New in Infinity — October 2025

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 licencing to access some functionality.

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INVENTORY 

Schedule pre-defined POS stock takes at back office and head office

Infinity’s stock take schedule function is a great way to run pre-defined, repeatable stock takes at the point of sale. Managing site-specific schedules is even easier now that stores can create and maintain their own scheduled stock takes without the risk that they will be overwritten by the head office.

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CUSTOMER AND LOYALTY

Enhance your gift card offering

Enticing your customers with regular loyalty offers and redemptions is a key to unlocking repeat business. You have even more ways to keep them coming back now that you can use gift cards with PIN numbers, offering shoppers a wider range of options for collecting and redeeming dollar amounts at your stores.

Note that this enhancement relates to any digital gift cards using the epay New Zealand solution on Windcave devices.

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REPORTS AND ANALYTICS

Easily see the theoretical GP items should sell at, today

Setting items’ sell price can be a make-or-break decision for a retail business. You need to base that decision on the best information available, and you need to know that you won’t be selling at a loss.

Infinity’s new Theoretical GP Report gives you all this and more. It supports both your promotional and buying activity by calculating the theoretical gross profit an item should sell at right now. You can use it to get a single view of retail prices, promotional prices and the value of stock on hand based on current item and rules-based pricing master data, not sales data.

And because it doesn’t rely on sales to have taken place, you can set promotional pricing without the risk of selling items at a loss, giving you confidence that you’re making informed decisions that support your business’s profitability.  

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POINT OF SALE

Quickly identify premium delivery orders

When customers ask for items to be delivered they expect fast, reliable service. And if you offer a paid premium delivery service, such as those supported by Uber Eats and Delivereasy, expectations go to the next level.

Using Infinity, you can now easily identify priority orders at the point of sale both on screen and by way of a sound notification. Your store staff are alerted to which orders they need to act on first, allowing them to deliver the great, speedy service customers demand.    

Leverage the efficiency of Adyen referenced refunds

Spending time ensuring customers are being refunded correct amounts can add unwanted cost to your business. Infinity’s integration to Adyen now reduces this burden through referenced refunds, which tie refunds to specific payments.

Omnichannel as well as in-store transactions are supported. Online refunds can be refunded to the original card in-store either with or without the customer being present, giving both you and your customers greater flexibility and peace of mind when it comes to processing refunds.

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TECHNOLOGY

Use AOAGs to manage failovers

Infinity ETL licensing now supports Always On Availability Groups (AOAG). It uses the listener’s name instead of the name of the server running the SQL server instance, saving you the time and effort of having to manually intervene in case of a failover.

Note that if you currently have ETL installed, you’ll need to relicense it for this enhancement to work. Also, if the SQL Server is not part of an AOAG, the licensing logic remains unchanged.

Save time cleaning up email messages

If you use Infinity Messaging to send emails and attachments to customers, you’ll no longer need to manually clean up the database and remove obsolete records. Instead, you can use the new message cleanup processor to automatically remove these records at regular intervals, saving you time and freeing up precious space.

Get the benefit of the latest RabbitMQ features

Infinity APIs are now compatible with RabbitMQ 4, allowing you to operate the API platform on the most recent version and giving you access to the latest security features and functionality.

For customers using multiple RabbitMQ instances for high availability, the Infinity platform now supports Quorum Queues within RabbitMQ to provide the maximum availability and 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.

Blending clicks with bricks: Why the store still matters

The death of the bricks-and-mortar retail store has been predicted for years now. But instead of reaching its expiry date, the physical store continues to have a lot of life left in it, even as the role it plays in the customer journey changes.

Here we take a look at the latest consumer shopping behaviours, how stores fit into those behaviours and how retailers need to think about the future of their stores to make sure they’re keeping pace with evolving shopping patterns.

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How are customers shopping, today?

There’s no doubt that growth in online channels has been the dominant story in retail in recent years, and that growth is set to continue. Still, it remains the case that most sales take place in person. In the US alone, where the retail market is projected to reach US$7.4 trillion in annual sales this year, ecommerce made up only 16.4% of total sales in Q4 2024, with the rest coming from physical stores.  

A similar picture applies globally. A recent EY survey of 20,000 consumers across 27 countries found that although the overall percentage of offline retail spend is predicted to drop from 77% in 2025 to 73% in 2028, stores are likely to remain the dominant channel for shoppers who value trusted advice, social engagement, instant gratification and tactile product discovery.

At the same time, consumers are turning to digital channels for competitive pricing and convenience. But as EY say, even as they experiment across digital channels, shoppers keep coming back to the store, with 94% of consumers browsing across channels before buying in-store.    

For retailers, this points to a need to harmonise online and physical offerings. As the EY survey finds, “Rather than digital being the anthesis of the store, successful retailers should look to find the right blend, and balance, between the two, shaping shopping behaviors and enhancing experience, loyalty and trust in the process.”

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The store of the future

So what form might that balancing take? What do increasing online sales balanced against a desire for tactile experience and personal service mean for the future of the store?

One option is to treat stores as experiential hubs where shoppers can explore and experiment before buying. Retailers with existing physical spaces can offer interactive zones and curated events that bring product offerings to life and provide the tactile experiences that shoppers crave.

As Forbes recently pointed out, this showroom model has been standard in the car industry for a long time, and it has also been adopted by leading brands such as Apple. Brand-specific showrooms like these “allow brands to maintain unique identities, create immersive bespoke experiences, control customer journeys, test innovative technologies and build stronger emotional connections with consumers.”

While this model might not work for low-margin retailers, those able to transform retail spaces into experiential zones have the opportunity to engage their customers on a deeper emotional level while building new revenue streams. 

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Laying the groundwork

Implementing this type of showroom model requires two things: experienced, knowledgeable staff, and sound data analytics.  

As Forbes says, “a new breed of retail professionals will emerge: experienced concierges guiding customers through showrooms, product specialists offering unbiased expertise, personal shoppers creating digital collections and brand ambassadors prioritizing memorable interactions over immediate transactions.”

Understanding customers and how they engage with showrooms will also require robust data. Data analysis will allow retailers to gain insight into customer movement and interaction with displays and products, and it will empower them to make the most of retail space. Among other things, they will be able to discern how much space is required, how to lay out the floorplan and where to place products for best advantage.

As with other aspects of retail, quality data is the bedrock on which all innovation is built. Shaping a customer experience that conforms to their changing behaviours and meets their needs means understanding how they interact with you. And that needs data that gives you a clear understanding of the way they move across channels and why.

Brick-and-mortar isn’t dead, but over time it will evolve into a more immersive experience that relies on knowledge, insight and expertise.

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Want help to deliver the in-store experiences that meets shoppers where they are today and where they’re heading in the future?

If you’re looking to build a future-proof bricks-and-mortar offering, get in touch. We’d love to show you how Infinity can help you offer seamless, unified, profitable customer experiences.

Keeping ahead of the c-store transformation

The fuel and convenience sector is undergoing a dramatic transformation as consumer buying patterns shift. Retailers on both sides of the Tasman have faced faltering foot traffic, lower fuel sales, increased price consciousness among shoppers focused on the cost of living and a drop in income from traditional core items in the wake of health concerns and government regulation.

Basket sizes have shrunk, operational costs have increased and margins have tightened in an increasingly competitive landscape. At the same time, consumer expectations have risen — they demand speed, convenience, variety and seamless experiences across both physical and digital channels.

But change also brings opportunity. Retailers who understand their customers and can quickly adapt to changing preferences are gaining a competitive edge.

Here we look at some of the fundamental shifts taking place in fuel and convenience and at how retailers can create the differentiated, data-driven experiences that build loyalty and drive profitability.

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Drainers and gainers

Convenience stores in Australia and New Zealand are seeing similar changes in consumers’ buying habits, and these changes are impacting products that have traditionally underpinned c-stores’ profits.

According to a 2024 study of the state of the convenience industry in New Zealand, tobacco experienced the largest drop in value of any category, while growth in vaping did not offset the declines for cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco. Meanwhile, AACS’s State of the Industry 2025* report found that in Australia tobacco’s share of total store sales has fallen below 20%, down from 25.4% at the end of 2024.

C-stores have also seen a drop in sales from staples such as bread and milk, as well as from telecommunications products and printed materials such as magazines. In Australia, for example, the value of milk sales dropped 6.6% in value from 2024 to 2025.

On the other hand, some categories are showing the way with growth. In Australia, packaged beverages, and especially energy drinks, represented almost 70% of the value growth excluding tobacco from 2024 to 2025. A comparable situation exists in New Zealand, where sales from sport and energy drinks, along with fresh coffee, increased in value last year.

Foodservice also performed well in Australia during the first half of 2025, with prepared food leading the way, up 8.9% in value from 2024, while in New Zealand grab-and-go items such as cereal and biscuits remained essential parts of the c-store offering.

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The trends driving customer behaviour

While a range of factors, including health concerns, are driving customers’ purchasing decisions, value for money is crucial, with price-conscious shoppers looking for deals.

Cost of living considerations are clearly evident in the fuel and convenience space. Thirty-two percent of New Zealand consumer are shopping less often instore at fuel stations, with 49% citing pressures on the household budget as a reason.

Changes in how fuel stations operate are also having an impact, especially the advent of pay-at-the-pump. While 38% of customers shop instore when they stop for fuel, being able to pay at the pump means fewer shoppers are going into the store to make impulsive purchases of snack items. Those who do go inside the store are more likely to make planned purchases of hot food and coffee.

At the same time, shoppers with more disposable income and those who prioritise value over price are open to loyalty card offerings.

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Reshaping the c-store offering

The authors of the New Zealand study offer fuel and convenience retailers five tips to increase foot traffic instore and drive profitability:

• Offer on-pump promotions to drive customers into the store, so that they get discounts on products even if they pay for their fuel at the pump.

• Offer cross-promotions between planned and impulse categories.

• Become a preferred supplier of on-the-go meal and snacking options.

• Allow shoppers to make in-app purchases for instore pick-up across a range of products.

• Leverage loyalty cards to offer instore deals.

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How can Infinity help?

Delivering on these recommendations means having the right inventory and customer data at your fingertips. You’ll need a solution that lets you understand customer preferences, plan effective promotions and effectively manage inventory.

Infinity empowers you to transform your operations and customer engagement strategies, giving you a future-ready retail solution.

• Customer-centric engagement: Leverage real-time data to personalise offers, promotions and communications, allowing you to build loyalty programs that delight customers and build connection.

• Optimised inventory management: Respond quickly to category shifts with real-time performance insights so that high-demand items like food and beverages are always available.

• Data-driven decision-making: Use advanced analytics to predict trends, optimise pricing and enhance store layouts, empowering you to make faster, smarter decisions that align with evolving consumer behaviour.

• Unified cross-channel retailing: Deliver frictionless, consistent experiences across instore, mobile and online channels through click and collect, self-checkout and mobile ordering.

• Operational efficiency: Streamline processes across locations with centralised control and automation.

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*AACS State of the Industry Mid-year Report 2025, Commissioned by the Australian Association of Convenience Stores Limited and prepared by Convenience Measures Australia (CMA).

Want help to deliver compelling c-store experiences?

If you’re looking to build a winning c-store offering, get in touch. We’d love to show you how Infinity can help you offer seamless, unified, profitable customer experiences.

Integrating Infinity and Xero for the best of both financial worlds

Keeping a watchful eye on profit and loss and cashflow data is key to running any successful retail business, but that information won’t do your operation much good unless it’s current, accurate and reliable.  

For years, many retailers have relied on Xero accounting software to give them the up-to-date view of their business they need, while some have also used the power of Infinity to manage inventory and point of sale transactions.

Now, you can get the best of both worlds through an integration between these two leading platforms.

The Infinity Xero Integration sends POS sales and other transactional data from Infinity to Xero, which then handles business accounting activities, seamlessly updating the financial information that’s the cornerstone of your business.

The result? An accurate daily picture of profit and loss plus tax in Xero based on selling activity within Infinity that lets you spend less time buried in spreadsheets and more time building relationships with your customers.

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Key Benefits

• Real-time financial insights with up-to-date reporting and tax position.
  
• Improved cashflow and cost management through reconciliation and payment tracking.
  
• Greater operational efficiency by syncing stock adjustments, transfers and receipts directly into Xero.
  
• Enhanced accuracy and compliance with consistent data across POS and accounting.
  
• Time savings that allow teams to focus on customer relationships and strategic growth.

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How it works

A wide range of everyday transactions are handled, including cash sales, debtor sales and refunds, stock adjustments, stock transfers, stock receipts, supplier invoices, stock takes, till adjustments and bank reconciliations.

When it comes to debtor transactions, you can choose between two options, depending on which suits your business best. You can manage all debtor activity in Infinity and use Xero as a sub-ledger, so that transactions are sent as journals. Alternatively, you can opt to maintain debtor activity in Xero, so debtor sales and credits are sent from Infinity to Xero for processing. In this mode, Xero debtor payments that have been matched to an invoice are sent to Infinity. That way, debtors’ credit position in Infinity is kept accurate and reflects payments that have been received directly via Xero.

Updated transaction data is sent from Infinity to Xero, and vice versa, either automatically at a specified interval or manually whenever is convenient, giving you total control over the update process.

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Granular view of complex transactions

The integration offers a granular level of posting for complex transactions, so you get fine-grained cost management that enables accurate profit and loss reporting.

So, for example, if you import inventory from offshore suppliers, you can pay them in their local currency. Any freight costs that have been added to supplier invoices and disbursed across the items can be posted as GRNI, to give you a more accurate view of the cost of goods sold.  

You also get granular control over how bank fees are posted, including card fees, making bank reconciliations faster and more accurate.

And when it comes to tracking revenue, you can make use of multiple revenue categories, including cash sales and trade sales. You can even track revenue based on payment type.

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Suited to all environments

Its easy-to-use interface means the integration suits every type of retail business, from multi-branch chains to standalone stores.

It’s also straightforward to deploy and support, with enhanced logging and troubleshooting that lets you track errors and quickly address any issues.

What’s more, by integrating Infinity with Xero you get to leverage Xero’s ecosystem of business tools, allowing you to manage everything from payroll to sales and marketing contacts.

There’s never been a better time to integrate Infinity and Xero so you get the timely, granular, automatically updated accounting information you need.

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Interested in using the Infinity Xero Integration to streamline and simplify your accounting processes? Get in touch. 

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New in Infinity – August 2025

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PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Help us develop and improve Infinity
As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we’re giving you the option to share information with us about how you use Infinity. We’ll use this information to identify features that can be enhanced or retired, as well as any opportunities for user training and upskilling.

When you upgrade Infinity, you’ll be able to choose whether to opt in or out of sharing data with us. If you opt in, we’ll capture and analyse menu clicks at both the Head Office and the Back Office, along with technical information such as operating system and SQL versions. This will allow us to see which features are used heavily and which aren’t being used frequently, as well as giving us an understanding of the systems Infinity is being run on.

It’s important to note that we won’t capture any data that can identify individuals, including passwords or user names.

Taking part in data sharing means you can help shape the way Infinity evolves and ensure that it remains relevant and useful to you. Even if you initially decide not to share data with us, you can opt in at any time, and vice versa.

If you have questions or concerns please contact Infinity Support.

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INVENTORY

Easily order and manage non-stock items
Ordering and managing stock can be tricky if your business needs a regular supply of items that you don’t necessarily want to bring into your inventory. So, for example, if you sell coffee you’ll need a steady number of coffee cups to be on hand, but you aren’t going to want those cups to be counted as stock items that are sold on their own. Similarly, if the coffee machine breaks down, you need an easy way of paying for a repair by purchase order without treating the repair as an item.

To help make the ordering of these items more seamless, Infinity now allows you to include non-stock items in purchase orders. When you receipt them, the quantity on hand won’t increase, so you can keep these items on hand without them impacting your inventory.

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CUSTOMER AND LOYALTY

Expand your fuel offering with automatic discounts
If you’re a fuel retailer who uses Infinity’s loyalty solution and you offer cents-per-litre discounts, you now have even more options when it comes to rewarding customers for their business. We’ve introduced discounts that apply automatically, so that purchasers save on fuel without your store staff having to manually select which discount applies, thereby speeding up transaction times while still offering customers meaningful savings.

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INTEGRATIONS

Leverage seamless integration of accounting data into Xero
If you use Xero as your accounting software, or are thinking about moving to Xero, you now have even more reason to integrate it with Infinity. We’ve listened to feedback and introduced improvements that make our Xero solution easier to deploy, use and support.

We’ve improved the overall experience by polishing the user interface, simplifying installation, enhancing logging so you can easily track errors and providing you with better troubleshooting to quickly address issues.

There’s never been a better time to integrate Infinity and Xero so you get the timely, granular, automatically updated accounting information you need while also leveraging Xero’s ecosystem of business tools.

Charge fees directly from EFTPOS devices
If you use Windcave as your EFTPOS provider, you can now add surcharges to these transactions from the EFTPOS device. This means you can charge a fee for things like contactless payments and have it recorded in Infinity, so you’ll get an accurate view of these charges in reports and transaction records.   

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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.

Unified commerce vs omnichannel: getting the most out of your cross-channel platform

As any retailer knows, consumer preferences and expectations are constantly evolving. Customers want flexible, personalised experiences that allow to them to pick and choose between physical and digital channels, and they expect those experiences to be seamless.

‘Omnichannel’ has been the term most often used to describe the strategy retailers need to adopt to deliver on this customer demand, while ‘unified commerce’ has also reached buzzword status. Both are used to describe the delivery of seamless experiences across channels.

But while they’re used interchangeably, there’s a significant difference between them.

Unified commerce is the next-generation architecture that finally delivers on what omnichannel promised.

A unified commerce platform provides a central hub that breaks down the silos between channels to deliver truly seamless experiences, while also solving omnichannel’s biggest weakness – operational complexity.

Unified commerce is gaining traction, with one study showing that rolling out a unified commerce platform was a top priority for 30% of retailers, while a combined 71% were somewhere on the path to adopting a unified commerce strategy.

Still, barriers remain. A study by Adyen this year found that 28% of those businesses without a unified platform lacked data on customer behaviour across channels, and 30% lacked the technology infrastructure to offer truly personalised experiences.

As we discuss here, the challenges faced by retailers offering hybrid in-store and online shopping options without the benefit of an integrated platform can be significant, while those prepared to take the leap gain competitive advantage through a deeper understanding of their customers and their evolving wants and needs.

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Omnichannel offers options but creates operational complexity

Omnichannel strategies talked about creating seamless and consistent customer experiences across all channels, but the execution has fallen short.

Why? Retailers have to quickly spin up new channels as consumers demand them. An omnichannel approach connects numerous channels but they operate in functional silos, meaning that customers can’t move between channels in one seamless interaction.

Omnichannel makes things much harder for retailers in five ways:

• Integrating data silos: Often loosely connected with manual processes and custom integrations, omnichannel solutions are fragile, inefficient and costly to maintain. The silos generate a cascade of inconsistent, inaccurate data shared across the business, making it virtually impossible to deliver a seamless customer experience.

• Inventory that isn’t real time: Many omnichannel systems only access rudimentary sales and inventory positions. This prevents retailers from offering the ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ options that are best for customers and most profitable for them.

•  Adding modern technologies and capabilities: Connecting legacy systems with modern technologies requires custom integrations, making the creation of new brand experiences complex, expensive, time consuming and risky.

•  Obtaining a single view of the customer: Silos negatively impact customers because they have to deal with inconsistencies and gaps, such as partial sales histories, different answers to questions or having to start new conversations in each channel.

•  Loss of innovation: Day-to-day inefficiencies mean that internal teams are tied up in remediation and troubleshooting and have less time to spend on creating the innovative, personalised experiences customers desire.

Operational complexity in the real world:

A customer browsing your web store sees that a product is available and orders it online for in-store collection. But behind the scenes, you’re running the online store and in-store POS on different systems, meaning data isn’t integrated and is syncing at different rates. To the customer, it might look like everything is working in harmony, until they find out that the product they ordered isn’t available because the stock level data in the online store is out of date.

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Unified commerce puts the customer experience first

Customers today 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.

The only way to meet these demands for a truly unified experience is to move beyond omnichannel to unified commerce.

As Nick Gray, founder of retail consultancy I Got You, recently told Inside Retail, ‘Unified commerce is where you put the customer at the heart of every decision, so it’s a customer-centric retail strategy that seamlessly connects all sales channels.’

Unified commerce breaks down the walls between internal channel silos by using a centralised platform that combines point of sale, inventory, ordering and fulfilment, loyalty, pricing and business intelligence.

With a unified view of the customer, and all channels and engagement points connected in real-time, you can deliver a personalised and consistent customer experience by way of a single source of truth. No hitches, and no inconsistencies.

You can make purchasing online and in-stores more seamless and convenient through endless aisle, digital payments and ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ services.

And you can quickly respond to changing customer expectations and new technologies by using microservices and APIs to expose data and connect third-party services.

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This blog was originally published in October 2023 and updated July 2025.

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Want help to reduce operational complexity?

We can help you define your goals, develop a business case and create your roadmap to simplified operations and unified customer experiences. Get in touch.

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For insights into how a unified commerce approach gives you the flexibility and agility you need to keep in step with consumers’ changing needs, download our UC ebook:

New in Infinity – June 2025

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 licencing to access some functionality.

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INFINITY API

Leverage real-time cost information

Our Products API now lets you see a real-time value for weighted average costs if you create transactions or carry out inventory analysis in an external system.

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PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Quickly locate branch item information in clusters

Searching for detailed stock item information can be time consuming, especially if you have a lot of stores offering different prices or sourcing items from different suppliers. Head office staff can find the branch information for an item in a cluster more quickly now that they can sort branches alphabetically instead of having to know the branch’s numerical ID.

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INVENTORY

Get a consistent view of stock take results

Stock taking is one of the most important tasks in your business, and getting the count right is vital to maintaining accurate inventory data. To help your staff quickly identify and double-check variances before they complete the stock take, you can now choose to list items in the printed stock take report in the same order they appear on screen, meaning staff don’t waste time trying to match what they see on screen with what’s in the report.

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REPORTS & ANALYTICS 

Summarise stock takes by stock count group

We’ve also enhanced stock taking by giving you a new report that summarises stock takes that have been carried out based on stock count group. The Stocktake Count Group Summary Report provides an overview of stock takes that have been carried out at branches, lets you see variances and gives you the option to list results according to individual stock count groups.  

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POINT OF SALE

Monitor staff safety at the point of sale

Staff safety is a growing issue across the retail sector, with some staff regularly dealing with threatening or abusive behaviour from customers. You can now keep track of how often your staff are facing this problem by using new functionality at the POS. When your staff feel threatened, they can press an on-screen button that records the event, allowing you to monitor how often these incidences are happening and enhancing your people’s sense of well-being.

Speed up processing of sales by under-age staff

If you sell age-restricted items, such as alcohol, you need to be sure that you’re complying with the law without compromising speed of service. To help you serve customers quickly and efficiently while meeting your legal obligations, Infinity now recognises an under-age staff member each time they complete a new transaction, instead of forcing them to log back in after every sale.

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ADMINISTRATION 

Send invoices and statements to multiple debtor contacts

Managing debtor customers is a more seamless experience now that you can automatically send invoices and statements to more than one email address, saving you the hassle of manually emailing documents to the relevant people in the business and enhancing lines of communication.

So, for example, when the customer buys an item in-store, you can send the invoice to the purchasing team as well as to the customer’s primary contact. And at the end of each period, you can send statements to the primary contact and to the customer’s accounts payable, so that the right people see the amount due.

Enhance financial integrity of trading days

If you use Infinity’s extended cash management module, you can now require store staff to complete any draft trading days before creating a new one. Trading days can also be completed the next day if necessary even if new sales have been processed, giving you peace of mind that all transactions are correctly accounted for.

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TECHNOLOGY 

Use the latest Microsoft technologies

Infinity now ships with SQL Server 2022 as default, giving you the most recent version of SQL Server currently in Microsoft’s mainstream support. We also continue to support SQL Server 2016, 2017 and 2019, while customers on SQL Server 2012 and 2014 should be planning to update to a later version.

Proactively address database-related performance issues

If you use a version of SQL Server Express, you’ll now be warned when the database size reaches a threshold of 9.8GB or higher, allowing you to proactively address issues before they affect your store operations.

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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.

New in Infinity – March 2025

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 licencing to access some functionality.

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INFINITY API

Leverage the latest .NET technology

Starting in April 2025, Infinity APIs will be shipped to use .NET Core 8, the latest long-term support framework from Microsoft. This upgrade will ensure enhanced security and provide cutting-edge features for operational APIs.

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PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Monitor data changes for enhanced security

Field audit logging is a great way to keep track of changes to Infinity data fields, allowing you to protect profitability, monitor inventory and maintain system security by making sure data is being captured and maintained correctly. We’ve enhanced the item fields that you can audit by adding alternate barcodes, so you can easily see if a barcode has been changed, who changed it and when.

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INVENTORY

Get a consistent view of custom item attributes

Last year, we gave you the ability to use additional custom fields when you search for items and view their details, so you could easily see the product data and attributes most relevant to your business. We’ve now extended these changes to include purchase orders, replenishment requests and demand forecasts, giving you a consistent view of item attributes across a range of vital stock management processes.

Use branch transfer requests to maintain optimal stock levels

Every retailer knows how important it is to have the right stock in the right place at the right time. If your business has multiple sites, Infinity Cloud now makes moving stock across stores easier with the introduction of branch transfer requests.

If your store staff notice stock is running low or need to increase stock for any other reason, they can scan the items and then send a transfer request to another store. If you use Infinity Messaging, the other store will be automatically alerted to the request. It can then transfer you the stock, giving you another, seamless way to maintain optimum inventory levels.

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ORDER MANAGEMENT 

Send tax invoices to online customers automatically

You can now enhance your customers’ online ordering experience and speed up order processing in stores by automatically emailing GST invoices. Note that this will require a change to your customised A4 print layout, if you have one.

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CUSTOMER & LOYALTY 

Elevate your loyalty offering with Eagle Eye

Infinity now integrates with Eagle Eye, allowing enterprise-level businesses to take advantage of its flexible personalisation loyalty solution. The integration enables real-time earning and burning of loyalty offers, points and vouchers held in personal wallets via API for optimal customer experience.

If integrating with Eagle Eye would suit your business, please get in touch to discuss the customisations needed to get it up and running.

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PRICING & PROMOTIONS

Quickly identify pricing rules that apply to promotions

Our complex pricing solution lets you easily create promotional rules for either single items or multi-buys using multiple pricing attributes that you can then apply to promotional offers. With the latest changes, store managers can now quickly see which pricing rules apply to a promotion, giving them a better understanding of current offers.

And if you use Infinity Cloud in your stores, your store staff can also easily see which single-quantity promotional rule applies to items when they check shelf prices.

Calculate multi-buy web cart prices more reliably

If you use our web pricing solution, you’ll find we’ve improved speed and performance when a high number of rules-based product sets are in operation, meaning that multi-buys are more quickly and reliably calculated in the cart and the customer’s overall shopping experience goes more smoothly.

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REPORTS & ANALYTICS 

Track multiple stock adjustments

Keeping your inventory straight sometimes means having to adjust stock numbers in bulk, such as when a group of products was incorrectly receipted, arrived damaged or was inaccurately counted. We’ve made it easier to keep track of when this happens and to understand changes made to your stock levels by allowing you to report on groups of products that were adjusted at the same time.

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ADMINISTRATION 

Drill down on stores’ trading day results

Getting an accurate view of trading results at your stores is a vital way of understanding the cashflow through your business and your stores’ overall position. If you use Infinity’s extended cash management module, you can now easily search for individual store trading days, giving you the granular cashflow visibility you need.

 Streamline logging into Infinity Cloud

Logging into Infinity Cloud at a store branch is a more seamless experience now that the branch selector automatically defaults to the only branch in the list, making the logon faster and smoother.

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TECHNOLOGY 

Use the latest Microsoft technologies

Infinity now fully supports Windows Server 2025, allowing customers to use the most recently available Microsoft operating system in enterprise environments.

 Enhance monitoring of progress during upgrades

Monitoring the progress of automated upgrades is easier now that you can track progress and identify issues using the Infinity Upgrade Dashboard. Working in conjunction with the existing upgrade command function in Head Office, the dashboard displays the overall upgrade progress, while also allowing you to see if a specific branch has upgraded and is ready to trade, and to identify any stations that had errors. You can also see where an upgrade command was sent and should have executed but has not.

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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.

The inspiring future of retail: Insights from the Australian Retail Association Leaders Forum 2025

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Australian Retail Association (ARA) Leaders Forum 25 in the vibrant city of Sydney. The association is Australia’s oldest and largest national retail body. It represents a $430 billion sector that comprises more than 120,000 retail shop fronts and online stores and that employs more than 1.4 million people. The forum was part of its mission to inform, educate and unify the independent, national and international retail community.

This event gathered some of the brightest minds in retail to discuss the key issues and trends that are shaping the future. The iconic Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge served as backdrops to the forum, which was hosted at the International Convention Centre. The energy was electric, filled with the anticipation of fresh ideas and collaborative opportunities.

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A wealth of knowledge

The keynote speakers provided the undoubted highlight. Each presenter brought unique expertise and perspectives, igniting lively discussions on a range of critical topics, from current economic challenges to AI, data mining and sustainability.

The forum kicked off with an engaging session called Retail’s Future Vision, which featured renowned economist Chris Richardson of Rich Insight speaking about the current economic landscape in Australia and its impact on the retail sector. His analysis of consumer behaviour and spending trends provided actionable insights for retailers looking to navigate the challenges posed by inflation, shifting consumer priorities and changing buying habits. In addressing Trump’s tariffs and the shift to the likes of Temu and Shein, Chris said, “competition is fierce and it will be fiercer.”

The transformative power of technology was the focus of an absorbing panel discussion titled Retail 2025: State of Play, well hosted by Vanessa Matthijssen, the Asia-Pacific Consumer Industry Lead at Deloitte. The conversation featured industry giants Scott Fyfe, CEO of David Jones; Richard Goodman, CEO of FoodCo Group; Agnieszka (Agi) Pfeiffer-Smith, Managing Director of Dan Murphy’s (Endeavour Group); and Tim Schaafsma, CEO of Coco Republic. Together, they explored the evolving retail landscape and shared insights on how businesses are adapting to changing consumer expectations in preparation for 2025.

Panel discussions delved into how AI and data mining can enhance the customer experience, optimise inventory management and drive sales. It was fascinating to learn about real-world applications, from personalised recommendations to predictive analytics that can help retailers forecast demand.

With sustainability becoming a key focus in retail, passionate expert Bronwyn Johnson, Senior Business Development Manager at Too Good To Go, shared that “40% of the food we produce goes to waste.” I had the good fortune to talk with Bronwyn and discuss the work she does with some of the major fuel and convenience brands in Australia that allow customers to use an app to buy food that would otherwise go to waste.

Panel insights shared how businesses can incorporate sustainable practices into their operations, from ethical sourcing to eco-friendly packaging, with the discussion underscoring the importance of aligning business strategies with consumer expectations for sustainability. The collective commitment from the industry to adopt greener practices was truly inspiring.

Beyond the speaker sessions, the forum provided ample opportunities to network with fellow retailers, industry experts and thought leaders. Engaging in conversations over coffee breaks and during breakout sessions allowed me to share experiences, challenges and solutions with like-minded individuals. It was a reminder of the power of collaboration in driving innovation and success in the retail space.

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Leaving inspired

As I wrapped up my time in Sydney, I left the ARA Leaders Forum 25 feeling inspired and equipped with knowledge to take back to my colleagues at Triquestra and our customers. The insights gained from economists, AI experts, sustainability advocates and customer journey strategists highlighted the dynamic nature of retail and the necessity for adaptation and forward-thinking.

This event was not just a conference—it was a gathering of passionate individuals committed to improving the retail landscape. I am looking forward to applying what I learned and staying engaged with the discussions initiated during the forum, as we all strive to create a more innovative, sustainable and customer-centric retail environment.

Until next time, Sydney! Your vibrant spirit and the invaluable lessons from the ARA Leaders Forum 25 will be cherished.

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Striking the Stock Balance: Managing Inventory in a Tight Market

Managing inventory is one of retailers’ biggest challenges and largest costs — no matter their size or sector. Striking the right stock levels and adjusting them to meet customer demand is vital to maintaining profitability and driving down cost, especially when the retail market is tight.

Here, we look at some of the ways that inventory management impacts the bottom line and offer solutions to the problem of having the right amount of stock in the right place at the right time.

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Empty shelves vs buffers

Deciding how much stock to keep on hand can be tricky at the best of times, but when consumer spending falls it can be the difference between profit and loss. Medium-sized retailers without large warehousing facilities, in particular, often face an impossible choice — buy in more stock and risk having excess inventory or be cautious and potentially disappoint customers and miss out on sales.

Either way, you lose. Overstocking can tie up your working capital and see you paying for excess floor space, while also resulting in markdowns that can hurt your margins and limit your ability to invest precious resources in new products and innovations that give you a competitive edge. It can also expose you to losses from theft, fraud, spoilage or administrative lapses.   

Meanwhile, understocking puts you at risk of not being able to complete sales and of losing revenue. Research shows that a third of in-store shoppers will go elsewhere if what they’re looking for is out of stock, while almost half would simply walk out and abandon the purchase altogether.  

However you choose to connect with your customers, whether it be in-store or online, getting stock levels right is essential to delivering the kind of service that boosts sales and keeps customers coming back, while also containing the costs of doing business.  

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The curse of poor stock visibility

You can only avoid over- or understocking when you know what stock you have coming in, what is being sold and what you have on hand. When retailers struggle with the fundamentals of inventory control, such as stock taking, demand forecasting, planning and receipting, they set themselves up for botched sales and increased costs.

Incorrect inventory information can be a particular pain point for shoppers browsing online.  A recent study found that 40% of retailers have to cancel at least one in ten customer orders, primarily due to inaccurate inventory data. What’s more, customers don’t just use webstores because they’re convenient — they use them to ensure that what they want to buy will be there when they walk into the store. If they come in only to find the items they want aren’t available, they will lose trust in you and think twice about coming back.

On the other hand, poor stock visibility can also lead retailers to remove items from the webstore so that they’re available for click-and-collect orders when, in reality, plenty of stock is on hand, once again resulting in disappointed customers and lost sales. 

And poor inventory visibility doesn’t just lose sales and increase costs. Store and call centre employees have to deal with all the problems that arise, including upset shoppers, misplaced products and inaccuracies across different systems. That means inventory inconsistencies not only churn customers — they also churn staff. 

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Getting on top of inventory

The first step towards making better inventory decisions is ensuring you have high-quality data at your fingertips. This begins with the human factor, so that your staff are trained and supported to enter accurate information on time when completing essential tasks like stock taking and receipting.

As well as implementing good processes that are correctly followed, you can use a retail management system that maintains stock in a central location, so it can be actively managed for optimal results and without unnecessary and potentially inaccurate replication of effort. It should also easily and accurately receipt stock, with unders and overs seamlessly identified.

With a robust system in place, you can arm your staff with a single, real-time view of all stock across the business so they can make sure they are ordering what’s needed and that it’s available to meet demand in your physical or online stores. And by having visibility of items that have been allocated to customer orders, they can be sure they aren’t selling goods that are already committed.  

Then, with unified inventory management across all locations and customer touch points, you can take an ‘endless aisle’ approach to fulfilment without the need for expensive warehousing or having to keep stock on hand just in case it’s needed at a particular store. Using this approach you can:

• Reduce inventory costs by moving stock to the right location when it’s needed and cutting your overall stock requirements

• Lower fulfilment costs by delivering direct to the customer using store-to-door, click-and-collect, kerbside pickup or optimised sourcing

• Reduce overselling or underselling with real-time inventory updates that remove the issues of selling unavailable stock or having more stock than listed online

• Offer more purchasing and fulfilment options to customers so they can locate items in-store, buy online, collect in-store, reserve online, receive the same day or at a time and location of their choice 

Of course, implementing these changes also comes with costs, so it’s important to involve your CFO right at the start. Getting their buy-in and endorsement means assessing how the investment in a retail system that meets your inventory visibility needs helps to deliver cost savings and real value over its entire lifespan. 

Create a budget by calculating how much the system will cost in terms of licences, implementation, training and maintenance. Then compare these costs to the benefits you expect to see from an accurate enterprise-wide view of inventory, including tangible and intangible returns, such as cost savings, increased revenue, improved decision-making, enhanced scalability or competitive advantage.  

A cost-benefit analysis should show with absolute clarity how a new system can deliver a positive ROI. 

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Want help to achieve better inventory visibility?

If you’re struggling with inventory management and are looking at how to build a foundation for a seamless customer experience, talk to us about how to start with a real-time view of inventory.  

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