McKinsey & Company - Retail Practice



	The Retail Practice draws upon deep experience and knowledge across industry sub-sectors and functional areas. Our knowledge is focused on issues critical to department stores, specialty apparel retailers, grocery stores, discounters, foodservice operators, and direct retailers, among others. We have developed breakthrough thinking in areas including strategy, marketing, operations, and organization, to name a few. The knowledge presented here is among our best and most current thinking on the retail industry.


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	A Golden Egg for Retail Laura Meinke, Elizabeth Mihas, Michelle Moorehead, Nick Semaca Service Line: Merchandising & Category Management 2Q00 Retail earnings are feeling the squeeze. The Internet, industry consolidation and changing demographics are all applying pressure to the top and bottom lines. Yet a powerful optimizing tool, Vendor Performance Improvement (VPI), remains little used and poorly understood. B2B for Apparel Retailers Ian Larkin, Ben Matthews, Elizabeth Mihas, Marco van Kalleveen Service Line: Sourcing & Supplier Management 2Q01 The savvy shopper today selects a number of flattering garments from a separates collection. Likewise, apparel retailers and brands should choose several business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces from the many that exist to tackle their particular procurement needs. Boosting Returns on Marketing Investment David C. Court, Jonathan W. Gordon, Jesko Perrey Service Line: Marketing & Customer Experience 2Q05 The golden age of advertising is over, so marketers must now work harder to reach buyers. Distracted consumers and the proliferation of media and distribution channels are also undermining the traditional approach: set objectives, develop messaging, and measure results. While some marketers have responded by turning to quantitative solutions such as marketing-mix models, today's challenges call for more. Building Retail Brands Terilyn A. Henderson, Elizabeth A. Mihas Service Line: Marketing & Customer Experience 3Q00 Establishing and communicating a brand may be harder for multibrand retailers than for their single-brand counterparts, but brand building is essential for both. Senior managers must make building the brand an integral part of how they think about the business, from identifying target customers to creating the in-store experience. Capturing Value in Retail: Understanding What the Capital Markets Reward Betsy Bohlen Service Line: Strategy and Growth 4Q00 How can retailers drive greater shareholder value creation? Our research indicates that the capital markets reward return on invested capital (ROIC) above all else, and therefore any growth vehicle needs to deliver a stronger ROIC. Sales growth from new stores is also valued. However, retailers do not get credit for new sales growth if they have not first proven successful at managing their invested capital and existing store network. Customer Marketing Organization: The Key to Turbocharging Customer Marketing Performance Margo Georgiadis, Katrina Lane Service Line: Organization 1Q01 In spite of their efforts to get closer to their customers through investments in databases and technology, many marketers have failed to elevate CRM performance to their targeted level. Our research has shown that organization is a critical and often overlooked factor in driving CRM initiatives to better performance. Customer Retention is not Enough Stephanie Coyles, Timothy C. Gokey Service Line: Marketing & Customer Experience 2Q02 Every company knows that it costs far less to hold on to a customer than to acquire a new one. That's why customer retention has become the Holy Grail in industries from retail to airlines. Yet defecting customers are far less of a problem than customers who change their buying patterns. Today's typical metrics of customer satisfaction and defection don't tell a company how susceptible its customers are to changing their spending patterns. Design to Value John McPherson, Adrian Mitchell, Andrew Ross Service Line: Format Strategy & Renewal 1Q04 To reverse the cycle of value destruction, foodservice operators must take a more customer insight-driven approach to store design and construction. By investing in the format elements that matter most to customers, foodservice operators can increase store-level profitability, reduce new construction and remodeling costs, and create a more powerful customer experience. Foodservice 2010: Executive Summary John DeVine, Michelle Horn, Elizabeth Ledet, Elizabeth Lehman, Allen Yu Service Line: Strategy and Growth 4Q00 The U.S. foodservice industry is rapidly changing as a result of shifting consumer behaviors and industry forces such as technology and consolidation. McKinsey, in conjunction with IFDA and IFMA, took an in-depth look at how the sector will evolve over the next 10 years. To purchase the complete report, please contact us. Getting Prices Right on the Web Walker Baker, Eric Lin, Michael Marn, Craig Zawada Service Line: Multichannel 2Q01 Far from being a price destroyer, the Internet can bring new detail to pricing strategies, thus creating enormous value. But companies must act quickly and rethink their on-line policies before habit and customer expectations make change difficult if not disastrous.
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