What Is a Retail Consultant?
A retail consultant is an individual or firm that works with retailers or companies marketing products through retailers. A retail consultant helps clients to improve their business efficiency and profitability by providing a range of strategy, project and training services, according to Atlas Retail Consultants. Retail consultants provide expertise in areas such as retail strategy, store operations, merchandising, store location, channel selection and consumer research.
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Review
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Retail consultants bring an independent perspective to retail. They use their experience to carry out a review of retail operations and make recommendations on aspects of performance such as organizational structure, store policies, training requirements and use of information technology. An effective review gives retailers the insight they need to develop a strategy that will achieve best practices, enhance customer service and improve profitability, according to Retail Vision.
Location
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Location is a critical factor in determining retail success. Retail consultants carry out studies to identify suitable locations for new retail outlets. The studies take into account population, consumer profiles, existing retail networks, competitive activity and product demand. Consultants use computer modeling techniques to evaluate all the relevant location data. A program such as the Retail Sales and Profit Model developed by Oxford Retail Consultants takes into account factors such as new competition, store closures, population changes, spending patterns and transport strategy.
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Channel
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Retailers also face decisions on their channel strategy. Retail consultants can advise on options for store-only strategies or multi-channel strategies that combine store operations with Internet or mail order operations to reach a wider target market. Consultants might also recommend a strategy of segmenting the market by creating different versions of the same store brand. A supermarket group, for example, could introduce a home products store and a neighborhood express store as brand extensions to its existing food supermarket network.
Merchandising
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Merchandising -- the process of placing the right products at the right location in the store at the right price and in the right quantity -- plays an important role in retail profitability. Retail consultants use a software tool known as a planogram to optimize merchandising for individual stores. Planograms analyze available retail space and local sales history and combine the review with consumer data to produce three-dimensional graphics that recommend an optimum allocation of space to different products and brands for each store.
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References
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