EXCLUSIVE: Behind Australian fashion's best numbers. 24 September 2026 2 / 3 free articles left. VRG GRL's Cale Suesskow, The Iconic's Joshua Nunan and Country Road Group's Steven Cook feature in its free report on the calls reshaping how fashion buys and sells. VRG GRL cut every wholesale supplier in late 2022 and moved to a range designed entirely in-house. The Iconic went quiet on retail media for 18 months and came back with an ad server of its own. Both bets are now paying off. They sit alongside Showpo, Sheike and Country Road Group in Ragtrader's new Fashion in Focus: Technology report, presented by Styllar. Read together, the case studies point the same way. The fashion businesses posting the strongest numbers are taking control of the systems underneath the product. For VRG GRL the cost came up front. Lead times stretched from four to six weeks out to six to nine months. "We had to sacrifice revenue and profitability in the short term while we built that foundation again," co-CEO Cale Suesskow said. The brand has since posted 30 per cent sales growth. The Iconic handed director of marketing partnerships Joshua Nunan a brief to rebuild its retail media arm from the ground up. "We've been strategically quiet about this," Nunan said. What that patience bought was an ad server, developed in-house rather than licensed. Iconic Media delivered 160 per cent year-on-year revenue growth in the first half of 2026. Owning the code is the commercial argument. Because The Iconic wrote the serving logic, it decides what the system optimises for. Customer relevance comes first, campaign performance second and money third. "Yes, we've got more partners, definitely, but it's been driven by smarter investment, not just more investment," Nunan said. Showpo has passed $100 million in revenue across Australia, the US and the UK. It replatformed twice in two years along the way. "You have to have a why," head of operations David Ibanez said. "Why are you replatforming? What is the problem you want to solve?" Sheike took the same approach to loyalty. It passed on a templated third-party platform and created Sheike Society on its own architecture. The program has reached 231,226 members, more than double its original 12-month target, nine months ahead of schedule. The shift is landing in a tight market. BDO national retail leader Salim Biskri forecasts modest growth of 2 to 3 per cent over the next five to six years. "This is not a market where broad-based growth will rescue a weak strategy," Biskri said. "This is now an execution-led sector." Results season showed where that execution money is going. Woolworths Holdings is cutting group capital expenditure for FY27. Digital and technology is the only line to gain share of the smaller budget. At its Australian arm, Country Road Group, up to 40 per cent of the buy now sits unspent until the season is already trading. Group CEO Steven Cook has spent his first 15 months tightening open-to-buy across the portfolio. He credits the reserve with the group's margin rate uplift and with pulling the business back from deep discounting. "So we no longer have these heavy drops monthly, and a lot of carryover inventory," Cook said. "That's allowed us to really lighten up on how much we promote." When the market turned in 2026 the reserve gave teams the flexibility to pull back on commitments. Year-end inventory closed about $27 million lighter. In the report's foreword, Styllar co-founder Glenn Ralph argues a strong season can put the greatest pressure on cash, margin and operations. His test is simple. Ask finance, buying and operations for the landed margin on the same style. Then ask what stock is committed against it and what cash is still to leave the business. "Three different answers, and growth is already amplifying the problem," Ralph said. The brands getting it right are already showing the upside. "The brands still trading in ten years will not be the ones with the best instincts alone," Ralph said. "They will be the ones that brought the atelier's rigour into the back office."

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