Retailer enjoys simpler stack, sharper inventory, and a global fulfilment model with NetSuite at the centre

It has been more than a decade since T2 came to Annexa looking for a partner to transform its enterprise architecture into an enabler of rapid omnichannel global expansion.

T2 has used the years since to evolve a deliberate strategy. The business has refined its retail footprint, re-platformed its e-commerce, reshaped its fulfilment model and opened new direct-to-consumer channels worldwide. Changes of ownership and leadership across the period have sat alongside that internal direction.

Through every phase, T2 has held NetSuite as a trusted, effective solution for its operations, with Annexa as the technology partner enabling each move.

Clinton Rice, Head of Information Technology at T2, joined the business after 18 years at Adairs, where he led an ERP migration from a bespoke system to Microsoft Dynamics. He inherited a NetSuite environment that had been in place and evolving for years.

“NetSuite for us is pretty much just the core of our operations,” Rice said. “The platform sits as the stable base for us, with tweaks here and there. After more than a decade of bold, strategic moves, that stability is the point.”

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A simpler stack

The current direction at T2 is consolidation. With Australia and New Zealand as the heartland of the brand, T2 has returned its retail focus to its home markets while continuing to serve customers around the world through wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels.

Global fulfilment now runs through a partnership with Global-e, which handles multi-currency pricing, tax, duties and country-specific delivery requirements from the web platform.

Behind that more focused customer-facing model sits a deliberately simpler technology stack. T2 has re-platformed its e-commerce from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus, with Annexa supporting integration and testing on the NetSuite side.

Subscriptions, a long-standing customer request, launched on Shopify shortly after migration. The same product would have required substantial custom development on the previous platform.

Ensuring a precious product like tea is always presented and sold at its best is a goal that extends from sales and marketing through to fulfilment, and crucially to inventory management. T2 holds limited backstock in store and works with product that has finite shelf life, which makes accurate stock visibility across channels a commercial requirement.

Annexa has worked through the timing and structure of integrations between the distribution centre, the point of sale and NetSuite to lift stock data quality, particularly through peak periods such as Christmas. The same simplification logic underpins T2’s omnichannel ambition.

Rice describes the target experience as “order anywhere, pick up anywhere, ship to anywhere,” with endless aisle, click and collect and ship-from-store all sitting on a single, trustworthy inventory record.

Quiet wins underneath

Where technology is concerned, the aim is to deliver the best possible experience to customers without the technology getting in the way. The most meaningful changes happen internally and remain largely invisible to customers, except in the moments where they show up as something that feels effortless.

Annexa has automated reconciliation across T2’s multiple bank feeds and payment gateways, an environment that spans PayPal, credit cards, gift cards, Alipay and other methods used across web and marketplace channels.

The reconciliation work runs on an Annexa-built app. Where once this process used to consume around five days of effort every week, the ongoing evolution of the solution has reduced it to a matter of minutes.

The broader integration work follows a similar pattern. NetSuite holds the financial and inventory record. MuleSoft sits as middleware. Annexa owns the NetSuite side of every integration, including connections to 3PL providers, procurement processes and the new Shopify Plus e-commerce platform.

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The partnership behind the work

T2 has now worked with Annexa for more than a decade. Rice points to the continuity of the team across that time as a practical asset.

“They hold a lot of IP with our systems and they have a lot of knowledge of what we do and how we do it,” he said. “I actually rely on them to hold that structure, because I’m not across absolutely everything that happened prior to joining the company.”

That institutional memory has supported T2 through every project, change of direction and new requirement across the partnership.

The resourcing model has flexed with the business. Annexa provides regular dedicated consulting hours against the T2 account, with special projects added on top when needed.

“They’ll keep it tight when we want it tight, but they’ll expand their resourcing for us when required for larger projects,” Rice said.

William Roy, Senior Account Manager at Annexa, has worked on the T2 account for almost seven years. For Roy, the value of the work sits less in any single project and more in the cumulative effect of getting the fundamentals right over a sustained period of partnership.

“The foundation T2 has built with NetSuite means they’re well positioned for what’s coming next, whether that’s deeper automation, EPM, or the AI capabilities now arriving in the platform,” he said. “The hard work of getting the core right is what makes those opportunities accessible.”

T2’s near-term focus is finishing the simplification work and lifting more processes onto a single source of truth. The Annexa roadmap with T2 includes wider use of native automation and ongoing integration work as the stack consolidates. They are also eyeing up new planning solutions for budgeting and account reconciliation.

Annexa is a high-performing NetSuite solution provider and AI systems integration partner supporting mid-market and enterprise organisations across Australia and New Zealand. The company brings deep experience across AI, finance, multi-entity operations, supply chain, eCommerce and advanced integration, delivering connected AI-powered ERP solutions that improve visibility, lift performance and create scalable foundations for growth. Find out more visit https://annexa.com.au/