Retailers today are at a critical inflection point. Evolving consumer behaviours, the rise of digital commerce, and operational complexities are forcing businesses to rethink not just how they sell – but how they operate. Across Asia Pacific and beyond, forward-looking retailers are embracing cloud-first infrastructure, automation, and AI to unlock scalable, sustainable growth.
This transformation goes beyond e-commerce platforms and digital storefronts. It spans the entire retail value chain – from inventory forecasting to omnichannel fulfilment, employee workflows to customer insights. At the heart of this shift is a focus on agility, resilience, and human-centric design.
Here’s a closer look at how leading retail organisations are reimagining the future:
Cloud-Powered Agility – Foodstuffs South Island, New Zealand
Foodstuffs South Island (FSSI), one of New Zealand’s largest grocery retailers, had reached the limits of its aging ERP systems and hardware. With inefficiencies mounting, the organisation needed more than an upgrade – it needed a transformation.
That journey began with Project Petra, a complete overhaul to a unified, cloud-based ERP platform. The new system enabled intelligent replenishment, real-time analytics, and robotic automation, streamlining everything from backend operations to in-store experiences.
Results:
- Forecasting and replenishment times reduced by up to 50%
- Faster transactions and seamless price updates
- Smooth go-live within 3 days, supported by redesigned apps and streamlined roles
FSSI turned a tech refresh into a strategic enabler of operational excellence and future-ready growth.
Employee-Centric Digital Workflows – UCC Group, Japan
With 88 locations across 21 countries, UCC Group, a global coffee pioneer, was weighed down by outdated systems, complex workflows, and paper-heavy processes that hindered approvals and frustrated employees.
UCC replaced legacy infrastructure with a cloud-first, mobile-first platform. A user-friendly interface was co-designed for simplicity, VPNs were removed, and manual processes were digitised. Within one month, the company launched a new life-event portal, demonstrating the power of simplicity and speed.
Key Outcomes:
- Over 1.5 million paper forms eliminated
- 90% reduction in paper use
- Approvals reduced to a single tap
- Scalable ERP and data systems built around employees’ needs
UCC’s transformation is a model of how digital workflows can empower people while reducing complexity.
Scaling Omnichannel Fulfilment – Aditya Birla Fashion Retail, India
India’s Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Limited (ABFRL) faced mounting challenges in maintaining service standards as it expanded across multiple brands, platforms, and channels.
To solve this, ABFRL rolled out a multi-instance order management solution that unified its inventory, fulfilment, and returns processes. The new system offered real-time tracking, smarter decision-making, and more accurate delivery estimates.
Improvements:
- 99.5% faster inventory synchronisation
- Zero refund failures
- Streamlined fulfilment across stores, online platforms, and marketplaces
This overhaul proved that operational agility is essential for sustaining great customer experience at scale.
Modernising Retail Infrastructure – Chicks Lifestyle, Hong Kong
As Chicks Lifestyle, a home-grown Hong Kong innerwear and thermal wear brand, ramped up for digital expansion, its on-prem systems began to falter under peak-season demands – leading to crashes and long checkout times.
In just six weeks, Chicks migrated its core ERP and POS systems to the cloud without losing a single byte of data. The impact was immediate.
Results:
- 99.99% uptime
- 15% faster checkouts
- 30% increase in operational efficiency
- 40% drop in IT costs
With a stable, modern tech backbone, Chicks is now exploring AI to fuel its next phase of growth and innovation.
Consumer-Centric Innovation – Tata Consumer Products, India
To deliver on its vision of consumer obsession, Tata Consumer Products transformed its engagement model by tapping into real-time data, automation, and CRM integration.
The company deployed intelligent systems that offer 360-degree customer views, personalised recommendations, and streamlined service delivery. Sales teams were empowered with mobile tools and data access, allowing faster and smarter decision-making in the field.
Impact:
- Improved responsiveness across sales and service channels
- Enhanced customer satisfaction through timely, contextual engagement
- Greater agility in launching new campaigns and offers
This reimagined engagement model is helping Tata Consumer Products bridge the digital and human aspects of customer experience.
The Big Picture: Lessons from the Region
Across Asia Pacific, retail leaders are proving that transformation is not about replacing systems – it’s about rethinking experience, process, and purpose.
Whether it’s streamlining fulfilment at scale or empowering employees with mobile-first workflows, today’s standout retailers are focused on:
- Cloud-Led Infrastructure: Building scalable and secure digital foundations
- Operational Agility: Adapting quickly to seasonal, regional, and behavioural shifts
- Empowered Employees: Replacing complexity with tools that enable and uplift
- Customer-Centric Intelligence: Using data to personalise and elevate engagement
- Sustainability at Scale: Simplifying operations while reducing waste
Retail is being reimagined as a living, learning system – designed around speed, intelligence, and trust. The future belongs to those who turn digital investments into human impact.
