5 online shopping trends in Australia and New Zealand

The growth of online shopping has been one of the biggest stories in retail for a number of years now, with major implications for how retailers reach their customers and plan everything from promotions to bricks-and-mortar presence and warehousing.

Here we look at five recent trends to keep in mind when planning your 2025 online and phygital strategies to help you tailor your offering and engage with customers in ways that best meet their evolving habits.

---

1.     Online is here to stay

The past five years have delivered plenty of turbulence in retail, but a clear trend has emerged: online shopping is now part of most people’s regular shopping experience and is here to stay.

While inflation and slowing economic growth forecasts have dented consumer confidence, the portion of total spend going to online has either held firm or increased. In New Zealand, Q4 of last year saw total retail spend increase by only 1%, but online spending went up by 9% to $1.73 billion. Around 40% of all Kiwis aged 15 and over shopped online between October and December, an increase of 4.6% from the same time in 2023.

Meanwhile in Australia, at least eight out of every ten households shopped online during 2023, up 1.4% from the previous year, with at least one in seven making weekly online purchases.

When it comes to deciding how to shop, consumers are choosing the convenience of ecommerce and are building online purchasing into their everyday lives.

---

2.        The generations shop differently

The shift to online, though, isn’t spread evenly across all generations, with young people being the most enthusiastic online shoppers. According to Australia Post, 21% of purchases made by 18-26-year-olds happen online, while for 27-43-year-olds the number is even higher at 23%. Gen Xers buy online 19% of the time, and baby boomers rate lowest at 14%, although the total spend among this last group continues to grow as they warm to ecommerce.

For many young shoppers, buying online has become a weekly habit. A study of shopping trends for 2025 found that 51% of Gen Z customers and 41% of Millennials shop online multiple times a week, often responding to customer reviews. Boomers are more deliberate, less frequent shoppers and are more likely to be influenced by perceived value through promotions and discounts.

---

3.        Smaller purchases, more often

Age also plays a role in how shoppers have responded to tougher economic conditions. While young consumers have cut back in response to cost-of-living challenges, older buyers with higher disposable incomes are more willing to spend on items they need or want.

Overall, though, there has been a trend towards shoppers choosing to make smaller purchases more often, resulting in smaller basket sizes.  In New Zealand, consumers are buying online more often but are spending less when they do so. They are using online stores as a way of comparing prices and searching for the best deals, and they are willing to swap to a cheaper alternative if it means getting a bargain.

A similar pattern has emerged in Australia, where in 2023 consumers made smaller purchases more often, with the average basket size down 4.6% from the previous year.

Cost-conscious shoppers are also looking overseas to find the best deals. In Q3 2024, New Zealanders’ online transactions with local retailers fell to 68% from 70% the previous year, as offshore transactions grew.  And a 2024 survey of Aussie shoppers found that 11% of their online spend is done with overseas-based retailers like Shein and Temu. As economist Chris Richardson of Rich Insight said at the recent Australian Retail Association Leaders Forum 25 in Sydney, competition in this space is fierce and getting fiercer.

---

4.        Big sales events dominate

The hunt for a bargain has seen high-profile events such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day continue to dominate online sales numbers. Australia Post found that Australian retailers enjoyed a 7.8% year-on-year increase in online purchases during 2024’s cyber weekend, with 7.6 million households taking part, while spending over the same weekend in New Zealand was 7% higher than the previous year as instore spending held firm. Boxing Day, meanwhile, saw a whopping 30% increase in online transactions from 2023.

---

5.     Instore keeps its top spot

Despite these impressive gains for online retail, instore shopping remains the single biggest sales channel. In New Zealand, for example, while online spending amounted to $1.73 billion in Q4 of 2024, instore spending came in at $14.4 billion.

What’s more, in Australia 38% of shoppers still prefer visiting a physical store to shopping online.

The split between online and instore, however, is not a hard and fast one. As Scott Fyfe, CEO of David Jones, recently noted, 70% of his customers start their digital journey online before coming into store. Even if a sale ends up being completed instore, it’s clear that shoppers use online to check prices and availability, making the web store a vital part of the overall journey.

---

Meeting the moment

Online shopping is and will continue to be an essential and expanding part of the retail landscape. So how do you incorporate these trends into your strategic planning?

For a start, pay close attention to customers’ price sensitivities and spending habits so you can price goods effectively by demographic. Mature customers may be willing to pay more than young shoppers, so look at who you are enticing and targeting with promotions, and price accordingly.

Use data analytics and demand forecasting to identify the best times to run promotions, including but not limited to the major annual sales events, and then tailor deals by market segment.

Perhaps most importantly, rather than seeing online and instore as separate channels, take a phygital approach that recognises the way customers use your online store both as a place to buy and as a place to browse for instore shopping. Fully integrating these channels means establishing a single source of truth, so that both you and your customers have a reliable, real-time view of stock and price.

---

Want help to modernise to make the most of your online offering?  

If you’re looking for help to meet the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s customers, get in touch. We’d love to help you deliver the seamless shopping journey customers expect.  

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

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

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

---

A wealth of knowledge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

Leaving inspired

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

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

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

---

Striking the Stock Balance: Managing Inventory in a Tight Market

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

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

---

Empty shelves vs buffers

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

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

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

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

---

The curse of poor stock visibility

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

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

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

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

---

Getting on top of inventory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

Want help to achieve better inventory visibility?

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

---

Keeping it Simple: Streamlining Pricing and Promotion for Optimal Results

While 94% of retail leaders are deploying multi-channel strategies, only 65% say their pricing and promotion strategy is consistent across all channels.

In a complicated world, keeping things simple can be vital to staying ahead of the competition. And when it comes to pricing, the simpler and faster the better.

Every retailer knows that enticing customers with special offers, promotions and custom pricing is essential to driving revenue. And at a time when inflationary pressures have seen consumers prioritising value for money and many are still looking for ways to make their dollar go further, getting your pricing strategy right is more important than ever.

But targeting and executing those promotions and pricing models can add an onerous layer of complexity to your business, especially if you have an extensive inventory and sell to retail and non-retail customers with different needs and expectations.

What’s more, running multiple pricing tiers and discount offers in tandem can make it hard to assess the impact on profit margin and can create confusion for customers at the point of sale, potentially eating into revenue gains.

Choosing the right technology partner is crucial. They need to deliver a solution that simplifies the creation, maintenance and delivery of complex pricing models, provides flexibility and meets the evolving needs of B2B and B2C customers. More than anything, they need to take the pain out of complex pricing by aligning your technology systems to your sales strategies – not the other way around.

Here, we look at how complex pricing, when done well, can deliver for both you and your customers, and consider what you should look for in a pricing solution.

---

Always offer the best price

Knowing they are getting the best price is top of mind for cost-conscious buyers, with many shoppers willing to switch brands if they can save money elsewhere. Your complex pricing solution should be smart enough to ensure that you are delivering on this expectation for retail customers, either as part of customer-specific or store-specific promotions, or multi-buys, while also excluding trade or contract customers if separate pricing has been negotiated with them.

---

Harness the power of volume pricing

Volume pricing delivers compelling value for customers by lowering the price per unit for larger quantities. Your pricing solution should allow you to easily set up tiered pricing that is sensitive to unit quantities when they are added to the sale, so you can appeal to trade customers seeking to purchase large orders at a reduced cost.

---

Tailor pricing for contracts and projects

Negotiating contract and project pricing for trade customers is a valuable tool in the complex pricing toolkit and can be a great way of offering tradies an even better deal on your products.

So, for example, if a group of builders are working on a new supermarket project, your solution should allow you to identify them and offer them an enhanced, agreed discount over and above standard trade pricing on specified products for the work they do on the project.

Alternatively, you should be able to offer a builder contract pricing on a box of nails, so that they pay $80 per box over a 12-month period instead of the retail price of $90.

---

Protect your margins

There’s no point running a promotion that will ultimately cost you money. You need to be sure that your margins are protected by preventing your store staff from manually discounting an item below an allowed minimum. At the same time, you need to be able to empower them to offer manual discounts where appropriate while also complying with trading standards.

And when it comes to negotiating contract pricing for trade customers, you need to be sure that the price you offer is financially viable and will maintain profit margins in your business.

---

Create global and local promotions

In multi-store business, a one-size-fits-all approach to pricing and promotion can limit your ability to react to local trends. Implementing a pricing solution that allows stores to create and run their own promotions, such as a buy-one-get-one-free or a percentage-off deal, can be an effective way to move excess stock and to keep stores engaged with their customers.

---

Reach across channels

Today, customers expect a “one-brand” experience that lets them shop at any time, using any channel, from any device, at the best price. However, inconsistent pricing and promotion strategies across all channels can leave retailers falling short. While 94% of retail leaders are deploying multi-channel strategies, only 65% say their pricing and promotion strategy is consistent across all channels.

To meet customers’ expectations, complex pricing needs to be part of a holistic unified commerce approach, so you can apply the same price online, in your apps and at self-service kiosks as you do instore, while also giving you the option to run promotions for specific channels, such as web-only specials for click-and-collect shoppers.

---

Simplify the point of sale experience

When complex pricing is done right, it delivers the best possible experience for customers without compromising performance. And by delivering virtually instant results, it takes the pressure off your store staff by doing the heavy lifting for them, while giving them the information they need to let customers know about pricing promotions and alerting them to upselling opportunities.

---

What Infinity can offer you

Infinity’s Rules Based Pricing solution delivers on all these essential requirements. Its easy-to-use interface allows you to quickly and easily define and implement multiple pricing attributes, determine the order in which pricing rules apply, and execute standard retail promotions in combination with non-retail pricing. Pre-defined rules take the pain out of designed pricing models, and lower error rates mean less time reconciling pricing between systems. And what’s more, it seamlessly forms part of Infinity’s unified commerce platform, so that pricing is consistent across all channels.

If you’re looking for help to shape your pricing 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.

Unleashing the Power of the Point of Sale

---

The past few years have brought unique challenges to offline shopping, as the Covid-19 pandemic closed stores and shoppers turned to their screens like never before.

But as the world re-opened, physical stores bounced back, and they will continue to hold their own even in the face of growing demand for online offerings. While global online retail sales are expected to grow to US$6.8 trillion by 2028, offline will still be the dominant channel, accounting for 78% of global sales.

Shoppers, though, don’t see online and in-store as separate channels but as part of a unified buying journey. They might research a product online before buying it in-store, or vice versa. So it makes sense to think about how to best integrate your stores into the overall customer experience. By speeding up delivery, personalising the offering and providing hands-on interaction, you can use your stores to help deliver the cohesive, consistent omnichannel journey customers now expect.  

Here, we look at how integrating stores involves considering customer preferences and behaviours, improving employee performance and choosing a POS system that changes as you do and allows you to unleash the power of unified commerce.

---

Personalised and tactile customer experiences

For customers, shopping in-store brings a range of tangible benefits — instant gratification, personalised assistance, product comparison and social interaction. And meeting customers face-to-face gives retailers the chance to offer a tailored, tactile experience that builds loyalty, drives repeat business and enhances profitability, even when the final purchase happens online.

Elevating these personal encounters so that they give you a competitive advantage can take a variety of forms, from speedy fulfilment of click-and-collect orders, to staff making recommendations based on wish lists and order histories, to providing accurate stock information by store (including out of stock, in stock and on order).

But transforming your stores to be the driver of customer loyalty and retention means that your store retail systems must transform as well. A modern point of sale is now the anchor for a unified commerce platform that unifies online and store data with back-end systems, so that you can offer customers the best possible all-round experience.

Personalising in-store offerings needs a nuanced understanding of shopper profiles and a unified platform that gives you a single source of truth for all inventory, order and customer data. With all your customer details captured and stored in a single unified commerce hub, you can recognise customers consistently, wherever they shop with you.

---

Empowered employees  

After years of underinvestment, many retailers are playing catch-up with their employees. Their stores often lack the tools and systems that enable their people to deliver the relevant and personalised customer interactions that match online shopping’s price, speed and convenience. Some stores find themselves running multiple systems, forcing their teams to juggle between different apps and screens as they serve customers and slowing down the overall sales process.

Armed with the right customer data and tools, your store staff can more easily make decisions, provide personalised upselling advice, sell inventory at any location and serve customers faster, anywhere in the store. Lifting your employees’ performance leads to enhanced customer interactions and increased conversions.

Making tools easy to use and intuitive also enables new employees to quickly get up to speed and begin selling almost right away. 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. And by removing the frustrations caused by complex technology, you'll also help lower staff turnover.

Best of all, empowering your people to offer an exceptional customer service allows you to strengthen relationships with happier, more loyal customers.

---

A scalable and adaptable POS

Today, the store is mission control for a seamless omnichannel customer experience, making the POS the hub for unified commerce. The POS needs to span endless aisle, click and collect, store fulfilment, pricing and promotions, and loyalty, as well as functions that allow customers to search, transact, acquire and consume products across all your channels.

It's also crucial that your POS solution is scalable and adaptable to suit your business’s changing needs. Whether you're expanding into new locations or launching pop-up stores, your POS system must be able to 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.

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 opens possibilities for innovative store layouts and experiences, and allows you to think creatively about how and where to personally interact with customers.

And as you grow, your POS solution must be able to function anywhere your ecommerce platform can. Your growth plans should also account for how your physical stores can complement your online presence — not just to drive online sales but also to strengthen customer loyalty.

---

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.

Greg Cantlon wraps up 2024

As we close out 2024, I want to take a moment to thank our customers for your support throughout the year. After 10 years with Triquestra, it has been an honor to take up the CEO role and I'm thankful to our entire team for their support and dedication.  The holiday season is upon us, and I sincerely hope that each of you has a fantastic Christmas surrounded by friends and family. This is a perfect time to unwind, recharge, and prepare for the exciting opportunities that lie ahead in 2025.

Reflecting on the past year, it is evident that 2024 has been challenging for retailers. The economic landscape has been tough, with retail trading experiencing a decline compared to the previous year. There are positive signs on the horizon and Reserve Banks have begun lowering their rates to stimulate the economy, creating new opportunities for retailers in the coming year.

As we look forward to 2025, there are three key trends to watch closely and leverage to their advantage. First, savvy consumers are becoming more cautious with their spending. With reduced spending power, shoppers are less impulsive, seeking deals, and research carefully before making decisions. Many consumers opting for generic alternatives to the more expensive brands. It is crucial to ensure that you have the clear product information available in real time to attract these discerning shoppers.

Second, as consumer expectations evolve, so do their brand loyalties. While price remains a significant factor, many consumers are seeking convenience and brands that align with their values, such as sustainable business practices. It is essential to evaluate your inventory management strategies to ensure you have the right product in the right place at the right price. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are rapidly becoming a significant part of the market, and understanding their buying habits is vital for future success.

Lastly, customers want to shop when and where it is convenient for them. Retailers must offer a consistent experience across both physical stores and online platforms. The fundamentals still hold true: consumers want convenient, consistent, and responsive shopping experiences and are willing to go elsewhere to find them. Investing in your e-commerce systems and processes can reduce friction for your customers and simplify store operations for your staff. While free returns may not always be feasible, you can reduce your return rates by providing clear product information and assets such as pictures and videos.

Thank you once again for your continued support. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas.

Navigating Choppy Waters: Tailoring Loyalty for Enhanced Customer Retention

In the face of tough economic headwinds, retailers need to find ways to stand out from the crowd and keep their customers coming back. Given that retaining customers costs less than acquiring new ones and returning customers are more likely to spend than new customers, it makes sense to look for ways to build loyalty.

Conventional wisdom says that the key to this is to reward customers for their spend. But while as many as 97% of consumers belong to some kind of retail loyalty programme, converting members to users can be harder than merely getting them to sign up in the first place.

So how do you build a loyalty programme that cultivates truly engaged customers while still ensuring you deliver value and drive profit margins?

---

Personalise the experience

Offering a loyalty programme that resonates with customers starts with personalisation. With consumers today also wanting more bespoke experiences, it pays to look for ways to personalise at scale by transitioning from mass-market approaches to strategies that delight consumers with personalised product recommendations and discounts, as well as tailored interactions.

The ability to see each customer’s shopping preferences and purchase history across all channels is critical for building personalised shopping encounters. By using the right  unified commerce platform providing a holistic view of your customers, you can better plan your loyalty, pricing and promotion strategies and get the right offer or message to the right customer, at the right time and in the right place.

These personalised messages and offers should supplement mass, at scale touches. By balancing strategies across occasions (such as mass-market events like Click Frenzy and Black Friday) with personalised messages (such as birthdays) you can keep customers engaged. By creating remarkable customer experiences that meet or even exceed their expectations, you can ensure they return, again and again.

---

Offer instant rewards

Most retailers already provide value to shoppers through pricing strategies, promotional offers and reward schemes. But today, a traditional approach might not be enough to keep them coming back. With 74% of customers preferring smaller, more accessible rewards that allow them to redeem points more frequently, there’s a benefit to offering instantaneous rewards, rather than requiring shoppers to save points before making a purchase.

This shift has coincided with rapid digital acceleration, which has raised customers’ expectations when it comes to online shopping.

However, inconsistent pricing and promotion strategies across all channels can leave retailers falling short of those expectations. While 94% of retail leaders are deploying multi-channel strategies, only 65% say their pricing and promotion strategy is consistent across all channels. And few look at combining their loyalty and pricing tactics to create a unified and differentiated customer experience.

To integrate your loyalty, pricing and promotions, you’ll need a unified commerce platform that combines data from every system and channel across your business.

You can then start increasing your number of loyalty members by offering rewards that meet their needs. Exclusive pricing promotions – such as immediate percentage or cash discounts for loyalty programme members – can satisfy the desire to enjoy rewards straight away rather than saving points for redemption later.

---

Enhance omnichannel shopping

Today consumers don’t think in terms of channels. They now expect a “one-brand” approach that lets them shop at any time, using any channel, from any device, at the best price. And when it comes to loyalty and digital experience, they are more likely to value convenience over the loyalty programme itself.

When done well, a unified commerce platform elevates and streamlines the shopping journey and offers you a competitive advantage through a more nuanced understanding of your customers and what drives them to keep coming back.

But if you’ve got siloed backend systems and processes that leave your customers dealing with inconsistencies and gaps, you simply cannot offer a seamless experience, and the convenience and personalised customer service that support a robust loyalty offering will be severely compromised.   

Implementing a complete omnichannel solution allows you to bridge the gap between customer expectations and the drivers of loyalty and retention.

---

Modernise your point of sale

Stores remain the dominant sales channel globally, still generating more than 70% of sales and expected to continue to grow at 4% year on year. Stores are also a vital channel for driving loyalty. For customers, in-store shopping offers instant gratification, personalised assistance, product comparison and social interaction, while it gives retailers the chance to deliver a tailored, tactile experience that builds repeat business.

But these interactions need to be supported by a POS solution that can function anywhere your ecommerce platform can, so that your online and offline presence complement each other and offer the seamless, integrated browsing and buying that customers expect. By putting current, detailed customer information at your employees’ fingertips, you empower them to become the frontline of retention.

---

Want help to enhance your loyalty programme? 

As you transform your customer experience to retain loyal customers, increase market share and maximise profits, your retail systems must transform as well. If you’re looking for help to develop your loyalty and personalisation capabilities, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop more meaningful relationships that deliver profitable growth. 

New in Infinity – November 2024

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.  

---

INFINITY API

Enhance control of externally-managed inventory

If some of your inventory is managed outside Infinity, such as vendor-managed inventory, our Stock Receipt API now allows you to receipt stock directly off an invoice, including by matching products being receipted to existing purchase orders. The API can also be used to create, update, retrieve and search invoice receipts.

Automate back ordering for efficient stock management

If you manage master suppliers externally, or you need to provide the procurement rules for a supplier to an external system, the Accounts Payable API now allows you to identify suppliers that will put stock items on back order when you receipt invoices matched to purchase orders. Turning on this flag for a supplier automates and speeds up back ordering if any stock is missing when your staff go to receipt it.

Accelerate integrations by confirming active APIs

The Orchestration Service now lets you retrieve the names and versions of each Infinity API you have configured, allowing system integrators to confirm which API versions are actively deployed and giving you a better understanding of the features available as part of your integration.

Generate physical loyalty cards for customers via external systems

You can now use the Loyalty API to create customers with externally managed loyalty card numbers, as well as card numbers generated by your business. This means if you use physical loyalty cards, you can generate cards and assign them to customers via external systems, such as mobile apps and kiosks.

---

INVENTORY

Streamline inventory management by preventing stores ordering obsolete products

If your business maintains its inventory centrally at the Head Office but allows stores to decide which items to stock and sell, you can take advantage of a new Infinity feature that lets you lock items, so that they can’t be activated or deactivated at the store. This gives you greater control over the inventory and is helpful in situations where a product item has been replaced by one from a different supplier and you want to make sure the obsolete product isn’t sold.

Optimise inventory management with holistic view of stock on hand

We’ve made maintaining master item data more efficient by allowing you to sort and view your inventory by stock on hand, giving you better visibility of stock quantities and allowing you to optimise stock pricing, ranging and ordering across your business.

Reduce errors in branch stock transfers with product unit details

Creating stock transfers is less prone to error now that your store staff can now see products’ unit details when they move stock to another branch, meaning they won’t inadvertently send too many or too few items to the requesting store. So, for example, if a store asks you for three trays of Coca-Cola but your store sells them as cans, you won’t risk sending the wrong quantity.

---

REPORTS & ANALYTICS

Streamline investigations of inter branch stock transfers

The Inter Branch Transfers Report now shows you the reasons why stock transfers were requested, reducing the overhead involved in investigating why product was transferred to another branch. 

---

TECHNOLOGY

Identify problematic SQL connections during Infinity upgrades

We’ve improved the messaging you’ll see when there are problems with closing SQL connections during a manual Infinity upgrade. You’ll be able to identify the connection that can’t be closed, the connection’s host, SQL login and SPID, and the program that has executed the connection, allowing you to more easily manage and resolve these issues.

 Refine email generation to prevent customer spam

The way the Infinity Messaging Service handles customer order email generation has been enhanced so that each email type is now separated with its own processor. This means that customer won’t be spammed by multiple duplicate emails after a processor has failed. 

---

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.

Seven things to look for in a retail technology partner

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

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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. 

---

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.  

---

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.  

---

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.

---

Want help to innovate and scale new services, faster?

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

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

---

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

---

Turbocharging delivery: why you start with unified inventory

How well is your business geared to deliver the fast fulfilment options consumers now expect? Retailers with a single view of inventory across all locations can slash delivery times, profitably.

---

Over recent years, retailers have adapted to changing consumer demands, evolving channels and rising customer expectations around convenience, choice and speed.

And now they’re turbocharging their digital and physical fulfilment to help differentiate the CX.

Why is delivery speed so important?

Customers now expect retailers to provide multiple fulfilment options, ranging from same-day shipping (for a fee) through to free delivery over a longer timeframe and everything in between.

They consider reliability to be just as important as speed when it comes to delivery, preferring their orders to arrive when they expect them, rather than promised a same-day or next-day delivery that never appears.

And the time is right to use stores as mini-distribution centres. Soon, up to half of all online purchases are expected to be fulfilled directly from physical stores, and up to 50% potentially being returned to these locations.

---

The challenges of omnichannel delivery

However, omnichannel fulfilment can be the source of many inventory optimisation challenges.

Compressing delivery times and introducing store-based fulfilment means adjusting inventory management, allocation and replenishment strategies. It requires careful analysis of the destination of products, distinguishing between those that will be sold on the shop floor and those designated for fulfilment, and adjusting replenishment processes to ensure optimal stock levels for both.

In addition, many retailers can only access rudimentary sales and inventory positions, and have complex systems that are fragile, inefficient and costly to integrate.

So, what is required to compress delivery times and introduce omnichannel fulfilment?

---

1. Real-time inventory visibility in every location

To provide the speed and convenience consumers expect, retailers are moving from multichannel silos to unified commerce platforms that provide a unified view of inventory across all stores and DCs.

 Real-time data on stock levels can benefit your business in many ways:

• Reduce inventory costs by ensuring you’ve got the right inventory available in each location, without carrying the cost of overstocking or ‘buffers’

• Optimise your product range by matching stock to each store’s location and demographics

• Create dark stores for online order fulfilment, turning physical locations into temporary or permanent fulfilment nodes to enable faster delivery and keep retail staff working

• React to trends quickly and forecast demand based on historical data, sales forecasts and seasonal variations

• Extend your range across more sales channels such as in-store kiosks, shoppable screens, pop-up stores, concessions and mobile devices.

---

2. Optimise store fulfilment processes

Once your inventory is under control, you’re free to extend your omnichannel delivery.

By using your stores for fulfilment or pick-up, you can increase the amount of inventory for sale while reducing inventory cost and slashing delivery times. Many potential online sales previously lost to inventory shortages can be saved when stores also function as fulfilment centres. And the return on investment can be spectacular. With endless aisle fulfilment, our clients have achieved a 200 to 300% growth in online revenue.

Target USA is one high profile example. It consistently fulfils the majority of its sales, including online orders, directly through its physical stores. In Q2 2024, 97.9% of Target’s orders were fulfilled by its stores, which are a ‘one-stop’ for fulfilment, including returns in store, kerbside returns and even kerbside returns and pickups.

Store-based fulfilment also presents a unique marketing opportunity. Consumers are more environmentally conscious, and using stores as hubs allows customers to make more sustainable choices in the way they purchase products. Store fulfilment allows retailers to streamline packages for more efficient last-mile delivery - minimising the numbers of trucks on the road, reducing environmental impacts, boosting profit margins and enhancing the overall customer experience.

And even better, store fulfilment doesn’t demand that eco-conscious consumers pay extra. Retailers just need to guide customers toward using the more sustainable and, importantly, often faster fulfilment options that are already accessible through their stores.

---

This post was originally published on 15 December 2021 and updated on 19 September 2024.

If you’re urgently revamping your omnichannel delivery capabilities and want advice on which projects to tackle first, our checklist could help. It will let you assess where you are at against retail leaders and decide what you need to improve. Download it here. 

---

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:

---