AI, unified commerce to reshape Australian retail by 2026

Manhattan Associates has outlined five predictions for Australia's retail and supply chain sectors in 2026, focusing on practical AI adoption, faster order commitments and broader use of unified commerce systems.

The US-listed software group expects customer expectations to rise across physical stores, brand websites, online marketplaces and social platforms, even as operating conditions tighten. That combination increases the need for accurate real-time inventory, faster decision-making and modern point-of-sale tools.

AI adoption

AI use in Australian retail is expected to move from experimentation to day-to-day operations. Manhattan describes the shift as a "slow climb", driven more by practical constraints than headline ambition.

Progress will depend on core retail data quality and the state of existing systems. Retailers will need clean inventory records and modern technology stacks before they see sustained gains from automation and AI-assisted processes.

Early deployments are likely in labour-intensive work, as well as faster project delivery and incident management. Manhattan also expects growing interest in systems that use machine-driven processes to resolve faults.

Order commitments

Real-time fulfilment and order promising are expected to become baseline requirements, reflecting how shoppers split purchases across channels while still demanding consistent delivery speed and reliability.

Retailers will need to confirm orders in real time, regardless of where they originate, including in-store, on the web, through marketplaces and via social channels.

Manhattan expects greater use of intelligent sourcing and dynamic order allocation, along with continuous reallocation as stock positions shift and delivery constraints change.

This shift will expose the limits of traditional enterprise resource planning systems, which often rely on batch updates and delayed stock synchronisation. Those constraints are likely to be most visible when customers can see stock availability and delivery options in real time.

As a result, Manhattan expects increased investment in unified commerce platforms that can manage these decisions across the network in real time.

"Retailers across Australia are reaching a tipping point where they simply cannot meet customer expectations with legacy systems," said Raghav Sibal, Vice President, APAC, Manhattan Associates.

"The ability to make intelligent decisions in the moment, where orders are placed, changed or fulfilled, will shape competitive advantage in 2026," he said.

Unified commerce

Unified commerce projects are expected to accelerate as retailers try to create a single view of the customer, inventory and orders. Manhattan frames this as a response to the "ubiquitous consumer", who expects recognition and flexible fulfilment at every step of the shopping journey.

In practice, these programmes often bring together order management, point-of-sale and inventory systems to create a single real-time system of record across stores and online channels.

Manhattan expects this consolidation to shift from a long-term strategy to an operational requirement, increasingly linked to personalisation. That includes targeted offers and more tailored service, while maintaining a consistent fulfilment experience.

Mobile POS

Store technology also features in the outlook, with mobile-first point-of-sale systems expected to displace fixed registers. Manhattan predicts retailers will step up replacement programmes by the end of 2026.

Mobile POS is positioned as a broader store tool, not just a checkout terminal. Store associates are expected to use it for inventory visibility, fulfilment options, customer history and loyalty information. Manhattan also flags "open carts" as a feature retailers want staff to access on the shop floor.

Mobile POS adoption is also tied to operational changes, with stores used more actively as fulfilment nodes, including ship-from-store, pickup options and same-day delivery.

Social discovery

Online discovery is expected to shift further towards social and conversational interfaces. Manhattan points to the global expansion of TikTok Shop and major retailers' investment in conversational commerce as signals of change.

Keyword search is likely to lose ground to dialogue-based shopping, while AI-driven recommendations and visual search take a larger share of how customers find products.

This trend increases the importance of product data quality, imagery and content. Retailers are expected to put more effort into how products appear in AI-generated recommendations and liveCommerce environments.

Overall, Manhattan's predictions put supply chain execution and store systems at the centre of retail competition. It argues the next phase will depend on retailers' ability to connect inventory, ordering and fulfilment decisions across channels in real time.

"2026 will be a pivotal year for retail and supply chains in Australia," said Sibal. "The retailers who succeed will be those that modernise their technology foundations, embrace real-time intelligence, and build unified systems capable of serving customers seamlessly across every channel."