Competing with Giants: Marketplaces, momentum, and the future of ANZ retail

Retail is no longer a local game. It’s not even a regional one. The future of New Zealand retail is being shaped as much in Shenzhen, Seattle, and Sydney as it is in Auckland. Marketplaces like Shein, Temu, and Amazon’s new Amazon Haul in Australia, are redefining how products move, how consumers buy, and how brands compete.

The giants are here. They’re not leaving. The question for New Zealand and Australian retailers is how we not only survive, but thrive.

That was the theme at Competing with Giants, [an event that we hosted in partnership with NORA in Auckland], a gathering of retail leaders, disruptors, and innovators exploring the role of marketplaces in shaping our region’s future. What emerged was a picture of both relentless pressure and extraordinary possibility.

The ground is shifting

For decades, e-commerce followed a fairly predictable path: build a site, grow traffic, expand range, improve logistics. That script no longer applies. Global marketplaces are growing at blistering speed, customers expect borderless and frictionless shopping, and the traditional advantages of geography and loyalty are being eroded.

This isn’t just a New Zealand challenge. Even in Australia, where scale provides more options, marketplaces have launched with fanfare only to falter over time [demise of catch.com.au and MyDeal]. Even leading retailers with deep resources struggle to land the right model.

The lesson? There is no single playbook. Success comes from finding a strategy that fits your customer, your partners, and your brand.

Inside the Marketplace mindset

Chemist Warehouse: From Store to Super-Platform

Briony Tera, Group Manager Marketplace at Chemist Warehouse, offered a candid look at the brand’s evolution. What began as a traditional discount pharmacy has expanded into a powerful “endless aisle” marketplace. She has been there since the very early days working in merchandise, international markets and finally establishing and growing marketplace.

Her lessons were refreshingly pragmatic:

• Marketplaces unlock opportunity: Chemist Warehouse can now sell bulky or niche items that don’t fit its 500+ stores.

• Start small, learn fast: their conservative pilot with one seller revealed that assumptions often fail, and agility is everything.

• Trust trumps all: “Marketplace” badging confused customers, so they switched to “Online Only” to provide instant clarity.

• Partnerships matter: trials with DoorDash proved incremental, adding missions without cannibalising their own sales.

• Localisation is critical: entering NZ demands more than exporting Aussie brands; it required trust, compliance, and community.

The message was clear - building a marketplace is not a one-off project. It’s an ongoing, evolving system that demands constant recalibration.

The Leaders Panel: Trade Me and Mighty Ape

Lisa Stewart (Trade Me) and Robert McEwan (Mighty Ape) reminded us that New Zealand already has homegrown platforms with deep roots. Both have weathered decades of change and remain central to our retail ecosystem.

Key insights from their discussion:

• Marketplace success is shared success: platforms only win when their sellers do.

• Local edge counts: being close to the customer allows faster troubleshooting and more personal service.

• Trust is currency: in a crowded, globalised market, creating safe, transparent spaces is a differentiator.

• AI and agentic shopping are the next wave: technology must solve real customer problems, not just chase hype.

Their outlook for 2028? Expect surprises. Partnerships across payments, logistics, and tech will reshape the landscape, but trust and collaboration will remain the bedrock.

Temu: The Giant Baby

If Chemist Warehouse represented pragmatic evolution, Temu was the personification of disruptive speed. In just three years, Temu has reached more than 100 markets and become one of the fastest-growing platforms in New Zealand.

Olivia Shen, Director of Business Development ANZ, pulled back the curtain:

• Localisation is non-negotiable: Temu embeds people in-market to adapt quickly.

• Partnerships, not just competition: the platform is eager to work with Kiwi sellers and refine through feedback.

• Pace is punishing: Temu’s internal speed even shocks its own leaders.

• Addressing perception: criticisms of quality and sourcing are acknowledged, with new initiatives like badged stores to build trust. It’s importantly that Temu does more to demonstrate that many of their sellers are the same manufacturers who provide high street store and big retail brands all over the world.

Olivia’s closing note was clear: the giants are here, and more are coming. The opportunity is in learning how to partner, participate, and leverage their scale.

Global forces, local futures

The session with Angela Ward (Rodd & Gunn) and Huw Griffiths (Airwallex) zoomed out to the global stage.

Angela shared how Rodd & Gunn, once a Kiwi menswear brand, is now a premium international player. Their playbook? A disciplined three-point entry strategy (department stores/concessions/partners, digital presence, lodges), unwavering brand integrity (no discounting, authentic storytelling), and operational resilience (pivoting quickly when partners collapsed).

Her lessons:

• Entering new markets demands clarity: say no more than you say yes.

• Balance global brand consistency with local nuance: from currency to language to logistics.

• Technology and payments aren’t back-office utilities: they’re strategic enablers of scale.

Huw grounded this with Airwallex’s role: enabling seamless cross-border payments, FX, and fraud protection for fast-growing digital businesses. His takeaway? Payments are no longer just about processing….they’re about building trust and enabling global growth. Airwallex most importantly is a homegrown Antipodean success story. Now valued at a $6.2b (May 2025) and serves of 150k businesses globally and is a world leader in financial payments and supports payments in over 180 countries, enables transfers to over 150 countries and supports card issuing in over 35 countries.

What’s working in New Zealand

Not all innovation is coming from giants. Two Kiwi stories showed how purpose, focus, and community can be just as powerful.

• HealthPost: From a Golden Bay garage to one of NZ’s leading wellness pureplays, has stayed true to its values of trust, community and sustainability, while scaling into Australia. Growth has been consistent, anchored in transparency and purpose.

  
  

• Designer Wardrobe: From a Facebook group to a circular fashion marketplace, DW has proven that focus pays. Shutting down rental to double down on resale was painful but necessary. Today, half its team are coders, AI drives listings and moderation, and nearly half of Kiwi women aged 20–45 are members.

Both stories reinforce that you don’t need to be the biggest to be bold.

So what have we learned?

A few themes cut through the noise:

1. Marketplaces aren’t just about scale: they’re about strategy. Logistics, trust, localisation, and personalisation matter as much as range.

2. There’s no single playbook. Every market, brand, and category requires its own approach.

3. Local advantage still counts. Being closer, faster, and more human remains a powerful differentiator.

4. Technology and payments are enablers, not afterthoughts. They unlock trust and growth in a borderless world.

5. Purpose is powerful. Brands anchored in values can carve out global niches and win on their own terms.

So what’s next

The giants aren’t looming on the horizon anymore - they’re already here. But disruption doesn’t mean defeat. From Chemist Warehouse to Temu, from Rodd & Gunn to Designer Wardrobe, the lessons are clear that strategy beats scale, trust beats hype, and local edge still matters.

The future of ANZ retail won’t be written in boardrooms in Seattle or Shanghai alone. It will be shaped by how we choose to compete, collaborate, and innovate right here, in our own backyard.

The question is no longer if we can compete with giants. The question is: are we ready to set our own pace?

Help us shape what’s next and make sure you are part of the conversation

This event was only the beginning. Following our recent breakfast we are now gaining momentum and we want future gatherings to go even further - deeper conversations, sharper insights, and even more relevance for the ANZ retail community.

That’s why we’d love your input. Please take a few minutes to complete our short questionnaire. Your feedback will directly shape the design, themes, and focus of our upcoming events.

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