Management consulting in retail

Whether stationary retail, multi-channel, pure online retail or marketplace: for retail companies, a strong and personalized focus on customers, differentiation from direct competitors and the special shopping experience are crucial to remain competitive.

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Optimisation in procurement & supply chain management increases profitability in retail

Efficient processes, clearly structured assortment planning, flexibility in category management and sourcing prices in line with the market are of particular importance in order to keep pace with the changing needs of customers. Find out how we, as experts with many years of experience in management consultancy in retail, can support you in this.

Our 20 years of retail consulting experience with over 70 international clients ranges from food and non-food for brands and private labels to needs in indirect procurement (“Goods not for Resale”).

Different products, similar challenges!

Our extensive expertise in procurement consultancy and supply chain management enables us to quickly identify potential in the supply chain and improve processes. Your results are significantly increased as a result – and that is how we measure ourselves. As different as the products on offer and the role they play in consumers’ everyday lives are – many retail companies face similar challenges in procurement and supply chain management. This is something we observe again and again as experts in retail consulting.

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Where we can help you

Convincing Assortment Design

 

Strategically structured assortments are crucial in retail to differentiate yourself from the competition and to retain customers. With our proven optimisation approaches in category management, we support you in convincing customers and increasing the value of the average receipt with a holistic design of your range.

 

More on category management

The basis of successful brand negotiations is professional preparation. This includes in-depth supplier analysis and calculation of potentials as well as the selection of negotiation strategies and levers and the setting of a maximum and minimum target. We provide your procurement staff with a tried and tested toolset and support them with training so that they are optimally prepared for annual negotiations in the future and can improve the results in the long term.

 

More on brand negotiations

Own brands are a challenging field for procurement. On the one hand, they have to be cheaper than branded products, but on the other hand they have to meet quality expectations in order to convince customers. For the retailer, private labels must increase the company’s average selling margin. For these reasons, private label sourcing is an elementary part of today’s procurement function.

To meet all requirements, we support your procurement:

 

  • In the standardisation and specification
  • In the preparation and realisation of (online) auctions
  • In the qualification and further development of suppliers
  • In process optimisation

 

Knowledge transfer is possible both through targeted further training in procurement and through on-the-job training by working together with our experts.

 

More on private labels

Networked worldwide with the right partners

 

The right choice of suppliers and sourcing channels can lead to a significant competitive advantage. However, inconsistent standards, political and legal differences and communication barriers can make it difficult to tap into global sourcing markets, especially when sourcing activities in Asia are managed from Europe.

With our location in Shanghai, we support you in opening up Asian procurement markets, identifying suitable suppliers and establishing stable supply chains. The aim is to reduce your procurement costs while maintaining product quality.

 

More on sourcing in asia

Sustainability is gaining importance in the textile industry and sales of ecologically and fairly produced fashion are increasing. In addition, the planned Supply Chain Act obliges companies to comply with environmental and human rights standards in the future.

To prove the origin of textiles from environmentally and socially responsible production, there are a variety of different textile labels.

This presents procurement with the challenge of keeping track of certification marks, audited suppliers and processes. We support you in creating transparency about the textile seals and their meaning and in identifying suitable textile seals for your procurement. In doing so, we take into account quality requirements and costs in addition to the fulfilment of sustainability aspects.

 

More on sustainability

PROCUREMENT: LET’S GET REAL!

Our Experts on Brand Negotiation

Our services in the retail sector

Managing indirect demand successfully

Indirect requirements – or “goods not for resale” such as shop design, marketing, IT or facility management – are often procured by the specialist departments without the involvement of professional buyers. The result: without the buyer’s expertise, too much is bought at too high a price and often too much – especially if the departments work in a decentralised way. This reduces profitability.

 

You can get a general overview of the topic of indirect procurement on our expertise pages on the topic.

 

In over 20 years of experience, INVERTO has optimised the procurement of indirect requirements in numerous trading companies. In most projects, shopfitting plays a special role, because the shops are the customers’ immediate touchpoints; they convey brand character, image and value.

 

Furthermore, learn more about the procurement of other indirect needs.

For some years now, retail companies have been feeling massive pressure to change from the large online retailers. But while consumers naturally shop with their mobile phones, tablets or home computers, everything remained the same in professional procurement for a long time: procurement was done by phone, fax and lists.

The Corona pandemic is now forcing trading companies in all sectors to push the digital transformation in-house. Our digitalisation experts support you in this process. Find out how we can help you with the digital transformation of your procurement on our digitisation expertise pages.

Customers want it, politicians are passing laws for it, the long-neglected protection of climate, environment and human rights requires it: Sustainability is one of the pressing tasks of our time.

As experts in procurement and supply chains, we know that procurement plays a central role in the realisation of sustainability goals. You can find out here. what framework conditions companies need to create so that their procurement can fulfil this role.

 

Selected clients from the retail industry

 

Our retail cases

Our retail experts

Simone Hilbring

Managing Director

simone.hilbring@inverto.com Contact

Leon Jochmann

Principal

leon.jochmann@inverto.com Contact

Our retail insights

INVERTO Magazines

Negotiations take place everywhere in business, most of all in procurement, for example in awarding contracts and annual meetings. Nevertheless, many procurement departments do not succeed in exploiting the full potential of these negotiations.

White Paper

Indirect Spend White Paper 2021: challenges, underrated potentials, and opportunities

INVERTO Magazines

When people have talked about supply chain alignment over the last 20 years, they have often ended up saying that global sourcing is the order of the day. In our cover story, we reveal which factors are key for nearshoring and building local supply chains – and how you can shape the process.