Key Market Trends

  • Data has become a critical strategic asset, driving optimized assortments, personalized customer experiences, and performance management.
  • Stores are being reinvented, offering more seamless and immersive omnichannel experiences, from click-and-collect to augmented try-on.
  • Digital transformation is accelerating, impacting both customer experience and internal operations.
  • Supply chain and fulfillment now sit at the center of profitability, fuelled by e-commerce growth and rising expectations for same-day delivery.
  • Responsible commerce is gaining ground, driven by environmental concerns, ESG standards, and shifting consumer values.

Strategic Challenges Facing Retailers

To navigate this fast-evolving environment, North American retailers must address several key challenges:

  • Rethink business models and capture new growth opportunities.
  • Improve profitability, reduce time-to-market, and optimize operations.
  • Transform the supply chain and strengthen resilience.
  • Harness and maximize data to unlock new offerings and accelerate innovation.
  • Advance omnichannel maturity and deliver unified customer journeys.
  • Bring ESG commitments to life and embed responsible practices across the organization.

Value Proposition

  • Strategic Planning

    We help our clients explore new customer behaviours and co-create high-value services. This work typically unfolds in three key phases:

    1. Inspiration: Analyze market trends and study customer behaviours through interviews and ethnographic approaches.
    2. Ideation: Generate a wide range of concepts and service ideas through collaborative workshops and design sprints.
    3. Prioritization: Select the most promising services based on value creation and deployment potential.

    As part of new-concept development, we also support clients in industrialization and large-scale rollout.

  • Innovation & New Service Design

    We guide organizations in exploring emerging behaviours and designing innovative services.

    Our approach follows a structured pathway:

    • Inspiration: Understand market signals and consumer expectations.
    • Ideation: Generate creative solutions using design sprints.
    • Prioritization: Identify the highest-value concepts to accelerate go-to-market.

  • New Concept Development & Operational Efficiency

    We support organizations in optimizing their operations and processes through:

    • A comprehensive diagnostic of processes and organizational structures.
    • Benchmarking against industry best practices.
    • Defining targets and roadmaps for procurement, supply chain (upstream & downstream), sales, marketing, financial control, finance, accounting, and HR teams.
    • Supporting the long-term implementation of transformation initiatives.

    We leverage Lean methodologies to drive continuous improvement and operational performance.

    We also promote cross-team collaboration and help create practical guides to support internal training and sustain change over time.

  • Information Systems Transformation

    We support organizations across all dimensions of IT transformation:

    • Technology roadmap development
    • Solution selection support (requirements, RFI, RFP)
    • Business/IT project support across all phases: scoping, implementation, governance, and change management

    Our deep expertise in specialized solutions (APS, WMS, TMS, MES, ERP, MDM, PLM, and more) positions us as a trusted partner for retailers, often acting as the bridge between business teams and IT functions.

  • Digital Customer Journeys & Customer Experience Enhancement

    We help leadership teams define their digital and omnichannel strategy and redesign customer journeys to elevate the customer experience.

    We implement e-commerce solutions and support the cultural and operational transformation required to adopt new digital practices.

  • Data Governance & Monetization

    Data quality and value capture are now central to retailers’ priorities, especially in the context of supplier partnerships and new business models such as retail media.

    Our services include:

    • Data maturity assessment
    • Design of target data governance: organization, processes, data catalogues, quality, security, tooling
    • Deployment of performance measurement and decision-support solutions powered by predictive and generative AI
    • Training and upskilling teams in data literacy
    • Identification of use cases, POCs, and industrialization of selected solutions
    • Support for end-to-end product traceability (labels, QR codes) and certification management

  • Merchandise Flow Optimization

    We help organizations with:

    • Defining and executing their supply chain strategy
    • Redesigning their logistics master plan (initial supply, distribution, last-mile delivery)
    • Implementing forecasting, planning, and flow-optimization solutions
    • Enhancing operational performance across the logistics chain

  • Social & Environmental Responsibility

    We help our clients deliver on their sustainability commitments through our RESET offering, supported by a dedicated community of experts.

  • Additional Sector-Specific Capabilities

    We have also developed specialized offerings tailored to the retail sector, including support in:

    • Perishable goods and fresh-food categories
    • Assortment, category management, and pricing strategy
    • Commercial operations and sales performance
    • Product, supplier, and data structure management
    • Unified customer view
    • Checkout and payment solutions
    • Growth strategy and large-scale rollout
    • Customer journeys and omnichannel experience
    • Loyalty programs and customer insights

Case Studies

Co-design and deploy the full set of transformation, operational and communication processes needed to support new store formats, new offer structures, and overall store performance.

Solution

Implementation of a unique, fully integrated transformation framework covering all components of the value chain:

  • Network development and expansion (corporate stores and franchises)
  • Network modernization: concept evolution, offer architecture, pricing
  • Network activation, operations, and performance optimization

Result

A fully equipped, adopted, and operational set of 13 execution pillars.

Develop the vision for tomorrow’s customer journey — both in-store and online — to guide the evolution of tools related to customer insights, marketing activation, loyalty, customer service, and voice-of-customer programs.

Solution

  • Current-state diagnostic: consolidated view of challenges, existing tools, operational opportunities, and the 2025 vision expressed by business teams.
  • Customer perspective: creation of target use cases based on customer needs and expectations.
  • Market analysis: inspiration drawn from industry best practices and leading players.
  • 2025 Customer IS Strategy: prioritization of use cases based on customer value, business impact, and alignment with the company’s strategic direc

Result

  • Cross-functional alignment on customer use-case prioritization across Store Operations, Digital, Omnichannel, Marketing, and IT teams.
  • A clear roadmap, endorsed by the executive leadership team and supported by business and IT functions.

Contacts