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Customer obsession is more crucial than having the best product or service, according to the co-founders of three of Australia's most successful retail businesses, who warn there's a "learning curve" not all bricks and mortar retailers have mastered yet.

Zip Co's Larry Diamond, Mecca Brands' Jo Horgan and Kogan.com co-founder Ruslan Kogan say retailers need to look under the hood and make sure they have the culture and structures necessary to enable them to survive amid unprecedented retail disruption.

"Everyone says they're customer first and it's really easy to say that," Mr Diamond told retailers and business leaders during a panel discussion hosted by Arnold Bloch Leibler.

Zip co-founder Larry Diamond. Peter Braig

"You have to look under the hood at what's happening inside the company – how are they digesting data and researching and talking to customers, how are teams being developed so they can respond quickly," Mr Diamond said.

"That's the biggest problem – a lot of companies aren't architectured properly under the hood to be customer first.

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"For me it's about the culture and the way of working that will deliver the future, it's not the widget we're going to have in four years' time," he said.

Mr Kogan, whose customer numbers have soared during the pandemic, said retailers needed to be customer obsessed: knowing what they were thinking, what made them happy and what products they wanted and finding ways to deliver.

"That constant culture in the organisation to stay absolutely customer obsessed ... is what keeps retailers in business," Mr Kogan said.

"Our internal mantra over ten years is there's always a better way, everyone is allowed to question every decision," he said. "Everything is up for grabs and everything can be challenged."

Kogan.com founder Ruslan Kogan: "Everyone has to play to their strengths."

Ms Horgan said when she launched Mecca 23 years ago customers had to come to stores to shop and if the barriers to purchase were not too high they would make a transaction.

"Digital has turned that on its head and put control firmly back with the customer, where it should be," Ms Horgan said.

"That means the whole industry, whether you're bricks and mortar or online, really needs to reframe how it focuses on the customer," she said. "Unfortunately, I think brick and mortar retailers have had further to go coming up that learning curve."