Retail and e-commerce
The retail industry is undergoing unprecedented change worldwide. The last decade has seen the rapid growth of e-commerce pure players, particularly in non-food, with very different cost structures to traditional players. There is pressure on margins (loss of traffic and/or revenue, reduced margins on e-commerce sales and differential growth in revenue/costs) and consumers are increasingly informed and versatile.
Challenges in the retail and e-commerce industry
The ability of retailers to offer a differentiated consumer experience or range of products, to radically optimize end to end costs to compensate for margin losses and finance necessary investments, and to guarantee operational excellence are now pre-requisites for survival.
With rising consumer expectations and pressures, digital initiatives are necessary to transform the customer experience, develop consumer insight and evolve supply chain management, sales forecasting, price management, promotions and store operations.
How we can help with retail and e-commerce
We work with 10 of the 25 largest retailers in Europe and some of the leading retailers in the US, in all areas of the value chain. We help our clients to define their end-to-end operations strategy and to implement transformations.
Reinvention of the retail model
- Omnichannel strategy
- Definition of the role of stores and strategy to leverage assets
- Innovation management (choice of technology, partnership)
- Advanced data management (management of advanced data, use of all available data)
Digital transformation
- AI (customer experience, consumer insight and supply management, sales forecasting, price management, promotion and store operations)
- Digital in store
- RPA
Store operations
- Service strategy
- Productivity and lean of point of sale
- Resource planning
- Back-office process optimization stores
Procurement strategy
- Procurement performance management
- Optimization and organization of sourcing offices
- Supplier negotiation performance
- Supplier collaborations
Supply chain
- Supply chain strategy
- Organization and management of the supply chain
- Supply optimization
- Multi-channel management and order orchestration
- IT supply chain master plan
Logistics
- Service policy store/internet
- End-to-end optimization
- Logistics master plan
- Organization and management of store/web logistics
- Logistics performance plans
- Mechanization/automation
- Transport optimization
Back-office
- Optimization of back office functions
- Shared services and outsourcing
- Optimization/automation of support processes
- Service and performance management
Transformation and change management
- Transformation plan
- Mobilization of stakeholders
- Support for the transformation of businesses and organizations
Our approach
We apply a combination of technical expertise, operational experience and business knowledge to help our clients solve retail and e-commerce issues and deliver lasting results. Our personal and pragmatic approach, with challenge where needed, ensures buy-in at all levels of our clients’ businesses and a successful outcome. We have worked with a wide range of organizations in the retail and e-commerce industry including Amazon, Williams-Sonoma, Target, JB Hi-Fi, IKEA, Intermarche, Carter’s, Carrefour, Waitrose and Reliance Retail. Learn more about us here.