%20compressed.jpg?width=2000&height=466&name=RETAIL%20SUMMIT%20NEW%20ZEALAND%20(Cropped%203000px%20x%20700px)%20compressed.jpg "Register Your Interest In Attending iMedia Retail Summit NZ")
Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest agenda announcements and updates.
Get ready for an insightful exploration into the world of Commerce. Our event features engaging keynotes, interactive panels, and fireside chats led by industry experts. Discover valuable insights and actionable strategies to boost your business success.
* Please note that session details are subject to change and will be updated regularly.
Delegates arrive at the hotel to register and check in ahead of the afternoon formalities.
Join us for some snacks & refreshments before a big day of networking.
On-demand delivery changed customer behavior overnight, but living with it profitably is harder. This session delivers real data: unit economics at NZ scale, how basket size and frequency change by delivery threshold, and where customer expectations exceed sustainable economics. DoorDash shares market benchmarks, then a candid NZ retailer shares what they've tested, what worked, and what failed. No pitch, just honest numbers and lessons learned.
Business Connect Playbook: How to Win in 5 Meetings
Sponsors and solution providers get a straight-talking guide to maximising their 1:1 meetings. Expect insider advice on framing conversations, understanding retailer priorities, and standing out as a trusted partner.
Retail Rewired: Setting the stage for NZ 2026. Three forces reshaping retail: margin pressure, machine-enabled decision-making, and leadership mindset.
Most retailers treat social media as a marketing channel. Brooke Bellamy built a business on it.
In just three years, Brooki Bakehouse grew from a 41 square metre Brisbane bakery into six Australian locations and secured a $25 million UAE investment, driven almost entirely by Instagram and TikTok content. No traditional advertising budget. Just authentic storytelling that turned 4 million followers into queues around the block and investor confidence.
But viral moments don't scale themselves.
In this session, Brooke unpacks what actually works in social commerce versus what just looks good online. She shares the operational decisions behind rapid expansion, how attention translated into revenue and capital, and the capability gaps she wished she'd addressed earlier.
For New Zealand retailers operating in a smaller, resource-constrained market, this session reframes social not as a brand play, but as a growth engine when executed with clarity.
Because social doesn’t drive revenue, decisions do.
In a rapidly changing retail environment, NZ Post’s eCommerce Market Sentiments report has become the definitive guide to understanding online shoppers' behaviours, and expectations - and how retailers are responding to them. The 2026 report, coming out in early June, explores the key insights driving eCommerce in New Zealand including value-seeking behaviours, the currency of trust, the emerging role of AI, the importance of operational excellence, and the value of being local. Each insight is supported with actionable tips to help retailers grow their business.
Hailed as one of the most rewarding parts of the summit, business connect involves 5 x 10 minute meetings designed to float topline objectives and explore synergies. Delegates are required to request and confirm these meetings prior to the summit.
The official Welcome Dinner & networking reception held on the first night is the perfect avenue to build relationships with key conference delegates, speakers, and sponsors in a more relaxed atmosphere.
Day 2 begins with breakfast and barista coffee!
Hailed as one of the most rewarding parts of the summit, business connect involves 5 x 10 minute meetings designed to float topline objectives and explore synergies. Delegates are required to request and confirm these meetings prior to the summit.
Checkout is where intent meets margin, and where small problems become expensive without triggering alarms. This session examines how payment performance influences conversion, fraud exposure, and cost in ways most teams underestimate. Where does value leak? Why do layered payment setups often work against performance? And how does complexity across channels create friction customers never explain but always respond to? Rather than optimization tactics, this reframes payments as a commercial decision point, one deserving the same scrutiny as pricing, delivery, and experience. A direct look at protecting revenue, reducing risk, and making the final click count.
On-demand delivery changed behavior fast, but not every order needs to be instant. This quickfire examines operational discipline: how to tier service levels profitably, when to slow down delivery without losing customers, and why demand management matters more than racing to the bottom on speed. Rather than making convenience cheaper, this looks at making it smarter: matching delivery promise to basket economics and customer value.
Automation promises efficiency. Pressure reveals whether it was designed well. This quickfire examines what happens when volume fluctuates, exceptions increase, and teams are stretched. Why do complex systems struggle to adapt? How does partial automation create hidden manual work? And why does clarity of process matter more than sophisticated capability? A focused look at building automation that holds up under pressure, not complexity that slows everything down.
Take a break and refuel with coffee and morning tea.
Many teams know their commerce platform is holding them back, but a full rebuild feels risky and disruptive. This session examines how to evolve capability without stopping the business or blowing up what already works. The focus: sequencing decisions, avoiding platform regret, and knowing which changes unlock flexibility vs those that add complexity. A structured discussion for leaders trying to move forward without transformation fatigue.
Personalisation promises relevance, but most programs stall before delivering ROI. This breakout moves beyond theory into execution: which personalisation tactics genuinely drive revenue (not just engagement), how to measure incrementality honestly, and where to start when resources are limited. Focus on evidence-based wins: email personalisation, product recommendations, on-site experiences that show clear commercial impact. A tactical session for teams who need to prove personalisation works, not just feel smart.
Customers aren't comparing brands to "good enough." They're comparing moments. This session explores why middle-of-the-road experiences fail to hold attention, loyalty, or trust. Where do customers disengage? How does inconsistency show up across channels? And what does it take to stand out without overspending or overengineering? A direct look at brand visibility, customer memory, and earning attention in a crowded market.
Marketplaces are reshaping retail, but the right strategy varies wildly. Should you sell through others' platforms? Build your own? Stay independent? This session structures the marketplace decision: what questions to ask, what trade-offs matter, and how to navigate the equation. A candid discussion about marketplace economics, brand control, and competitive positioning in a market where "endless aisle" often means "endless complexity."
Most retailers swim in transaction data but struggle to extract insight that changes decisions. This breakout examines how to read customer behavior through basket analytics: what category combinations reveal about missions, how frequency and spend patterns predict churn, and where loyalty data uncovers hidden opportunity. Rather than dashboards, this focuses on interrogation: asking better questions of the data you already have. A targeted session for merchandising, category, and CX teams who need customer intelligence, not just reporting.
.png)
Traditional analytics show what customers do. They rarely show where customers struggle.
As journeys become more complex, the most damaging experience issues often appear long before conversion drops or complaints rise. Friction, hesitation, and confusion quietly undermine confidence while dashboards continue to look healthy.
This session looks at how behavioural insight is being used to surface where customers lose momentum, abandon decisions, or make avoidable mistakes. The focus is on identifying the moments that matter most and using those signals to prioritise fixes that improve experience and performance at the same time.
This is about seeing the experience from the customer’s perspective and acting on it before problems show up in the numbers.
Most retailers know where their biggest costs sit. Rent, wages, marketing, freight. What they don't see is where margin quietly disappears through operational complexity, silent inefficiencies, and invisible trade-offs that compound over time.
This session exposes the hidden P&L: the 2-5% of revenue that leaks through payment failures, returns fraud, inventory write-offs, promotional errors, delivery subsidies that don't drive incremental sales, and tech sprawl that adds cost without adding capability. These aren't dramatic failures. They're structural blindspots that worsen under pressure.
Rather than generic efficiency advice, this examines where to look, what to measure, and how to build visibility into costs that don't trigger alarms until they've already eroded margin. A practical reset for leaders who suspect they're leaving money on the table but can't pinpoint where.
Join us for lunch before you head out on your afternoon activities. Please also use this time to go back to your room and get changed for your activity if required.
Hop on the New Zealand Gin Journey at the Gin Gin Venue, where you’ll sip your way through three local gins—each paired with the perfect tonic and garnishes to make those botanicals sing. A Gin Gin expert will walk you through the mystical art of gin-making, revealing secrets behind the distillation process and what makes New Zealand gins truly world-class, So come for the botanicals, stay for the laughs, and leave with new connections (and maybe a bit of gin-induced wisdom).
Get ready for the ride of your life at Christchurch’s top go-karting track! With the latest and greatest electric karts packing insane torque and power, you’ll feel your adrenaline hit the red zone as you race around the 260m track. Whether you’re a rookie or a seasoned speedster, this track will challenge even the most skilled drivers. After 14 heart-pounding laps, it’s time to kick back and enjoy some pizza and drinks in the lounge—because you earned it (or at least survived it).
Dress code alert: Closed flat shoes only—leave your flowing capes, dresses, and scarves at home
Ready to unleash your inner Picasso? Join us for a 3-hour paint and sip session at the Chateau on the Park, where you'll get to sip wine, snack on nibbles, and (attempt to) create a masterpiece. Our team of expert artists will walk you through everything from beginner brushstrokes to advanced techniques, but don’t worry—we’ll leave plenty of room for you to go rogue. By the end of the day, even if your “abstract” art looks like a toddler’s masterpiece, you’ll still leave with something you can proudly hang on your fridge.
Day 3 begins with breakfast and barista coffee!
New Zealand retailers are not going to win by spending more. We don't have the scale of Amazon. We don't have the capital of global marketplaces. And we can't afford margin-free growth.
So the real advantage isn't budget. It's judgment.
As costs rise, promotional noise intensifies, and every tech vendor promises transformation, the pressure to do more is constant. But most of what's being sold as growth is quietly diluting margin, adding complexity, and locking retailers into expensive decisions that are hard to unwind.
Drawing on his experience as CTO of Fujitsu Australia and Partner at PwC, Anthony Mittelmark cuts through the noise — challenging leaders to get honest about where capital is actually creating return, which investments genuinely move the needle, and when AI improves decisions versus when it simply speeds up bad ones.
In a market the size of New Zealand, every major decision has outsized impact. There is less room for waste. Less room for ego. Less room for bets that don't pay back.
The retailers who win next won't be the ones with the biggest budgets. They'll be the ones making fewer, smarter, braver decisions.
And that starts here.
Most retailers collect more customer data than ever before, yet struggle to turn it into consistent commercial outcomes. This keynote explores the shift from isolated insights and campaign-level optimization to intelligent customer systems that adapt in real time. Using a credible retail example, Netcore demonstrates how leading organizations move beyond segmentation and rules-based personalization toward dynamic decisioning across the customer lifecycle. The session focuses on: how to connect behavior, intent, and context into actionable signals; why many personalization efforts stall before delivering ROI; and what "always-on" customer intelligence looks like in practice. This is not a technology walkthrough, but a strategic look at how retailers can design intelligence into the system, rather than relying on hero teams or manual intervention.
Take a break and refuel with morning tea.
A facilitated working session where retailers pressure-test real decisions with peers. Topics are curated to surface genuine tension between defensible opposing positions. The goal is clarity, not consensus. Retailers leave with better judgment, not answers.
%20no%20tagline.png)
Earn brand authority in AI search vs. accept that AI environments cannot be optimised without paid investment.
Alignment creates momentum. Momentum creates pressure. Pressure creates activity. Over time, retail organizations confuse progress with motion, layering initiatives without questioning what they're replacing. The result isn't confusion. It's dilution. Focus thins, ownership blurs, and outcomes soften even as effort increases. This session explores how leaders recognize when action reinforces strategy vs quietly erodes it, and why restraint has become one of the most undervalued capabilities in modern retail execution.
Designer Wardrobe began as a simple Facebook group in 2014. A decade later, it has grown into one of New Zealand's most recognised fashion marketplaces - with roughly one in ten New Zealand women on the platform.
In this fireside conversation, founder Aidan Bartlett shares the journey behind building Designer Wardrobe, including the moments that forced the business to rethink its model. From launching and later shutting down a rental venture during COVID to doubling down on the marketplace engine that worked, the story reflects the realities of building and evolving a platform over time.
Today, AI is embedded across the platform - from listing and content moderation to search, pricing guidance and product discovery. Aidan explores how these tools are reshaping the marketplace experience and what the next phase of platform retail could look like.
Part founder story and part technology roadmap, this conversation offers a candid look at the decisions that shaped Designer Wardrobe and where the platform goes next.
Stay in the know! Receive iMedia summit news and updates directly in your inbox 