Another StoreForce Community Conference is officially in the books.

From September 16–18, retail leaders from around the world came together at Caesars Republic Scottsdale for three days of conversations, hands-on learning, new ideas and plenty of opportunities to connect with the people facing many of the same challenges across retail today.

This year, we were joined by teams from some incredible retail brands, including Shoe Palace, PetSmart, Psycho Bunny, Steve Madden, Lush, GUESS and many more.

And while there was plenty to celebrate in Scottsdale, Community Conference 2026 was ultimately about looking forward: at where retail is headed, what frontline teams need to succeed, and how retailers can better connect their people, performance, labour and execution.

A First Look at the Next Chapter of StoreForce

One of the biggest conversations of Community Conference 2026 was also one of the biggest steps forward we've taken as a company: StoreForce 3.0.

Attendees got an inside look at the next generation of StoreForce, including StoreForce 3.0 – The Next Chapter and an Enablement Lab dedicated to Preparing for StoreForce 3.0.

StoreForce 3.0 brings performance, workforce management and task management together in a more connected experience, with smarter workflows, expanded capabilities and a foundation designed to support where retail operations are headed next.

But Community Conference gave us an opportunity to go beyond simply showing what's new.

We were able to talk directly with the people who use StoreForce every day about how these changes translate to the store level, what successful adoption looks like and how retailers can prepare their teams to get the most out of what's coming.

[EXPLORE STOREFORCE 3.0]

Taking on the Biggest Conversations in Retail

Of course, the future of retail operations goes well beyond technology.

Our State of Retail session took a broader look at the forces changing the industry and what they mean for retailers trying to balance customer expectations, labour, performance and an evolving frontline workforce.

That conversation continued with The Connected Store – Linking Labour, Performance & Execution KPIs, exploring something at the heart of the StoreForce philosophy: these parts of the business shouldn't operate independently.

When retailers can connect what's happening with traffic, labour, tasks and performance, store teams have a much clearer picture of what is happening, why it's happening and what they should do next.

That idea surfaced throughout the conference, whether we were discussing closing the execution gap, rethinking service and labour, the ROI of leadership, new approaches to task execution or the role AI will play in the future of retail.

Turning the Conversations Into Something You Can Use

Some of our favourite conversations from Scottsdale were too important to leave in Scottsdale.

We've taken several of the topics discussed at Community Conference and expanded them into resources for retail leaders and their teams.

What the Next Generation of Retail Workers Really Wants From Work

The expectations of frontline retail employees are changing. Redefining Frontline Work for the Next Generation looked at what today's emerging workforce expects from their employers and what retailers can do to create an environment where the next generation actually wants to work, develop and stay.

[READ THE ARTICLE]

Tie Every Report to a Decision, and Every Decision to Performance

Retail teams aren't short on data. The bigger challenge is turning that information into action.

Building on our conversations around reporting and performance, this article explores why reporting shouldn't end with a dashboard. The real value comes from connecting the numbers to decisions — and those decisions back to measurable store performance.

[READ THE ARTICLE]

Creating KPI Dashboards That Your Retail Team Can't Ignore

The best dashboard isn't necessarily the one with the most information. It's the one that makes it obvious where attention is needed.

This article takes the ideas behind our KPI dashboard discussions and looks at how retailers can build reporting that helps teams identify opportunities, understand performance and actually take action.

[READ THE ARTICLE]

Getting Hands-On in the Enablement Labs

Community Conference wasn't designed to be two days of sitting in a chair and watching presentations.

This year also introduced our Enablement Labs, giving attendees the opportunity to take the ideas being discussed throughout the conference and work through how they could actually be applied within their businesses. The labs were specifically designed around turning retail strategy into action.

Attendees dove deeper into Building Dashboards Your Team Can't Ignore, From Reports to Results – Building Reporting That Drives Better Decisions, and Preparing for StoreForce 3.0.

It meant conversations about reporting, KPIs, decision-making and StoreForce 3.0 didn't have to end when a presentation did. Retailers could dig deeper, ask questions and start thinking about what these ideas would look like across their own stores and teams.

None of It Happens Without Our Community - or Our Sponsors

Community Conference has always been about the community behind StoreForce, and we're incredibly grateful to everyone who made the trip to Scottsdale this year.

That includes the retailers who shared their experiences, asked questions, challenged ideas and made the conversations throughout the week worthwhile.

It also includes the partners who helped us bring Community Conference 2026 to life.

A huge thank you to our Premier Sponsors — Sensormatic Solutions and Payactiv — and our Supporting Sponsors, Reflex and RetailNext.

Our partners play an important role in the broader retail ecosystem, and their support helped us create an event that brought together retailers, technology partners and industry leaders to have meaningful conversations about where retail is going next. StoreForce works with partners across areas such as employee financial wellness, on-demand labour, and traffic intelligence.

And Yes, We Had Some Fun Too…

Not everything in Scottsdale happened inside a conference room.

Caesars Republic Scottsdale gave us an incredible home base for this year's event, with the Arizona weather and Scottsdale setting providing a pretty great backdrop for three days together.

And after a full day of presentations, conversations and Enablement Labs, we changed gears for Casino Night at the Cleopatra Pool.

It was a chance to put the dashboards, KPIs and retail strategy aside for a few hours, grab a drink, play a few games and spend time with the people who make the StoreForce community what it is.

Until Next Time

Community Conference 2026 covered a lot of ground.

We talked about the state of retail today. We looked at what the next generation of frontline workers expects from work. We explored better ways to connect labour, performance and execution. We got hands-on with reporting and dashboards. And we gave our community its first deeper look at where StoreForce is going with StoreForce 3.0.

But more than anything, we had the opportunity to bring retailers together to exchange ideas and learn from one another.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Scottsdale, everyone who presented and participated, our sponsors and partners, and the entire StoreForce community for making Community Conference 2026 what it was.

We'll see you at the next one.