Transforming NRF's digital strategy with Storyblok

Headquarters: Washington, D.C., USA
Technology Stack: Storyblok, Netlify, Next.JS

With Storyblok, NRF has experienced a transformative impact across several dimensions:

• Streamlined content creation: Storyblok enables faster, independent content creation by content editors leveraging the Visual Editor.
• Improved user experience: Enhanced tools such as the Visual Editor and pre-built components lead to a more cohesive digital presence.
• Increased security and stability: The platform provides greater security and stability.
• Foundation for future growth: Storyblok supports NRF's digital strategy with plans to migrate seven more event websites soon.

Key Storyblok features driving NRF's Big Show website success:

• Visual Editor: Storyblok’s Visual Editor empowers NRF’s content creators without requiring extensive HTML knowledge.
• Management API: Storyblok’s Management API facilitates swift migrations and updates, enabling quick content refreshes with minimal downtime.
• Efficient Content Migration: Running migration scripts with Storyblok enabled NRF to transfer large volumes of content with ease and efficiency.
• Enhanced Security: With Storyblok, the NRF team enjoys improved stability and reduced vulnerabilities compared to the previous CMS.

The National Retail Federation

Headquartered in Washington, DC, The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association, representing a diverse range of retailers across the United States. NRF's Big Show, the world's largest retail event, gathers over 35,000 professionals from 90+ countries. Facing challenges with outdated technology and slow feature development, NRF partnered with RDA to modernize their digital strategy. RDA helped implement Storyblok's headless CMS, enabling quick and easy content updates. The Big Show website is the first of several sites benefiting from this improved efficiency.

Overcoming NRF’s digital challenges

Before the collaboration with RDA and the switch to Storyblok, NRF was utilizing Drupal as their CMS. While Drupal is a powerful platform, it posed several challenges that hindered NRF’s digital initiatives:

• Resource-intensive maintenance: The ongoing maintenance and patching required by Drupal demanded substantial resources, diverting attention for the development team from critical projects such as creating new features and new components for content editors.
• Slow development process: Due to the limitations of their previous tech stack, the content and marketing teams faced significant delays when the development team had to design and implement new components. Ideas could take too long to move from conception to deployment, stifling creativity and responsiveness.
• Security concerns: With increasing threats in the digital landscape, NRF's team had growing apprehensions about the security vulnerabilities associated with their existing CMS.
• Lack of flexibility: NRF had limitations in their ability to experiment with new ideas and features.

These pain points prompted NRF to reevaluate their digital strategy, leading them to seek a more agile and user-friendly solution.

The shift to Storyblok

After evaluating three other Enterprise level CMS systems NRF selected Storyblok for its unique combination of features that directly addressed their challenges:

• User-friendly interface: Storyblok's intuitive Visual Editor allows content creators to manage content with ease, eliminating the need for extensive HTML knowledge. This reduced the learning curve and empowered the marketing team to take charge of their content.
• Management API & documentation: Storyblok’s robust management API, as well as the documentation available, enabled swift migrations and updates, ensuring that the content could be refreshed quickly without extensive downtime or labor-intensive processes.
• Flexibility and scalability: Storyblok’s headless architecture allowed NRF to experiment with new components and iterate on their designs, fostering innovation and adaptability.

In the fast-paced digital landscape, adapting to new systems can be daunting, especially for developers working on rapid projects with new clients. However, the transition to Storyblok, in combination with Netlify and Next.JS, has proven to be remarkably smooth for the RDA development team.

RDA’s development team mostly benefits from Storyblok’s:

• Ease of use: Developers found it intuitive to create new components and content types quickly, minimizing the learning curve.
• Efficient Management API: Leveraging the management API allows for seamless updates across the site, saving time and effort on tasks like applying custom CSS classes.
• Streamlined content migration: The ability to run migration scripts efficiently enabled the team to transfer large volumes of content with ease.
• Custom Field Types: The flexibility to develop custom field types catered specifically to client needs enhanced functionality and user experience.
• Excellent documentation: Comprehensive and user-friendly documentation provided step-by-step guidance, making the implementation process straightforward.

Unlocking potential with Storyblok

Since implementing Storyblok, NRF has experienced a transformative impact across several dimensions:

• Streamlined Content Creation: The ease of use of Storyblok has drastically reduced the time required to create and publish content. Content editors can now design pages without needing to rely on developers for every change, leading to faster turnaround times.
• Improved User Experience: The Visual Editor and pre-built components have significantly enhanced the user experience for content creators. This has resulted in a more cohesive and engaging digital presence for NRF, ultimately benefiting their members and audiences.
• Increased Security and Stability: Transitioning to Storyblok has alleviated many of the security concerns that plagued the previous system. The platform’s infrastructure is designed to offer greater stability and reduced vulnerabilities.