Revolutionizing Retail Success with Strategic Benchmarking

A leading non-profit organization specializing in providing benchmarking services to global companies wanted to deliver more strategic, industry-specific insights for its retail clients, to capture the sector’s distinct nuances and complexities. 

Objective

The company wanted to develop a standardized process framework to deliver specific insights into their retail clients’ operations, processes and performance, and provide clients with access benchmarks and metrics, including:

• Meaningful comparisons across processes within their value chain
• Assessment of performance and identification of areas for improvement

Drive operational excellence across all customer channels, including brick-and-mortar and online, and functions including marketing, merchandising and supply chain

Solution

Phronesis Partners leveraged its extensive experience in delivering quantitative benchmarking studies to assist the organization. The approach included:

Primary Research: Systematic collection of data-driven intelligence through the review of questionnaires and creation of web scripts.

In-Depth Interviews: Engagements with senior decision-makers across various retail businesses, including durable and non-durable goods, and food retailers. Interviewees included Marketing Directors, Heads of Customer Experience, Heads of Supply Chain, HR Directors, and Heads of Customer Service.

The data collection focused on several key areas:

• Firmographics: Type of retailer, location, and employee size across various channels and functions
• Financial Insights: Revenue, cost of goods sold (COGS), sales, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses, and cost of continuing operations (CCO)
• Business Performance: Total sales, sales growth, sales per square foot, e-commerce sales, average transaction value, and sales conversion rates
• Customer Service: Customer satisfaction scores, Net Promoter Score (NPS), customer feedback, and complaints
• Online Performance: Website visits, average time spent on the website, and cost per click (CPC)
• Offline Performance: Real estate expenses, availability of retail space, new stores in operation, and disposal of existing stores
• Marketing Insights: Total marketing spends, marketing return on investment (ROI), like-for-like (LFL) sales growth, spend on sales promotions, and customer lifetime value (CLV)
• Operational Insights: Employee engagement, attrition, and the cost of employees by function

Impact

The comprehensive survey results provided granular insights into processes, functions, and customer channels within the retail sector. These insights enabled the organization to develop a tailored process framework that serves as a baseline for performance comparison. This framework offers a deeper understanding of the competitive landscape, empowering the organization's retail clients to identify optimization opportunities, streamline processes, and implement targeted improvements, thereby driving significant enhancements to their overall performance.