APFI Forum 2025: A Story of Synergy and Success

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Keeping ahead of the c-store transformation

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

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

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

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

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Drainers and gainers

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

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

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

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

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

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The trends driving customer behaviour

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

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

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

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

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Reshaping the c-store offering

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

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

• Offer cross-promotions between planned and impulse categories.

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

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

• Leverage loyalty cards to offer instore deals.

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How can Infinity help?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Want help to deliver compelling c-store experiences?

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

New in Infinity – August 2025

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PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

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

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

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

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

If you have questions or concerns please contact Infinity Support.

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INVENTORY

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

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

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CUSTOMER AND LOYALTY

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

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INTEGRATIONS

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

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

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

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

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

If you’d like to get our regular ‘New in Infinity’ updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Omnichannel offers options but creates operational complexity

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

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

Omnichannel makes things much harder for retailers in five ways:

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

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

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

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

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

Operational complexity in the real world:

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

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Unified commerce puts the customer experience first

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Want help to reduce operational complexity?

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

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

New in Infinity – June 2025

Here’s new functionality across the Infinity platform that will help you and your team reduce operational complexity and create a differentiated omnichannel customer experience.

 Infinity is a modular platform and you may need additional components or licencing to access some functionality.

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INFINITY API

Leverage real-time cost information

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

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PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Quickly locate branch item information in clusters

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

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INVENTORY

Get a consistent view of stock take results

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

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REPORTS & ANALYTICS 

Summarise stock takes by stock count group

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

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POINT OF SALE

Monitor staff safety at the point of sale

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

Speed up processing of sales by under-age staff

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

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ADMINISTRATION 

Send invoices and statements to multiple debtor contacts

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

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

Enhance financial integrity of trading days

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

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TECHNOLOGY 

Use the latest Microsoft technologies

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

Proactively address database-related performance issues

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

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

If you’d like to get our regular ‘New in Infinity’ updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter.

Introducing Chay Grant, Quality and Support Lead

Chay was recently appointed to the role of Triquestra’s Quality and Support Lead. Here he introduces himself and explains how his role helps us deliver quality outcomes for customers.

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I’ve been at Triquestra for just over 10 years. During that time, I’ve taken on the roles of Support Analyst, Implementation Consultant, Test Analyst, Business Analyst and Technical Analyst.

All these roles have allowed me to gain knowledge and skills across the business, and they give me a unique insight into the challenges and opportunities that face both our team and our customers. I’ve also been able to develop many different relationships, both at Triquestra and with our customers.

At the heart of all I do is the drive to understand our customers’ needs and to ensure that the quality of the software we deliver to meet those needs is exceptional. This desire, coupled with my previous background in teaching and education, has inspired me to take on the role of Quality and Support Lead.

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My vision

My vision is to lead an empowered Triquestra Test and Application Analyst team of adaptable, high-performing, independent thinkers who achieve quality fit-for-purpose outcomes for our customers. This means our customers regularly and consistently get the help they need to keep their businesses running smoothly and ahead of the game in a competitive market.

As I’ve been in the same shoes as my team, I understand the unique complexities they face. Very rarely are two problems or business opportunities identical, and that can be challenging.

So, you have to be flexible, willing to think outside the box and really adopt a critical-thinking mindset. You have to get inside customers’ thinking when it comes to the results you’re delivering, and communication is always key. It’s the glue that holds everything together. You have to be willing to be a life-long learner, which is something I’ve carried across from my teaching experience. And that willingness leads to continuous improvement, which allows us to grow as a team.

This kind of mindset benefits our customers, too, because it means we can adapt to their needs and deliver on them. And those needs are always changing.

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Building relationships

During my time at Triquestra I’ve had the privilege of forming many different working relationships, both with our team and our customers. Relationships are built on trust and understanding, and having that trust and understanding means you can work collaboratively both in-house and with customers. This sort of collaboration improves the quality of output, and you get there more quickly too. There are fewer links in the chain, and everyone is close to what is going on and the expected outcomes.

I’m looking forward to taking on this latest challenge and delivering the best experience and results for our customers.

New in Infinity – March 2025

Here’s new functionality across the Infinity platform that will help you and your team reduce operational complexity and create a differentiated omnichannel customer experience.

 Infinity is a modular platform and you may need additional components or licencing to access some functionality.

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INFINITY API

Leverage the latest .NET technology

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

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PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Monitor data changes for enhanced security

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

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INVENTORY

Get a consistent view of custom item attributes

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

Use branch transfer requests to maintain optimal stock levels

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

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

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ORDER MANAGEMENT 

Send tax invoices to online customers automatically

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

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CUSTOMER & LOYALTY 

Elevate your loyalty offering with Eagle Eye

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

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

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PRICING & PROMOTIONS

Quickly identify pricing rules that apply to promotions

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

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

Calculate multi-buy web cart prices more reliably

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

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REPORTS & ANALYTICS 

Track multiple stock adjustments

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

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ADMINISTRATION 

Drill down on stores’ trading day results

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

 Streamline logging into Infinity Cloud

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

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TECHNOLOGY 

Use the latest Microsoft technologies

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

 Enhance monitoring of progress during upgrades

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

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

If you’d like to get our regular ‘New in Infinity’ updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A wealth of knowledge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Leaving inspired

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

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

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

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Striking the Stock Balance: Managing Inventory in a Tight Market

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

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

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Empty shelves vs buffers

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

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

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

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

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The curse of poor stock visibility

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

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

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

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

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Getting on top of inventory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Want help to achieve better inventory visibility?

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

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