Fifteen Years of Relationships, Partnerships, and Gratitude
As we near the holiday season and round the corner on another year, we are again thankful across many dimensions. Top of mind, 2022 marked The Parker Avery Group’s fifteenth year as a consulting firm. It is almost surreal to grasp all we’ve experienced and how [...]
The JEDI Challenge Returns
The Parker Avery Group recently concluded the second iteration of what we consider one of our most impactful initiatives since our firm's founding 16 years ago. In our typical consulting projects, we work with billion-dollar, global retailers and CPG companies on current state assessments, capabilities roadmaps, business process [...]
How to Transform Your Retail Enterprise with Advanced Analytics
Last month, Parker Avery President Clay Parnell, wrote about key capability areas retail leaders must prioritize as we head into 2023 (“Retail 2023: Back to the Future”). Clay outlined the implications and requirements of enhancing business capabilities across assortment curation, product development, merchandise financial planning, allocation, [...]
Groceryshop 2022 Recap: Four Key Focus Areas for the Grocery Industry
Wow! With over 4000 in attendance, Groceryshop 2022 certainly came back from the pandemic with overwhelming excitement. It was great to see everyone mingling and networking with colleagues they haven’t seen in over two years in some cases. The overall content shared during the event was fantastic. As was [...]
Retail 2023: Back to the Future
Years ago, the year 2020 sounded very futuristic. Indeed, many corporate strategies were developed with “2020” in their title, no doubt to demonstrate how forward-thinking these companies hoped to be. Yet here we now stand, almost three years past that notorious timestamp. And Parker Avery teams have still [...]
Setting the Foundation for Retail Supply Chain Sustainability
During the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA)’s 2022 Traceability and Sustainability Conference held in early August, it became clear that retailers and apparel brands are struggling with how to adapt to new legislation and social pressures related to supply chain sustainability. This post builds on a recent Talk [...]
Let’s Talk About Your Capabilities Roadmap
Let's Talk About Your Capabilities Roadmap Companies often must shift project priorities because they are not collectively thinking “big picture.” Without a comprehensive plan that considers the entire landscape of a company’s business, individual project expectations and objectives are often missed. There are [...]
Three Keys to Mitigating Retail Uncertainties with Art and Science
Doing the same thing but expecting a different result. Now that the pandemic has reached a "stabilization" phase, retailers are trying to understand the impacts on channel sales, and inventory, as well as the retail supply chain in its current state and for the future. The [...]
Industry Experts Agree that Artificial Intelligence is the Answer to Retail Supply Chain Challenges
For the first time in many decades, Americans are experiencing scarcity. Aptly describing our current consumer and retail environments, the impact of this quote was pervasive throughout a conference I recently attended where industry insiders and experts discussed CPG and retail supply [...]
A CIO, a Software Developer, and an Armadillo Walk into a Bar
(Yes, this really happened, and we witnessed it at Oracle Retail Cross Talk 2022.) Last held in person in 2019, Oracle's annual conference is a unique executive forum that connects retail brands from around the world to share lessons learned, best practices, and innovative [...]
Retail Demand Planning Before, During, and After Crisis
Yogi Berra is often quoted as saying, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Steve Jobs echoed the same sentiment as a preface to his optimistic extrapolations predicting the future of technology. In today’s world, this couldn’t be closer to the truth. Three years ago, in the early days [...]
Solving Today’s Retail Inventory Challenges with Strategy and Process
Despite increasing acceptance by retailers of newer technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality, most of the challenges remain around supply chain and retail inventory—the lifeblood and backbone of the industry. Recent news stories about major retailers falling far short of earnings expectations and the subsequent [...]
The JEDI Journey Continues: Three Days That Changed Our World
How do you sum up three life-changing days in a developing country where the gross national income hovers below $5,000 USD? This question has been nagging me since our small team from The Parker Avery Group and Greg Buzek from Retail ROI started wrapping up our trip to [...]
Three Takeaways from the Women in Retail Leadership Summit
Recently, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the 2022 Women in Retail Leadership (WIRL) Summit. This annual event brings together some of the smartest and most fun, highly talented ladies in the retail industry and allows us to network, engage, and learn from each other. Having never [...]
Understanding Consumer Demand: The Retail and CPG North Star
I was recently involved in an interesting conversation with my colleagues regarding why we do what we do. This dialog was inspired by Simon Sinek’s book and Ted Talk on the same subject: before the what and the how, we must understand the “why.” Over the [...]
Aim10x Global 2022 Recap
Last week, several members of The Parker Avery Group attended the aim10x Global 2022 event. This was Parker Avery’s second year as a partner in o9 Solution’s three-day virtual event, and the team enjoyed the many interesting speaker sessions, as well as the camaraderie of colleagues across different supply [...]
Retail Reality: Navigating Through Madness
The appeal of the upcoming NCAA March Madness tournament is always “the unexpected.” The sleepers. The Cinderella teams. The upsets. The highs and the lows. CONTENTS How do retail leaders navigate through the madness? What can struggling retailers do to prepare? Focus on the fundamentals Capitalize on the [...]
Make No Mistake: Avoiding Data Governance Issues
Coupled with increasing investment by retailers in new systems that incorporate advanced analytics and artificial intelligence, having a solid data governance strategy in place is paramount. Two of our retail consulting experts, Heidi Csencsits and Rob Gentry, were recently interviewed by a media analyst about the [...]
You Don’t Have to See the Whole Staircase
This post was originally published in May 2020; it has been modified slightly. Looking back over the events of the past two years I’m certain we can all agree it’s been a roller coaster of emotions, anxieties, stresses, and zaps of energies we’ve never before encountered. Hopefully, at [...]
Three Key Retail Trends for 2022
As retailers continue to navigate the disruptive factors that have forever altered the way they do business, ongoing and emerging challenges continue to drive transformational change. Massive shifts in consumer behavior have propelled omnichannel retailing, driving retailers to expand and enhance options for shopping and fulfillment. These impacts [...]
Holidays, Family, and Gratitude
To begin, our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by the horrific tornadoes that devastated Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Illinois. While tumultuous for many, this past year has also been a myriad of stories about rebuilding businesses, strengthening relationships, and truly appreciating [...]
Unimaginable Gratitude: The JEDI Challenge
Unimaginable Gratitude: The JEDI Challenge As we approach Thanksgiving week and the 2021 holiday season, The Parker Avery Group wrapped up what may be the most important project in our firm’s almost 15 years. It wasn’t for a multibillion-dollar global retailer. It wasn’t a strategic supply [...]
Retail Employee Engagement: Three Key Factors
With the holiday shopping surge fast approaching, supply chain issues a top concern, and the stark realization that retailers are still struggling to fill holes in their store labor schedules, it is paramount that retail employee engagement is given top priority. Retailers need to consider [...]
Delivering Success: A Best-of-Breed Approach to Change Management
Delivering Success: A Best-of-Breed Approach to Change Management Some time ago in our monthly newsletter, we proclaimed that “software is not your solution.” We received some interesting feedback from our technology partners and colleagues, but we meant it. It is our steadfast belief that regardless of [...]
The Bright Future of Brick-and-Mortar Retail: Four Key Drivers
Amazon’s continued move into brick-and-mortar (aka physical) retail can be seen as further proof that the terminal demise of the physical store has been slightly—if not largely—exaggerated. Rather, brick-and-mortar retail is evolving to meet new customer expectations and address the continuous change in the overall retail landscape. [...]