With over two decades of experience collaborating with numerous brands in wholesale, retail, CPG, and grocery, Columbus Consulting has solidified its position as a premier leader in the retail consulting realm. CEO Jon Beck elaborates on how the company is meticulously crafted by retailers, for retailers.
Columbus Consulting’s distinctive approach to delivering successful retail projects:
Columbus Consulting has always embraced a client first approach to our services. We staff each project with seasoned retail experts who have worked in the industry and who are aligned with a client’s culture and unique needs. In order to stay relevant, we consistently source talent from the current market and build teams to address the latest retail business developments such as Unified Commerce and Data Analytics. Lastly, our business model allows for internal collaboration that enables access to cross-functional knowledge and the sharing of best practices. We never operate in silos and empower our consultants to tap into our collective base.
Columbus Consulting delivers solutions that drive true value. We are a boutique retail consulting company of industry experts. We are more than consultants; we are experienced practitioners who actually sat in our clients’ seats. We understand the challenges, know what questions to ask and deliver the right solutions.
How we facilitate the exchange of best practices between clients and diverse business categories:
First, Columbus Consulting specializes in retail. We have worked with over 300 global brands/retailers and have a unique vantage point of having seen, not only what has worked in our personal retail careers, but what has worked within the industry many times over. Our 20+ years of retail consulting experience provides us with the position of having various inputs on what brands need, how organizations work and what the best solutions are to address retail business challenges. We have exposure to all aspects of retail from CPG to grocery, hardline to softline goods and see the benefits that can be leveraged across various business models. For instance, we have been able to apply a discipline of category management to softline retail and, in turn, we have cross-pollinated best practices between hardline and grocery and their use of plan-o-grams to optimize space allocation.
How we have built enduring relationships with clients over the years:
From our foundation, Columbus Consulting has always operated for our clients. We are only successful if they are successful. Our approach is to offer true value that drives actual measurable results, not just billable hours. Our consultants approach every project based on the client’s unique need and not with a cookie-cutter solution. We start small as needs dictate, define both short and long-term roadmaps and rely on our cornerstone belief that building trust through integrity and not being “greedy” is the right formula for fostering long-term partnerships. That is why we boast a 96%+ re-engagement rate. Click here to know more about our mission and commitment.
What leadership is needed to navigate a dynamic space and how we evolved in response to industry shifts:
Columbus Consulting serves all channels of operation such as stores, e.commerce and wholesale, etc. While retail is always evolving, the recent pandemic crisis dramatically changed consumer shopping behaviors. This shift accelerated the need for digital-first processes and systems. Knowing what is happening in the industry, staying at the forefront of trends and changes is critical to our leadership so that we can respond proactively and be ready for clients rather than responding to existing needs. As clients transform, we provide leadership in emerging and critical areas such as Unified Commerce and Data & Analytics.
How we empower our clients and help them transform:
The key to any transformative plan is to have a clear, common strategy and vision across the organization. This is where our focused retail expertise best serves our clients. Our talent comes from the industry and knows what needs to be done because they have all done it before in their respective careers. We have taken the bold steps and have the expertise from our decades in retail. We leverage those collective learnings and successes to partner with our clients to lead and guide them, making critical transformative decisions easier and more transparent.
* Republished with permission from Retail Today.
