Energy, Ideas and Innovation at the Convenience and Impulse Retailing Expo 2026

What a couple of days! Last week’s Convenience and Impulse Retailing Expo in Auckland didn’t disappoint, with great energy on the floor, plenty of worthwhile conversations and a few surprises along the way.

It was fantastic to see so many familiar faces and teams showing up strongly across the event. A number of our partners and industry players were out in force, each bringing their own energy to the floor and contributing to a really vibrant atmosphere.

First up, it was wonderful to see Infinity reseller BridgedIT looking fresh and ready to go. They were clearly energised and the booth reflected that. Looked awesome!

I also spoke with Clarksons and Tanda, both of whom were doing what they do well. It was great to catch up with the teams in person rather than via a screen.

One of the highlights was being shown how 2D barcodes work at the GS1 NZ booth. As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about retail technology, seeing how much data can be packed into a single barcode and what that means for supply chain traceability and the checkout experience was genuinely eye-opening. The industry shift toward 2D is coming faster than most people realise.

There was strong interest across multiple booths throughout the event, with plenty of teams kept busy by a steady flow of conversations. It was inspiring to see that level of engagement across the board — always a good sign of a healthy, active market.

ECL had one of the busiest booths on the floor, and their team was consistently working flat out. If you were waiting to chat to them and ran out of time, it’s worth following up with them directly.

The attendee mix was where things really came alive. I enjoyed catching up with familiar faces from BP, Mobil, Z Energy and Caltex, some of the biggest names in fuel and convenience retail in New Zealand, all under one roof. Conversations with those teams are always valuable, as they’re operating at scale and know exactly what they need from their technology partners. Alongside them, it was brilliant to see teams from Heartland Fuels and Metro Mart, two businesses doing really interesting things in their respective spaces.

The vibe across the whole event felt genuinely energised, and a lot of credit goes to the keynote speakers. The discussions that spilled out after the keynotes were some of the best of the two days. They were the kind of frank, forward-looking conversations you really only get when everyone’s in the same room thinking about the same challenges, and they make events like this one worthwhile.

Beyond the booths, I also met some new faces who could shape up to be great partners down the track. Watch this space!

All in all, a really valuable two days. I’m already looking forward to the next one!

The biggest threat to convenience retail is standing still

Reflections from the NZACS Convenience and Impulse Retailing Expo.

Getting together with people on the frontline of retail is the best way to see the future unfold. Last week I got that opportunity thanks to the morning symposium at the Convenience and Impulse Retailing Expo in Auckland, hosted by NZACS.

Two presentations stood out to me: Lance Dobson from Nielsen IQ New Zealand and Theo Foukkare, CEO of the Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS). Together, they painted a picture of an industry under real pressure but also one brimming with opportunity for those willing to move.

The common theme running through both talks? Convenience retail is no longer about proximity. What struck me most, listening to both Lance and Theo, is how clearly their insights map to the conversation we have every day with convenience retailers about frictionless commerce — a single view of customer and inventory data across every channel.

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Store sales are holding, but the mix is shifting

First up, we looked at the current landscape. Lance made an encouraging point: when you strip out fuel site closures and look at like-for-like shop sales, the convenience channel is holding up reasonably well. Non-fuel convenience stores have maintained positive same store growth into Q1 2026. Fuel-attached stores were tracking fine until the fuel price spike hit in late February.

The categories driving growth tell a clear story. Those leading the way include fresh barista coffee, sports and energy drinks, chilled beverages, snack foods, confectionery and food2go. The channel is concentrating around food and beverage, especially when delivering on quality, freshness and the in-store experience.

For retailers, this means your POS, your inventory management, your loyalty program and your food service operations all need to speak to each other in real time. A coffee loyalty card must connect to your customer data, a food2go offer must be reflected in your app. Promotions that run at the forecourt also need to be available in-store.

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The blue dot customer and frictionless commerce

Lance introduced a concept that has stuck with me: the blue dot consumer. That little blue dot on your phone map, that’s you. Increasingly, consumers expect the world to come to them, not the other way around.

Survey responders described convenience as "everything in one place”, "close to me”, with "minimal effort”, and growing fast off a small base "deliver to me when I want it”. Lance shared that in the UK, quick commerce now accounts for nearly one pound in every ten spent on grocery retail. ANZ is behind that curve, but intention data suggests the gap will close quickly.

The implication for retailers is significant. If the customer is the fixed point and everything else has to move, then your ability to serve them across multiple channels in-store, at the pump, via app, through delivery from a single, consistent platform isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the game.

That's what frictionless commerce looks like. It’s not multichannel or omnichannel as a buzzword. It’s a single, real-time view of the customer, the basket, the inventory and the transaction wherever that transaction happens to take place.

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Lead in quick service retail

Theo was emphatic: the world’s best convenience retailers are no longer chasing fuel volume. They are chasing lifetime customer value, and the vehicle for that is quick service retail (QSR).

He pointed to Japan’s 7Eleven, where lunchtime queues form outside standalone convenience stores because customers trust the offer completely, and OTR in Australia, which is building destination stores with cafes, fresh food prep and community amenities.

Getting your food offering right is fundamental, especially as revenue from tobacco sales continues to decline. The question Theo posed to the room was sharp: “Is food a category you sell, or is it your business?”

Lance echoed this from a category data perspective: barista coffee is the number one food or drink item bought in convenience. Hot cabinet food is close behind. Quality and freshness are the decision drivers, and the retailers winning here are investing in the back-end systems that make consistency possible not just upgrading to the latest coffee machine.

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“If you don’t own the customer digitally, you’re just renting them"

Both Lance and Theo emphasised the importance of loyalty. Lance noted that 60% of convenience shoppers want tangible value for their repeat visits, such as a coffee cards, linked apps. They’re less interested in traditional loyalty and more focused on personalised reward. Consumers want to feel seen and not just accumulated.

Theo took this thought further. He described retailers using technology to analyse customers as they arrive, what they’re wearing, what they’re driving, whether they’re a known customer and serving a personalised offer on-screen before they have walked through the door. The retailers building real digital ecosystems are seeing the payoff in basket size, frequency and margin.

The underlying principle is data equals margin. Better data means better ranging. Better ranging means less waste, more relevance and stronger customer retention.

This is where frictionless commerce delivers its most tangible value. When your POS, your loyalty platform, your app and your inventory system all share a single view of the customer and stock position, you truly give customers what they seek. When they are siloed with different vendors, different data sets, no common customer identifier then you are left guessing.

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The five forces shaping what comes next

Theo framed the future around five forces: margin pressure, transition uncertainty, changing customer expectations, digital acceleration and survival. The retailers who will thrive are those who respond across all five, not by chasing each trend but by building the operational platform to adapt quickly.

Lance’s framing was similar and focused on speed, health, innovation, flavour and technology. The winners will be those that move fast, test more, stay culturally connected and use technology to stay close to the changing rhythms of consumer life.

Both speakers landed in the same place: ”standing still is not an option”.

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What frictionless commerce means for you

The convenience channel in 2026 is a food and beverage business with a fuel forecourt attached, not the other way around. Consumer missions are diversifying. The tobacco anchor is eroding. The digital expectation is rising. And the competitive set now includes QSRs, quick-commerce apps and destination food retailers.

In that environment, the retailers who win will be the ones who know their customers best, execute their offer most consistently and can adapt their ranging, pricing and promotions in near real-time.

That requires a technology foundation built for frictionless commerce with one platform that delivers a single view of customer and inventory data, tying together the forecourt, the shop floor, the kitchen, the app and everything in between — not a patchwork of systems held together with spreadsheets and goodwill.

The NZACS symposium reinforced that the shift is already happening. The question is whether your technology is positioned to move with it or whether it’s holding you back.

Interested in how frictionless commerce can support your convenience retail operation? We'd love to talk.

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Your sales team is doing its job — is your POS? 5 signs it’s holding you back.

The cost of an out-of-date point of sale can’t be seen on an invoice. But it can show up in lost sales and poor retention, especially when customers are looking to buy the high-value items that will enhance their home.  

Many shoppers still value the opportunity for visual and tactile engagement found only on a sales floor. It’s the place they go to decide how comfortable a couch really is, or whether the cabinets and benchtop they’ve seen online will really suit their kitchen.

But what if the enthusiasm they feel about their purchase is stymied by a bad instore buying experience?

Too often, seamless service, speedy delivery and clear pricing are undercut by a POS that simply can’t meet customer expectations and keep up with today’s complex operating environment.

If the following signs feel familiar, it may be worth taking a closer look at whether your POS is helping your business grow or holding it back.

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1. Your sales team can’t confidently sell from the showroom floor

Customers come to your store expecting to speak to staff who understand your business. They want to know what’s available, how long delivery will take and what alternatives are available if an item is out of stock.

Their confidence, not to mention their patience, is undermined when they can’t get the answers they want. If your team members are consistently having to call the DC to confirm stock levels or are regularly asking buyers to wait while availability is ‘confirmed later’, then your POS is not giving them a clear, real-time view of your inventory.

Disconnected inventory data breaks the flow of the sale, undermines staff confidence and often results in missed opportunities on the sales floor, undermining your revenue and reputation.

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2. Unified channel promises go unfulfilled

Today, your POS should be part of a unified ecosystem that allows you to effectively sell and deliver stock seamlessly across channels. Click and collect, delivery scheduling and cross-channel fulfillment are now standard expectations — even for large items.

But when there’s a mismatch between your POS, your online systems and your warehouse, problems emerge quickly.

Online stock doesn’t match what’s actually available, fulfilment options are limited or manually managed, you risk overselling and once again your store staff shoulder the burden of fixing broken promises. Meanwhile, the customer has gone elsewhere: 91% of shoppers will switch to a competitor instead of waiting for an item to be restocked.

Instead of enabling seamless unified cross-channel retail, the POS becomes the weakest link.

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3. Pricing doesn’t add up

Pricing for items such as furniture, fixtures and fittings can be amongst the most complex across all retail environments. For one thing, customers often look for product combinations that include different sizes, materials and colours. Then, when it comes to paying for their items, they expect to pay a deposit and either finance the purchase in full or stage their payments with you.

On top of that, you not only have to manage sale promotions, but you need to offer special deals to trade or account customers that can involve scale or volume pricing.

If the POS doesn’t clearly indicate how to offer customers the product range they’re looking for, or provide a way to understand the promotions currently on offer, you can end up with margin leakage, confused customers and increased training effort for new staff.

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4. Orders become lost in the process

When it comes to instore sales, the real complexity often starts after the customer says yes. Your POS needs to be able to create, track and update customer orders across long lead times, split deliveries and supplier commitments. If it struggles with these basics, then small issues quickly become service problems.

Your store team can be left having to manually manage deposits and balances, relying on spreadsheets to track order status and dealing with angry customers who can’t get a clear answer on when their items will arrive.

The result? Frustration for the customer, embarrassment for the team member, more inbound customer calls and a compromised overall experience.

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5. A brake goes on innovation

Perhaps the biggest red flag is when you resist changing your business because the POS can’t easily support evolution.

This reluctance might show up as something as big as delayed store openings or something smaller such as hesitating to share inventory across locations and manual reconciliations between systems.

Instead of underpinning growth, your POS has become something you have to work around and a barrier to scalability and innovation.  

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If you’re experiencing two or more of these signs in your business, then your POS is creating friction instead of flow and slowing the business down instead of supporting growth.

That means it’s time to talk about how to move your POS forward before those limitations show up in lost sales and dissatisfied customers. Get in touch. We’d love to help you implement the solutions you need today and in the future. 

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New in Infinity — April 2026

Here’s new functionality across the Infinity platform that will help you and your team reduce operational complexity and create a differentiated omnichannel customer experience.

Infinity is a modular platform and you may need additional components or licensing to access some functionality.

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INVENTORY

Cancel manual invoices for streamlined reconciliation

Reconciling supplier invoices can be messy, especially if the supplier sends you a single invoice for multiple purchases instead of providing an invoice with each shipment. You can enter invoices manually to handle these situations, but what if you make a mistake that threatens to impact invoice matching? To keep things simple, Infinity now lets you easily cancel these invoices and then recreate them for streamlined reconciliation.  

Perform automated price changes overnight

Infinity’s batch updates are a great way to apply price changes to a range of stock items at the same time. These updates can now be applied as part of a scheduled overnight task, meaning the Point of Sale doesn’t need to be running for prices to be updated and reducing the risk that new prices aren’t available when they’re needed.    

See transfer history at a glance when purchasing

If you have a store that acts as a fulfilment warehouse for your other branches, you can now see the outwards transfer history for items being added to purchase orders at a glance, allowing you to make informed decisions about the stock needed at each store before buying it for distribution.

Easily monitor stock profitability metrics

Keeping a watchful eye on inventory profitability is a key part of sound financial decision-making, especially when margins are tight. Getting the information you need from Infinity is even easier now that you can quickly see quantities, costs and gross profits for each item according to stock movements and sales.

Customise your debtor statements

We’ve made it easier to capture the information most relevant to your business on debtor statements. You can now easily add customised data such as your store’s account name and number, making these statements more useful to your team and to your debtors.

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PRICING AND PROMOTIONS

Offer enhanced ‘spend more, save more’ discounts

We’ve listened to feedback about our total sale discounts and made them more flexible for greater business impact and value.

You can now create multiple tiers as part of a discount promotion and set thresholds at which those tiers apply, giving you more control over how you reward customers. So, for example, you can offer a 10% discount for a total sale value of over $1000 and 20% on a total sale of more than $5000.

The other great features remain the same, so you can still choose to reward customers with a dollar-off or a percentage-off discount, and you can decide which customers and products to include in the promotion.

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REPORTS AND ANALYTICS

Let debtors know their current position anytime

Debtors don’t always want to wait until the end of the month to know how much they owe you, but giving them a quick and easy view of their current position when they call or email you mid-month has been a struggle. Until now.

The new Current Debtor Position Report lets you easily respond to these queries by providing your customers with the amount outstanding and a list of transactions up to the present date, giving them the information they need and allowing you to prompt them for payment more frequently.  The report can be run for both balance brought forward and open item debtors.

Spot unusual stock take variances

Counting stock is a vital task in any retail business; it can also be an opportunity to identify fraud. Using our new Stocktake Historical Variances Report you can identify questionable variances in stock takes, including for specific items, so you can take action to prevent future losses. You can also use it to pinpoint items that are historically difficult to count accurately.

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POINT OF SALE

Gain greater control over till pickups

Running audits on the money moving in and out of your cash drawer is easier now that you can require your store staff to enter cash denominations when they do till pickups, giving you greater clarity over what’s being taken out and allowing you to quickly spot any unusual patterns.

 And if you use our enhanced cash management module, you can also prevent your store team from performing a till pickup if the amount being removed exceeds the amount of cash in the till. You can also prevent trading until a float has been entered into the till.

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TECHNOLOGY

Integrate Infinity fuel sites with DOMS

We’re excited to let you know that our fuel integration portfolio now includes DOMS, one of the major forecourt controllers in the industry. With this latest integration, Infinity now seamlessly connects to four widely used forecourt controllers, giving you flexibility, efficiency and confidence in your operations.

Save time upgrading Infinity components

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve streamlined the process for upgrading a range of non-core Infinity components, including Infinity Messaging, the Infinity Cloud Events Service, Infinity Cloud Inventory and the Infinity Xero Integration.

If you use the Infinity Upgrade Service to handle Infinity core upgrades, you can download the upgrade package and then schedule the upgrade via a new dashboard. Once the scheduled time arrives, you can use the dashboard to monitor the upgrade of these components concurrently across branches and stations, saving you both time and effort while reducing overhead and deployment anxiety. Using the dashboard you can easily identify upgrades that are in progress, that have completed successfully and that have failed, allowing you to take the appropriate action.

Reduce technical overheads with code signed certificates

We now code sign all MSIs and executables used to install Infinity, rather than just the key instances, making it easier to deploy the software and maintain application controls. IT administrators can now set up group policies to trust applications that have the Triquestra code sign certificate, thereby reducing technical deployment overheads.

Get the latest SQL Server support

We are currently rolling out support for SQL Server 2025, at the same time as we’re ending support for SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014.

As part of our rollout of SQL Server 2025 support, we need to let you know that, if you’re looking to implement this latest version alongside Infinity, you’ll need to use Windows authentication to ensure optimal operation.  SQL authentication is still supported, but you’ll experience degraded login times and inferior performance.

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To find out more about any of these enhancements and add them to your Infinity platform, contact us. 

If you’d like to get our regular ‘New in Infinity’ updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter.

From curry to coleslaw: Triquestra shares a world of cuisine

Triquestra is a place where we work hard to deliver the best results we can for our customers. But we know that those results aren’t just built on technology – they also depend on great teamwork.

That’s why our brilliant social committee come up with ways to get us away from our screens and whiteboards to celebrate special occasions, or just each other.

Recently, we came together to enjoy a potluck lunch that involved us bringing along a plate of food “That Reminds You of Home”. Triquestra has always been a company that’s welcomed a diverse workforce, and many of our team have come to New Zealand from across the world, so we knew we were in for a treat.

But we probably couldn’t have imagined Digestive biscuits sitting alongside butter chicken and Korean pork.

The Digestives were provided by Quality Manager Chay Grant, who was celebrating his Scottish family roots, while Solution Architect Fez Hussein made the excellent butter chicken, accompanied by rice and naan bread. And the Korean pork? It came courtesy of Tech Analyst Zac Freeman, who, while not being from Korea, decided to treat us to one of his culinary favourites!

We enjoyed Rendang curry from Indonesia, Embutido (a type of meatloaf) from the Philippines and cake from Russia, along with a host of other delicacies from around the world.

The Kiwi classics were there as well, with Julie Child, our Sales Administrator, bringing along a bacon and egg pie, our CEO Greg Cantlon providing a chocolate crunch made from Weetbix and Delivery Manager Kasia Burt taking care of our vegetable intake by way of a helping of coleslaw.

And then there were the scones. Our Head of Sales, Victoria Crossfield, came clean about her award-winning English family recipe handed down from her grandmother, who got it from … a Foodtown supermarket magazine in Auckland back in the 1990s. It’s okay, Victoria, every family has its skeletons and secrets!

It was great to see the effort and care that everyone went to and a joy to celebrate the richness of our cultural heritage. As everyone explained the background to their dish we got a greater appreciation of the food and of our colleagues as well.

Here’s to making it an ongoing tradition.

Staying ahead: Introducing our latest integration with DOMS

At Triquestra, we believe that innovation isn’t just about keeping pace, it’s about staying ahead. Our customers’ needs and the evolving market drive every decision we make. That’s why we continually invest in ensuring you have access to the most advanced, market-leading tools available.

As part of our commitment to keeping you at the cutting edge, we’re excited to announce that our Infinity platform now integrates with DOMS, one of the major forecourt controllers in the fuel industry and part of Gilbarco’s distribution portfolio.

DOMS centralises and manages every hose, pump, gauge, price sign and other site equipment into one intelligent network while giving you complete visibility of forecourt activities. Perhaps best of all, it now seamlessly connects to Infinity POS so you can reconcile all your wet stock sales while your store staff focus on what they do best — delivering great customer service.

By integrating your Infinity POS retail solution to the DOMS forecourt, you also get access to DOMS’ development roadmap, including features like car wash and EV support, which will shape the future product enhancements we can offer.

If you’re an existing Infinity customer who uses the Regulus pump controller, you’ll be able to transition to DOMS seamlessly and without operational impact, saving you the hassle of having to retrain staff on a new system and giving you a future-proofed forecourt solution.

“Customers looking to move from Regulus to DOMS will find we’ve provided a straightforward and simple path that enables them to do just that. We’ve designed the integration so that everything that Regulus does has been replicated with DOMS, plus they’ll get the benefits that come with a robust roadmap.” ”

— Mike Baxter, Triquestra CTO

With this integration, Infinity now allows you to connect with four widely used forecourt controllers out of the box, giving you flexibility, efficiency and confidence in your operations and ensuring you have the tools to stay competitive and deliver exceptional service to your customers.

And when you connect the forecourt controller of your choice to Infinity, you also get to enjoy a seamless interface with all major EFTPOS providers as well as to your outside payment terminals, giving you a complete, stable solution to all your fuel retail needs.

With Triquestra, you can be sure that we’ll keep listening, keep innovating and keep delivering solutions that meet your needs today and anticipate what you’ll need tomorrow.

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Interested in using our DOMS integration to streamline and simplify your fuel business? Get in touch. 

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The retail investments you can’t afford to skip in 2026

Retailers are facing a whole range of challenges right now, from rising costs and economic headwinds to cautious customers and offshore competition, even as consumers’ expectations for seamless shopping continue to rise.

Those pressures are having real impacts on retailers’ investment decisions, as they try to control costs and make productivity gains while still protecting the moments that matter in building customer relationships.

Resilience is key. Deciding where to invest is challenging, but those retailers willing to adapt to change can still find room to succeed. And those ready to go beyond the status quo and imagine new ways of engaging customers won’t just survive – they’ll thrive.

Here we look at where the smart money is going this year and at how getting investment right means focusing on your people and customers, as well as tech.

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1. Lay the groundwork for AI discoverability

AI has gone from being a novelty to an everyday piece of technology infrastructure. However, a recent KPMG study found that while most leading brands in Australia and New Zealand were experimenting with AI, 17% had no plans to do so. This comes at a time when 85% of surveyed retailer websites did not meet basic standards for AI-driven discovery, leaving those brands invisible to shopping agents. And, crucially, poor discoverability often goes hand-in-hand with duplicated or badly maintained inventory data. As the National Retail Federation (NRF) put it, “if your data isn’t in order, your business isn’t ready for AI.”

Smart investments would include improving website structure and data consistency so that products are discoverable and you can keep pace with AI search engines.

KPMG also found that while more than 80% of Australian retailers are testing AI, only a small number are implementing it fully across core functions. They recommend that “retailers should focus on ‘boring but big’ applications – such as inventory visibility, demand forecasting, and dynamic fulfilment – that directly meet consumer needs for value, speed and reliability.”

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2. Know your customer, grow your business

Accurate, comprehensive data is as vital for understanding your customers as it is for online product discovery. When you capture the right information you can create wishlists, link intent to transactions and create personalised offers that drive engagement and growth.

Without a deep view of customers you’ll struggle to anticipate demand and respond quickly when categories shrink, and you’ll risk spending money in areas where it’s no longer needed. Investing in a robust CRM and a retail management system that can give you a 360-degree view of the customer has the potential to pay dividends.

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3. Make every channel feel like one

Customers don’t think in terms of channels – they expect everything to “just work”, and they’ll judge you on how quickly and seamlessly you deliver on that expectation.

When it comes to offering a truly channel agnostic, unified shopping experience, the most durable investments are the unglamorous ones: order orchestration, accurate availability and return-to-stock speed. If you can improve accuracy and reduce rework, you’ll be on the way to boosting margin as well as growth.

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4. Make the showroom pay

For many retailers, the store is still the differentiator as it becomes a centre for fulfilment, but only if teams can serve customers quickly and confidently. Retailers are investing in self-checkout systems, digital signage and contactless payment solutions, as well as simpler processes that give time back to staff. The best ROI is typically found where the investment reduces handoffs and improves speed-to-yes.

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5. Back your people

At a time of almost unprecedented technological upheaval, it turns out that one of the best things you can do is invest in your people. KPMG found that “While there has been a lot of talk about adopting advanced technologies or enacting better supply-chain processes to boost productivity, a common avenue for productivity gains … is through customer-service improvements.”

In-store product demonstrations, consultations and workshops give customers the kind of one-on-one experiences and even a feeling of community they simply can’t get from your offshore online competitors, and they have the potential to be game-changing when it comes to conversions.

But face-to-face service is only as good as the people delivering it. Investing in and nurturing high performers who understand your business and its customers can give you an edge at a time when the human touch is set to become a vital point of difference.

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Want help to prepare for the future of retail?

We’d love to help you implement the solutions you need today and in the future. 

Email us at sales@triquestra.com about unifying your inventory and customer data or book a 20-minute discovery call today. 

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For more on how a move to a unified commerce strategy gives you the flexibility and agility you need to keep in step with consumers’ changing needs, download our new ebook.

Seven things to look for in a retail technology partner

So, you’ve decided to upgrade your retail system. Now what?

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Over recent blog posts, we’ve looked at why your POS platform and retail system need to keep pace with customers’ expectations for ‘phygital’ shopping experiences, laid out the questions to ask before changing your POS and given you strategies to use to unlock the money needed to make that vital investment.

Convincing your business to move to more modern technology is a huge win, but it’s just the start of the journey towards implementation. The next step is perhaps even more important — choosing the right implementation partner.

No matter the scale of what you want to accomplish — extending POS functionality, creating a single view of inventory, or starting your unified commerce journey to connect POS, inventory, fulfilment, order and customer data — you need a partner with the right people, processes and technology.  

You’ll need someone who can provide you with the systems to innovate quickly, optimise inventory, maximise margin and deploy frictionless customer experiences, efficiently and profitably. 

You’ll also need someone who understands the 24x7 demands of retail and the budgetary pressures that retailers face, while having technical insight into the solutions you need now and how those solutions will help you meet the challenges of the future.

Here are the important indicators of a good technology partner, plus questions to ask: 

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1. Maturity and market responsiveness

Look for a partner who’s been around retail for a while, with a platform built on a modern architecture and a sound business model and proposition. They’ll need to understand your fast-paced, data-intensive environment where any significant level of downtime is unacceptable. 

Their people will have the capability to help you plan and implement your projects so that they work for you now and into the future. When you choose a partner with a mature platform, they can focus on delivering innovation because the core functionality you need already exists. 

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2. Real-world customer experience

Make sure your partner has a recent and proven success record for planning, implementing and managing complex, large-scale deployments across multiple stores, multiple formats and multiple geographies.  

Ask for evidence of the relationships, products and services that help their clients to be successful, including the consultancy, customisation, integration, training and support services you’ll need. 

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3. Flexible and innovative mindset

You want a partner who’s got the people and processes to move quickly, while cultivating an environment where innovation flourishes.  

Check that they have a history of responsiveness and the ability to assess and correct any unforeseen issues. Can they change direction, be flexible and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act and customer needs evolve?

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4. Broad product capability

Choose a partner that can give you a broad and holistic portfolio, perspective and experience. You’ll need all your core requirements out-of-the-box, plus the ability to customise and easily add new functionality. 

If you’re looking to implement a unified commerce approach, they’ll need to be able to unify all the backend systems that run POS, inventory, customers and loyalty, pricing and promotions, analytics and fulfilment. You don’t want to commit to a one-dimensional provider who can only cover some of your requirements.   

Your partner should let third parties connect via APIs and cultivate a vendor ecosystem to reduce risk and increase flexibility.  

Also check that they have a strategic roadmap and investment committed for new capabilities. 

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5. Consulting and market understanding

Find a partner that will guide you in the right direction and tune technologies to fit your individual business needs. Do they have consultancy skills that span business and technical knowledge? Can they advise you on business processes as well as on how the software works? Make sure they understand your wants and needs (as well as those of your customers) and can translate them into products and services.  

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6. Exceptional operations

Check that your partner can meet their goals and commitments, and that they have the organisational structure, skills, experiences, programmes and systems to operate effectively and efficiently. That includes agile. They should be able to demonstrate proven, repeatable ways of working that consistently deliver outcomes, and show that they really understand agile principles, methods and practices.  

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7. Local and committed to your success

Look for a partner that is a local business, focused on your region’s potential to succeed. A local partner means you can have more influence on the product roadmap and enjoy direct engagement with people on the ground committed to your success (and not distracted by offshore business activity). And a mid-size partner is more likely to view you as an important customer of influence.  

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How Triquestra can help

Triquestra has been delivering retail management systems in multiple industries and geographies for more than 25 years.

Our Infinity unified commerce platform combines point of sale, inventory, ordering and fulfilment, loyalty, pricing and business intelligence on one open platform. That means you’ve got a hub that centralises all customer and inventory data in near real-time.

You’ll get the innovation, optimised inventory and frictionless customer experiences you need — efficiently and profitably.

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Want help to innovate and scale new services, faster?

If you’re looking to upgrade and extend your POS functionality, get a clearer view of your inventory or unify your physical and digital channels, get in touch. We’d love to help you implement the solutions you need today and in the future. 

 This blog was originally published on 21 January 2019 and updated 7 October 2024 and 17 March 2026. 

For more on how a move to a unified commerce strategy gives you the flexibility and agility you need to keep in step with consumers’ changing needs, download our ebook:

Introducing Infinity+: Real-time inventory wherever you need it

Stock is the lifeblood of any retail business and its single largest asset. And at a time when customers’ expectations for fast, seamless service have never been higher, accurate and timely stock management is crucial to success.

In today's fast-paced environment, you need to know how your inventory is performing at any given moment. With Infinity+ you can keep your finger on the pulse, whenever and wherever you need to.

Available on any device that has a web browser, from phones and tablets to desktops, and suitable for both single-store and multi-store environments, Infinity+ brings the back office to the front of house and lets you monitor and manage your stock, whether you’re in the office, on the shop floor or out on the road visiting other stores.

Its user-friendly interface lets you carry out a variety of vital inventory management tasks quickly and easily.

Let’s say a customer comes instore and wants to know if you stock a product for a lower price than the competitor down the road. You can quickly check that the item is in stock and its price while you’re serving them before helping them retrieve the item from the shelf.

In serving the customer, you realise that the item they bought is beginning to run low. Using Infinity+ you can either create a purchase order for stock replenishment or, if you have multi-store visibility, you can arrange for product to be transferred from another store.

When the stock arrives, you can receipt it from the warehouse or from wherever it’s delivered and carry out any stock adjustments or returns at the same time.

And when it comes time to do stock-taking, Infinity+ lets you count stock 24/7, so you can keep serving customers without worrying whether items have been counted and without the hassle of closing off aisles or counting stock after-hours.

Infinity+ then syncs all these stock updates with the rest of the Infinity retail platform so that all your inventory data is stored centrally and is available in near real-time at the point of sale.

Meanwhile, if you’re overseeing multiple stores, you can keep an eye on how each of those stores is performing at any time and from anywhere.

Infinity+ gives you the power of the Infinity retail platform’s inventory management capabilities and the flexibility to use them however suits you best.   

Click below to see how easy it is to complete a stock transfer from one store to another with Infinity+.

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If you’re ready to reap the benefits of mobile inventory management, please get in touch. We’d love to show you how the mobile capabilities of Infinity+ can help you improve customer service and productivity.

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New in Infinity — February 2026

Here’s new functionality across the Infinity platform that will help you and your team reduce operational complexity and create a differentiated omnichannel customer experience.

Infinity is a modular platform and you may need additional components or licensing to access some functionality.

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INFINITY+

Bring the back office to the front of house with Infinity+

As stores evolve to become dynamic fulfilment centres, your retail technology platform needs to give store staff the power to manage stock on the go so they can meet customers’ expectations for fast-paced, responsive service.

We’re excited to announce that our new web-based solution, Infinity+, delivers on that promise and more.

Available on any device that has a web browser, from phones and tablets to desktops, Infinity+ brings the back office to the front of house and enables your store team to respond to inventory demand from wherever they are.

Using the mobility of Infinity+, they can request stock from another branch at the counter as soon as a customer requests it or create a purchase order for stock that’s running low at the shelf where the items reside. They can then receipt the stock from wherever it’s delivered and immediately create any returns and adjustments. 

And for added flexibility, your team can use Infinity+ to check prices for customers on the spot and run stock takes at any time of the day without having to close off aisles or run counts after hours.

Please get in touch if you’d like a demonstration of how Infinity+ could work for your business.

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INFINITY API

Reprioritise customer orders and reallocate order lines for quicker fulfilment

Delivering on customers’ expectations for speedy service is vital to maintaining your reputation for excellence, while falling short of those expectations can do lasting damage. The Sales Orders API now gives you a way of delivering customer orders on time by letting you change an order’s priority from normal to high. So, for example, if stock is delayed you can make an order high priority so your store team are alerted and can move quickly to pick and complete it.

And to make sure that stock is available when it’s needed, the Sales Orders API also now lets you reallocate an order line to another store for fulfilment and switch between pickup and delivery, so you can offer your customers an endless aisle shopping experience and deliver the swift service they demand.

Send product- and inventory-level update notifications

You can now use an event as well as APIs to apply products on your website using the Infinity Cloud Events Service. Two new processors monitor inventory- and product-level changes in Infinity and publish event notifications when items are created or updated, giving you access to the latest stock information and reducing API calls.

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INVENTORY

Enjoy easier searching

We’ve added an improved search feature across a range of Infinity functions, including Demand Forecasting and Field Permissions, so your team spend less time finding the branches, departments and other information they’re looking for and more time focused on getting results.

Use the Amazon S3 cloud storage service to send POs

If you use our EDI function to send purchase orders to suppliers, you can now use the Amazon S3 cloud storage service to send files, as well as using email (SMTP) and sFTP, giving you greater flexibility when it comes to how POs are delivered.

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ORDER MANAGEMENT

Protect revenue with smarter order cancellation

Order cancellations in Infinity can now be handled more safely and consistently thanks to intelligent order-level and line-level locking, protecting critical revenue, reducing costly errors and giving store staff the flexibility to manage changes without risking sensitive or committed order lines.

If an order line has been locked then it can’t be cancelled, with orders protected while any locked line is in place. Once all lines are unlocked, the order cancellation can proceed smoothly.

Note that this change is designed to be used in conjunction with the Sales Orders API. 

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POINT OF SALE

Offer improved service to customers with Adyen

If you use our Adyen integration, you’ll find we’ve enhanced the payment information available to your store team. They can now more easily identify why a payment has been declined and share this with the customer, thereby improving the overall quality of service.

And if you use our extended returns function, your team can also see the payment type used to make the original purchase so they can follow the correct business process for refunds.

Seamlessly process payments with Tyro

There are few things your store staff fear more than being trapped in a doom loop where a payment freezes and they wait for a response from the system that never arrives as the customer wonders what’s happening to their money.

Users of Infinity’s Tyro Payment Integration can now rest easy that when a payment fails, the system will automatically unfreeze after a configured wait period and that they’ll be able to cancel out of the payment screen. They’ll just need to verify that the payment hasn’t already gone through before reprocessing it.

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TECHNOLOGY

Leverage a wider range of EFTPOS solutions

If you're a New Zealand retailer, you'll be able to enjoy our expanded support for Skyzer Nitro EFTPOS, giving you greater flexibility when it comes to choosing an EFTPOS provider. By incorporating the latest software from Skyzer, our integration now supports the ability to charge surcharge fees for payments.

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To find out more about any of these enhancements and add them to your Infinity platform, contact us. 

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