Strategy Practice

Retail Strategy

Javelin Group is a retail specialist, and draws on its deep retail sector knowledge to strategically help retailers and consumer-facing businesses to plan and execute profitable growth.

In the midst of extensive structural change and sharpening competition within the retail sector, retailers and other consumer-facing businesses are reviewing their strategies, operational execution and financial performance. How can I protect shareholder value? What are the areas of future growth? What are the priorities for capital investment and management focus? How can I reduce costs across the business?

The foundation of our approach to answering these strategic questions is a detailed understanding of retail business performance, and the associated benchmarks that we have built up over the last 20 years of working with many global retailers, across all retail categories.

This deep retail understanding, combined with our vertical model across retail strategy, operations, technology, locations and analytics, enables us to efficiently and accurately identify the areas where intervention from management will deliver the highest returns.

This work is characterised in the following three project types:

Javelin Group combines elements of each of these project types to answer retailers’ key strategic questions. A typical retail strategy engagement lasts 6-12 weeks, depending on scope and the level of complexity.

Retail Growth Strategy

We offer a six-stage approach to identify key areas of growth that can maximise return on investment, and we deliver a prioritised action plan and business case to support the growth strategy.

Growth strategy for retailers includes:

1. Quantify relevant, addressable, market sales and profit opportunity

We quantify the areas of addressable market (category, price position and channel) that present opportunities to deliver profitable growth.

2. Understand competitor landscape to identify potential white space

We analyse competitor proposition (scale, price and range) to understand competitive intensity and potential growth opportunities.

3. Conduct primary consumer research to understand what drives spend in target markets

We use primary consumer research to understand why customers spend money in target markets and how to acquire customers in those markets.

4. Analyse performance to identify strengths and opportunities for growth

We combine business data with proprietary datasets created from 20 years of experience in retail, to identify areas of strength and opportunities for growth.

5. Identify operating model required to deliver growth

Our deep knowledge of retail operations and technology helps us quickly identify the operating model and organisational structure required to deliver the growth strategy.

6. Deliver a detailed growth plan, roadmap and business case

These five stages are combined to deliver a prioritised plan for growth, backed up by a detailed roadmap and business case.

This comprehensive growth strategy drives out prioritised actions that our client can take forward independently or with our help.

Value Protection

We offer a five-stage approach to identify the elements of a retail proposition that deliver the most value for retailers within the areas most valued by their customers.

For each engagement, we deliver a prioritised action plan to protect existing pillars of strength and address areas with the greatest opportunity for return on capital investment.

Value protection for retailers includes:

1. Quantify relevant, addressable, market and profit opportunities

We quantify the areas of addressable market (category, price position and channel) that present the largest opportunity to deliver value.

2. Conduct primary consumer research to understand why customers spend

We use primary consumer research to understand why customers spend money with our clients, and why they choose competitors.

3. Analyse performance to identify areas of strength and diagnose under-performance

We combine business data with proprietary datasets created from 20 years of experience in retail, to identify areas of strength and diagnose underperformance.

4. Identify operating model to retain value

Our deep knowledge of retail operations and technology helps us quickly identify the operating model and organisational structure that can best retain value.

5. Deliver priority initiatives, roadmap and business case

These four stages are combined to deliver priority initiatives for the retailer, backed up by a detailed roadmap and business case.

This comprehensive, but time efficient, review of the retailer serves to highlight the most pressing areas to address, and drives out prioritised actions that our client can take forward independently or with our help.

Cost Optimisation

Using a forensic approach, we identify opportunities for retailers to optimise the cost base and develop a detailed implementation plan for each opportunity.

We audit and review all areas of operating spend – including the product offer, user experience, marketing, contact centre, warehousing and logistics, IT, organisation and head office – and normalise spend against our database of 60+ retailers.

Cost optimisation for retailers includes:

  1. Collect the full range of cost data through detailed data requests and on-site interviews
  2. Clarify, cleanse and normalise the cost data, recognising that no two retailers are the same
  3. Compare the detailed cost information with our wide range of benchmarks
  4. Analyse current performance against best, worst or average benchmarks (all benchmarks are anonymised)
  5. Identify and evaluate the full range of improvement opportunities, working closely with the retailer to assess the size of the opportunity, ease of implementation, risks and barriers
  6. Develop a detailed implementation plan for each opportunity
  7. Provide on-going support and project management throughout the implementation process, if required

Please see below for recent retail strategy clients, or contact Matt Jeffers at matt.jeffers@javelingroup.com or on +44 (0)20 7961 3200 to discuss your requirements.

 

Contact  Matt
Strategy Practice

Contact Practice Director

Matt Jeffers

Director, Strategy

Matt Jeffers runs the Digital & Growth Retail Strategy service line. He has led projects covering omni-channel strategy and ecommerce performance improvement for multiple retailers across grocery, DIY/building materials, apparel and luxury goods sectors. Prior to Javelin Group, Matt led Tesco.com’s international development, launched it in China and oversaw the internal strategic growth plan for the Group. He also planned Tesco.com’s strategic development in Central and Eastern Europe and across Asia-Pacific.