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Every business has them. The kick-off in February. The conference in May. The mid-year reset when the plan meets reality. The offsite where leaders are meant to come back with fresh eyes. The planning day where next year starts taking shape. They take months to organise and cost a small fortune in time, travel and catering. Yet the question that matters most often gets the least attention: what will your people think, feel and do differently when they walk out? Too many of th

From regulatory shifts to record sales and retail resets, this month’s reading captures the forces shaping the sector across New Zealand and Australia. We cover the proposed surcharge ban, class action scrutiny, profit pressures, business restructures and the continued rise of omnichannel performance. If you want a clear snapshot of what’s moving retail and CX right now, start here.

Back on the shop floor Retail doesn't evolve in theory - it evolves on the shop floor. So in September we took a group of retailers across the Tasman for a Melbourne Retail Safari: three days, 21 stores, from a 60 sqm bottle shop to a 10,000 sqm basketball complex, and more than one LaManna vanilla slice (strictly for research). On paper, the stores had little in common. In person, the same shift showed up everywhere. The best retailers weren't chasing the sale - they were de

Part two of a three-part series on agentic commerce for ANZ retailers. Last time we looked at the first two of four tasks retailers have owned by default for decades: being found and being known. This part covers the third: getting paid. Task Three: Getting Paid Most retailers think of payments as someone else’s problem. The gateway sorts it, the bank sorts it, and you get on with selling. Agentic commerce changes that. Since online shopping began, the checkout has been quiet

The most transferable lesson from China needs no robot, no app and no capital budget. We went to China expecting the future of retail to be technological. Robots, AI livestream hosts, palm payments - and yes, we saw all of that. But when our delegation compared notes at the end of each day about what had genuinely raised the bar, the conversation kept landing somewhere far less futuristic. It was people. Human is the new luxury China is automating faster than almost anywhere.

RX Group is expanding into retail media consultancy. To mark the occasion, Juanita Neville-Te Rito sat down with Alex Lawson, Principal at The Media Practice and the newest member of the RX Consultancy team. Alex was integral to establishing and growing Market Media, The Warehouse Group's retail media network. Juanita: For the executives and marketers who've heard "retail media" but couldn't define it, what is it? Alex: Retailers monetising their own assets (website, app, in-

The real value of retail AI is not in the insight. It’s in what the retailer does next. The retail industry is rapidly adopting AI, but adoption alone does not guarantee meaningful change. We have moved incredibly quickly from asking “What could AI do?” to embedding it into almost every part of the retail technology stack. Forecasting, customer segmentation, content generation, reporting, search, personalisation, pricing and analytics are all being reshaped by AI, and there i

Part one of a multi-part series on agentic commerce for ANZ retailers.

From regulatory shifts to record sales and retail resets, this month’s reading captures the forces shaping the sector across New Zealand and Australia. We cover the proposed surcharge ban, class action scrutiny, profit pressures, business restructures and the continued rise of omnichannel performance. If you want a clear snapshot of what’s moving retail and CX right now, start here.

91% of NZ organisations are now using AI in some form - and only 4% say it's actually changed how they operate, down from 8% a year ago (Datacom). Woolworths Australia reported that they ran 1500 GenAI use cases in a single year. And even by Forrester's own, more measured numbers, over a third of workers still fear AI will take their job within ten years. Chaos. Scale. Fear. That's the landscape most of us are standing in right now, whether we like it or not. But here is wha

Every year, the gia Excellence in Retailing Awards - the Global Innovation Awards for home and housewares retail - put stores from over 30 countries side by side and celebrate the best of them. The New Zealand winner of the Excellence in Retailing award is flown to The Inspired Home Show in Chicago in March 2027. Finalists in the Top Window and Digital Commerce categories join them if they progress to the global final round, recognised alongside some of the sharpest retailer

87% of New Zealand businesses are already using AI, but most are still stuck between experimentation and execution. In this launch piece, RX Group and thecolab.ai unpack why so many AI initiatives fail to scale and introduce rxcolab.ai, a specialist ANZ retail AI venture focused on practical implementation, operational capability, and measurable commercial outcomes.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the future of retail, from AI powered shopping assistants and smart trolleys to personalised customer journeys and agentic commerce. In this sharp piece from Ebeltoft’s Dorte Wimmer and Line Kluge Albert, global retail leaders like Walmart and Instacart reveal how artificial intelligence is becoming retail’s next major competitive advantage.

Most retailers do not have an AI problem, they have an operationalisation problem. In this practical working paper, thecolab.ai explores why so many AI pilots fail to scale and outlines a seven step framework for turning artificial intelligence from an interesting experiment into a reliable, commercially valuable part of the retail operating model.

A curated roundup of the retail news, ideas and shifts shaping the market right now — from global headlines to the signals worth paying attention to. Designed to keep you across what matters, without the noise.

Retailers are racing toward agentic commerce with the best of intentions. They're cleaning their product data, optimising for AI discovery, signing up to platform partnerships. Every decision makes sense in isolation. Together, they form a trap. The platforms driving this are deeply unprofitable. The fee model is already live in the US. A Board Director told me recently that "AI can do all this stuff for free." I said...Ask OpenAI about their $14 billion loss this year.

A curated roundup of the retail news, ideas and shifts shaping the market right now — from global headlines to the signals worth paying attention to. Designed to keep you across what matters, without the noise.

NRF APAC is where the region’s smartest retail conversations happen. RX Group’s curated ANZ delegation turns conference attendance into a true executive learning experience, combining global insight, VIP access, retail study tours and practical takeaways you can bring straight back to your business.

Retail is being reshaped by three defining forces: A Better World, Engaging Destinations and Easy Journeys. The Ebeltoft Group’s Retail Innovations 2026 report highlights the Top 50 global retail innovations from more than 300 nominations, including standout Australian and APAC retailers. RX Group’s Juanita Neville-Te Rito was part of the international judging panel selecting this year’s final list.

Retail is operating in a more constrained and competitive environment than ever before. Margins are tighter. Labour is under pressure. Customers have less patience for friction or confusion in-store. And the reality is, there is simply less room for things to go wrong. In this environment, the retailers that win won’t necessarily be the ones with the best strategy. They’ll be the ones who can execute it consistently. Consistency is now a competitive advantage.