Skip to main content
Business Australia
Microsoft Retail Vision

Microsoft Retail Technology: Vision of the Future

The retail experience is changing faster than ever. Explore the future with expert insights. Be inspired by industry leaders. And take the next step to success with Microsoft technologies, resources, events and free training.

Taking retail technology into the future

Explore four key opportunities where leading retailers are innovating with Microsoft technologies to redefine retail experiences and gain a competitive advantage.

Iconography - shopping bag

Reimagine retail

Discover more
Iconography - three people

Know your customers

Discover more
Iconography - two people talking

Empower your employees

Discover more
Iconography - three circles joined

Build resilient supply chains

Discover more

Where's retail heading? Into the cloud.

Designed to help retail firms accelerate innovation and sustain profitability, Microsoft Cloud for Retail brings together different data sources across the retail value chain to deliver more relevant personalised experiences and operational excellence.

Grocery man wearing a mask

Reimagine retail

What’s next? From Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to retail’s resurgence post-pandemic, be inspired by the retail reinvention that is sweeping Australia.

Who’s leading the way in Australia?

Three officials standing in front of Coles

"We've got 21 million transactions a week in our stores and online. All of that generates a vast amount of data that allows you to optimise your business and to give an engaging experience to the customer."

Roger Sniezek CIO and Digital Officer, Coles.

Discover how Coles is using digital transformation as an opportunity to inspire customers, deliver smarter selling and win together through innovation and partnerships.

Discover more
A man buying power tools, talking with shop assistant

"Using machine learning for retail is on our roadmap."

Dr Ryan Behdad, Data Science Lead, Cash Converters.

Learn how Cash Converters controls costs and accelerates access to insights with Azure Synapse Analytics.

Read more

Where can I learn more?

Transforming retail in the digital age

Explore the opportunities made possible by digital retail transformation and see how Microsoft helps retailers thrive.

Download the white paper

How eCommerce sets a solid foundation for growth

Tune into a free webinar to hear from Paul Bartlett, Head of Consumer Products, Foodstuffs NZ on how they transformed their business with eCommerce.

Register now

How Australian retailers have been investing in data and deploying AI to improve agility

Join this free virtual forum to benefit from world-leading 'AI basecamps' research from Kellogg Business School and first-hand insights from Peter Bonney General Manager Technology, Engineering and Data and LAB288 at Coles.

View On-Demand

Technologies and opportunities

Here’s just a taste of what’s possible. Talk to your Microsoft partner about your next retail project.

Efficiency and safety

Benefit from energy savings and efficiency with electronic shelf labels, self-checkout and robotics. Monitor occupancy, social distancing and sanitation compliance.

Azure IoT for retail

Contactless shopping

Bring the convenience of scan and go, BOPIS and curbside pickup, home and locker delivery as well as contactless payments to your customers.

Azure IoT Edge

Dark stores and fulfilment nodes

Take advantage of perpetual inventory accuracy and order management or create micro-fulfilment centres or dark stores.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain

Introduce omnichannel

Give your customers the option to purchase when, how and where they want on any device with a frictionless experience.

Dynamics 365 Commerce

Targeted advertising

Easily deploy and manage your vendor marketing program at scale – including powerful enterprise tools to manage hundreds of brands promoting millions of SKUs on-site.

PromoteIQ

Know your customers

Predicting needs, adding value, simplifying interactions. Discover how to anticipate and delight your customers.

Who’s leading the way in Australia?

Woman surfing a barrel

"We now have a singular view of key customer drivers and understanding of product performance across a consistent real- time platform from in store to head office."

Roger Sniezek CIO and Digital Officer, Coles.

Discover how Rip Curl now has a unified view of key customer drivers and can answer questions like “How does weather impact our sales in store? How do global trends impact us or do surfers completely ignore what’s happening in the retail landscape?”

Learn more
A hand holding a phone, using the 7/11 app

"Our technology ambition is all about making our customers' lives easier by providing products and services when, where and how they want them."

Lachlan Farran, GM of Retail and Operations, Rip Curl Group

7-Eleven has entered strategic partnerships with Adobe and Microsoft to create a ‘My 7-Eleven app’ and a new digital front door and website, offering customers personalised digital experiences at scale.

Technologies and opportunities

Here’s just a taste of what’s possible. Talk to your Microsoft partner about your next retail project.

Create a single customer view

Get a 360-degree view of your customer with data from a variety of sources in a single data platform.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

Engage consumers

Run orchestrated marketing campaigns to target individual customers with personalised messaging through their preferred channels and touchpoints.

Dynamics 365 Marketing

Measure marketing effectiveness

Understand conversion rates, media mix impact, sales lift and the effect of promotions and discounts.

Dynamics 365 Commerce

Map the consumer journey

Analyse all aspects of consumer behaviour and generate meaningful insights in a hub.

Microsoft Power BI

Unify your commerce strategy

Enable customers to purchase what they want when they want it, through their preferred channels.

Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection

Empower your employees

They’re your greatest asset. So how do you equip them to work more effectively?

Mock up of stats from shop floor

Your employees have the answers: Listening to the shopfloor

Find out what’s holding back your retail employee experience in the current climate and discover the simple steps to boost retail productivity. 

View the infographic
A mano n a tablet in the store room of a shop

How to increase the productivity and agility of your retail team

Consumer demand for safe and easy shopping experiences is paving the way for retailers to innovate more quickly. Join this free virtual forum to hear from Microsoft Stores, who transitioned to work-from-home environment and Microsoft partner, Avanade, who shares recent market research into improving the work experience for frontline employees.

View On-Demand

Who’s leading the way in Australia?

"Priceline is now empowered with near real time data that allows it to make highly informed, evidence-based decisions for individual stores, a franchise group, or the entire network."

Steven Worrall, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia

Pharmacist stocking the shelve

A few months ago, Priceline Pharmacy held an ‘Ideas Jam’ day, where they brought together different vendors (including Microsoft) to demonstrate some of the new technology that were making a mark on the retail space and generate ideas as to how they might use that technology to solve real world problems. The results were impressive. Using a Microsoft Power BI solution Pharmacy Business Leaders can see how stores are operating in near real time and use that to steer conversations with retail store staff.

Read more

Technologies and opportunities

Here’s just a taste of what’s possible. Talk to your Microsoft partner about your next retail project.

Connect your workforce

Improve information flow from head office to frontline workers with up-to-the minute communications on promotions and changing customer health and safety rules.

Microsoft 365 Teams for Retail

Balance productivity and wellbeing

Harness and share knowledge through formal and informal learning and allowing employees flexibility.

Microsoft 365 Viva

Transform customer service

Empower your frontline workers to be their best by automating routine tasks and streamlining processes.

Azure IoT for Retail

Accelerate decision making

Give staff the information and tools they need to make informed decisions, analyse data, build solutions and automate processes.

Microsoft Power Platform

Build resilient supply chains

You’re only as good as your last delivery. But what if supply lets you down? Discover how innovative technologies are changing the nature of modern supply chains.

Who’s leading the way in Australia?

Two people holding hands - one with an engagement ring

"We use the ship-from-store capability in Dynamics 365 to fulfill demand from many locations, rather than requiring human intervention whenever stock is transferred."

Matt Keays, CIO, Michael Hill

By optimizing in-store operations, customer service, and other retail processes, Michael Hill has been able to successfully drive efficiencies, improve margins, and deliver stellar customer experiences.

OTR petrol station

"We want to get the best performance and reduce the downtime in our stores, while fulfilling our business requirements, and we wanted it all for a competitive price. We evaluated a few other vendors, and Azure Stack Edge came out on top."

Malik Ahmed, Cloud Engineer at Peregrine Corporation

Peregrine can serve customer needs 24/7 stores, even in rural locations, by using Azure Stack Edge to bridge the gap between its on-premises transactions and its cloud workloads.

Technologies and opportunities

Here’s just a taste of what’s possible. Talk to your Microsoft partner about your next retail project.

Enable end-to-end visibility

Enhance inventory process management across the value chain, while preparing for a more connected, intuitive future through data integration and AI/ML.

Azure Synapse Analytics

Orchestrate your supply chain

Leverage AI/ML and cloud-based solutions to plan, automate and optimise distribution and last-mile fulfilment with predictive actions.

Azure for Retail

Improve demand management

Match customer demand across channels using AI and machine learning to improve forecasting and position inventory so you can optimise distribution while minimising costs.

Dynamics 365 Commerce Supply Chain Management

Trace products across the value chain

Reduce waste across all supply chain activities and design products, services and devices with sustainability in mind.

Azure IoT

Stay at the forefront of retail innovation

Sign up for updates, join us for what’s next and find the retail technology expertise, support and training you need.

Microsoft Ignite digital graphic

Microsoft Ignite

Network with other retailers and hear from experts as you discover the latest tools, technologies at our conference.

Register
Mockup of Microsoft Cloud retail on phone

Microsoft Cloud for Retail updates

Be the first to hear about Microsoft Cloud for Retail.

Sign up
Man leaning up against a wall

Find a Microsoft partner

Get the expertise and support you need for your next IT project or digital transformation.

Grocery man with tablet checking supplies in fridge section

Retail blog

Check out the latest stories, insights and updates from Microsoft.

Visit the Retail blog

Woman working a office desk with tablet

Free AI Business School for retail

Take 40 minutes to learn how AI could transform your retail business, how to articulate the components of an AI strategy and apply a value creation framework to your context.

Take the course
Three people in an office meeting working at a table

Free cloud training

Whether you’re starting from scratch or sharpening years of expertise, the Cloud Skills Hub can help you understand more with free cloud training tailored to all roles and technology solutions.

Explore