Unified Commerce
Greg Cantlon
APFI Forum 2025: A Story of Synergy and Success
APFI Forum 2025: A Story of Synergy and Success
Unified Commerce
Victoria Crossfield
Unified commerce vs omnichannel: getting the ...
Unified commerce vs omnichannel: getting the most out of your cross-channel platform
Unified Commerce
Greg Cantlon
Changing your POS? 7 critical tests your ...
Changing your POS? 7 critical tests your software must pass
Customer Experience
Greg Cantlon
From points to personalisation: Five steps to ...
From points to personalisation: Five steps to galvanise the liquor retail loyalty experience
Team
Carmela Salisbury
Kelly Brown steps down as Triquestra CEO

retail

New in Infinity — December 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 licensing to access some functionality.

INFINITY API

Seamlessly create and update item details in bulk

We’ve made creating and updating stock items in bulk using APIs more seamless and cost-effective. Product dimensions are now supported, as are kitsets and custom product options, meaning you can update a wider range of granular item detail without having to drown in complex spreadsheets. 

You can also retrieve and update site-specific variations for a master product and update site-specific item configurations.

Take the hassle out of processing cancelled orders

You’ll no longer have to waste effort doing a manual refund at the POS when a customer cancels an online order. Instead, cancelled lines can now be handled automatically via the Infinity Sales Order API, saving you time and streamlining the process.

INVENTORY

Easily find the right supplier when entering invoices

If you have to enter invoice details manually after goods have arrived, you’ll now be able to find the right supplier much more quickly and easily, instead of having to search through a list that includes suppliers you no longer use.

CUSTOMER AND LOYALTY

Protect against fraud when using epay digital gift cards

If you’re a New Zealand retailer who uses epay gift cards in conjunction with Infinity, you can now offer your customers the flexibility of using either plastic or digital cards.

To make the move to digital cards more secure, we’ve implemented a layer of fraud protection by allowing you to define the digital cards that can be scanned at the POS. If a customer scans a card that isn’t on your permitted list, then it needs to be swiped on the magnetic reader instead. And as an added layer of protection, a PIN needs to be entered when a card that is on your permitted list is scanned during balance enquiries and redemptions.  

PRICING AND PROMOTIONS

Offer ‘spend more, save more’ discounts

Offering customers discounts based on the total value of a transaction is a great way to reward their decision to shop with you. Our new total sale discounts let you scale your promotion, meaning the more a customer spends the greater the reward.

You can decide which customer types to includes in the promotion, how long you want a promotion to run, which products you want to include and whether you want to reward customers with a dollar-off or a percentage-off discount, giving you flexibility over how the reward is designed and delivered.

REPORTS AND ANALYTICS

Easily customise point of sale documents

Customising point of sale documentation is an effective way to communicate both your brand and the vital information your need to give to customers. We’ve made it easier to get those essential documents just right by introducing an integration with FastReport.

Using standard templates, you can customise your customer order and tax invoice layouts to easily add logos, QR codes, barcodes and custom fields such as customer emails, as well as lines of text in the font of your choice.  You can also create your own templates, although you’ll need to obtain a licence from FastReport first.

The integration is designed to use A4 layouts, but you can use thermal layouts by resizing them as required.

POINT OF SALE

Refund prepaid sales without losing revenue

If you use Infinity’s enhanced returns module, you can now prompt your store staff to refund items to a specified payment type. So, for example, if the customer paid with a gift card, you can prompt staff to issue the refund as a gift card balance, so it will be spent with you in the future instead of being given away as cash.

Easily locate scheduled stock takes

Completing stock takes is all about getting the details right. If your store staff carry out scheduled stock takes at the POS, they’ll be able to locate the right stock take more easily now that they’re listed alphabetically by name, speeding up the process and letting the team get on with what really matters – entering accurate stock counts.

TECHNOLOGY

Get the latest SQL Server support

On 19 November, Microsoft announced the general release of SQL Server 2025. To keep pace with these latest changes, we’ll be adding Infinity RMS support on SQL Server 2025 by 1 April 2026.

We also need to let you know that Infinity RMS support on SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 will end on 1 April 2026.

Existing Infinity installations operating on current SQL Server versions will remain functional, but support for issues related specifically to SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 will no longer be provided.  If you’re running either of these versions, you’ll need to upgrade to access new releases of Infinity RMS after 1 April 2026.

Simplify upgrades using the Infinity Upgrade Service

You have more options when it comes to upgrading Infinity now that you can use the Infinity Upgrade Service on a Restricted Back Office and on POS stations that connect directly to the Back Office, simplifying automatic upgrades across a wider range of environments.

We’ve also made using the Upgrade Service easier and more reliable by enhancing the EventLog Report to let you confirm that the Linker is running as a service before you begin the upgrade.  

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.

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Low tech, high risk: why you need to keep pace with IT investment

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It used to be a truism that the retail industry spent less on IT compared to other industries such as health and banking, mostly thanks to its focus on physical stores where IT played a less vital role and its lower dependence on data storage.

But times have changed and retail’s IT budgets have changed along with them. In 2024, over 72% of global retail chains reported increasing their IT budgets compared to the previous year.

What’s driving investment?

The driving force has been consumer demand for seamless omnichannel shopping, along with the proliferation of cloud-based services, integration of AI and investment in cybersecurity. As retailers have gone online not only have they had to invest in robust cloud servers and CRMs, they’ve also needed to up their game when it comes to securing customer data.

The store, too, has seen new investment. As our recent blog said, retail POS platforms need to keep pace with customers’ ‘phygital’ expectation that their instore experience will be harmonised with the shopping they do online, while mobile apps and self-service kiosks have added another layer to retailers’ store spend.

Meanwhile, edge computing is gaining traction in high-volume environments. A recent study found around 22% of Tier-1 retailers globally have integrated edge computing to manage instore data processing and address latency issues during peak hours.

The upside to investing

For retailers in the Asia-Pacific region, the benefits of IT investment are clear, given the rapid uptake of new technologies among shoppers. For example, three-quarters of Australians use their phone to shop online and a third use dedicated shopping apps, meaning that investing in mobile solutions is now the retail equivalent of table stakes rather than a nice-to-have.

Technology spend has come with other tangible benefits, too, in terms of both sales and cost savings. Retailers in Southeast Asia experienced a 24% increase in sales after deploying cloud-enabled logistics, while cutting-edge inventory systems have reduced shrinkage by 14% 

The constraints

Of course, investment also comes with risks and challenges, the most obvious being the significant capital outlay that IT projects require, particularly at a time when retailers are already experiencing revenue and cost pressures.

The fear of losing revenue through potential disruption that comes with implementing a new POS is multiplied when applied across channels, while globally 36% of retailers experienced a failed IT deployment in 2023 after trying to integrate legacy systems with new solutions.

But not spending comes with risks, too, most obviously the risk of being left behind as competitors invest in the solutions and experiences that customers not only expect but demand.

How much should retailers spend on IT?  

The simple answer is it depends. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution and the right number depends on a retailer’s specific circumstances. IT spend can vary greatly by retail category, company size and growth stage. 

Our anecdotal experience suggests that most retailers spend only 1–3% of their revenue on IT, although one study found that retail and ecommerce IT spend was 10% share of company revenue in 2023 (up from 7% in 2022), while another suggests that deploying multi-store cloud-based IT infrastructure costs between 14–22% of the annual revenue of mid-sized retail enterprises.

We’re not suggesting retailers need to invest at these levels, but they do need to scale their IT spend for opportunities that make their businesses stronger, smarter and ready for the future. 

This blog was originally published in February 2024 and updated in December 2025.

Want help to find the right systems to build your unified commerce business model? 

We can help you build a foundation for operational efficiency and continuous, innovative growth. Get in touch.

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Changing your POS? 7 questions to ask before taking the leap

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In a recent blog, we talked about how the retail store is and will likely remain vital for customers who value trusted advice, social engagement and tactile product discovery. And those customers will continue to have high expectations of the instore experience, including the expectation that it will be harmonised with the shopping they do online.  

As your store evolves to meet a future where it can serve as an experiential hub and as mission control for customer fulfilment, you need to ensure that your retail platform is keeping pace rather than holding you back.  

Here we look at the challenges retailers experience when making the shift to a new POS, and the important questions you need to ask before choosing a new platform.

 The POS upgrade challenge 

Preparing the point of sale for a future where tech-savvy consumers expect ‘phygital’ omnichannel experiences can be daunting.  

Retailers need to keep up with shoppers’ demand for a unified, cross-channel buying journey, but many have outdated point of sale systems that aren’t suited to the task. 

Making the shift to a new point of sale comes with challenges, though, especially when margins are tight. Fear of losing revenue through potential disruption to current operations and having to invest in staff training while perhaps not achieving anticipated returns can deter retailers from taking the leap.  

You don’t want a project that fails to deliver the desired returns because the wrong product was selected. 

So how do you select the right system for your business requirements? 

Here are the 7 questions to ask when looking for a new POS.  

1. Can it be implemented and deployed rapidly?

The number one priority for most of the retailers we speak with is speed of deployment.

To minimise the operational disruption, you’ll need a platform built on a modern architecture. All your core requirements need to come out-of-the-box, along with the ability to customise and easily add new functionality.  

When you choose a partner with a mature platform, they can focus on delivering innovation because the core functionality you need already exists. 

Check the provider has recent and proven success planning, implementing and managing complex, large-scale deployments across multiple stores, formats and geographies. They’ll need to understand your fast-paced, data-intensive environment where any significant level of downtime is unacceptable. And their people will need to be skilled in helping you plan and implement your projects so that they work for you now and into the future.

Our client Z Energy was able to quickly and seamlessly convert some of its existing fuel locations into unattended self-service U-GO sites.    

“By using a modular platform, we’ve been able to roll out technology quickly by configuring existing tools instead of building custom solutions. This has allowed us to tailor the solution to the market in just a few days.”
— Callan McLaughlin, Retail Platform Manager at Z Energy

2. Will it support your unified commerce business model?

Today, the store is the epicentre for all your unified commerce activity. 

That means you’ll want a point of sale system that supports endless aisle, click and collect, store fulfilment, pricing and promotions, clienteling and loyalty, as well as functions that allow customers to search, transact, acquire and consume products across all your channels.  

You don’t want to be tied to a point player that can only provide parts of a total solution.  

“The reason unified commerce resonated with me is that it would give us one core platform to do the heavy lifting and a single source of truth to manage the customer data, inventory and order orchestration, rather than relying on too many systems to push and pull data everywhere.”
— Shane Lenton, previously Cue’s Chief Information and Digital Officer

3. Does it allow your store team to deliver exceptional service?

The new solution needs to empower store teams to deliver a superior, frictionless customer experience that maximises their productivity, no matter where they are in the store.

An easy-to-use UX and straightforward setup will enable new employees to quickly learn the system and begin selling almost right away. By removing the frustrations caused by complex technology, you'll also help lower staff turnover. 

In addition, by consolidating store technology onto a single POS-based retail system, your teams can do everything in a single view, from sales transactions, customer loyalty, pricing, product and promotions through to virtual appointments and endless aisle access to stock.

4. Will the system work offline?

Delivering exceptional customer service is irrelevant if your staff can’t complete sales. 

When inevitable network outages happen, you need to know that your POS will keep all your stores operational without any disruption.  

When implemented correctly, the offline POS experience should be so seamless that your staff may not even realise the system is offline. 

Though some features may be limited, it's essential to know what transactions can still be processed during the loss of connectivity. For example, the system should handle card and cash payments, process returns, capture customer data and link it to profiles, and continue scanning products for smooth checkouts. 

5. Can it grow with you, and adapt to change?

Whether you're expanding into new locations or launching pop-up stores, your POS system must be scalable and adaptable to change. While it might seem obvious, scalability can easily be overlooked in the excitement of cutting-edge technology. 

Your growth plans should account for how your physical stores can complement your online presence, so that your POS solution can function across channels in the same way as your ecommerce platform. 

It should operate seamlessly across tablets, phones and fixed tills, allowing transactions to flow between devices effortlessly. This flexibility not only opens up possibilities for innovative store layouts but also provides the practical benefit of better backup strategies for your devices. 

Your partner should let third-party solutions connect via APIs so that you are free to focus your development efforts on the front-end. You can be more agile and create a community of third-party apps and systems that work together in an ecosystem. As a result, you’ll reduce integration and maintenance overheads, increase real-time accuracy and enjoy virtually limitless scalability and agility. 

6. Will it make complex sales simple?

Enterprise retailers with multiple brands, B2B operations or franchises will need a POS system that makes complex sales simple. 

You’ll want the power to set pricing and promotion rules, permissions, return and refund validation, discounting and cash management from either head office or at store level. 

And you’ll want to ensure the solution supports complex sales like charge-to-account, quote management by channel, debtor management, loyalty and all types of pricing, including retail, trade, contract, promotional, project, customer-specific and rules based.  

“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.”
— Amanda Thompson, General Manager of Moore Wilson’s

7. Can you rely on the vendor for new functionality and ongoing support?

Working with the right people and processes will make the rollout of your new point of sale much easier and deliver results much faster. 

A partner located in the Australia-New Zealand market means you’ll have direct access to second- and third-level support, as well as direct contact with people committed to your success. 

You’ll also have more influence on the product roadmap and have to deal with less bureaucracy to get things done. And a mid-size partner is more likely to view you as an important customer of influence.

This blog was originally published in September 2024 and updated November 2025.

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 ebook:

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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.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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. 

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.

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.

APFI Forum 2025: A Story of Synergy and Success

Last week, along with our CTO Mike Baxter and BDM Haymon Keeler, I attended the annual APFI Forum for fuel retailers, which this year was held on the Gold Coast. It’s a great opportunity to connect with those in the industry, and I wanted to share some of the key insights we took away with us.

The theme of the event, Success through Synergy, set the tone. In a sector as dynamic as the fuel industry, this gathering was a powerful reminder of the value of connection, collaboration and shared insight.

Starting at the macro level, economist Saul Eslake delivered an interesting keynote on the broader economic context. With geopolitical and policy uncertainty clouding the horizon, his words resonated: “In the face of uncertainty, businesses put off big decisions and workers put off decisions about big ticket items.”

Although productivity remains a challenge, especially in retail, Saul had a cautiously optimistic outlook, signalling that Australia has managed the uncertainty better than similar countries and is comparatively well placed. However, the future remains uncertain. Businesses need to make investments to drive steady improvement, and leaders need to be bold, forward-looking and ready to adapt.

Haymon Keeler and Mike Baxter in front of the Infinity booth at the APFI Forum.

Adaptation and synergies were the dual focus of a presentation by Fiona Hayes, CEO and Managing Director at 7-Eleven.  She spoke about how declining fuel and tobacco sales at service stations must be met head-on through a convergence of convenience, grocery and quick-service restaurants.

Fuel retailers need to make use of digital channels to reach customers beyond the forecourt by delivering food and other convenience offerings; those who do can reap huge opportunities. You can read more about these shifts in fuel convenience and the ways retailers can best respond in our recent blog post.

Change management and productivity were also central themes tackled by Stephen Scheeler, CEO of Omniscient and former CEO of Facebook ANZ, who spoke about AI, leadership and digital disruption. Stephen made the point that AI is now embedded in everyday life. It can best be used to get to where you want to go faster, and its interaction with the physical world is already having a day-to-day impact through robotics and self-driving cars such as Waymo.

Stephen believes that AI will augment human capabilities rather than replace jobs, using the example of the farmer who used to plough fields behind a horse but now uses a tractor to dramatically increase productivity. It was fascinating to hear his insights on this fast-moving technology.

We were also thrilled to get the rare chance to listen to David Goldberger, a pioneer in the Australian fuel industry and a leading reason why the country has such a strong independent fuel presence. In founding Solo in the 1970s and Liberty Oil in the 1990s, David, along with his long-time business partner David Wieland, created a situation where the big players had to work with him, and he's created space for others to follow. From introducing discount fuel in Victoria and New South Wales to establishing a wholesale and fuel distribution business, David truly is a founding father of the independent fuel business.

David treated us to a wide-ranging conversation that covered the history and future of independent fuel retailing which the audience thoroughly enjoyed.  

The event ended with a gala dinner where the Australian Convenience and Fuel Awards were presented. Congratulations to the winners from the different awards categories, and thanks to the Australian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association (ACAPMA) for a very successful event!  

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

*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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

New in Infinity – August 2025

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.

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.

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.

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.   

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

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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.

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.

Omnichannel-Box.jpg

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.

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.

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:

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What is unified commerce?

Unified commerce is the term used for a retail software system which connects all your inventory and customer data to all your online, in-store and mobile sales channels. 

Use our extensive resources to learn more.