Winning Group CEO John Winning has shared his predictions for 2025 and reflections of 2024 as part of the Appliance Retailer Leaders Forum series of interviews.

Looking forward to 2025

In 2025 Winning expects consumer buying patterns to continue to be driven around peak sales periods such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but suggests that factors beyond price will influence the shopping experience.

“The value a retailer can bring to customers beyond price will continue to increase in importance and impact business performance,” Winning said. “The customer experience throughout the entire shopping journey is key to achieving trust and loyalty.”

Sustainability is also an ongoing trend to be monitored, as will preparing for legislation around this.

“The government is introducing stricter requirements for businesses to meet environmental standards including mandatory climate reporting,” Winning explained. “This could provide challenges if businesses don’t have the knowledge or aren’t operationally ready to meet these requirements.”

“We look forward to providing our partners with further opportunities to grow in 2025 with marketing and sustainability initiatives, end-to-end customer service and additional receiving capacity with the completion of our warehouse migrations.”

Reflecting on 2024

One of the highlights of 2024 for the Winning Group was the relaunch of the Kingston showroom as Winnings, offering Canberrans everything for the home including appliances, bathware, furniture, lighting and textiles.

The Winning Group also opened its new Kemps Creek Distribution Centre in Sydney – the largest in the group’s history.

“It will have a 6-star Green Star Rating and dedicated area to facilitate our award-winning takeback and recycling program,” Winning said. “It will also include a bespoke filming and photography studio to further expand our content creation capabilities, including videography, 360 photography and AR capabilities.”

The Winning Group conference in Queenstown, New Zealand was another highlight for the year, being the first conference since Covid, and the company mission being updated. “We shared our strategic focus, provided a business update and further strengthened our relationships with our valued partners,” Winning said.

At the conference the company showcased Winning Universe. “It demonstrates how we achieve our mission to create world-leading experiences for the world in retail, logistics, science and technology, hospitality, education and events.”

Winning Group also launched its Recycling Partnership Program in Queenstown. Supported by Beko, Bosch and Electrolux Home Products, the program will prevent around 85% of packaging waste including cardboard, soft plastics and expanded polystyrene, from polluting the environment or ending up in landfill. 

“We’re a proud founding member of the Coalition for Sustainable Solutions (CoFoSS) with our head of sustainable business and CSR, Alice Kuepper as a board director,” Winning said.

“I’m incredibly proud of the team, who go above and beyond for our customers,” Winning said. “This has resulted in our industry-leading Net Promoter Score of over 80, with Appliances Online achieving an NPS high of 84 in September.” 

“Our team’s efforts have also been acknowledged by consumer and industry awards,” Winning added.

“At Finder’s Customer Satisfaction Awards, Appliances Online was awarded with Most Loved Brand, Top Value Brand and Legendary Service as well as, Online Retailer of the Year, Customer Service Excellence and Best End-to-End Customer Experience at the ORIA Awards.  Winning Group was also acknowledged as a category winner in the AFR’s Sustainability Leaders List, and made the AFR’s Customer Champions List.”

When asked about key takeaways from 2024, Winning said it’s been the learnings from customers as they continue to innovate shopping experiences. “Creating the best experiences is the foundation of our business,” Winning explained. “We use these learnings to adapt and deliver exceptional shopping experiences for our customers, whether that’s online, in-store or during delivery, installation and after-sales service.”