Seven things to look for in a retail technology partner

Can your retail system keep up with customer demand for omnichannel experiences?

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Consumers now see both the online and offline shopping experience as part of the same buying journey and not one versus the other.

This is introducing more complexity into the business, with channels becoming less physical and more digital. And that’s why unified commerce is now retail’s top priority, with 88% of retailers investing in unified commerce or considering doing so to build a customer-centric approach to retail.  

But at a time when 2 in 5 retailers (40%) lack in-house expertise to make the most of new technologies, and only 25% of retailers can connect online and store data, many retailers are looking at how to rebuild their businesses from the bottom up for their unified commerce business model.

They know that working with the right people and the right technologies will make the roll-out of new customer experiences much easier and deliver results much faster.

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

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There are seven important indicators of a good technology partner:

1

Maturity and market responsiveness

With a mature platform you can focus on delivering innovation because the critical functionality you need already exists.

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

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

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2

Real-world customer experience

A strong track record and referenceable customer base means less risk.

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

Have they implemented unified commerce systems or are they just unifying digital commerce channels? Ask for evidence of the relationships, products and services that help their clients to be successful, including the consultancy, customisation, integration, training and support services you’ll need.

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3

Flexible and innovative mindset

Seek a partner that can pivot quickly as markets change.

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

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

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4

Broad product capability

Choose a partner that can give you a holistic portfolio and expansive retail ecosystem.

Offering a unified experience means unifying all the backend systems that run POS, inventory, customers and loyalty, pricing and promotions, analytics and fulfilment. You don’t want to be tied to a point player that can only provide portions. You’ll need all your core requirements out-of-the-box plus the ability to customise and easily add new functionality.

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

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5

Consulting and market understanding

Ensure your partner can translate your business needs into functional solutions.

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

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6

Exceptional operations

Make sure they combine experience, processes and systems for faster ROI.

Check that your partner can meet their goals and commitments, and that they have the organisational structure, skills, experiences, programmes and systems to operate effectively and efficiently. That includes agile — make sure they’ve done the training and really understand agile principles, methods and practices.  

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7

Local and committed to your success

A local partner means you can have more influence on the product roadmap and expect faster turnaround.

Retailers are developing a customer-centric mindset and building new skills and capabilities to compete with new competitors. They recognise the risk that comes with global vendors with an indirect model of engagement and support.

A local business means you can enjoy direct engagement with on-the-ground people focussed on your needs, and not distracted by offshore business activity. With direct access to second and third level support and simple processes, you’ll enjoy leaner, faster support services.

Biggest isn’t always best. A mid-sized company will have fewer layers of bureaucracy, giving them more agility and responsiveness. It also means that you’ll be an important customer of influence to your partner - they will value your business and work hard for it.

This blog was originally published on 21 January 2019 and updated 07 October 2024.

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Want help to innovate and scale new services, faster?

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

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

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

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Changing your POS? 7 critical tests your software must pass

Is your point of sale system good enough for today’s omnichannel environment?

In a recent blog, we talked about how changing consumer expectations are disrupting legacy point of sale technology and shared five areas to focus on to differentiate the store customer experience.

If you want to ensure your next retail platform will grow and evolve alongside your needs, here we look at the challenges retailers experience when making the shift to a new POS, and the important tests the new tech needs to pass.

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For many omnichannel retailers, the rise of online shopping has set higher expectations for in-store experiences.

Physical stores now play a key role in driving demand and profitability - even when the final purchase happens online.

Shoppers today view their online and in-store interactions as part of a unified buying journey, not separate channels. And by speeding up delivery, increasing share of wallet, and providing hands-on product experiences, stores are enhancing and differentiating the overall customer journey.

Yet, a significant challenge persists: many retailers find that their outdated point of sale systems are unable to meet the needs of today’s omnichannel shoppers, especially with the ‘phygital’ experiences that tech-savvy consumers now expect.

And making the shift to a new point of sale is complicated:

•  Many retailers defer upgrades because of concerns about potential disruption to current operations, the resources required for successful implementation and the task of staff training.

• Compatibility issues with existing and future systems can make the transition to a modern POS seem a daunting task. 

• This can be amplified by a fear of not achieving the anticipated return on investment, especially if they’ve previously been burned by failed tech projects.

• In the past, retailers who got behind on their store technology investments frequently focused on catching up to current standards. However, now the focus is on future proofing – choosing platforms that speed up innovation, with the flexibility to change direction as opportunities develop, competitors act and customer expectations evolve.

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

So at a time when point of sale software is undergoing a surge of disruption, innovation and investment, how do you select the right system for your business requirements? 

Here are the 7 tests a point of sale purchase must pass, with the first being the most crucial of all:

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Test 1. Can it be rapidly implemented and deployed?

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

The complexity of upgrading legacy POS infrastructures can present significant operational challenges. This means you need a platform built on a modern architecture, with all your core requirements out-of-the-box plus 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, multiple formats and multiple 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 the capability to help you plan and implement your projects so that they work for you now and into the future.

Our client GAS took only 10 weeks to rollout Infinity across 127 stores – a masterclass in POS deployment. GAS now has a modern retail system that supports its retailers to provide great customer experiences and drive growth.

“That is what Infinity point of sale system is able to deliver to us, a system which is fast, reliable, secure and on a modern architecture and platform.”

Nahid Ali, GAS General Manager

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Test 2. Will it support your unified commerce business model?

Today, the store is mission control for a seamless omnichannel customer experience, making the POS the anchor for unified commerce.

That means you’ll want a point of sale system that will not only work with your existing systems, but also provide an end-to-end solution for a unified commerce business model.

The POS needs to be the hub for unified experiences spanning 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 portions.

“The reason unified commerce resonated with me is that it would give us one core platform 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

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Test 3. Will the system work offline?

No matter how exceptional your retail customer experience is, it becomes irrelevant if you're unable to complete a sale.

When inevitable network outages happen, you need to trust 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. 

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Test 4. Can it grow with you, and adapt to change?

Whether you're expanding into new locations or launching pop-up stores, it's crucial to ensure your POS system can scale quickly and adapt to changes in customer expectations. 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 - not just to drive online sales but also to strengthen customer loyalty. Your POS solution must be able to function anywhere your ecommerce platform can.

POS adaptability means having a system that can quickly adjust to evolving customer preferences. 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 and experiences 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. 

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Test 5. Does it have an intuitive UX for a better EX?

Today, any innovation within the store must minimise friction for store teams because this directly contributes to delivering a superior customer experience. The focus is now on speed and simplicity to maximise staff 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, many retailers run multiple systems within stores, forcing their teams to juggle between different apps and screens as they serve customers. 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. 

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Test 6. Will it make complex sales simple?

For enterprise retailers with multiple brands, B2B operations or franchises, you’ll need a POS system that makes complex sales simple.

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

 And ensure it 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

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

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

A local partner means you’ll have direct access to second and third level support, with direct engagement with people on the ground committed to your success (and not distracted by offshore business activity).

It means you can have more influence on the product roadmap, with fewer layers of bureaucracy giving them more agility and responsiveness. And a mid-size partner is more likely to view you as an important customer of influence.

“As a Kiwi owned and operated business, we really pride ourselves on supporting local businesses and communities. The Triquestra team’s responsiveness and flexibility gave us the confidence that we’ll get the swift, on-the-ground support and reliability we need.”

Louise Mitchell, NPD’s Senior Category Manager

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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.

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

Tagged: agile, analytics, API, Bricks and mortar, click-and-collect, complex sales, culture, customer experience, customer management, customers, data, ecommerce, experience, employees, evaluation, fulfilment, Infinity, Infinity POS, integration, inventory management, Local, loyalty, omnichannel, order management, point of sale, pop-up store, POS, promotions, relationships, retail, ROI, software, staff, strategy, support, team, technology, Triquestra, trends, unified commerce, upgrade, values

The downturn begins: Craig Woolford on how convenience retail can battle declining sales growth

There’s been regular debate about this year’s retail sales slowdown – when is the tipping point, how long will it last and how far will it drop? MST Marquee analyst Craig Woolford recently shared the outlook for convenience retail, plus three opportunities to exploit and three challenges to anticipate. 

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Last month I attended ACAPMA’s excellent 2023 Asia Pacific Fuel Industry (APFI) Forum event in Brisbane. With attendees spanning fuel retailers and suppliers from across our region, it sparked lively discussions on the trends changing mobility and convenience retail. 

One of the highlights was a keynote from Craig Woolford of MST Marquee on the outlook for convenience retail in Australia. It included valuable insights for fuel and c-store operators across our region. 

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Retail spending has slowed, but is not falling off a cliff 

Craig began by sharing the latest MST Marquee/ABS data showing how overall retail sales growth is slowing. While there was growth of 3% year on year for the three months to July 2023, interest rate increases have triggered a drop in consumer sentiment and spending slowdown. 

Craig predicts the trough in retail sales to arrive late calendar 2023. And while income tax cuts make him more positive for fiscal 2025, he predicts sales will be subdued until late calendar 2024, making it a lean 18 months for retailers. 

The data showed divergence between the major retail categories. Dining out is holding up well, alongside sales growth in supermarket, liquor, pharmacy and beauty, but volumes are generally weak. 

Retail spending is also starting to lose share of wallet to non-retail spending. Craig explained that this is the ‘normalisation’ path for consumers as we gradually revert to pre-Covid spending behaviours. Travel and dining out are winning our share of spend, along with ‘needs’ like housing and health.  

While there are several drivers for the slowdown this year, Craig described three key swing factors - drags from fading price inflation and higher interest rates, and a boost from consumer drawdowns on household savings. 

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Opportunities in convenience retail  

Craig explained that convenience retailers can look to boost sales growth in three key areas:   

1. Exploit growth in dining out 

The trend towards dining out highlights a consumer now looking for convenience, not just experience. Consumer preferences long-term have moved from in-home dining towards dining out, with employment growth, excess savings and inbound tourism all supporting this trend. 

There’s an opportunity for convenience retailers to capture share in dining out, with cafes and fresh food customised to sites and regions. 

2. Drive up basket size through an expanded range  

The major supermarket chains generate good sales productivity through convenient store locations and a favourable basket mix, with average basket size around AU$45-50. Craig urged attendees to think about what could drive a 15-20% higher basket spend for their business. 

Successful retailers are building basket size through range extension. We’re seeing this with our own fuel and convenience retail clients, with many focussed on expanding their c-store offerings (combined with the potential of EV charging in fuel retail). 

3. Tap growth in online food retail by offering fulfilment 

Online retail accounts for around 7% of the entire food industry, spanning supermarkets, convenience, restaurants and takeaways. Craig described how it will continue to grow in high single digits, but the cost of fulfilment remains a barrier to a viable online food offering.  

C-store retailers can play a role by developing new business models that take advantage of convenient locations to become home delivery hubs. 

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Challenges to anticipate  

Craig closed his keynote by sharing three challenges likely to test the mettle of convenience retailers:  

• Declining tobacco sales: Tobacco sales are falling 10-15% and the fall is faster in some convenience channels, with tobacconists winning share. The tobacco industry is grappling with illicit tobacco and vaping, but with “limited government action” to address the problems.  

• Rising wage costs: The 5.75% increase in retail award rates and 0.5% superannuation levy rise have made wage cost growth a problem into 2024 and beyond, with rates likely to rise by more than 4% in fiscal 2025. Craig said the Australian Fair Work Commission tends to take a balanced approach but noted that wage rate growth is currently less than inflation and could result in wage rate growth ahead of inflation in fiscal 2025. 

• Rising occupancy costs: JLL Research has said that the forecast pipeline of new floor space will be just 37% of the 10-year historical average, with construction costs and high interest rates limiting new projects. That means floor space growth will be tight and could drive up rents. 

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Are you looking for new ways to drive c-store revenue and profitability? 

Our partnerships with fuel and convenience retailers delivering disruptive, world-first experiences give us a deep understanding of changing consumer needs and technology trends. Get in touch if you’re looking for help to reduce costs, boost productivity and improve margins. 

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

From fuel stations to destination hubs: Klaas Mantel on the EV charging opportunity

“New mobility retail will be good for most [fuel retailers] . . . but the skill set for success will change and if you are going to play the EV game you need to get serious and invest for the future.” A leading McKinsey advisor challenges fuel retailers to shift from a ‘glass half empty’ to ‘glass half full’ mindset when crafting their electric vehicle (EV) strategy. 

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I recently had the pleasure of attending a keynote presentation by Klaas Mantel from McKinsey during the ReFuel Forum APAC event in Bangkok. Klaas spoke about the future of mobility retail, and how to successfully play in the charging infrastructure business. 

It was a thought-provoking talk during an excellent event which boasted many stellar speakers and attendees. So what made Klaas’ views stand out? Here are the three things that most resonated with delegates and what they could mean for your fuel retail business: 

1

Does your fuel retail business have a ‘glass half empty’ or ‘glass half full’ mindset? 

Klaas suggested that many fuel retailers take a ‘glass half empty’ view of the emerging opportunity in EV charging. It’s not surprising. 

Only 15% of EV charging is currently done ‘on the go’, and EV penetration is driving down footfall at retail stations. It’s an immense undertaking to transform the standard business model, and there’s formidable competition from new operators, including home delivery platforms like Uber Eats and Doordash who are redefining our perception of convenience. 

However, Klaas firmly takes a ‘glass half full’ view, emphasising the opportunity to drive growth with expanded grocery offers combined with the potential value of EV charging. 

He shared that today only 2% of grocery sales are via forecourts – giving our industry a massive opportunity to capture share from other retail channels, such as traditional (62%), modern (31%) and convenience (5%) grocery retail. 

While traditional fuel sales are declining, this will be offset by gains in EVs and non-fuel retail (eg convenience, car wash, hospo, etc.). McKinsey predicts that the non-fuel retail value pool will grow 3% pa to US$40 billion, up from US$24 billion in 2019. The EV charging pool is estimated to rise from negligible to US$15 billion by 2030.  

And forecourts are uniquely positioned to develop new business models to become home delivery hubs. 

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2

There are three key areas for ensuring success  

Klaas explained that ‘new mobility retailers’ with both recharge and non-fuel destination offerings will have the best chance of future success.   

The successful new mobility retailers will be characterised by three things: 

• Multiple non-fuel retail destination offers synergistic with EV to provide an exceptional customer experience during longer stays 

• Superior cash generation per location enabled by a real estate management mindset  

• No longer reliant on liquid fuel income ensures resilience to future decline of the fuel value pool. 

That means developing a compelling CX and investing in the right locations with the right offering, with Klaas adding: “That may mean acknowledging that EV won’t work on some sites, it will mean investing in convenience retail, charger access and building a customer experience that is safe, welcoming and appropriate.” 

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3

How will you successfully play in the charging infrastructure business? 

Klaas acknowledged that this new world of mobility retail is not for everyone. Convenience players are actively acquiring fuel retail assets, and the integrated majors have concentrated their footprints while focusing on organic growth in priority markets.  

And unlike ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles, EVs have multiple options to ‘refuel’ and won’t be primarily recharging at public stations. 

However, forecourt retailers are well positioned to win Klaas says, and here’s why: 

• Knowledge of the mobility customer across B2C, B2B and B2B2C 

• Already know and run a network business 

• Able to drive energy transition, including hybrid offers (fuel, bio, EV, H2) 

• Benefit from EV charging being an incremental business (and thus incremental investment) to existing network 

• Access to capital.

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Klaas closed by urging delegates to take the glass half full approach and act now to capture a fair share of ‘electron sales’ and remain competitive.  

Here are three questions he encouraged fuel retailers to consider as you evolve your business model to meet changing usage patterns: 

• Can you capture share of grocery sales from other retail channels? 

• What is the value pool outlook in your region, and what share can you capture? 

• Can you develop new business models? 

Is EV charging a priority for your retail business? Or do you have other priorities? I’d love to hear. Please send your thoughts to kelly.brown@triquestra.com. 

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Want help to build your EV charging experience? 

If you’re looking for help to develop a differentiating experience for your EV charging customers, get in touch. We’d love to help you create a winning offering that will leapfrog your business and create new value.  

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

Becoming customer-centric: The new mindset of fuel retail innovators

The fuel retail market faces a number of disruptive threats that are spurring massive change and a relentless focus on customer experience.

Kelly Brown explains why fuel retailers are shifting their focus from the vehicle to the customer, and how to remain relevant.

Three forces of disruption are changing the game for the fuel retail business: the rise of alternative fuels, emerging mobility models and sky-rocketing consumer demands for digital and personalised services. 

While global demand for fuel will continue to increase over the next decade, this growth is not sustainable. The traditional fuel industry is on borrowed time: energy demand is expected to plateau around 2030 as the world shifts to renewables, and traditional sources of revenue will eventually evaporate and profitability dwindle.

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How are fuel retailers innovating to survive?

The most innovative fuel retailers recognise that to unlock new business models and revenue streams they need to shift their focus from the vehicle to the customer.

Historically, fuel retailers have been focused on fuelling and servicing vehicles. While they also sell snacks and convenience goods to consumers in stores, the business is still centred on the vehicle, not the driver or walk-in customer.

In addition, fuel retailers have relied on convenient physical locations - “build and they will come” - rather than on inspiring their customers to visit them.  Some have effectively given their customers (in the form of data and opportunities for relationships) to third party loyalty and payments providers, and to the brands they sell, like Coke.

The future business of fuel will be less vehicle-centric, and more focussed on the customer. 

Today’s consumers expect brands to deliver fast and frictionless experiences through compelling interactions across all physical and digital touchpoints.

For fuel retailers, that means re-imagining the customer experience to become the place that people want, rather than need, to go to. It’s about becoming a neighbourhood hub, with more of what customers want. And it’s about extending your relationships outside the service station with digital channels and partnerships. 

The fuel retailers that fail to recognise and seize this opportunity, will be the businesses left behind.

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What steps can you take to revamp your customer experience? 

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Here’s a two-pronged strategy that will help offset the future decline in traditional income streams

1. Lock in your customers now 

Focus on the end-to-end needs of your customers and revamp the customer journey to expand your relationship beyond quick visits to service stations.

That means enabling fast, digital, contact-free purchases, transforming your convenience stores with new products and services, and personalising your customer communications, offers and experiences. To do that you’ll need to create true omnichannel experiences that seamlessly integrate physical and digital channels to create an array of engaging customer experiences using your own brand, in conjunction with the third parties' customers value.

Case study: Our client Z Energy replaced a third party loyalty scheme with its own loyalty strategy and programme. Pumped is now Z’s cornerstone for innovation, with the ability to deliver the unified and personalised experiences its customers expect.

2. Embrace complexity to build new capabilities

To revamp your business and aggressively embrace innovation and new technologies, you’ll need to develop new expertise and capabilities. That will introduce more complexity into your organisation, with sales channels becoming less physical and more digital. 

You’ll need to embrace agile working to innovate and get products to market faster. You’ll want a retail platform that connects your physical and digital channels to let you deliver customer experiences that go beyond the novel to become meaningful. And by using APIs, you can create an ecosystem of partnerships to deploy new apps, services, channels and devices. 

Case study: Z Energy is transforming its business to pursue growth opportunities and deliver award-winning customer experiences, including a world-first innovation – a virtual fuel tank called Sharetank.

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If you’d like help to create immersive, seamless and personalised customer experiences across all physical and digital channels, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop a unified customer journey.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Why is a dedicated physical space for innovation so important?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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How do you generate your ideas? 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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More Infinity innovation stories 

My Retail Week recap - including Supplier of the Year runner up!

Retail Week in Melbourne was a great experience – going on a tour of new concept stores, meeting with top eCommerce disruptors and attending Inside Retail’s Retailer Awards gala. There are so many smart people and companies doing clever things to be more customer-focused, personal, sustainable and ethical. It was an inspiring trip.

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Runner up for Retail Supplier of the Year

Hearing Triquestra’s name called out at the Retailer Awards was thrilling. We were in amazing company and I was very proud that our unified commerce platform and talented people were recognised for helping our clients’ retail businesses excel.

Congratulations to Shane Lenton

Shane is CIO of Cue Clothing Co and he nominated us for Retail Supplier of the Year so a big thank you goes to him. So does a big congratulations because during the week he was named #4 in Internet Retailing’s Top 50 People in E-Commerce 2019. His ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ strategy – backed by Infinity – has seen Cue significantly grow its online sales. You can read more about Cue’s work with Infinity in our latest case study.

A focus on provenance and purpose

During my retail tour I saw some impressive stores which are offering interesting customer experiences that combine physical retail with consumer desire for provenance and purpose.

• LiTMUS Lab takes advantage of the fact that customers want to try and experience the innovative products they sell before buying. They hold no stock on site, but let shoppers experience the products and store staff knowledge before buying online - either in-store or after leaving the store. All sales are processed as orders that are typically drop shipped directly from the supplier. Their model requires less rental space while reducing inventory cost.

• I visited Australia’s first TOMS shoe store, opened by Retail Prodigy Group. TOMS has a powerful business model that addresses need and advances health, education and economic opportunity for children and communities around the world. In the Melbourne store, you see this commitment in action. In addition to helping a person in need with every purchase, you can buy a $2 coffee when you make a purchase and those coffee beans are supplied from another social enterprise. It’s a feel good, tasty, boutique experience with purpose.

• First Principles is made-to-measure denim with a difference. They build a pattern for you in their boutique where you can see samples, then you’re in control of choosing fabrics and embellishments online where you can order new jeans whenever you want. They source denim in Japan – from one of the world’s longest-running mills and use factories in Kenya where they know every person who makes their product. It’s a great personalisation story from beginning to end, including a commitment to fix any issues. I hope it proves to be sustainable.

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If you’d like to know more about any of the stores I visited or want to discuss these retail trends in relation to your own business, please get in contact.