Australian Retailers Association

ABS monthly data released this week shows household spending rose 4.8% year-on-year in February 2026, and rose 0.3% over January 2026. Whilst retail spending remained resilient in February, year-on-year growth was slower than in January. Feburary’s growth was weakest across discretionary categories including apparel and and household goods and strongest in cafes and takeaway food. The modest growth in most discretionary goods spending points toward an increasingly selective consumer.

With the support of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Australia, the Australian Retail Council has launched the BinToWin promotion on the Gold Coast to celebrate positive recycling behaviour in shopping centres. From March to May mystery shoppers will be roaming 5 Gold Coast shopping centres randomly surprising shoppers with $50 gift cards simply for putting their bottle or can in the right recycling bin.

The 2026 Australian Toy, Hobby & Licensing Fair has delivered one of the clearest signals yet that the Australian toy and licensing industry is back in growth mode. Held from 1 to 4 March at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, this year’s Fair brought together retailers, buyers, licensors, licensees, manufacturers, and agents for four days of meetings, product discovery, celebration, and industry connection.

Retailers are using myriad strategies to elevate private-brand offerings. McKinsey reports that more than 80% of U.S. consumers rate the quality of private-brand food products the same or better than national brands, and nearly 90% feel that private brands offer similar or better value.

In today’s hypercompetitive marketplace, the most successful brands don’t just serve their customers – they obsess over them. Mark Barrocas, CEO of SharkNinja, joined Sarah Nassauer, Retail Reporter for The Wall Street Journal, for this fireside chat. They explored how the leading consumer product company SharkNinja is putting the consumer at the centre of every decision, using real-time insights, feedback loops, and co-creation strategies to drive meaningful innovation.

In this session Eduardo Yamashita, Operations Director for Gouvea Ecosystem, and Rogerio Barreira, President of Arcos Dorados, the world’s largest independent McDonald’s franchisee, explored how services are becoming a key part of retail transformation — helping companies grow new revenue streams, improve customer engagement, and create new positions in the market.

Markdowns help retailers clear stock, but rarely help them learn. In this session, Stuart Kinghorn, Head of Food Operations & Transformation for Marks & Spencer (M&S), shared how the retailer was moving from transactional, end-of-life price drops to an integrated waste ecosystem, linking stock-exit management, fresh production planning and store execution into one loop.

Gary Vaynerchuk, Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia, serial entrepreneur and brand builder, joined Christopher Zara, News Director at Fast Company to challenge, inspire and energise the retail industry. In this no-holds-barred fireside chat, Vaynerchuk shared his unfiltered take on what it takes to win in today’s attention economy, where consumer expectations shift overnight and brand loyalty is earned in seconds.

PepsiCo North America President Michael Del Pozzo joined Matt Shay, President and CEO of the National Retail Federation on stage for a fireside conversation on how one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies is responding to a new era of consumer behaviour. With GLP-1 medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy being increasingly adopted, shifts in consumer eating patterns and wellness expectations are rising.

Asset protection and loss prevention are rapidly evolving. Two industry experts – Dr. Read Hayes, Executive Director, Loss Prevention Research Council and Research Scientist at the University of Florida, and Jonathan Novack, Loss Prevention Manager US, CA & PR from H&M – explored the biggest trends that are redefining this space. They touched on research-backed strategies, the role of AI in loss prevention, and practical lessons from scaling programs across a whole range of retail environments.