
NZ Retail Industry Gathering For Inspiration And Celebration
The changing retail environment, international retail trends and the customers of the future will be the focus of a national retail conference being held by Retail NZ this year.
Registrations are open for the Inspire Retail 25 conference taking place at the Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland, on Thursday 28 August.
The conference will be followed by the Retail NZ Awards gala dinner – the first time Retail NZ has held its awards since 2019.
'With a focus on creating a brighter tomorrow, our Inspire Retail 25 conference sessions are designed to be future-focused, providing attendees with strategic knowledge and practical takeaways that they can implement in their business,' Retail NZ Chief Executive Carolyn Young says.
'We'll dive into how retailers can adapt to a changing retail environment and how to create high-performing teams. Our expert speakers will explore what the retail industry will look like in five years' time.'
Retail NZ is excited to revive the retail industry's premier awards programme, with the revamped Retail NZ Awards set to showcase the best of retail in New Zealand.
Entries for the Retail NZ Awards are open until 29 June, providing retailers an exciting opportunity to highlight and celebrate their individual and business successes.
The eight Award categories are:
'We all know that times have been tough in retail but there is still plenty to celebrate across the industry so we're taking the opportunity to recognise the great work of our best retailers across Aotearoa,' Ms Young says.
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Facial recognition technology supported by big name retailers
Large retailers support having facial recognition technology in their stores. Photo: RNZ The heads of a dozen of the largest retailers and telcos in the country have come out in strong support of using facial recognition technology in their stores. This follows the Privacy Commissioner giving what he called a "cautious tick" to a trial in New World and Pak'nSave supermarkets. "The undersigned major New Zealand retailers strongly support the use of fair and accurate technology to protect our workers and customers," said a statement at industry group Retail NZ's website . Without saying when they might start using it, they stated they would work now to develop "best practice". "We recognise that technology must be used in a fair and accurate way." The letter was signed by the heads of Briscoes and Rebel Sport, Bunnings and Mitre 10, Michael Hill Jewellers, Farmers and The Warehouse, the two Foodstuffs supermarket groups in the two islands as well as rival Woolworths, and telcos One NZ and Spark. Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster had said his report was "not a green light for more general use of FRT" (facial recognition technology). "However, we recognise the importance of the issue for many businesses." The trial let other businesses ask themselves the right questions about whether to use FRT and in what ways to protect privacy, Webster said. There were significant caveats. "While the percentage of misidentifications may be small, rolling FRT out at scale would mean that large numbers of people would be misidentified." Foodstuffs North Island's own research suggested 900 shoppers a year could be misidentified in its stores alone. The commissioner suggested raising the algorithm accuracy from 90 percent to 92.5 percent, among other measures. A Māori Reference Panel set up at the end of 2024 told the commissioner it opposed FRT's use in supermarkets. This was "given the vital role of supermarkets in providing access to food, the current supermarket duopoly which means there are limited alternative options for people who are barred from entry, and the concern that the whole population of Aotearoa will be subjected to surveillance in supermarkets in order to reduce instances of harmful behaviour by a small minority of customers". Retail NZ's Carolyn Young said for someone to be on the watchlist, they had to have offended and/or been abusive and/or aggressive in store and trespassed. If someone was trespassed from a retail environment, they currently are not able to return to that store for two years. "What we know in retail is that recidivous offending is very high - between 35-50 percent (depending on the sector) of offending is done by recidivous offending. "So we know that even though someone has been trespassed, they continue to come back into store," Young said. "FRT will enable stores to identify these individuals as they enter store to ensure that the store is safe for staff and customers. "FRT does not enable customers to be monitored. It takes an image of people as they enter the store and if they are not on the watchlist, then they are deleted immediately. "FRT does not provide ongoing monitoring throughout the store, just one photo/image as someone enters." Facial recognition technology does not monitor shoppers. Photo: 123RF The big-store signatories said they acknowledged the commissioner's oversight, and Foodstuffs for leading the way with its trial. "The use of FRT in the right settings with the right controls will provide positive benefits and outcomes for customers, retailers and workers, while not impeding on the privacy of New Zealanders. "The vast majority of customers will be able to go about their business as usual and will in fact be safer in those stores where FRT is used," the Retail NZ statement said. Webster also stressed it would be "highly desirable" to do training of the FRT algorithms on New Zealanders' faces, by consent, to cut down the risk of bias and inaccuracy. Very limited such testing by the Department of Internal Affairs last year found the imported tech it is currently using was accurate. Many multiple FRT systems are on offer that return different rates of accuracy in independent tests by the US-based benchmarking agency. In Australia, Bunnings had been in a legal fight with a watchdog that asserted its facial recognition there impinged on people's privacy. Reports of the tech being used at supermarkets in an isolated way in New Zealand date back to at least 2018. Researchers foresaw the tech spread in 2021. "Private sector use of FRT-enabled surveillance is likely to increase, particularly in the retail sector, especially as these services come 'baked-in' to vendor offerings," their landmark report for police said. That contributed to police deciding not to use FRT on live camera feeds , a constraint they say they have stuck with till now. In Britain, the tech's spread, for example in airports and shopping centres, prompted the government's biometrics ethics group in 2021 to recommend oversight by an independent ethics group including of collaborative FRT use between retail and police. Young said Britain was a long way ahead of New Zealand in terms of the implementation of FRT and had used CCTV actively in the community for many years. Here, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) would carry out the role of oversight, she said. "It may be in the future that there is a need for another regulatory body to do this work, but while we are in our infancy of implementation and the OPC has been very clear about how it is to be rolled out, we believe that the parameters for implementation are very clear." The Privacy Commissioner's report does not contain a similar recommendation. It mentioned Foodstuffs auditing how it compiled watchlists of people for the camera-software to look out for, but not that this should be independent. The signed Retail NZ statement did not mention independent overview. Australia's privacy regulator signalled in March it would be proactive in regulating biometric information . Biometrics include face, fingerprint and iris - unique identifiers of who a person is. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - it had taken on Bunnings, which was appealing - put this in a wider frame: "Our research told us that more than a quarter of Australians feel that facial recognition technology is one of the biggest privacy risks faced today, and only three percent of Australians think it's fair and reasonable for retailers to require their biometric information when accessing their services". "Thinking about what the law permits, but also what the community would expect" was critical. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.


Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
NZ Retail Industry Gathering For Inspiration And Celebration
The changing retail environment, international retail trends and the customers of the future will be the focus of a national retail conference being held by Retail NZ this year. Registrations are open for the Inspire Retail 25 conference taking place at the Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland, on Thursday 28 August. The conference will be followed by the Retail NZ Awards gala dinner – the first time Retail NZ has held its awards since 2019. 'With a focus on creating a brighter tomorrow, our Inspire Retail 25 conference sessions are designed to be future-focused, providing attendees with strategic knowledge and practical takeaways that they can implement in their business,' Retail NZ Chief Executive Carolyn Young says. 'We'll dive into how retailers can adapt to a changing retail environment and how to create high-performing teams. Our expert speakers will explore what the retail industry will look like in five years' time.' Retail NZ is excited to revive the retail industry's premier awards programme, with the revamped Retail NZ Awards set to showcase the best of retail in New Zealand. Entries for the Retail NZ Awards are open until 29 June, providing retailers an exciting opportunity to highlight and celebrate their individual and business successes. The eight Award categories are: 'We all know that times have been tough in retail but there is still plenty to celebrate across the industry so we're taking the opportunity to recognise the great work of our best retailers across Aotearoa,' Ms Young says.

RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
Auckland department store Smith and Caughey's unveils final window display
Soon to close Auckland department store Smith & Caughey's has unveiled it's final Queen Street window display after 145 years. The curtains were pulled back at 3:30pm on Thursday, where a projector played a slideshow of images commemorating the iconic store's heritage and people. It accompanied another window display that was revealed on Wednesday, which reflects on Smith & Caughey's origins. Smith & Caughey's historical window display showing store's history. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel About a dozen staff members came outside together to watch the display unveiling. Smith & Caughey's acting chief executive Matt Harray was approached by RNZ, but declined to comment. It comes as the department store's closing date was moved forward to 4pm Sunday, after originally being set to shut its doors on 31 July. "It is with a heavy heart that we announce our official closure, 4pm Sunday 15 June 2025. Until then, we welcome you instore for one last shop, a friendly chat and perhaps a shared memory or two," said Smith & Caughey's on social media. The post went on to say that the final Smith & Caughey's Queen Street window display, "shines a light on the rich history of our business, and our people". Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel The store had announced in May that it intended to close, with 98 staff being made redundant. Smith & Caughey's closed its Newmarket store last year and had reduced its Queen Street store to one floor. At the time, the company cited increased competition from new shopping malls, continued economic uncertainty and low consumer confidence and spending power has contributed to their closure. Smith & Caughey's also said many city office workers were continuing to work from home post-Covid. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel They said the city centre has also faced significant disruption and change in the form of ongoing roadworks and the slow progress of CRL causing traffic congestion. The company said a large decline in foot traffic on Queen Street and an increase in parking costs had caused an impact, forcing the "heartbreaking" closure of the entire business. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel "We are acutely aware that this has been a difficult and uncertain time for our staff and today's announcement is a deeply emotional one for all the team, our suppliers and our loyal customers," Harray said at the time in a statement. "Our intention has always been to address the business challenges so that Smith & Caughey's can continue. Every attempt has been made to achieve this and every feasible option investigated, no stone left unturned. "However, it's sadly clear it is no longer viable for us to keep the doors open." Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.