retailers have ambitions to bring online-style experimentation into the aisle. Promotions will be A/B tested in real time using:
This transforms customer planning from a static, annually-executed exercise into something far more iterative and adaptive.
Automation and intelligence move from theory to deployment.
Computer vision, sensors, and task automation systems are making compliance and execution far more predictable. For trade, this matters because execution accuracy is no longer a guessing game.
Planogram verification, price tag checks, and shelf availability can all be validated automatically, creating greater transparency. This enables clearer and far more measurable promotional ROI.
The store of the future is more like a dynamic digital environment than a static retail box. From smart carts to wireless kiosks to pop-up checkout points, stores are becoming fluid. This flexibility will directly influence where and how promotions surface.
The command center of this dynamic environment is the all-in-one mobile app for store associates. From order picking to price checks to scanning to store tasks, all actions will be done in a universal mobile app. For promotions, this means:
The “handheld era” is ending, and with it, many of the old execution gaps.
Retail operations become orchestrated, not manual.
Almost every vendor at the NRF Big Show is combining the word “agentic” with a noun to describe what they do: Agentic commerce. Agentic replenishment. Agentic payments. Agentic personalization. And so on. Systems that act rather than just provide insights.
Behind the scenes, agents integrate data, run workflows, and execute tasks automatically. Agents that turn planning, execution and measurement into a continuous optimization cycle will be transformative for TPM/RGM.
One of the most discussed announcements was Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), aimed at standardizing product, cart, and commerce interactions across ecosystems. If widely adopted, UCP could:
For TPM vendors like UpClear, this reduces integration friction and enables more real-time promotional orchestration. Does Google have enough influence to make UCP the standard? Only time will tell.
NRF Big Show 2026 confirmed that the future of retail is adaptive, automated, and increasingly agentic. Promotions must become more dynamic, more connected, and more intelligent to match the speed of the modern smart store. If this is where retailers are today, the next phase of trade transformation is already underway.
Achieving this vision, however, will require a level of data quality, governance, and cross-system orchestration that many retailers are still working toward. The practical challenges of today diminish the likelihood that the full vision of NRF 2026 will ever totally materialize (remember RFID?). With that being said, the themes that echoed across NRF 2026 have gathered too much momentum for those of us working in pricing, promotion, TPM, and RGM to ignore.
Andrew Dentinger is the Product Director at UpClear. He is responsible for our product strategy and roadmap. He brings over 10 years of experience in the consumer packaged goods (CPG), specializing in sales, finance, and demand analytics.
At UpClear, our mission is to empower Consumer Goods brands to maximize revenue performance and trade investment returns through intelligent, collaborative software—providing a single source of truth, streamlined automation, and actionable insights.
BluePlanner Revenue Management software supports end-to-end processes, from Annual Operating Planning to Account Planning and Execution.
