Business View Magazine - October 2016 39
Shop.org. She explains how those three pillars are put
into action daily by the Federation’s 100-member staff:
“We advocate for the retail industry in several ways,”
Cantrell begins. “We have a significant government
relations group who work on Capitol Hill for all of the
issues that affect retailers – and that’s most of them,
because retail is such a significant business. Anything
to do with healthcare, online taxes, corporate tax re-
form, or the minimum wage, are also top-of-mind for
retail.”
Regarding communication, Cantrell says that the NRF
has several audiences. “Communication is explaining
how amazing the retail industry is to people in other
fields that we want to bring into retail because of their
talent and the industry’s talent needs,” she says. “It’s
communicating how vibrant and broad the retail indus-
try is to the people on Capitol Hill, so that they know
how much retail is represented in their states and in
the country; and it’s also communicating to retailers
about opportunities within the industry. The member-
ship department is doing outreach to the different
members. We track what events people go to, what
they downloaded, etc., so that we can communicate
the level of value that they get from their membership.
We have a communication team that promotes retail
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
The National Retail Federation
WHAT:
A trade association representing the re-
tail industry
WHERE:
Washington, D.C.
WEBSITE
:
