Retail News at a Glance, 15 September 2026

Retail News at a Glance, 15 September 2026. What happened this week in retail and retail technology, Australia first.

Kmart opens its largest New Zealand store

Kmart has opened its largest New Zealand store, a 6,700 square metre outlet at Westgate Town Centre in Auckland that trades 24 hours, the company confirmed. It is the first New Zealand deployment of Kmart's Plan C+ format, with expanded womenswear, beauty and home ranges, Select and Collect and more self-checkout, and takes the chain to 28 stores in the country. Why it matters: Plan C+ is the format Wesfarmers is testing for its next store generation. Retail Biz.

Australian shoppers chase the discount

Inside Retail reports that a Shop ANZ and Vypr survey found 91 per cent of Australian shoppers have switched brands for a better offer and 79 per cent have gone to a different retailer for a promotion, with 81 per cent saying price matters more than it did a year ago. Why it matters: loyalty programmes are now competing against a shopper who treats switching as normal. Inside Retail.

Ransomware hits a record month

Chain Store Age reports, citing the Comparitech tracker, that ransomware attacks reached a record 997 globally in August, up 23 per cent on July, with 417 in the United States and retail-sector attacks up 30 per cent month on month. Why it matters: retail remains a priority target heading into peak trading, when downtime is most expensive. Chain Store Age.

Google ships new measurement tools

Google has made several measurement tools generally available, its Ads and Commerce blog confirmed: Data Manager inside Google Analytics and Display & Video 360, a Data Strength Uplift metric in Google Ads, and GeoX causal geo-experiments within its Meridian marketing-mix model. Why it matters: geo-experiments give retailers a first-party way to test incrementality as third-party signals keep degrading. Google Ads and Commerce blog.