Retail Therapy

We’re excited to announce the launch of Season 5 of Retail Therapy, proudly brought to you by American Express. This season, ARA CEO Paul Zahra will be chatting with a great line-up of guests from Australia’s retail industry, including the leaders of some of the biggest retailers in Australia. We’ll be finding out what makes them tick, what defines their leadership style and how they got to the to...

In this episode of Retail Therapy, ARA CEO Paul Zahra welcomes two successful entrepreneurs, Andrew Butt and Shobhit Shukla to the podcast studio. They discuss their respective businesses, Enable and Near, and their growing impact on the global retail industry.   This episode explores how technology addresses supply chain challenges and provides essential locational data to retailers.   Tune in to...

In this episode of Retail Therapy, we welcome Nicole Sheffield, Managing Director at Wesfarmers OneDigital and the first female president of the Australian Retailers Association to the studio. Nicole shares insights into her career trajectory, leadership inspirations, challenges in closing the gender equality gap, the importance of data and technology in retail, advice for aspiring executives, and...

In this next episode of Retail Therapy, we're chatting about the opportunities within sustainability innovation for retailers with Tom Ferrier, Founder of Greener.   Tom is a former IT professional, who hung up the suit and tie to develop Greener – a first-to-market solution to help small businesses understand and prioritise the steps they can take to reduce their carbon footprint.   Greener was a...

In this next episode of Retail Therapy, we're chatting about tech and innovation with Erica Berchtold, CEO of THE ICONIC.   THE ICONIC is one of the most successful online marketplaces in the country. The company is part of Global Fashion Group which is the leading fashion and lifestyle destination in many markets around the world.  THE ICONIC launched in 2011 and is one of Australia’s largest fas...

In this episode of Retail Therapy, we’re joined by Janet Menzies, Country Manager of Amazon Australia. Janet has led the Amazon Australia team since 2021, presiding over substantial growth in that time as more and more people embraced shopping online during the pandemic.   While Amazon is one of the largest retailers on the planet, it only launched in Australia in 2017, but it’s grown to become a...

In this episode of Retail Therapy, we’re joined by David Mannah, CEO of creative and marketing agency MDivision, and founder of the Australian Hair and Fashion Awards. Speaking with podcast host Paul Zahra, David shares his passion for all things hair and beauty and gives insights into the innovations happening in the industry. David talks about his background and the founding of MDivision, a crea...

In the latest episode of Retail Therapy, we have the pleasure of hosting two incredible women, Andrea Culligan and Melissa Dean from Deloitte, in our studio.   Andrea is an expert in Innovation, Ventures, and Ecosystems for Sustainability and Climate, with an extensive business background in tech, innovation, and startups across Canada and Australia. Meanwhile, Melissa has over 20 years of experie...

In this episode of Retail Therapy, we have the pleasure of hosting Brian Solis. Brian is a leading digital anthropologist and futurist, known for his expertise in digital transformation, customer experience, and innovation. He is currently the Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce, where he leverages his vast knowledge to drive thought leadership and research.   Join host Paul Zahra, CEO of A...

Victor Dominello, NSW Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government is well regarded in the tech and innovation space and joins Retail Therapy to share his insights and experience leading the NSW State Government’s digital strategy for a number of years. In this episode, Victor and ARA CEO Paul Zahra discuss: Leading government through digital innovation The evolution of the Service NSW app...

We're kicking off Season 4 of Retail Therapy with a scene-setting conversation with Kate Pounder, CEO of the Technology Council of Australia.     Kate has led the Tech Council since it was founded in August 2021 – it is the peak body representing Australia’s tech sector, and its membership includes the likes of Atlassian, Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, plus many more.      New and transfo...

Welcome to Season 4 of Retail Therapy, brought to you by American Express.   The ARA is the oldest, largest and most diverse national retail body, representing a $400 billion sector that employs 1.3 million Australians... the largest private sector employer in the country.  This season we will be focusing on tech and innovation within the retail industry.  We will be talking to retailers who are u...

Today we welcome Craig Woolford, Senior Research Analyst at MST Marquee to the Retail Therapy podcast to round out our Christmas bonus season.   Craig's 20 years of experience in analysing the retail, food and beverage industries has resulted in becoming an incredibly trusted resource among institutional investors, media and industry journals alike. We’re excited to chat with Craig about what the...

Introducing the insightful Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour at QUT Business School and Chair of the ARA Consumer Research Committee.   When it comes to research and consumer trends, Gary really knows his stuff. With over 12 years’ experience, he’s got the scoop on the latest and greatest gifting ideas, consumer attitudes to sustainable gifting and waste during the Chris...

Season's Greetings! We're pleased to welcome Gary Starr, Executive General Manager, Customer & Commercial, Australia Post to the ARA Retail Therapy podcast this week. Australia Post plays an integral role in supporting retailers through this busy trading period and in this bonus episode, Gary gives us an overview of the state-of-play for the postal service this Christmas. This episode covers: Pred...

Season's Greetings!   We're pleased to welcome Fleur Brown, Chief Industry Affairs Officer at the Australian Retailers Association, to the Retail Therapy podcast this week.    The holidays are fast approaching and retailers are in preparation mode for the Christmas shopping rush. There’s lots of challenges facing our industry in terms of supply chain and staff shortages, but plenty to be optimisti...

Joining us for Episode 11 of Retail Therapy Season 3, is Jaana Quaintance-James, Chief Sustainability Officer at the Global Fashion Group, parent to THE ICONIC – a well-known online fashion retailer in Australia and in New Zealand.   Jaana has been working in the sustainability and ethical fashion space for many years now, working at David Jones and as a consultant, assisting organisations with th...

Climate-conscious husband and wife team Dean Jones and Audrey Khaing-Jones are co-founders of GlamCorner, an online designer fashion rental service – described as the Netflix of fashion. After 10 years of running their first sustainably focussed fashion business, they continue to dedicate their lives to reducing the environmental impact of the industry.   This year the duo also launched RELOOP, a...

Our next podcast guest is Leilani Weier, Head of Responsible Investments at Rest, a strategic partner of the ARA.  This season, we’ve been chatting about sustainability and climate change, how community attitudes have changed and what organisations are doing in their transitions to net-zero emissions. This also extends to superannuation companies like Rest. We think you’ll be intrigued to hear the...

Introducing Kylie Ahern, the CEO & Founder at STEM Matters – an agency that works with leading researchers to improve the way they communicate their stories across science, technology, arts, business and economics.    A passionate advocate for sustainability and climate change, Kylie is an award-winning publisher and entrepreneur with experience that spans media, telecommunications, science and ed...

Our next guest on the Retail Therapy podcast is Alex Holt, Chief Sustainability Officer at Woolworths Group – one of Australia’s biggest companies and most recognisable brands. It was in June last year that this executive level leadership role was created, highlighting the firm commitment from the organisation to bring their sustainability objectives to the forefront.  Alex has been at the helm of...

Our next guest has a wealth of experience in consulting and advising retailers on how to reimagine their physical retail space. Joining Paul for some Retail Therapy is Ian Johnston, the Founder and Creative Director of Quinine – UK-based research, strategy and design consultancy. We’ve heard a lot about ‘why’ when it comes to the importance of sustainability, but the focus has shifted to the execu...

Here's part two of the fascinating and thought-provoking conversation with Sarah Wilson. Sarah is the founder of the internationally acclaimed I Quit Sugar movement, global best-selling author, thought leader, philanthropist and climate advisor. Sarah is a leading voice on mental health issues and runs her own podcast series ‘Wild with Sarah Wilson’, linked to her most recent book ‘This One Wild a...

Here’s an episode of ARA Retail Therapy you don’t want to miss. Founder of the internationally acclaimed I Quit Sugar movement, globally best-selling author, thought leader, philanthropist, climate advisor, and a truly all-round fascinating and engaging person, is the influential Sarah Wilson.  Not only has Sarah been ranked in the top 200 most influential authors in the world, she was once the ho...

Our next guest on the ARA Retail Therapy podcast is the humble and passionate CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific since 2012, David Ritter. He has worked in the London office for five years, was a lawyer for more than a decade before that, with a particular focus on native title and recently co-authored the book ‘The Coal Truth: the fight to stop Adani, defeat the big polluters and reclaim our dem...