How Retailers Can Monetize Data TotalRetail

By Sam Fayez Few words have been used and overused more than “data.” What emerged from a series of zeros and ones has evolved into a critical pillar of every business. Data drives all aspects of a company, from research, buying behaviors, stock/inventory levels, assortment plan, replenishment, website design, store merchandising, staffing and finance to product lifecycle and customer lifetime value — and everything in between.

Retail Veterans Launch Point of Sale/Store Systems Business Unit

Columbus Consulting International today announced that retail industry veteran and CCI partner, Lynn Hughes will be leading a new business team within Columbus Consulting. The team will be dedicated to auditing, sourcing, implementing and transforming Point of Sale and Store Systems for the retail community.

Key Merchandising Strategies for Economic Uncertainty

By Christine Cho  We keep hearing about the impending recession which would mean a pull back in consumer demand just in time for the holiday season. But recent industry reports are showing a “business as usual” behavior both with shoppers and with manufacturers.

Columbus Consulting International Celebrates 20 Years of Transforming Businesses

The firm’s industry practitioners have delivered solutions to over 350 retailers, wholesalers and consumer goods companies COLUMBUS, OHIO – Oct. 21, 2021— Columbus Consulting, one of the retail industry’s leading consulting firms, is celebrating its 20th ...

The Future of the Retail Workforce is Different Than You Think

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

How Retailers Can Modernize Fulfillment

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.

Supply Chain Issues On Your Mind? Ours Too. Here Are the Three Things Retailers Need to Do Now

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.

Digital, Sustainable, Collaborative Highlight Top Themes From This Year’s Retail Week Live In London

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.

Top 5 Just In Time Holiday Readiness Tips

By Daniel Binder
GEAR 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.

Compressing the Supply Chain to Connect with Your Consumer

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

Marketplaces Make Money

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

Malin+Goetz

In 2004, Matthew Malin and Andrew Goetz set out to modernize the traditional apothecary concept, creating MALIN+GOETZ out of their New York City apartment. The company started with a mission to simplify skincare in a cluttered and overwhelming marketplace. Made for all skin types and genders, especially those with sensitive skin, the brand initially launched with a curated assortment of six core essentials for the face, body and hair, all positioned to smell good, feel good, and work efficiently while looking good in one’s bathroom. MALIN+GOETZ has since expanded to an assortment of 100+ SKUs, including handcrafted candles and dynamic, gender-neutral fragrances.

Columbus Consulting Joins Zebra’s PartnerConnect Program

Columbus Consulting will assist retailers in implementing Zebra’s software to enable more data-driven decisions Columbus, Ohio – Aug. 24, 2021 – Columbus Consulting International, a leading retail consulting firm, today announced its participation in Zebra’s PartnerConnect ...

Ramping Up Your Retail Game

The future of retail requires an ecosystem overhaul. Today, CEOs are faced by the rigorous challenge of retaining customers who are elastic – meaning fluid in their ever-changing expectations and behaviors. Join Robin Lewis and ...

Building a Made-to-Measure Online Retail Marketplace

Brad Eckhart, partner, Columbus Consulting International will be presenting Building a Made-to-Measure Online Retail Marketplace  at retailX, in partnership with Retail TouchPoints  on August 25, 1:30 – 2:00 PM.  Online marketplaces are rapidly gaining momentum in retail. Sales by Amazon’s ...

New Omnichannel Opportunity from Covid-Complicated Fulfillment

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.

Helzberg Diamonds

For more than a century, Helzberg Diamonds has been devoted to celebrating everyday moments and important milestones alike, with a mission to make people feel loved. The first Helzberg Jewelry Store opened its doors in 1915 on Kansas City’s Minnesota Avenue. Since then, the retailer has grown into a family of more than 170 stores across the nation, creating a legacy “built on trust, knowledge and high-quality diamonds at an incredible price.”

Outsmarting Disruption: Navigate Assortment and Pricing Decisions with Voice of Customer Analytics

COVID-19 has shaken retail’s reality. Amid market disruptions and shifts in ways of working, brands and retailers around the world need new ways to triage orders and plan for market recovery by implementing strong, data-driven ...

Fulfillment – Retail’s New Loyalty Factor

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.

JumpMind Teams Up With Columbus Consulting To Enhance Point-of-Sale Solution Delivery

Through the strategic partnership, the two companies will provide customers an evolutionary approach to revolutionize their combined POS and commerce experience COLUMBUS, OHIO – March 2, 2021 – Columbus Consulting International, a leading retail consulting ...

Information Technology

Project Type Interim CIO Client Type Consumer Goods Challenge Large multi-brand consumer goods  company sought Interim CIO to manage their IT organization, SAP implementation, acquisitions, divestitures, growth and Business Intelligence implementation. Solution Managed the IT organization as interim CIO for ...

People & Organization

Project Type Organizational Transformation Client Type Travel Retail Challenge A destination retailer, with several different store models and product offerings, needed to free up merchant time to allow more focus on creative and strategic responsibilities.  They expanded the role ...

Sourcing & Supply Chain

Project Type Supply Chain Planning Client Type Global Workwear Brand Challenge Improve inventory agility and operation alignment from design and development to accelerate speed to market across wholesale and retail. Solution Redesigned and implemented Design to Delivery business processes, synchronizing ...

Inventory Management

Project Type Inventory Management Client Type Fashion Brand Challenge To support continued growth, this retailer’s team needed to become more strategic to better target merchandise to consumers.  The manual, time consuming and error prone allocation and replenishment processes and ...

Unified Commerce

Project Type Digital Transformation Client Type Multi-Banner Hardlines Retailer Challenge Deliver a common customer experience across family of brands for E-Commerce and brick and mortar. Solution Managed vendor selection project for both an E-Commerce platform and Order Management System ...

Eileen Fisher

At EILEEN FISHER, the design process goes beyond the material. For over 30 years, EILEEN FISHER has delivered modern apparel that not only offers simplicity, elegance, function and versatility, but also continues to push the boundaries of sustainability.

Fashion Brand-Inventory Management & Analytics

This fashion retailer needed to increase accuracy and access to data to enable fact based decisions and improve the allocation of merchandise to drive...

Customer Success Organization-Operational Planning

To support continued growth and focus on optimizing performance, and customer satisfaction, this client identified a strategic opportunity to improve...

Variety Store-Financial Planning

The business needed to support continued growth through better decision making by transitioning from disparate spreadsheet-based planning applications...

Fashion Brand-Integrated Planning

The current sales forecasting process across wholesale and retail was supported by spreadsheets with limited analytical capabilities...

Fashion Brand-Inventory Management

To support continued growth, this fashion retailer’s team needed to become more strategic to better target merchandise to consumers...

Fashion Brand-Omni & Merchandise Planning Transformation

Business was segmented by channel and unable to plan for the omni customer journey. Leadership determined the need to unlock a more detailed level of...

Rick Amari, Founder & Managing Partner

Strategic Information Technology leader Rick Amari is the Founder & Managing Partner of Columbus Consulting, which is currently recognized as the largest boutique consulting firm in North America that serves retail. Rick focuses on the Strategic ...

Retailer’s Insights – Xmas during a pandemic

Please join Sensormatic on Thursday, November 19th at 4.00pm CET as, together with Charlotte Kula-Przezwasnki from Columbus Consulting, our experts will be discussing the current retail outlook during the second wave of COVID-19 lockdowns and ...

Talbots

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 ...

Measuring the New Normal: Retail’s KPI Challenge

By Rich Pedott
The 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.

At Home

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 ...

Free Tools to Help Manage Low / Missing Sales

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 ...

COVID-19 Response: The Importance of Location Planning

Tuesday, May 12th, 2020 from 11:00am – 12:00pm EST Columbus Consulting will discuss the need to prioritize Location Planning as we manage through and come out of COVID-19.   Our experts will address the shift in Location Planning and how to manage ...

Planning, Allocation, Demand Forecasting

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 ...

Eastern National and Columbus Consulting Map Out Future of Retailer’s IT systems

Eastern National will improve operational efficiencies and streamline processes after a comprehensive review and assessment by Columbus Consulting COLUMBUS, OHIO – Oct. 23, 2018 – Columbus Consulting International, a leading retail consulting firm, announced today that ...

Columbus Consulting Completes Merger of C3 Management

Columbus Consulting Completes Merger of C3 Management Consulting to Strengthen Consumer Experience Expertise With this merger, Columbus Consulting culminates 2017 with significant company growth in U.S. and Europe, as well as notable partnerships with tier ...

Columbus Consulting International Experiences Significant Growth in European Market, Partners with Notable Retailers

Firm now has more than 20 customers in Europe and team includes large network of partners, principals, independent consultants and alliances COPENHAGEN – Oct. 10, 2017 – Columbus Consulting International, a leading industry consultancy specializing ...

Preparing for Data Driven Labor Management

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 ...

2017 Thinking Retail Amsterdam

Jon Beck, CEO, Columbus Consulting, is slated to speak at TXT’s upcoming symposiums, Thinking Retail later this month in Amsterdam and Thinking Retail NYC in April. At Thinking Retail, TXT’s symposium dedicated to end-to-end merchandise lifecycle ...

In The Media

Following you will find a collection of articles that have been written by other’s that include references to Columbus Consulting’s staff, knowledge or experience. Simply click on the article title to read the article. Please note, ...

Allocation – Understanding The Basics

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 ...

Merchandise Planning – Understanding the Basics

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 ...

Columbus Consulting International Names New Partners

Industry veterans Stuart Leighty and Marc Skinner selected as newest leadership team members COLUMBUS, OHIO – Jan. 24, 2017 – Columbus Consulting International, a leading industry consultancy specializing in retail business processes and systems, today announced ...

2017 NRF

2017 NRF was a great experience  

Executing On Time

By Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski
think 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.

omnichannel

By Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski
Omni-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.

Agile

By Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski
The 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.

Spreadsheets to Software

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 ...

FIT and CCI Continue To Strengthen Their Relationship

Fashion Institute of Technology and Columbus Consulting continue to strengthen their relationship between industry and education Columbus Consulting International (CCI) announced today that they are supporting and investing in the future of the fashion industry by ...

2016 Thinking Retail Webinar

Planning New Life out of Old Brick and Mortar Thursday, 9th June 3:00 pm BST – 10:00am Eastern Duration: 40 minutes While online sales grow you also need to increase your Store profitability. Today’s shop anywhere anytime culture puts ...

More New Partners in 2015

COLUMBUS, OH. March 2015– Columbus Consulting growth continued throughout 2015 and with the election of 2 new partners, the firm now represents over 650 years of retail executive experience. “We are thrilled to have our new ...

“Unloved” Merchandisers

Following the successful B&M Summit held in London on the 22nd September, We thought you would all find the following article by Essential Retail really interesting with some content from our very own Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski ...

Thinking Retail Forum 2015

Columbus Consulting Speaking at Thinking Retail Forum 2015  As Retailing evolves into the future, Planning practices also need to change. Listen to partners from Columbus Consulting as they present invaluable insights on the processes and methodologies that ...

New Partners in 2015

COLUMBUS, OH. March 2015– Columbus Consulting growth continued throughout 2014, and with the election of 6 new partners, the firm now represents over 600 years of retail executive experience. “We are thrilled to have our new ...

Columbus Consulting Hits 150th Client Mark

Columbus Consulting announced the signing of the company’s 150th client in March 2015. The Ohio-based retail-consulting firm added 28 new brands to its portfolio in 2014, including companies such as Under Armour, Cato, Boscov’s, Cabela’s, ...

Katrina Mossman Joins the Board

Columbus Consulting announces the election of Katrina Mossman to the Board. Ms. Mossman, a Partner with Columbus Consulting, has over 20 years’ industry experience. Katrina, in partnering with her clients, provides disciplined execution and business-relevant solutions ...

Agile Retailing

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 ...

Faster Product Development

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 ...

TXT-Webcast

Planning in the Omni-Channel World with a single view of inventory Notwithstanding all the transactional changes needed to support the customer who wants to shop anywhere, pick up anywhere, and return whenever wherever, coping ...

JDA Focus 2014

We look forward to connecting with you at JDA Focus 2014. This is a great event for as it brings together JDA’s customers and experts, thought leaders and delegates from across North America to discuss process ...

TXT Think Retail NY

Are you looking to understand more about how to integrate Assortment Plans and PLM in the ever changing Omnichannel environment ?  Join us at TXT Thinking Retail! Event in New York on the 22 May ...

TXT Think Retail

Integrated Plans from the Customer View deep into the Supply Chain. This is a great event for you all to attend as it brings together TXT’s customers and experts, thought leaders and delegates from across Europe ...

Oracle Industry Connect

Join us for this incredible event, March 25 – 26, 2014 at Marriott Copley Place, Boston, MA.

Record 2013 – Additional Leadership for 2014

COLUMBUS, OH. January 8, 2014 – Bolstered by a record-setting 2013 in North America, a successful launch in Europe, and significant expansion of the Columbus partnership, Columbus Consulting announced today a number of changes to ...

Omni Channel Retailing

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 ...

Columbus Announces New Partner Melissa Boone

COLUMBUS, OH. November 5, 2013 – In support of another year of record growth and in recognition of her continued contributions, Columbus Consulting is pleased to announce that Melissa Boone has become a Partner in ...

Columbus Consulting Hits 100th Client Mark

Columbus Consulting announced that Carhartt became their 100th customer last year. The Ohio-based retail-consulting firm also confirmed the addition of over 10 high-profile clients since then, including Charming Charlie, Francesca’s Collections and Karstadt. “Columbus supported us ...

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