Merchandising Capability Roadmap Paves the Way for Strategic Growth

A national, big-box superstore specializing in home décor with annual revenue of $1.5 billion and over 200 locations was experiencing rapid store growth and assortment expansion. The retailer’s operating environment was originally designed to support a smaller store count and footprint. These factors put pressure on existing processes and systems, which were highly manual and lacked standardization. Capabilities for planning, merchandising, new product design, development, and direct sourcing activities for the retailer’s broad product assortment lagged industry peers. Further, numerous technology gaps necessitated disparate Excel-based systems.​

In conjunction with the retailer’s business and IT leadership, Parker Avery created a multi-year capability roadmap based on prioritized business needs, return on investment objectives, and the organization’s ability to absorb change.​

The Parker Avery team evaluated the processes, systems, and capabilities across merchandising, planning, product development, and sourcing to identify gaps and priorities, quickly alleviate stress points, and determine the future-state process and solution focus. ​

Parker Avery’s activities and deliverables included:​

• Reviewed merchandising business processes to categorize gaps or changes needed to support overall corporate strategy​
• Reviewed current and required merchandising reporting and analytics​
• Evaluated current systems and identified opportunities to support business needs better​
• Identified quick wins and immediate areas of necessary change​
• Defined high-level future process needs ​
• Identified organization/role challenges and potential impacts​
• Developed a capabilities roadmap across merchandising and related processes​
• Initiated a change management program to support the retailer’s transformation​
• Engaged senior stakeholders and ensured change leadership needs were defined and understood​