Partner of the Year

This award honors a company that exemplifies the best in the industry. In today's world, customers prefer to align with organizations that not only deliver based on an exceptional service mindset but also foster a strong, positive culture for their employees. This award recognizes entities that prioritize these core beliefs — even when faced with disruptions and making challenging decisions. To qualify, applicants must demonstrate comprehensive excellence, including impactful philanthropy, a customer-first approach, and a thriving employee culture, all supported by measurable results.

Best Kept Secret

You have a great solution or service with stellar customer success stories, but not enough people know about your brand or its unique differentiators. Share your key value propositions and success stories, including why your solution or service could be a game changer for the industry.

The VIP Challenge Award: 2026 Annual Award

2026 theme: AI Innovation and Application: AI continues to fundamentally change the retail landscape and customer experience. Describe how you partnered with retailers to effect new solutions, or have materially enhanced your products to supercharge efficiency and experience.

You tore down barriers and leveraged speed, agility, and resourcefulness to stand out. You developed an original and inventive solution or significantly changed your business model to support your clients’ evolved needs and goals. Share how you’ve demonstrated innovation in partnership to solve a new client hardship or pain point -or- how you successfully turned a new industry disruption into an entirely new business opportunity.

Rising Star Award

The Rising Star Award celebrates the newcomers who are reshaping retail by turning today’s technology shifts into tomorrow’s solutions. How does your solution capitalize on the opening created by AI and agentic capabilities, built fresh answers for retailers and brands, and are proving that bold, tech-driven innovation can deliver real impact right out of the gate.

Retailer's Favorite

You are always there for clients, in good times and bad, and there’s never any drama, friction, or frustration. Your customers consistently reach out to you, even for things outside your expertise, and they know you will provide a timely and thoughtful answer. Apply here and explain why your customers say they wish all their partners were like you.

Best Longstanding Partnership

You and your client have forged a long-term relationship with effective communication and collaboration at the foundation. You’ve had your fair share of wins and adjustments, but every step of the way, you have built trust, remained innovative, and found new ways to work together for mutual benefit. As a result of your committed partnership (in place at least five years), your client continues to reap the rewards. Describe the expectations, agility, and results that are driving this sustained relationship.

Retail Transformation Award

(SUBMISSIONS FOR RETAIL COMPANIES)

This retail company award celebrates a powerful transformation story made possible through a strong retailer–vendor partnership. Nominations may be submitted by either the retailer or the solution provider, but vendor-led entries must have the retailer’s agreement and participation. Submissions should highlight the initiative, its progress, and the sustainable business impact achieved. Examples may include cross-functional initiatives, business model shifts, technology modernization, cultural transformation, or major process improvements. The entry must show how the transformation delivered measurable, lasting results.

Retailer consent to participate and be recognized is required. Use code RETAILERNOM to complete the complimentary nomination entry at checkout.

Bridge Builder: Person of the Year

This award recognizes a leader in the retail industry whose career includes substantial retail experience alongside time in solution provider roles. Whether they are currently with a retailer or a solution provider, their foundation in retail gives them the perspective to bridge both sides of the industry. With this insight, they champion transparency, foster empathy, and build enduring partnerships that raise the standard for how business relationships should be created and sustained. Use code BRIDGENOM to complete the complimentary nomination entry at checkout.

Retail Partner: Person of the Year

The Retail Partner of the Year Award recognizes a retail executive who is a pioneer, an innovator, a lifelong learner, and a mover and shaker. He or she is a leader who leaves a path for others to follow and embodies the Vendors in Partnership mission in everything they do. When working with their partners, they demonstrate vulnerability and trust as all parties come equally to the table and establish successful long-term partnerships. This executive also demonstrates to those they lead how all boats rise in a committed partnership, enabling future leaders to build a stellar company culture and advance effective, mutually beneficial business relationships. Use code RETAILERNOM to complete the complimentary nomination entry at checkout.

Best Unified Customer Experience

Retailers need to build immersive branded experiences that meet their customers’ expectations. That means connecting cross-channel customer information and integrating operations, as well as all critical engagement touchpoints. Describe how your solution empowers brands to bring the best customer experience to life across the full customer journey.

Best Multi-Vendor Commerce Platform

All aspects of commerce have evolved, from the continued evolutions of marketplaces to the adoption of composable commerce powered by strong partner ecosystems. Describe how your solutions or services provide brands and retailers with appropriate flexibility, robust functionality, and/or seamless integration to help them determine the right business strategy, optimize customer experiences, and improve employee operations while benefiting other key stakeholders.

Retail Tech Disrupter Award

This award honors transformative solutions that fundamentally change retail infrastructure or operational capabilities. Whether through AI/ML, robotics, computer vision, or advanced automation, these innovations deliver unprecedented efficiency, intelligence, or scalability for retailers.

Best AI-Driven Marketing Solution

Retailers need to communicate seamlessly across multiple customer segments and touchpoints to create frictionless and personalized experiences wherever consumers decide to interact. Describe how your AI driven marketing solutions leverage data-driven insights to automate, personalize, optimize, and scale retail marketing campaigns effectively.

Best Commerce Media Activation Solution

The commerce media landscape continues to evolve. Describe how you propel retail media networks from siloed ad placements into high-performing omnichannel media engines, demonstrating sales growth through testing, advanced attribution, self-service, and AI-enhanced platforms. Describe simplification of campaign creation, optimization, and measurement, and include pertinent examples of integration with other programmatic ecosystems to drive real media at scale.

Best Marketing Automation

Retailers need to communicate seamlessly across multiple customer segments and touchpoints so they can create seamless and personalized experiences wherever consumers decide to interact. Describe how your B2B or B2C solution addresses any (or all) multi-faceted marketing touchpoints across the website, mobile, social, direct mail, call centers, paid media, and email.

Best Enabler of Commerce Media

The commerce media landscape is vast and growing by the day. Media networks powered by retailers and other entities are bringing shoppable moments to new creative formats, from e-commerce ads to in-app videos and interactive connected TV (CTV) experiences. While these organizations are setting new standards for advertising excellence, agencies and solution providers are enabling success by offering new strategic, planning, measurement, and optimization services. Describe the distinct role that your organization plays in this exciting and fast-evolving landscape, including tangible examples of offerings, campaigns, and results.

Best Retail Insights Solution

Data is only as powerful as the actionable insights users can extract and apply from it. Describe examples of how your solution interprets foundational business data (such as customer information, insights, pricing, financials, and operations), responds to dynamic interactions, and delivers tangible value for retail clients.

Best Enterprise Analytics Platform

Today's dynamic retail climate requires business intelligence that is interactive, intuitive, and real-time so retailers can acquire insights and agility to manage business changes. Describe how your solution, technology, and execution deliver the foundation for accurate and critical business analysis.

Best Supply Chain Innovation

This award honors solution providers that redefine what a modern supply chain can achieve. From smarter planning and distribution center innovations to seamless last-mile delivery, describe how your solution delivers measurable improvements in resilience, efficiency, and customer satisfaction anywhere during the full journey of products from origin to doorstep.

Best Distribution Center Innovation

Innovations driving distribution center (DC) productivity, cost reduction, and speed to destination are critical to competing and responding to heightened shopper demands. Describe how you successfully serve the industry using robotics, automation, AI, or simulation, bringing state-of-the-art methods to efficient merchandise handling.

Sustainability Game Changer Award

Sustainability is a powerful value proposition for business leaders and consumers. Industry players must transparently demonstrate their environmental influence and support of the broader community. Describe the initiatives that demonstrate your environmental values and the impact for your company as well as the benefits brands and retailers have seen when working with you. Highlight how your customers were able to make meaningful sustainability advancements, reducing environmental impact while maintaining commercial success.

Best Sustainability Initiative

Sustainability is a powerful value proposition for business leaders and consumers. Industry players must combine operational excellence with social and environmental responsibility, transparently demonstrating their environmental influence and support of the broader community. Describe the initiative that demonstrates your environmental values (including the tangible impact it has had on your company), as well as the benefits brands and retailers have seen when working with you.

Best Omnichannel Payment Innovation

The payment experience can influence a customer's overall satisfaction and loyalty. Describe your advances in cutting-edge solutions that simplify and secure the payment process, delivering frictionless, flexible, and personalized transactions across channels.

Best Payment Innovation

A frictionless, personalized user experience is critical for driving conversions. Now, even the payment experience can influence a consumer’s overall satisfaction and brand loyalty. Describe how your solution enables these critical outcomes by empowering retailers to offer new payment options, gateways, integrations, and innovations and how your services ensure a seamless implementation.

The Retail Voice

The retail community needs valuable information from those who best understand the changing market. These experts not only know what’s happening today, they invest thought and resources to highlight what’s coming next and interpret those changes for the industry at large. If your passion is keeping the industry informed as an analyst, journalist, blogger, podcast host, or media resource, highlight the great value and experience you bring to the industry.

Best Security Solution

Protecting operations, customers, and employees from fraud, risk, and interruption is a daily concern for retailers. Describe how your solutions help clients discover, mitigate, protect, and recover from security threats and other business challenges.