The nominations for the 2027 Vendors In Partnership (VIP) Awards have been revealed, with retail-tech provider partnerships, best-of-breed solutions, sector bridge-makers and the voices of retail all celebrated.

Taking place at the start of the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York each year, the awards recognise the tech providers, digital agencies, transformation consultancies and service partners who work with retailers to drive innovation across the industry’s ecosystem.

“This year’s entries cover so much of what’s moving our industry forward: the partners retailers love working with, the teams using technology and AI to solve real business challenges, the leaders building trust on both sides of the table, and the voices helping all of us make sense of what’s next,” the organisers said.

Spotlighting progressive partnerships

The Partnership Excellence categories celebrate solutions providers who don’t just deliver technological excellence but put retailer relationships front and centre of their service delivery models, helping drive forward innovation and create long-standing performance.

The Best Kept Secret includes the likes of Sitoo, which partners with brands including Rally House and Nudie Jeans to power unified commerce capabilities in-store, and SAI, which is helping grocery retailers such as Iceland tackle loss prevention and reduce crime across its estate.

The Retailers’ Favourite sees CI&T, Forter, invent.ai, Quantum Metric and Quorso all nominated for being partners that retailers genuinely love working with and that deliver responsive and dependable service.

As well as working with Circle K in the U.S., Quorso has also supported Currys in delivering Action AI, a smart platform that helps store teams work more efficiently and saves time by making important data easier for managers to find, understand and act upon. invent.ai is also nominated for helping brands like Footasylum and ALO leverage AI to optimise demand forecasting and improve profitability.

Meanwhile, CDP Cordial, performance marketing agency January Digital and fashion tech lab NYFTL are all nominated for Partner of the Year.

Category leading innovation

The Retail Impact categories highlight best-of-breed solutions across a wide spectrum of tech, from Supply Chain to Workforce and In-store Operations, Customer Engagement and Payments.

Commercetools, KIBO and Scayle are all nominated in the Best Commerce Platform category, while Nextuple, PMC and The Parker Avery Group vie for the title of Best Retail Services and Transformation Partner.

Among Store Operations, one of the most competitive categories within the Retail Impact awards, Quorso, WorkJam, Simbe and Logile fight it out for a finalist place, while Lily AI, ReFiBuy and Spangle.ai are nominated for Best Product Discovery.

Recognising the sector’s bridge builders

The Bridge Builder category recognises a retail industry leader whose career includes substantial retail experience along with experience in a solution provider role. Each nominee uses that combined understanding to foster empathy, transparency and trust, raising the standard for how retailers and innovators work together.

Nominated within the category is Cathy McCabe, CEO of Proximity, which works with retailers including Stella McCartney and Fortnum & Mason on clientelling.

In a LinkedIn post, McCabe said the nomination “genuinely means a great deal… because building connections, bringing people together and creating meaningful relationships have always been at the heart of how I approach both business and life.”

Also nominated in the category are CDA’s Jenna Posner, Pipe17’s Tim Morse and Spangle.ai’s Michel Relich.

Celebrating the Voices of Retail

As well as innovation, the VIP Awards also recognise individuals and platforms helping to share knowledge, insight and discussion within the sector in its Voice of Retail category.

Melissa Moore’s ever-popular Retail Tea Break podcast is once again nominated, having been selected as a finalist last year. Her quick-fire format – with each episode lasting ~20minutes (or the length of a tea break) – has seen her discuss key industry topics with leading brands including Stuart Trevor, Decathlon, Temu and Barbour.

This year saw a growing number of podcast and video formats nominated, with Ricardo Belmar’s Retail Razor podcast, which offers sharp industry insight, and Ron Thurston’s Retail in America YouTube platform, also featured within the first round.

A new entrant for this year, Retail Rewired is also among the Voice of Retail nominees, recognised for its fast-growing platform, which brings together industry news, views, analysis and event insights through an independent, editorial-first approach.

Public voting for the 2027 VIP Awards is now open and runs until 20 Nov 2026. Voting requires a short (under two minutes) registration and you can vote for your favourite nominees here: https://usvendorawards.awardsplatform.com/entry/vote/pGkVXLZq