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Seven things to look for in a retail technology partner

With many customer journeys now beginning online, and a growing appreciation of the critical role of in-store teams in the customer experience, the key issue for retailers today is how to extend their online experience into stores to create unified retail.

That means seamlessly integrating all backend systems to deliver the distinctive omnichannel experiences consumers now demand. Can your retail system keep up?


If you’re developing the roadmap or requirements for your next point of sale or retail platform, start here.

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.

A partner who understands the 24x7 demands of retail and can provide you with the systems to innovate quickly, optimise inventory, maximise margin and deploy frictionless customer experiences - efficiently and profitably.

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


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 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.


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.

Have they implemented unified commerce systems or are they just unifying digital commerce channels? 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.


3

Flexible and innovative mindset

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

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


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.

Offering a unified experience means unifying all the backend systems that run POS, inventory, customers and loyalty, pricing and promotions, analytics and fulfilment. You don’t want to be tied to a point player that can only provide portions.

Your partner should let third parties connect via APIs and cultivate a vendor ecosystem to reduce risk and increase flexibility. You also need to know that your partner has a strategic roadmap and investment committed for new capabilities. 


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 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.  


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 — make sure they’ve done the training and really understand agile principles, methods and practices.  


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.

This blog was originally published on 21 January 2019 and updated 30 May 2023.


Want help to innovate and scale new services, faster?

Triquestra has been delivering retail management systems in multiple industries and geographies for more than 25 years. Our product and people are supporting award-winning retailers delivering disruptive, world-first customer experiences that build loyalty and grow sales.

 If you’re experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from unifying your physical and digital channels, get in touch. We’d love to help you digitise your business to create the unified experiences your customers now expect.


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:


How the move to ‘phygital’ is disrupting point of sale technology

Retailers are shifting focus from ecommerce to their stores to better serve omnichannel customers. Kelly Brown explains how changing consumer expectations are transforming in-store technology and disrupting legacy point of sale (POS).

The boom in ecommerce has had a profound effect on how retailers deploy in-store technology. 

Today consumers expect a consistent customer journey across every physical and digital touchpoint. With shoppers returning to physical stores in full force during 2022 and ecommerce growth slowing, retailers are doubling down on their in-store innovation projects. 

While ecommerce sales grew 6.2% in the last quarter, this is a dramatic drop from the double-digit growth during the previous five years and the slowest growth rate since 2009.  

Retailers know that despite forecasts for ecommerce to total 24% of global retail sales by 2026, a massive 76% of sales will remain in stores

And with pressure on consumer spending, plus store rents, labour and utilities all on the rise, retailers now want to leverage their existing investments in stores and staff.   


As the store shifts to become the hub of the omnichannel customer journey, the point of sale must shift as well. 

But many retailers have hit a wall because their POS technology can’t support their customers’ current omnichannel demands, let alone the ‘phygital’ shopping journeys now expected by post-pandemic, digitally savvy consumers.  

With stores periodically closed during the pandemic and ongoing supply chain disruptions, many focussed on ecommerce initiatives, delaying POS hardware upgrades and the shift to modern operating systems.  

Some retailers have POS systems that are end of life and about to be sunset, and others are hamstrung by legacy in-house solutions that require custom integrations with modern technologies or are no longer supported. 


If you’re upgrading your point of sale to modernise your customer experience, here are the important shifts in functionality to consider: 


EX aligns with CX  

Today, any store innovation must reduce friction for the store teams, which in turn will drive a great customer experience. Speed and simplicity are now the priority to help people be as productive as possible, wherever they are in the store. 

However, many retailers run multiple systems within stores, forcing their teams to juggle between different apps and screens as they serve customers.  

Retailers are consolidating store technology onto a single POS-based retail system that lets their teams do everything, from sales transactions, customer loyalty, pricing, product and promotions through to virtual appointments and endless aisle access to stock. 

Clienteling gets personal 

Clienteling is becoming more sophisticated as consumer expectations for a frictionless ‘one brand’ experience rise. However, many retailers still have channel silos that mean any interaction or activity that the customer had with them online is not available to the customer or staff within the store. 

Leading retailers are helping their in-store teams deliver more personalised experiences by using AI and data from across online and offline channels to create timely and relevant communications, recommendations, offers and rewards.  

Initially provided for customers visiting stores during click-and-collect pickups, retailers like Cue Clothing are extending customised recommendations into other communications with customers, such as e-receipts and shipping notifications. 

They’re taking advantage of the unparalleled knowledge of their store staff to boost digital sales and service by giving in-store teams the tools to connect with shoppers virtually. By integrating video commerce platforms with POS solutions (like Infinity) they’re automating the end-to-end process, from customer communications and data insights to seamless sales transactions and fast delivery. 

Store experiences go digital 

Retailers know that consumers now expect more from stores and are working to match those expectations with new experiences – such as events, service offerings, customisation, resale, repairs and so much more. 

That also means extending digital experiences into stores, such as the ability to look up loyalty points, explore product information or browse and order from the entire inventory. 

Mobility is a high priority and retailers are providing fast and flexible self-service checkouts, mobile point of sale and contactless payments everywhere the customer is - in the store, out in the yard, at trade shows and pop-up stores.  

They’re using multichannel wishlists to let customers add items to wishlists in stores. By capturing both in-store and online shopper interactions they’re able to retarget customers with personalised marketing campaigns that build engagement and grow sales. 

Fulfilment a competitive advantage 

Today consumers make their purchasing decisions based on shipping costs and timings.  They expect options – from slow to fast, and everything in between – plus visibility, communication and tracking, no matter the fulfilment solution. 

However, most retailers struggle to quickly deliver new fulfilment experiences via their POS. 

With modern point of sale systems, retailers are using their stores to support the fulfilment options consumers now expect and positioning inventory closer to customers – the source of demand.  

Endless aisle access to all inventory via the POS lets them offer the fulfilment options consumers expect – such as click-and-collect, store-to-door and scheduled delivery, plus innovative new delivery solutions, such as 1-hour delivery via Uber and Shippit

Future proofing an imperative 

In the past, retailers who got behind on their store tech investments frequently focused on catching up to current standards.  

This year, the focus is on future proofing – choosing platforms that speed up innovation, with the flexibility to change direction as opportunities develop, competitors act and customer expectations evolve. 

When it comes to POS solutions that can support omnichannel experiences, look for a platform that provides a unified hub for all your channels – reducing integration, complexity and overheads, and increasing efficiency and accuracy.  

With agile methodologies and APIs to easily plug-in new apps and systems, your new POS will be your platform for innovation – a springboard for adding new channels and services at a speed and scale that would be unachievable within a traditional omnichannel model. 


Want help to modernise your point of sale?  

As you transform your customer experience to deliver the seamless and personalised buying journeys your customers crave, your point of sale system must transform as well. If you’re looking for help to shape your strategy and extend your omnichannel capabilities, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop the solutions you need now and guide you to where you’re headed next. 


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: 


How new customer loyalty programmes fuel the c-store retail experience

Fuel retailers now realise there is enormous untapped potential to revamp their loyalty programmes to drive customer engagement and expand share of wallet. Kelly Brown explains how to elevate fuel loyalty solutions to create more relevant and personalised experiences that grow customer value and differentiate the business.

For many years, fuel retail loyalty programmes were an easy way to drive customer engagement and revenue. However, with changing consumer behaviours and formidable new competition, few meet the needs of today’s retailers or consumers. 

Most are simple “earn-and-burn” transaction or discount-based programmes that extend the same set of outdated offers to all customers, regardless of their different behaviours.   

They typically relinquish ownership of customer data and relationships to third party coalition loyalty providers who can’t differentiate retailers from their competition. 

And, crucially, with no access to their customers’ preferences, purchasing behaviour or communications, retailers can’t assess what their customers care about to provide the fast and easy personalised services they increasingly expect. 

The reality is, today customers don’t just compare your service to that of your competitors, but to the best service they’ve ever received, anytime and anywhere. At a time when digital technologies allow companies to ‘hyper-personalise’ to serve each individual customer, fuel retail loyalty programmes are well overdue for an overhaul. 


Leading fuel retailers are investing in innovation, digitisation and branding to launch new loyalty solutions that deliver a complete view of customers’ preferences and purchasing behaviour, with the ability to create fast and memorable experiences. 

If you’re looking at how to develop your loyalty and personalisation capabilities, here are the steps to take to deliver an exceptional CX: 

  •  Take control with a standalone loyalty programme  

In contrast to the coalition loyalty programmes, modern loyalty systems give you a 360-degree view of all retail and trade customers, with their entire purchasing history and preferences captured and centrally stored in one database.   

 By reclaiming ownership of your customer data from all channels and touchpoints – ranging from fuel selections to coffee preferences and convenience items within stores - you can recognise customers consistently wherever they shop with you. 

  •  Extend your loyalty programme to your mobile app 

Today loyalty programmes are an integral part of a smartphone app: loyalty mobile app users typically spend 10-20% more a month, and visit 20-30% more frequently each month

When you create your loyalty app, ensure you include features that save customers’ time, increase convenience and turn purchases into a fun and engaging experience. And to really differentiate your offering, make it a game-changing experience by enabling both fuel and in-store transactions. 

  •  Apply analytics to create more relevant and personalised offers  

The next stage is to use the data-driven insights to create cluster- or even site-specific offers. Tailor your offers for local buying opportunities and use your customers’ transaction histories to customise product bundles, pricing and promotions to increase sell-through without compromising margin. 

 You can then capitalise on opportunities to craft offers that feel personally relevant to each individual in your database by combining internal data (such as transactions and location) with external data (such as competition, weather, traffic conditions and demographics). 

  •  Use AI-driven marketing tools to hyper-personalise the CX  

AI algorithms let you analyse customer preferences, predict many aspects of customer behaviour and develop personalised communications, experiences and offers. 

By interacting with customers at the right moment, with the right offer and in the right channel, you can drive behavioural changes in customers and multiply the lifetime value of loyalty customers. 

  •  Ecosystem loyalty programmes are next 

Looking ahead, large retailers are learning to drive customer loyalty and growth by pooling data within an ecosystem of brands. A recent McKinsey webinar described how multiple companies are tapping into their complementary product and service offerings to develop a joint loyalty programme around a unifying customer value proposition. 

While still in their early stages, these ecosystem approaches promise many benefits: 

  • Consumers will receive heightened experiential benefits in addition to faster loyalty rewards growth, more flexible redemptions and an unmatched simplicity and daily relevance. 

  • Retailers and brands will see a rise in reach and frequency of usage. They will gain access to richer, more privileged consumer data, shared infrastructure and cross-marketing opportunities.  

 As you look at how to modernise your loyalty programme, ensure you focus on the end-to-end customer experience. You have a fantastic opportunity to leap-frog your competition by taking an ecosystem-centric approach that gives your customers a ‘next-generation’ experience. . 

Z Energy fuels more sales and repeat visits

Z Energy, New Zealand’s largest fuel retailer and part of Ampol Australia, developed Pumped to replace a third-party loyalty scheme and create a more seamless mobile and in-store customer experience.

Built using Infinity’s Loyalty module, Pumped uses a QR barcode on Z’s mobile app to identify the customer at point-of-sale or self-serve online payment terminals and add any relevant offers to their transaction. It also lets them consume any offers they have earned, such as free coffee, carwashes or LPG bottle swaps.

Z can now create new offers that help engage customers, offer them valuable rewards and encourage repeat visits. And Pumped is now Z’s cornerstone for innovation, with the ability to deliver the unified and personalised experiences its customers expect.

“With a single view of the customer we are right in the middle of the transaction with the customer in real-time. We know where, when and how they shop and, over time, will find new ways to interact, personalise and reward each customer’s experience.”

Andy Stewart, Head of Digital & Operations – Low Carbon Futures, Z Energy 


Want help to modernise your fuel loyalty programme? 

As you transform your customer experience to deliver the seamless and personalised buying journeys your customers crave, your retail systems must transform as well. If you’re looking for help to develop your loyalty and personalisation capabilities, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop more meaningful relationships that deliver profitable growth. 


For more on how to deliver every c-store customer a personalised, fast and seamless experience, download our new ebook:


6 omnichannel retail painpoints unified commerce solves

With rising customer expectations for a seamless ‘one-brand’ experience, many retailers have hit a wall because their omnichannel efforts can’t meet today’s retail demands.

Here Kelly Brown describes six major omnichannel retail challenges and explains how a unified commerce approach helps to create the relevant and tailored omnichannel experiences your customers now expect. 


Customers today are delightfully unreasonable, and expect to transact when, where and however they want. They don’t care how you achieve it and will reward you if you have it - or shop elsewhere if you don’t. 

Retailers are responding by integrating their physical and digital channels to deliver new omnichannel experiences that align with customer expectations.  

However, it’s complicated. 

Many retailers have taken a hard look at their ecommerce capabilities over recent years, but most are still searching for ways to create connected and adaptable experiences within stores. They have legacy solutions that are no longer fit for purpose and have bolted on solutions for the digital space that don’t easily integrate.  

And they struggle to support their customers’ current omnichannel demands, let alone the ‘phygital’ shopping journeys now expected by post-pandemic, digitally savvy consumers.  

If you’re looking at how to keep pace with customers, here are the most common challenges retailers face as they build their omnichannel systems, and how they can be remedied with a unified commerce approach. 


1

Inventory that isn’t real time

Managing inventory is a retailer’s biggest challenge — no matter their size. It’s also the biggest cost. Many retailers launched digital commerce channels without getting their inventory right and can only access rudimentary sales and inventory positions. That prevents them from offering the ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ options that are best for customers and most profitable for them.  

The solution: Optimise inventory and availability  

One of the most compelling benefits of unified commerce is a single view of stock across all stores and DCs. This means you can quickly see where inventory is and therefore the fastest place to fulfil from. You’ll improve inventory accuracy, reduce stock requirements, minimise fulfilment costs and get products to customers faster. And you’ll increase sales by using ranging and fulfilment capabilities that enable you to sell products across channels (and even sell products not normally stocked within any channels).  


2

Blending physical and digital experiences 

Services such as click-and-collect, ship-from-store, find-in-store and returns anywhere are all just table stakes today. Many retailers implemented quick-fixes at the start of the pandemic to swiftly get new capabilities up-and-running, but now need a long-term unified solution to connect backend systems and deliver the omnichannel experiences customers expect. 

The solution: Create relevant and agile experiences 

With a unified inventory you can increase your purchasing, ordering and fulfilment options to provide customers with frictionless experiences and access to your entire range from any location. A single platform gives everyone across channels and stores the ability to view all customer touchpoints in real time. And you can extend your range across more sales channels such as in-store kiosks, shoppable screens, pop-up stores, concessions and mobile devices. 


3

Obtaining a single view of the customer  

Today consumers don’t think in terms of channels. They now expect a “one-brand” experience that lets them shop at any time, using any channel, from any device, at the best price. But if you’ve got siloed backend systems and processes that mean your customers must deal with inconsistencies and gaps, you simply cannot offer a seamless customer experience.  

The solution: Personalise your customer experience  

The ability to see each customer’s shopping preferences and purchase history across all channels is critical for building personalised shopping experiences. With a unified commerce platform providing a holistic view of your customers, you can better plan your pricing and promotion strategies and get the right offer or message to the right customer, at the right time and right place. By creating remarkable customer experiences that meet or even exceed consumer expectations, you can ensure customers return, again and again. 


4

Integrating data silos

Retailers use multiple customer-facing and back-office systems, spanning POS, mobile apps, inventory management, ecommerce, CRM, fulfilment, finance, marketing and more. Often loosely connected with manual processes and custom integrations, these omnichannel solutions are fragile, inefficient and costly to maintain. 

The solution: Lower cost of ownership 

A single commerce platform gives you a leaner and more flexible architecture that reduces the need for reconciliation and manual processes to maintain and manage data and functions, and there is only one system to secure. Exposing data and functions (rather than moving and replicating them) makes integration faster and standards-based, improving efficiency, decreasing errors and increasing accuracy. Third parties can easily plug in, building the ecosystem of retail software, tools, resources and devices you can add and change to match your business needs.  


5

Adding modern technologies and capabilities  

To keep pace with consumer demands for omnichannel services, retailers need to create and deploy new apps, services and channels. However, connecting legacy systems with modern technologies requires custom integrations, and creating new brand experiences is complex, costly, time consuming and risky.  

The solution: Accelerate speed to market  

With a single platform, there’s less work required to plug in and implement new functions across channels, test cycles are reduced, and you’ll use development capacity more effectively. You can run experiments to test new customer experience innovations and easily move the successful experiments into enterprise-wide operations. These improvements in IT efficiency and flexibility let you launch new tools and services to meet business demands and start seeing revenue benefits faster. 


6

Unifying employee experiences 

After years of underinvestment and now a labour crunch, many retailers are playing catch-up with the employee experience. Their stores often lack the tools and systems that enable their people to deliver the relevant and personalised customer experiences that match online shopping’s price, speed and convenience.  

The solution: Boost in-store productivity and sales

By arming your store staff with the right customer data and tools, combined with AI-driven recommendations, they can more easily make decisions, provide personalised upselling advice, sell inventory at any location and serve customers faster, anywhere in the store. You’ll enhance customer interactions, improve the employee experience and increase conversions.  


Can you keep up with your customers’ expectations? 

Retailers are unifying their backend systems to create the seamless and convenient experiences customers now expect. If you’re experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from unifying your physical and digital experiences, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop the ability to create a compelling in-store experience harmonised with a digital offering for competitive advantage.


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:


Moore Wilson’s partners with Bridged IT for implementation of new Infinity retail management system

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Iconic food emporium Moore Wilson’s has selected IT integrator Bridged IT for the transformation of its retail system. Triquestra’s Infinity unified commerce platform will be installed as Moore Wilson’s point of sale in stores, and create a hub for the brand’s customer experience and innovation in the future.

Moore Wilson’s will benefit from a modern retail management system that streamlines processes, improves access to information and allows the business to deliver personalised and seamless experiences at every touchpoint.

Moore Wilson’s will benefit from a modern retail management system that streamlines processes, improves access to information and allows the business to deliver personalised and seamless experiences at every touchpoint.

Founded over a century ago, Moore Wilson’s is a family-owned business beloved by chefs and the food obsessed. Built up around the foodservice and hospitality industry, it includes everything from fresh produce, meat, fish, breads and general grocery through to hospitality, kitchenware, toys, food, beverages and pop-up food caravans.

“Our point of difference is our face-to-face customer service,” explains Amanda Thompson, General Manager of Moore Wilson’s.

“We know who our customers are and we always strive to do things better, whether it’s the products we stock or the service we provide.”

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Following a competitive review, Moore Wilson’s selected Bridged IT to deploy and support Infinity.  “Infinity is one of the few platforms able to accommodate our diverse business model, with both retail and wholesale customers requiring multiple volume breaks and bulk purchasing. And Infinity’s New Zealand presence gives us an out-of-the box solution with local capabilities that can be customised to our requirements.”

“We appreciated Bridged IT’s appetite to understand our business from the ground up,” Amanda says. “They have a collaborative approach that gives us access to their entire team and have robust conversations to establish clear goals.”

Amanda says Moore Wilson’s goal is to remain relevant and unique and continue to offer an outstanding customer experience.

“Infinity’s efficient point of sale and improved product management will allow us to provide exceptional customer service, and the right products at the right times.”

Infinity will provide opportunities to capture information on customers and add value to Moore Wilson’s popular loyalty card and rewards programme.

“Infinity will also give us the ability to tailor how, when and what we communicate to customers and then respond to their feedback and requests quickly and efficiently with accurate information.”

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Gurjit Singh, Director at Bridged IT, says: “Moore Wilson’s has a remarkable brand heritage, with strong core values and an inspiring company culture. It has set the standard as a shopping destination for the food obsessed. We’re looking forward to helping them transform their retail operations, and then supporting Moore Wilson’s across its next 100 years of business growth and innovation.”

Moore Wilson’s transition to Infinity is targeted for completion in 2022.


If it’s time to upgrade your point of sale to one that will scale and adapt to shifting consumer expectations and new technologies, contact us.

Turning retail experience ideas into reality: meet our new Consulting Lead

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Neshma Emile has recently been promoted to Consulting Lead. She’ll be helping more Triquestra clients use the Infinity platform to transform customer experiences. 

Before joining Triquestra, Neshma had ERP implementation roles at construction and building products companies. As a Business Analyst, it was her job to help her clients convert ideas into tangible realities. As Consulting Lead, she’ll be supporting the consulting team to do the same.

“As BA, I was responsible for gathering requirements from the customer and turning them into testable, then usable product. Making sure we’re on the same page and delivering in scope and on time. Now, as Consulting Lead, I also help other business analysts do what they do best. Offering a helping hand so they can become better advisors and get the best results for our customers,” says Neshma. 

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“The way Infinity can help retailers digitise and innovate today is really great. How we deliver order management, click-and-collect, how we've integrated with Slyp receipts – we're doing everything to keep our clients in tune with what's modern in the market. It’s our goal to give our clients new ways of connecting to their customers through our product and experience,” she says. 

Because Neshma comes from an ERP background, she understands software and process integration and thinks Infinity is an outstanding retail platform. “With Infinity, because it's designed to meet the specific requirements of retail end users, we always hit the nail on the head. Infinity always gives customers what they need because it's such a mature and stable unified commerce platform. People can innovate off of it really quickly and know that it won't break other systems or processes.”

In regards to innovation, she gives examples like Cue Clothing’s click-and-collect and Z Energy’s Pumped and Sharetank. “For Sharetank, we had Infinity working as it needed to for fuel POS. Then we enhanced the platform and the APIs which are used by the Z app to let consumers find the lowest priced fuel in a 30k radius, prepay for that fuel and then share it with others. And for the Pumped loyalty programme, we proved how stable Infinity is to manage 250 sales transactions per minute.” 

Neshma thinks Triquestra is a good company because of the digital transformations she works on and the company’s culture. She explains, “We’re great at prioritising and we're great at communicating with customers. Our solution and business architects will go in and partner with the client to make sure that the solution is well thought out. 

“We work in a high pressure environment and you'd think you'd have people really anxious and angry but we're not! We're really happy. Even if someone’s role isn’t customer facing, everyone is always looking out for our clients’ best interest and doing what they can to make sure those clients are happy. 

“You’re also really given the opportunity to learn, grow and push yourself every day. I’m young and I don’t have to compensate for that. They hired me because of my skills and work ethic and that’s what they reward me for.” 

Neshma and everyone at Triquestra is very conscious of what retail means today. “While online shopping has definitely changed the landscape, people haven’t stopped going to the shops. It’s the experience the shopper has, whether they’re online or instore, that makes one retailer more successful than another these days.”

Scott Bishop on building a customer-focused innovation culture at Z Energy

This story was originally published on 21 January 2020 and updated in May 2021


One of the biggest challenges retailers face is a lack of an innovation culture. They know they need to keep pace with new technologies and changing consumer demands, but are unsure about how to embed innovation and make it an ongoing process.

Back in early 2020, I spoke with Scott Bishop, then the Chief Innovation Officer at our fuel retailer client, Z Energy, for his insights on how to explore, identify and build inspiring customer experiences. At that time, Scott led Z’s Innovation Refinery which has produced many new experiences for customers, including two world firsts in only two years – Fastlane and Sharetank.

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You have an impressive background leading innovation efforts at Amazon, Air New Zealand and now Z Energy. What is the Innovation Refinery and why was it set up?   

SB: The Innovation Refinery team is our catalyst for innovation at Z Energy. We’re a small team of designers, researchers, creatives and builders tasked with identifying customer pain points from across the business, building solutions and iterating with our customers.   

The Refinery is also our creativity space. It’s a physical area in our Auckland office accessible to everyone at Z and has five distinct zones that provide the space necessary to inspire, create and involve customers in our ongoing customer experience experiments.

We set it up because we're at a crossroads within our industry and believe demand will slowly fall over the next 20 years. This fall in consumption is driven by a number of trends, including New Zealand's commitment to a carbon-free future and new choices being made by consumers, such as the move to fuel-efficient cars and electric vehicles.

We don't want to wait for that to happen. Our goal is to be a long-term, sustainable Kiwi company. So participating in a declining market doesn't fit that definition of long-term and sustainable.

We also realise that we're no smarter than anyone else and it will take us a while to figure out how we can get out of transport fuels. And so we're going to start now and experiment our way to the future.


What are your goals for the Refinery and how does it support Z’s transformation?

SB: We have two main roles at Z: coach and build.

We spend around 50% of our time coaching and mentoring across the company because we believe innovation isn’t just done by one team, it should be done by everyone. We help to accelerate new products and services, as well as process and productivity enhancements by showing and encouraging people towards new ways of working. 

The other half of our time is spent building next generation products and services. They can be internal, external and even small things, like innovating a process or even a spreadsheet. It also includes supporting our key investments including electric company Flick and transport company Mevo. 

These new products and services also help us demonstrate this new way of working. Having artefacts, stories and actual products and services we can point to helps reinforce the ongoing coaching and mentoring we do.


Why is a dedicated physical space for innovation so important?

SB: Creativity requires space. And creativity also requires movement. 

If you think about a traditional corporate environment, every time you finish a session you have to clear the meeting room and all that momentum and all those ideas are lost. It just kills the process.

And it’s scientifically proven that your brain changes with movement and you unlock more creativity. 

So we have a dedicated area designed with space for movement and space for people to keep artefacts up and return to over the weeks or months they work on a concept or idea.


What are some examples of innovation projects you’ve led?

SB: We take a portfolio approach to our investigations. We've got five different time horizons, or categories, that our innovation projects fall into: Fix, accelerate, incubate, investigate and challenge.

Two of the most recent acceleration projects we’ve launched are Fastlane and Sharetank – both we believe to be world firsts in our industry. 

Fastlane lets our customers buy petrol using their number plate. They never need to touch their phone, wallet or credit card. Our computer vision technology uses our existing on-site cameras combined with payment technology to allow customers to simply arrive, fill up and leave as quickly as possible.

We launched Fastlane in 2017 with nine trial sites, and now we've got 42 across Auckland and are expanding to other major metros across Aotearoa. We’re also experimenting at four sites with pay-by-plate across all lanes to determine the best customer experience.

Sharetank, a virtual fuel tank for New Zealanders to pre-purchase fuel, is another first. Launched last October with our partners Triquestra, Rush Digital and Invenco, customers can now prepay for fuel when the price is right for them. This fuel is stored in their virtual tank that they can access any time they like and even share with up to five friends and family.

We believe it is a competitive differentiator and there is intellectual property in this so we have applied for patent protection in New Zealand and the US. If the patents are granted, then we’re able to license the patent to other companies and generate incremental revenue for Z.

Both projects aren’t ‘done’. They’re in market and we’re getting customer feedback to help us keep enhancing them.


You mentioned that Z is looking for new markets beyond fossil fuels. What are some of your projects in this space?

SB: Our future market projects are all in the ‘investigate’ and ‘challenge’ portfolio categories and focus on three areas: Future fuels, mobility and last mile services.

Future fuels include bio-diesel, electricity and hydrogen. Mobility is about the electrification of existing and new transport options. And last mile is all about how we use our proximity to customers as an asset. With our nationwide network of over 350 Z and Caltex sites, 82% of New Zealand’s population lives within five kilometres of one of our locations.

Last mile is about leveraging the proximity to our customers. It may have nothing to do with selling fuel, such as click-and-collect hubs, co-working facilities and micro-warehousing. Courier companies are very inefficient, with vans making multiple trips each day from warehouses or airports to deliver items in CBDs or communities. It’s not efficient from a time perspective, not good from a carbon perspective and not economical from a fuel cost perspective. So we could potentially provide 350 micro-warehouses in every community across the country.


How do you generate your ideas? 

SB: All of the ideas already exist in the business or in our conversations with customers so my team doesn't need any domain experience. We're just about identifying, prioritising and accelerating them.

Each of our three core lines of business – commercial, retail and supply – has a strategy lead. We stay connected to them as the subject matter experts in the business and they feed ideas from their sets of customers into the process.

In addition, we do a significant amount of research on consumer trends. How are consumers changing, how is technology changing, how are attitudes and behaviours changing? We then figure out if those changes are relevant to our business. 

Thirdly, we keep a finger on the pulse of our customers and employees, partners and retailers. Anyone can submit an idea into the process to be prioritised.


With so many great ideas from so many sources, how do you prioritise them?

SB: We do an ongoing analysis of all these opportunities using three core criteria: Economic value, strategic value and customer experience value. 

So, for example, one idea might have a significant amount of strategic value. It could be good to help build our brand or support one of our core businesses or, for example, leap-frog our competition. So it might be selected even if it doesn’t have any economic value.

It’s a very different approach to most corporates where you just take the economic numbers, stack and rank, then take the top three and go after them. It’s about focus on lifetime value of customers, not near-term business performance.


What’s your advice for retailers wanting to embed innovation in their business? 

SB: There's nothing really ‘new’ in anything that we’ve created, even from an ideas perspective. We focus on our own interpretation of Design Thinking, Lean, and Agile. It’s really just about three things: Customer centricity, experimentation and iteration. 

Having said that, there's no company that we're aware of that does it quite like we do. We’ve taken the best of what we’ve seen that's most applicable to Z and created something that is unique for us.

A lot of innovation labs are semi-independent. They hire or free up people to work in a decentralised operation and only integrate them back into the business once the idea is fully executed. 

Whether it’s internal or external is a philosophical question and there’s no right or wrong model. I'm personally not keen on the external model because of the difficulties it creates bringing it back in, with many ventures having a lack of accountability, ownership and clear transition paths. 

We believe in a centralised model. You've got to solve the challenges of internal antibodies or process problems that stifle or kill off ideas. That's why we spend 50 percent of our time actually working alongside the business, not just building new products and services.


Want to find out how Infinity can provide you with a platform for faster experimentation and iteration of new customer experiences? Contact Victoria Crossfield at victoria.crossfield@triquestra.com


More Infinity innovation stories 

A new view on retail process improvement

Danielle-Costello.png

I recently joined Triquestra as Account and Channel Manager after spending five years with a business process management software company.

Working with customers to simplify their operations and sustain a consistent improvement culture was my goal there. Now I’m looking forward to helping retailers support their processes, culture and innovation mindset with better systems.


In this increasingly connected world, it should be getting easier for teams to collaborate, share, and learn from each other, but the reality for many is quite the opposite. A growing problem is operation complexity – having a range of web, in-store and mobile channels, and the desire to reduce duplication and operating costs while increasing efficiency and accuracy. All this can actually make it harder for retailers to innovate and improve.

So how do you simplify operations and sustain a consistent improvement culture across different channel requirements whilst staying competitive?

It is not enough to run improvement initiatives and simply ‘hope’ that changes will be embraced and sustained. The right environment and structure is needed so that people are motivated to participate, and are personally invested in sustaining ongoing change and improvement.


3 reasons why Infinity will give you a process improvement edge

1: Simplify your operations with greater visibility

If you’ve had separate databases for your call centre, or your staff couldn’t see what customers were doing on your website, those frustrations can be a thing of the past with Infinity. 

Infinity connects your point of sale, inventory, order, and customer data in one centralised hub so that previous channel limitations or legacy system incompatibilities no longer get in the way.

By giving your team access to consistent information whether they work at head office, in-store or in your distribution centre, you’ll streamline processes, reduce errors and be able to deliver more seamless, accurate customer experiences across all channels.

2: Building that improvement culture

With the building blocks for a strong improvement culture in place, your teams will feel more empowered to collaborate on improvement efforts. Engaged teams armed with the right attitude and tools can do amazing things for your customers and your bottom line.

The Infinity unified commerce platform is very easy to learn. It eliminates pain points and silos for your staff so they get greater enjoyment out of working together and have more time to think about what will surprise and delight your customers. 

3: Continue to innovate quickly

Because Infinity is a mature platform, your teams can focus on delivering innovation because the core functionality they need already exists. Add the access you’ll have to Infinity’s open API environment, and your developers and third parties can act quickly to create and deploy new services, channels and devices with confidence. 


Take a closer look at what Infinity can do to improve your retail operations:

Samantha Gadd on why great customer experiences start with great employee experiences

A vital element in delivering a great customer experience is your employee experience. If your people feel good about their work, that transfers to all their interactions with customers. So, what exactly is employee experience and why is it important?

How to turn the ‘try before you buy’ returns trend into profitable growth

How to turn the ‘try before you buy’ returns trend into profitable growth

Returns are the new normal. And how you deal with them – before and after purchase – can differentiate your brand, give you a competitive advantage and even make you more profitable. Here’s how to tackle the returns challenge and delight your customers with new ‘try before you buy’ services.