New perspectives on the trends redefining ANZ retail
TCS Global Retail Outlook Key Findings Report - ANZ
At TCS, we don’t just help businesses transform. We help them become perpetually adaptive enterprises, built to evolve continuously and confidently in a world of constant change.
We deliver excellence and create value for customers and communities - everyday. With the best talent and the latest technology we help customers turn complexity into opportunities and create meaningful change.
Point of views, research, studies - on the latest themes - to help you expand your knowledge and be future ready.
At TCS, we believe exceptional work begins with hiring, celebrating and nurturing the best people — from all walks of life.
TCS Global Retail Outlook Key Findings Report - ANZ
You have these already downloaded
We have sent you a copy of the report to your email again.
Real-time, AI-driven responsiveness and decision making critical for success in 2026
The Australia-New Zealand retail sector faces mounting challenges from workforce skill shortages, rising operational costs, and underutilised data, demanding strategic innovation and efficiency to sustain growth.
This report, derived from the comprehensive TCS Global Retail Outlook key findings report, includes insights from more than 75 ANZ respondents and covers five subsectors. It is designed for senior leaders and decision-makers who want to understand the most essential capabilities and forces that will define success for ANZ retailers in 2026.
This report highlights:
ANZ retailers plan to leverage the power of AI in the next year to 18 months, while keeping a strong focus on driving profitable growth, cost efficiencies, and customer experience and loyalty.
AI is moving from hype to practical use, with chatbots, demand forecasting, and hyper-personalisation leading the way.
Loyalty programs and personalised experiences emerge as critical growth engines, as ANZ retailers seek to turn data into deeper customer relationships and smarter decisions.
Digital wallets and contactless payment options are seen as a practical lever to reduce friction, boost loyalty, and gather new customer insights from transaction data.
The research recommends aligning the AI roadmap with mission-critical objectives and volatility-critical capabilities and making loyalty and first-party data the ‘brain’ of perceptive retail.
These insights can help retail leaders anticipate key factors impacting the ANZ retail industry and chart an effective strategy for sustainable success in the age of AI-powered retail.
Want to drive profitable growth
Plan to enhance personalisation and customer engagement
Want to improve customer experience and loyalty
Advanced AI capabilities elude most ANZ retailers.
The biggest obstacles for ANZ retailers:
Other takeaways:
Loyalty programs are not yet factoring into most enterprise decisions.
Most retailers are still in the early stages of AI implementation. They are most mature in adopting systems that can identify unstated customer needs and preferences and integrating AI in workforce planning. However, they are lagging in the adoption of multi-agent systems where different AI components coordinate to achieve business goals.
Retail’s next chapter in ANZ will be defined by how quickly organisations move from experimenting with AI tools, to embedding AI as a strategic, enterprise-wide capability, to unlocking new levels of decisions, speed, and agility.