The National Alliance of Trade Merchants (NATM) brought together nearly 500 retail executives, buyers, manufacturers and industry leaders for its 2026 Vendor Conference, using the annual gathering to demonstrate both the scale of the independent retail channel and an increasingly ambitious strategy that extends beyond traditional buying-group economics.
Held July 20-23 at the Omni Frisco Hotel at The Star, the conference drew 478 registered attendees and 100 participating vendors, including LG Electronics, Samsung, GE Appliances, Whirlpool, Bosch, Midea, Hisense, SKS, Thermador, Dacor, Jenn Air and Monogram, Electrolux, Sony, TCL, Element TV and Premium Audio Company.
NATM said its member retailers collectively represent approximately $8.7 billion in buying power and reach about 72% of U.S. consumers.
But buying power is only part of the story NATM is increasingly telling.
In previous conversations with TWICE, John Riddle, head of NATM, has described an organization evolving beyond the traditional role of a buying group and toward a broader business-intelligence and collaboration platform — one designed to help independent retailers use their collective knowledge, data and expertise to compete.
That strategy was visible throughout this year’s conference.
“The results reflect continued momentum for NATM and strong engagement among manufacturers and strategic partners seeking direct access to the organization’s influential network of independent retailers,” John Riddle said following the event.
More Than 500 Business Meetings around an open exhibit floor, the NATM Vendor Conference centers on scheduled meetings between the group’s retailers and vendor partners. This year’s event generated more than 500 scheduled business meetings, including 370 Vendor Fair meetings and 163 Roundtable meetings. The roundtables included 68 home appliance, 60 consumer electronics and 35 IT meetings.
The appointment-only Vendor Fair provided manufacturers with one-on-one opportunities to meet with NATM retailers to discuss products, category opportunities and broader business strategies.
Other activities included private product showcases, CEO and director meetings, Core Vendor Committee meetings, executive interviews and NATM’s Leadership Cocktail Reception and Dinner.
For 2026, NATM also added an After-Hours Cocktail Event following Wednesday’s Leadership Dinner, providing another setting for retailers, vendors and executives to interact outside the formal meeting schedule.
“It’s not always the meeting that creates the greatest value,” John Riddle said. “Sometimes it’s the conversations before or after the meeting.”
That observation echoes a point John Riddle has made previously to TWICE: relationships remain one of the independent channel’s most important competitive assets.
Formal programs, purchasing scale and technology matter, but the exchange of knowledge among retailers — and the relationships between retailers and their vendor partners — can produce advantages that are difficult to replicate through transactional buying alone.
Where Independents Can Win
That emphasis on expertise and relationships also helps explain NATM’s continued push into high-end audio and outdoor living. While the organization has longstanding strength in major and luxury appliances, consumer electronics and bedding, NATM is increasingly targeting categories where knowledgeable salespeople, product demonstrations, installation and service can matter as much as price.
Premium Audio Company, Cabasse, and Brane Audio were among the audio companies represented at this year’s conference.
“High-end audio has to be heard to be sold,” John Riddle said. “Our members have built immersive environments and expert sales teams that bring these products to life.
NATM provides brands with direct access to retailers who know how to execute and drive results.”
It’s a strategy that fits a broader theme John Riddle has discussed with TWICE: independent retailers are unlikely to win by competing on price alone.
Their advantages instead lie in expertise, trust, service and the ability to guide consumers through increasingly complex purchases.
That proposition becomes particularly relevant as products become more sophisticated and consumers arrive at stores armed with more information than ever before.
As John Riddle put it in an earlier conversation with TWICE, “AI gives you information. Experience tells you what to do with it.”
The distinction gets at the role NATM believes its retailers can continue to play even as consumers increasingly use digital tools and AI to research purchases. Information itself is becoming easier to obtain; knowledgeable interpretation, product demonstration, delivery, installation and post-sale support remain areas where experienced retailers can differentiate.
High-end audio is a particularly clear example. A specification sheet can describe a speaker’s performance, but it cannot reproduce the experience of hearing a properly demonstrated system.
NATM’s relationship with Premium Audio Company, announced in 2025, represented an early step in that category expansion. PAC became NATM’s first major audio partner, bringing brands including Klipsch and Onkyo into the group’s vendor network.
Outdoor living provides another potential avenue for NATM members to expand their share of the home, particularly for retailers already serving consumers making significant appliance, electronics and home-improvement purchases.
Turning Data Into a Competitive Tool
Another piece of NATM’s evolution is less visible on a show floor: data.
John Riddle has previously told TWICE that NATM’s Data Dashboard is intended to give members a clearer picture of performance across brands, categories and geographic regions, allowing individual retailers to benchmark their businesses against the broader group and identify areas of opportunity.
“Data isn’t just about reporting anymore. It’s a management tool,” John Riddle told TWICE.
That distinction is important.
The value isn’t simply knowing what happened last month or last quarter. Aggregated information can help NATM retailers identify differences in performance and then use the group’s collaborative structure to understand why those differences exist.
If one member is outperforming others in premium refrigeration, for example, the discussion can move beyond the numbers to merchandising, assortment, displays, sales training, financing, installation or other practices contributing to the result.
In that sense, NATM’s scale creates two forms of leverage: purchasing leverage with manufacturers and informational leverage among members.
NATM itself now describes the organization as a “strategic intelligence network,” with intelligence and analytics, collaboration and category committees among its strategic priorities.
A Different Kind of Scale
For manufacturers, the attraction of NATM is therefore not simply the group’s combined purchasing volume. Its members operate substantial physical stores, employ trained sales and installation teams and have established positions in major U.S. markets. That can make the group particularly valuable for manufacturers introducing products that require explanation, demonstration or a more consultative sales process.
John Riddle has previously characterized NATM members as potential incubators for new-product introductions because they can put new technologies in front of consumers while providing manufacturers with feedback from the sales floor.
The Vendor Conference effectively concentrates that network into four days.
Manufacturers can meet directly with senior executives and buyers representing NATM’s member companies while retailers can compare products, strategies and market observations with both vendors and one another.
That combination of scale and local expertise is increasingly central to NATM’s argument for the continued relevance of independent retail.
Recognizing Industry Leadership
The conference also highlighted the longstanding relationships between NATM retailers and their manufacturing partners.
During its Leadership Dinner, NATM recognized Bob Salvano, senior vice president of U.S. sales at Whirlpool Corp., ahead of his retirement following more than three decades with the appliance manufacturer.
Salvano was honored for his leadership, integrity, mentorship and advocacy for independent retailers, as well as the relationships he has developed across the industry during his career.
The recognition reinforced one of the themes running throughout the conference: for a buying organization built around independent businesses, relationships remain part of the business model rather than simply a byproduct of it.
From Buying Group to Strategic Network
NATM’s 2026 conference ultimately illustrated an organization attempting to combine the traditional advantages of a buying group with something broader.
Purchasing scale remains fundamental. But NATM is increasingly layering data, shared intelligence, category expertise, vendor access and member collaboration on top of that foundation.
The organization’s expansion into high-end audio and outdoor living provides a test of that strategy. Both give members opportunities to pursue incremental revenue, but they also favor many of the capabilities NATM believes distinguish independent retailers: knowledgeable salespeople, physical demonstrations, service and trusted customer relationships.
“This year’s Vendor Conference demonstrated the strength of the NATM community and the tremendous value created when our members and world-class vendor partners come together,” John Riddle said. “The level of executive participation, quality of the conversations and collaboration throughout the week reflect what makes NATM different.”
For NATM and its members, the larger question is how far that model can extend.
If independent retailers can combine their local-market expertise and customer relationships with the purchasing scale, data and collective intelligence of a national organization, the buying group becomes more than a mechanism for negotiating vendor programs.
It becomes a way for independents to behave collectively at scale while continuing to compete locally on expertise and service.
Founded in 1970, NATM’s current membership includes Abt, ABC Warehouse, BrandsMart USA, Cowboy Maloney’s Home Store, Electronic Express, Nebraska Furniture Mart, P.C. Richard & Son, RC Willey, Video Only and Walt’s TV & Appliance. For more information, go to www.natmcorp.com
See also: The Future Is Independent: John Riddle On Why Expertise Still Wins
