Retail Business Analysis Exposes Opportunities for Inventory and Profit

The client is a privately held omnichannel retailer specializing in wine, spirits, and accessories with a significant online presence, multiple retail stores, and an online auction house. The retailer had experienced substantial store growth but faced periodic cash flow shortages due to considerable inventory commitments, inconsistent reporting, and gaps in organizational roles and responsibilities. These issues prevented the company from effectively planning strategic initiatives such as store expansion and pursuing investment opportunities.​

The Parker Avery Group’s retail business analysis included the client’s current retail operations and corporate processes. The assessment focused on identifying the retailer’s cash flow bottlenecks, communication challenges, and other issues impacting growth, purchasing consistency, and accountability. Parker Avery synthesized these findings and assisted the retailer in creating a detailed, multi-year capabilities roadmap that addressed the priority pain points and sequencing.​

The retail business analysis project included the following activities:​

• Analyzed the current merchandising, inventory management, store operations, home office, and marketing processes​
• Conducted store visits and interviews to review product assortment, operations, and inventory flow​
• Summarized findings and presented a gap analysis against industry best practices, tailored to the client’s optimal placement in the market​
• Synthesized eleven areas of potential benefit into six key initiatives​
• Outlined anticipated complexity and return on investment for each initiative​
• Prioritized the proposed initiatives and created a detailed capabilities roadmap, identifying ‘quick wins’ that would build momentum while respecting the client’s bandwidth​