The National Retail Federation and Paris-based event organizer Comexposium are partnering to stage “NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show Europe,” an annual convention replacing Paris Retail Week with a more ambitious agenda.
The inaugural NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show Europe will be held Sept. 16 to Sept. 18, 2025, at the Paris Porte de Versailles exhibition and convention center, in pavilions four and six. The new event is expected to draw thousands of retailers and business partners, primarily from across Europe, NRF officials said.
The NRF partnered with Comexposium on NRF Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific convention in Singapore last June at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, six months after NRF’s Big Show convention and trade fair was held in New York City. Conversations between the NRF and Comexposium working together began years ago.
“As we have been deepening our relationship, we discovered some very interesting opportunities to serve retailers and retail partners in new markets with a series of regional events,” Matthew Shay, NRF’s president and chief executive officer, told WWD in an exclusive interview. “Singapore was a huge success and Paris is an attractive market to continue the partnership. Comexposium is headquartered there already and has built a very strong brand and a loyal group of attendees and exhibitors at Paris Retail Week,” which Comexposium started. “We believe that by combining the brand visibility and marketing resources of the NRF with those of Comexposium, we will achieve even greater levels of participation from retailers and their partners across Europe,” Shay said.
Matthew Shay
Courtesy image
Shay also said the NRF has been participating at Paris Retail week, but that “NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show Europe” represents “a complete new level of engagement. We will be able to grow this event beyond the level Comexposium grew it on their own.”
This year, Paris Retail Week runs Tuesday to Thursday in the Paris Porte de Versailles, 7.3 pavilion.
Shay characterized Paris Retail Week as “very much a Paris-based, French event. It would be our ambition to make this a European event, much broader than the French market, by attracting attendees from across Europe and potentially around the world. This will be the inaugural Paris event but we know from the Big Show in New York and the Singapore event that the NRF brand has value in the global marketplace.”
The NRF Big Show in New York is held annually at the Jacob K. Javits Center on Manhattan’s far West Side. “New York will by far still be our largest convention, in terms of square footage, exhibit space, attendees and revenue,” Shay said. “We intend to continue investing in the Big Show in New York to make it even bigger and better in future years.”
Extending NRF’s “convening authority” to Singapore and Paris reflects the global nature of retail, Shay said.
Asked if there is a risk of cannibalizing the New York convention by staging the regionally focused annual conventions in Singapore and Paris, Shay replied: “We are very confident Comexposium is the right partner to begin this journey into new markets. We are being very thoughtful about current relationships with sponsors and attendees at the Big Show in New York, and thoughtful about doing things [in Paris and Singapore] that are complementary rather than disruptive or competitive” to the New York event. “We continue to recognize that the BIg Show in New York is the crown jewel in NRF’s responsibility in convening the industry. We believe that these new events around the world will enhance the value of the NRF brand and the Big Show itself, and ultimately drive additional support for the New York event.”
While the Singapore and Paris events will contain certain of the same elements as the New York event, such the “Innovation Lab,” the “Startup Zone” and many of the latest retail technology solutions, Shay said the overseas shows are also designed to showcase the unique characteristics of those regions. “The key is finding that balance,” he said.
According to Shay, last June’s Big Show in Singapore budgeted for 5,000 attendees but many more wanted to attend. “We had to cap it at 7,000,” Shay said. “We also sold out the exhibit space. The level of interest and demand in Singapore was extraordinarily high.” That’s building NRF’s confidence that Paris will also be a success.
Asked if NRF’s growing overseas activities would lead to increased membership in the trade organization, Shay said, “Membership is not a primary reason for doing this. It’s really about recognizing that retail is a global industry that the NRF serves.”
In his prepared statement, Shay stated, “NRF is proud to represent the largest global retail brands in the world, and we are excited to expand our award-winning educational experiences into new markets, complementing the annual Big Show in New York City and Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific. Every single day, successful retailers are exploring new tools, new approaches and new innovations to remain relevant to loyal shoppers and new customers alike. For nearly 110 years, NRF has embraced the same culture of change in order to build and grow our first-in-class programming.”
“As one of the leading global event organizers, Comexposium built Paris Retail Week from the ground up. We are now committed, in partnership with NRF, to ensuring our combined experience will result in one of the most dynamic, sought after and highly attended retail events in Europe,” Comexposium said in its statement.
Aside from its conventions and educational activities, the NRF lobbies in Washington on behalf of the retail industry. Retail is the nation’s largest private-sector employer, contributing $5.3 trillion to annual GDP and supporting more than one in four U.S. jobs, or 55 million working Americans.
The Comexposium Group is a major event organizer with a global reach. Comexposium organizes more than 150 professional and general public events, covering more than 10 sectors of activity. The group indicated that it connects 48,000 exhibitors and 3.5 million visitors each year. Aside from Paris Retail Week, Comexposium organizes the Siec, Equipmag and One-to-one retail events in France, franchise shows in the U.S., and the ad.Tech and iMedia events in Asia Pacific.
