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Our team of senior retail executives offer their thought leadership and share their insights to help navigate the challenging and ever changing retail landscape.
By Rich Pedott and Barrie Scardina Today, retailers are facing complex challenges from supply chain, logistics, and product sourcing to shortages of labor and growing costs. In addition to the economic issues, consumers continue to place demands ...
The Big Retail Reunion is how they are referring to Shop Talk 2022. From March 27-30 over 10,000 attendees consisting of 600 sponsors, 2,500 retailers from 42 countries joined industry colleagues at Mandalay Bay in ...
By Charlotte Haynes Sustainability is moving to the top of many retail CEOs’ agendas. Demands for sustainable businesses are coming from every angle: the consumer, management, government legislation, and even mother nature itself through catastrophic climate disasters. ...
Career insights and leadership from female partners at Columbus Consulting International Susan Riley and Lynn Hughes are retail professionals, each with over 20 years of industry experience. Prior to becoming partners at Columbus Consulting, the women ...
Highlights on this year’s National Grocers Association Show. Before attendees could digest all of the information and insights shared, buzz of this year’s NGA show was circulating. From February 27 through March 1, 2022, the largest ...
By Richard Pedott In a world where ecommerce has become mainstream and retailers raced to build unified commerce business models, some brands are starting to consider returning to multichannel structures. While this may present an opportunity ...
By Tom Phelps Does this sound familiar? Analytics: “We show average dollars per customer has declined year over year.” Marketing: “We show average dollars per customer has increased year over year.” Analytics: “What numbers are you looking at?” Marketing: “We ...
By Kate Gorman As fast as our marketplace is evolving, our human infrastructures are commanding change to keep up. Organizational charts by department, linear work streams, strict job descriptions and localized search are becoming as outdated ...
By Wolfgang Hoffman Retailers and consumers alike have made supply chain a household conversation. With favorite brands missing from the shelves and out of stock messages showering the websites, all of us went into a pre-holiday ...
By Michele Harris We know that change comes with time and that true change is more evolution than revolution. As we move towards a more equitable society, it is important that we take moments to remind ...
By Daniel BinderThe key to retail success in 2022 and beyond requires continued investment that commits a fully integrated OMNI Channel experience. The shift to OMNI Channel has been swift as the industry has evolved from a traditional brick and mortar environment, to E-Commerce then to Multi Channel
By Lynn HughesLike many retail phrases and terms, unified commerce has been lumped in with multi-channel and omnichannel simply as a means of selling across platforms and locations. While this may be true, it is certainly not the full vision of what it means to be unified.
By Brad EckhartThe Black Retail Action Group (BRAG), established in 1970, is a 501 c 3 non-profit organization that prepares and educates professionals, entrepreneurs and students for executive leadership in retail, fashion and related industries.
By Richard Pedott Retailers have been in a unique position for years having to deal with staffing stores domestically and internationally, building and retaining talent at corporate offices, scaling teams seasonally in warehouses/fulfillment and distribution centers, and managing remote/virtual talent for customer call centers and digital commerce.
By Richard von Hirschberg Let’s face it, the supply chain as we once knew it has been forever changed. Just in the last few weeks, we’ve read about furniture deliveries and new iPhone sales being delayed due to Covid-19 outbreaks in China and Vietnam.
By Wolfgang Hoffman Most consumers never considered how goods arrived at stores, but retailers certainly have been toiling over how to establish and streamline inventory delivery and fulfillment systems for decades.
By Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski#Retail Week Live just wrapped up in the UK where retailers from around the world gathered in a much anticipated post Covid event.
by Daniel BinderGEAR UP FOR CONVENIENCE AND SEAMLESS TRANSACTIONS: While major technology developments are not feasible to address between now and Black Friday, aligning all of your service channels with consistency of messaging and offerings is something you should address now.
By Wolfgang Hoffman I need to be honest. I was one of those skeptics about online shopping back in the mid-90s and well into the 2000s when Amazon was revolutionizing the shopping experience. I was comfortable and complacent with the brick-and-mortar shopping experience both as a consumer and as a supply chain professional
By Brad Eckhart With growing consumer dependence on sites like Amazon, Uber and Airbnb, we are squarely in a platform economy. This means that a significant amount of buying and selling today takes place via an online platform or technology framework. Savvy retailers are shifting to digital-first transactions – and benefit from engagement and sales
By Kavindra Malik Omnichannel fulfillment has always been a challenge for retailers and its complexity is only growing. Covid-19 changed our world and retailers have faced renewed difficulty maintaining an attractive assortment and stock availability, balancing online orders with weaker demand in some store locations.
By Rich Pedott Covid has forced many retailers to make dramatic shifts toward digital transformation of their business models. Many have successfully pivoted to offer services including BOPIS, curbside pick-up, and same-day home delivery across their digital, customer facing touchpoints.
By Rich PedottThe media has been busy proclaiming the coming death of both the store and experiential retailing in a voice that has grown progressively louder over the course of the last decade. The scourge of Covid-19 is now being touted as the cataclysmic event that will signal the coming of a dramatic shift in the channel mix of retail.
Columbus Consulting invested time, skills and talent into our relationship with retailers / brands to help the industry move forward through this difficult period. We have developed two tools that provide support for dealing with ...
Testing, learning and pivoting haven’t necessarily been retailers’ strong points. Right before COVID-19 hit, many businesses were still struggling with legacy infrastructures and disjointed processes. These legacy qualities inhibited them from responding ...
Consumers are placing far more emphasis on value than they did before the crisis, suggesting that it is having a big impact on people’s buying habits.
As CIO’s tackle the immediate short term and tactical needs of the organization, they must also look to the future and prepare to support their organization and service the consumer in the post COVID-19 Era.
We know that retail is going to transform into a different world than the one we knew before COVID-19. As retailers, we’ve all had conversations on how the industry’s landscape is constantly changing.
While the coronavirus has caused unprecedented disruption in the retail industry, some aspects of this pandemic are not entirely unique.
By Jared DolichAnaplan is an ideal platform to enable virtually all retail, wholesale, and ecommerce planning activities. The value provided by Anaplan combines the flexibility of spreadsheets and the connected business drivers in today’s most common point solutions. But the best part is that when fully deployed to the organization
One of the major impacts of the continual march of “Omni” retailing is to re-define the role of the store and the staff who service it. Experiential shopping doesn’t happen by accident, and exceptional customer service ...
By Charlotte Kula-PrzezwanskiRetailers could learn a lot from the Italian micro-economist Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto, who in 1906 came up with the principle that is sometimes known as the 80/20 rule.
By Charlotte Kula-PrzezwanskiOver more than just coffee and croissants in a nice upmarket London hotel, merchandise and planning experts debated if NOW was the time to move off spreadsheets and onto more formal planning solutions.
By Charlotte Kula-Przezwanskithink we all know that great apparel brands maintain competitive advantage by consistently executing on time. Executing late, or under constant pressure, is not a mark of creativity. It’s just bad management.
By Charlotte Kula-PrzezwanskiOmni-channel, cross-channel, or all-channel retailing--whatever you may call it, retailers of all sizes are struggling to get it right. The goal is to satisfy customers who want a consistent shopping experience in the store, through e-commerce, and through catalogues and call centres.
By Charlotte Kula-PrzezwanskiThe current pace of social, economic, technical, and environmental change appears likely to continue or accelerate nearly everywhere in the world. If adaptation is key to survival, retailers must strive to be ever more agile. But adaptation in response to change is defensive and reactive.
Christmas Tree Shops Focuses on IT Transformation to Establish Technical Independence from Bed Bath & Beyond. Download This Case Study Going home again Founded in 1920 as a brick-and-mortar destination, Christmas Tree Shops was a New England/East Coast ...
MALIN+GOETZ Refreshes its Systems Infrastructure to Scale for Future Growth Download This Case Study By uncomplicating its core processes, the personal care brand can now embrace omnichannel, with the flexibility and speed required for retail today In 2004, ...
Helzberg Diamonds Engages in Planning and Process Transformation Download This Case Study In accepting the proposal of new technology, the retailer has renewed clarity in forecasting, allocation and replenishment For more than a century, Helzberg Diamonds has been ...
Achieving Carhartt – Operating Model Alignment / Business Transformation Download This Case Study Columbus Consulting facilitated the redesign and implementation of Carhartt’s Design to Delivery business processes, synchronizing enterprise wide functional areas, delivering optimal visibility, flexibility and ...
Making a House a Home: At Home’s Journey to Becoming the Leading Home Décor Retailer Download This Case Study What makes a house a “home?” Ask a dozen people that question, and you’ll get profoundly varied answers ...
EILEEN FISHER Outlines Processes to Drive Sustainable Design By 2020 Download This Case Study At EILEEN FISHER, the design process goes beyond the material. For over 30 years, EILEEN FISHER has delivered modern apparel that not only ...
With IT Sophistication, Green Growth Brands Brings CBD to Mainstream Retail Download This Case Study Seventh Sense Botanical Therapy Launches On Unprecedented Three-Month Deadline Cannabis. It’s a multifaceted and taboo topic. To some, it’s misunderstood, even distasteful. For ...
Change Management Behind the Red Door: Talbots Modernizes with Planning Process Reboot Download This Case Study Talbots has nostalgic and entrepreneurial roots, self-described as a company “inspired by a joy of discovery.” A 1947 ad placed in ...
Hunkemöller’s Strategic Growth Supported Through New Allocation and Replenishment Technology Download This Case Study she·ro/ˈshirō/nounplural noun: sheroes a career-driven young woman who is health and beauty conscious, as well as a follower of fashion and lover of lingerie.“a ...
HOW CAN RETAILERS MODERNIZE FULFILLMENT? The supply chain as we once knew it has been forever changed. Global supply chain issues have been fueled by pandemic factory closings, reduced labor forces and bottlenecks in shipping and ...
By Richard Pedott Many of us have had to manage a crisis before. It may have been a small scale one such as a natural disaster confined to individual markets like Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy ...
By Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski in collaboration with Mi9 Retail June 2019 The soul of a retailer lies in its stores. It can be seen and felt. It is what makes the brand an exciting place with a distinctive ...
By Island Pacific in collaboration with Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski June 2019 Retail is facing a seismic shift New technology, the internet, social media and an empowered, fickle and less brand-loyal consumer have combined to create a new phenomenon. We ...
By Island Pacific in collaboration with Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski March 2019 How do retailers measure Return on Investment (ROI) from new systems implementations? Technology is transforming every aspect of the retail business, often at a dizzying rate. Innovations that ...
By Island Pacific in collaboration with Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski March 2019 Is it possible to create a truly successful international and multi-channel brand? On the face of it, it is easy to understand why any retailers might succumb to ...
By Columbus Consulting With any major business undertaking, proper project management plays a huge role in the success or failure of the endeavor. Managing a project from the initial idea, through planning and execution, can be ...
By Columbus Consulting No matter how many robots, kiosks and other fancy machines are created to improve the in-store experience, retail stores still need human power to operate and the personalized customer services provided by store ...
By Columbus Consulting Assortment Planning is like a box of chocolates. No really. The next time you have a box of chocolates, take a look at what you have. There are lots of choices that you ...
By Columbus Consulting Retailers are always looking for ways to achieve the highest margins and least amount of markdowns for merchandise at each store. The key is to assign the merchandise where it is most likely ...
By Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski, Columbus Consulting and Mikko Kärkkäinen, Relex January 2017 In this co-authored white paper with Relex, we discuss the practical aspects of executing a disciplined and organized planning and buying process, and we identify the ...
By Columbus Consulting Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is an area of software and process which is designed to guide and connect companies through the planning, analytics and reporting activities across the entire organization. Download This White Paper
By Columbus Consulting At its core, allocation is the optimal deployment of inventory to best meet customer demand. It is usually the last step in the merchandise lifecycle before the sale. Allocation originated from merchandising, when ...
By Columbus Consulting Every planning professional or retail executive knows the answer to this question, right? In reality, though, it’s not that simple. Merchandise Planning (or Merchandise Financial Planning) means different things to different people depending ...
This white paper produced in collaboration with Island Pacific focuses on the urgency around moving your company away from a purely spreadsheet driven enterprise and onto a more reliable planning solution. Through analysis ...
Do you have friends who always run late? It’s annoying, right? When they keep you waiting, you’re not so eager to see them next time. So it is with customers. If you don’t give them what they ...
Change has always been a constant in retail and the current levels of uncertainty and disruption are likely to continue. Now more than ever, Agility is as important as efficiency and effectiveness. Columbus Consulting have just ...
The search is over for real world insights and practical steps to shorten ‘concept to customer’ timelines. Download Columbus Consulting’s latest White Paper to learn from industry experts and start your company on the path to ...
Inside you’ll discover: 6 things you must do, in sequence, to deliver the cross-channel shopping experience your customers expect.2 key internal factors many retailers neglect or ignore–to their disadvantage–in pursuing omni-channel initiatives.3 project-planning forms to help ...
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