Five APAC Retail Trends Shaping Global Retail

Asia Pacific has long been recognised as one of the world's fastest-growing retail markets.

Today, it has become something even more significant. It is increasingly the world's retail laboratory.

Many of the business models, technologies and consumer behaviours that eventually reshape global commerce are emerging first across Asia Pacific. Retailers throughout the region are responding rapidly to local market conditions, often experimenting with ideas that later influence businesses around the world.

During the latest 5 Things Friday APAC, Alex Rezvan, Founder of The Retail Podcast, was joined by Ryf Quail, Managing Director of NRF APAC, and Ewan Ang to discuss five developments shaping retail across the region.

Although each story came from a different market, they all reflected the same reality. Retail success is increasingly determined by how quickly businesses respond to changing customer expectations.

Retailers Are Solving Local Challenges Faster

Innovation is not always about new technology. Sometimes it begins with solving immediate operational problems.

In Australia, organised retail crime has become one of the industry's biggest challenges.

Supermarket giant Coles has confirmed the closure of its Elizabeth Street store in Melbourne's CBD. The company has described the decision as commercial, tied to the expiry of its lease, but the closure comes against a backdrop of well-documented problems with crime and antisocial behaviour in the area, and has intensified industry conversation about the impact of retail crime on store viability and worker safety. Coles has also partnered with Crime Stoppers as part of its wider response.

According to Quail, the decision reflects a much broader issue affecting retailers across Australia and New Zealand.

Retail crime is estimated to cost Australian businesses between A$7.8 billion and A$9 billion annually, depending on the methodology used, with the Griffith University 2024 ANZ Retail Crime Study citing A$7.79 billion and industry bodies citing figures at the upper end of that range. Nationally, between 500,000 and 600,000 people are affected by theft each year, and 45 percent of all reported theft incidents occur in retail environments. Victoria alone recorded 95,181 criminal incidents in retail locations in 2025, a 25.7 percent increase over the past decade.

Products such as cosmetics, baby formula, sporting goods and branded apparel have become common targets because of their resale value.

The consequences extend far beyond inventory shrinkage. Retail workers increasingly face verbal abuse, intimidation and physical violence. The problem also reaches beyond traditional retail formats. Quail noted that 2degrees, a New Zealand telecommunications retailer selling mobile phones and data plans, has introduced safe rooms in a number of its stores so that staff can retreat to a protected environment when situations become too dangerous.

For retailers, the message is clear. Operational resilience has become a competitive advantage in its own right, and workforce safety now sits alongside loss prevention.

China's Membership Economy Is Redefining Customer Loyalty

While Australian retailers are focused on protecting stores, China's retailers are focused on strengthening customer relationships.

Membership retail continues to gain momentum as consumers increasingly value exclusive access, trusted quality and personalised experiences over simple discounting.

Sam's Club has expanded aggressively, operating around 60 warehouses across China. Costco, which entered the market in 2019, has taken a far more deliberate approach with seven locations, and has instead extended its membership model into digital commerce.

Its specialty store on JD.com allows members to access membership pricing online, while non-members can still buy the same products at standard retail prices.

Rather than limiting membership benefits to warehouse visits, Costco is building a broader retail ecosystem that combines physical stores with e-commerce.

The popularity of Kirkland Signature, Costco's private-label brand, further illustrates how retailer-owned brands can become trusted consumer brands in their own right, carrying a premium perception at lower prices.

The lesson extends beyond China. Loyalty is increasingly about creating ecosystems that customers choose to join, rather than programmes that simply reward purchases.

Vietnam Shows That Mobile Commerce Has Become the Default

Few markets demonstrate the speed of digital retail transformation more clearly than Vietnam.

With more than 100 million people and around 85 million internet users, the country has become one of Southeast Asia's most dynamic e-commerce markets.

Unlike many Western economies, Vietnam is fundamentally mobile-first, in large part because terrestrial broadband never became widespread. Consumers discover products, engage with brands and complete purchases on their phones through platforms such as Shopee and TikTok Shop.

That concentration is striking. Roughly A$10.6 billion in sales flows through just those two platforms, spread across around 610 brands.

Livestream shopping has also become part of everyday consumer behaviour rather than a niche innovation.

Beauty, fashion and grocery continue to drive e-commerce growth, supported by social commerce and digital engagement throughout the shopping journey.

Quail also pointed to grocery as an important indicator of e-commerce maturity. Once consumers become comfortable ordering everyday essentials online, digital adoption tends to accelerate across every retail category.

For retailers entering Southeast Asia, the implication is clear. Building a traditional e-commerce website is no longer enough. Success increasingly depends on designing retail experiences around mobile behaviour from the very beginning.

Wellness Is Reshaping Grocery Retail

Consumer expectations are also transforming what people buy.

According to Ewan Ang, one of the strongest themes emerging from Food & Drinks Malaysia by SIAL is the rapid rise of functional food. She pointed to products that deliver additional health benefits moving beyond specialist wellness aisles and into everyday grocery shopping, spanning high-protein cereals, gut-health beverages, functional coffee and collagen-enhanced foods.

Consumers increasingly expect food and beverages to support wellbeing alongside convenience and taste.

Quail noted that the same shift is playing out in Western markets, where GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are pushing shoppers towards higher-protein and more functional products.

This is changing how retailers merchandise. Rather than separating health-focused products into dedicated sections, many supermarkets are integrating them throughout traditional grocery categories because wellness is becoming part of mainstream purchasing behaviour.

For retailers, health is no longer simply another category. It is becoming an expectation that influences purchasing decisions across the entire store.

Localisation Is Becoming Retail's Competitive Advantage

Another important trend highlighted during the discussion is the evolution of Korean food across Southeast Asia.

Consumer demand remains strong, but retailers and manufacturers are increasingly recognising that authenticity alone is no longer enough.

Instead of importing products unchanged, brands are adapting Korean flavours to local preferences. Kimchi is being made less acidic, gochujang is offered at varied spice levels, and products are increasingly manufactured locally while preserving the essence of Korean cuisine.

According to Ang, this shift reflects the growing maturity of regional food markets. Consumers appreciate authentic global flavours, but they also expect products to fit local tastes and eating habits.

The same principle increasingly applies across retail. Global brands succeed not by offering identical experiences everywhere, but by adapting to the expectations of individual markets.

APAC's Biggest Advantage Is Its Ability to Adapt

At first glance, organised retail crime, membership retail, e-commerce growth, functional food and Korean cuisine appear to have little in common.

Together, however, they tell a much bigger story.

Across Asia Pacific, retailers are responding rapidly to changing consumer behaviour rather than relying on traditional operating models. They are redesigning stores to improve safety, building membership ecosystems instead of transactional loyalty programmes, creating mobile-first shopping experiences, integrating wellness into everyday grocery retail and adapting global products to local markets.

The common thread is adaptability. Rather than asking consumers to change their behaviour, retailers are changing their businesses to meet evolving expectations.

That ability to move quickly may be Asia Pacific's greatest competitive advantage.

For retailers elsewhere, the region is no longer simply a market to watch. It has become one of the clearest indicators of where global retail is heading next.