When a Store Starts Thinking

In the heart of SoHo, every storefront competes for attention. During New York Fashion Week (NYFW), SAP is helping bring a fashion retail store to life.

At first glance, the space looks like a curated boutique. Clothing racks, soft lighting, and attentive staff set the scene. Pick up an item, and nearby displays can respond. Teams can also follow fitting-room activity and the sales floor in real time.

At the center is the Retail Innovation Lab by NYFW Collections and SAP, featuring fashion label RE/DONE. SAP and N4XT Experiences, which operates NYFW Collections, built the lab as part of our multi-season partnership. The store is open from September 11-30. For three weeks, visitors can experience connected retail in SoHo.

The new store is a progression of a three-day pop-up developed with fashion brand Public School New York in February. This season we are expanding the Retail Innovation Lab format to a full-fledged RE/DONE store, open to the public for three weeks. At the heart of it is a private “Command Center,” connecting the sales floor with the operations behind it. The Retail Innovation Lab doubles as an expansion of our SAP Experience Centers, offering SAP customers and prospects the chance to explore SAP software and partner solutions in a real-life setting.

This approach reflects our co-innovation model, which aims to turn collaborative ideas into customer-facing experiences faster so visitors can experience the technology in action and understand its value firsthand. SAP, N4XT Experiences, and participating fashion brands contribute with their respective expertise. Together, we are developing a store concept that serves as a test bed for retail brands of various sizes.

From display to decision

Start your visit with a scan and opt in to a digital profile. As you browse, nearby displays can update with product details. A styling surface suggests complete looks and complementary pieces. Together, these features connect product discovery and styling in one experience.

In the fitting room, connected technology recognizes each item and size. An associate can respond quickly with another size or suggestion. When you’re ready, choose how to buy. Use your phone, ask an associate, or visit a traditional point of sale. Afterward, a personal digital wardrobe saves looks and keeps the experience going.

Behind the sales floor, the Command Center gathers movement, fitting-room, size, and sales signals. Teams gain a real-time view of customer activity and store performance.

Consider unexpected interest in one size: combined with inventory, merchandising, and replenishment information, that signal can reveal demand earlier. Teams can respond with greater precision. The store becomes a richer source of insight for assortment, inventory, and demand planning.

Co-innovation at the heart of industry

The lab also shows how our approach to co-innovation works. Customers and industry experts contribute their knowledge of operations, markets, and opportunities. SAP brings more than 50 years of experience in business processes. It also brings the data, applications, and technology that connect them. Together, they ground innovation in the realities of retail and fashion.

In retail, that collaboration points toward autonomous commerce. Connected customer journeys and intelligent operations can work together within human-defined guardrails. The lab makes this direction tangible on the sales floor.

The same principle guides SAP’s approach to Industry AI, co-innovated with customers and industry experts. Their real-world knowledge gives AI context for industry processes and business decisions. AI can then understand what a signal means inside a business. It can also connect that signal to the surrounding processes.

That context differs by industry. In fashion retail, customer interactions can guide merchandising and demand. On a factory floor, production data can help teams improve operations. In consumer products, changing demand can inform planning and supply decisions. Each industry helps shape the AI built for it.

That’s the power of Industry AI. It brings an industry’s own knowledge into AI.

From industry expertise to intelligent action

Industry knowledge becomes more valuable when it moves businesses from insight to action. Companies can decide faster and orchestrate more processes across their operations.

That creates a path toward the Autonomous Enterprise. People define ambitions and guardrails; intelligent systems support them and execute more processes with speed, context, and precision. Human expertise stays central. It shapes the decisions and boundaries that move industries forward.

NYFW gives this collaboration a compelling stage. The lab shows how customer experiences and operations can connect in real time. Autonomous commerce brings that connection into focus for retail. Industry AI carries the same principle across industries.

Together, business knowledge, data, and AI create new ways for customers to act on insight.

Andre Bechtold is president of SAP Industries & Experiences and chief revenue officer of Industry AI at SAP.