Modernising retail systems & processes
Evaluate current tools and systems
Provide pragmatic tools
Facilitate and evaluate
Key Design Decision
(KDD)
Experienced retail consultants with background in buying, merchandising & other to improve your results
Finding the differentiator that sets you apart from your retail competitors is great but sometimes it’s good to get an external perspective to ensure you are as efficient and commercial as you can be.
If you are a retailer embarking on a business transformation you may be asking yourself:
- What do the best retailers do?
- How can I get the best from my team or software provider?
- How do the people, process and systems connect?
…we can help.
Retail experts that hit the ground running
At First Friday, all our consultants come from a retail background and many at a senior level. With over 30 retail consultants from buying, merchandising and commercial areas, our detailed knowledge of retail stands us apart from other consulting companies.
We understand the common problems retailers face around processes, best practice and productivity, which makes us able to deliver sustainable new ways of working – and a return on your investment.
“The professional commitment, partnership mind set and the drive to add value from First Friday has been second to none.”
Bespoke retail solutions to commercial challenges
The depth of our retail expertise both operationally and on projects means that, unlike many consulting companies, we tailor our approach to suit your business reality, your starting point, your challenge, your people and your aims to enable your retail transformation journey.
We work with retailers across the full spectrum of products, business models (business-to-business: B2B, business-to-consumer: B2C), size & complexity, identifying & supporting the realisation of both quick wins and long-term strategic benefits throughout the retail cycle.
Drivers for retail change
Our retail consulting approach is to target the driver(s) in your business and will be underpinned by starting from best practice decisions, processes and tools used in relevant successful retailers. This enables us to work with your team to build their skills and challenge current ways of working and beliefs, enabling transformation. We will guide on behaviours, leadership, ownership and teamwork to maximise the capability and results .We will help you prioritise system investment based on maturity of model, avoiding costly mistakes.
We will ensure that the connections between people, process and systems are thought through and are effective end-to-end with key handoff points surfaced and addressed – e.g. who owns stock ?
And we understand that you need to deliver incremental improvements alongside the transformation and will use your data to make specific recommendations on current issues building the adoption.
There are some recurring themes in the drivers for retail change:
Business expansion
Growing revenue and profit ahead of costs
Drive agility
Multi-country / region consistency
Too much stock
Flex and optimise stock as sales demands
Establish appropriate levels
for the model
Open to Buy (OTB)
management
Strategic change of focus
Ensuring strategy is connected to plans and delivery
Enable measurement of success
Collaborative working
Work together at the right time to deliver the best results
Consistent ways of working
Collaborative approach to the project
Visibility
Clear information that connects the past, present and future to avoid surprises
Data that drives action
Consistent, clear terminology
Actionable recommendations that improve profitability
Target operating model
- Define series of connected tasks from company strategy to exit
- Identify functional ownership and teamwork
- Align team on dependencies and benefits
Business requirements in line with operating model
- Assess understanding and utilisation of current tools
- Ensure software requirements are clear and support the way your business will operate
- Support creation of RFP (request for proposal)
- Software selection (with deep understanding of end user needs)
- Support for system development
Business management reporting
- Define effective, consistent metrics and KPIs to plan and measure performance
- Define reporting to provide visibility to each level of business
- Provide business management templates
Retail planning calendar
- Ensure timelines are lead-time driven
- Align all functions on clear dependencies at key moments
- Improve decision making
Meeting structures
- Clear aims and attendees for meetings
- Enable effective ownership and momentum
- Outline exception management
Change management
- Communication
- Stakeholder management and evaluation
- Business readiness
- System testing
- Cutover and go-live
- Engagement
- Adoption
Organisational design
- Align agreed operating model to organisation structure
- Define governance structure
- Support people transformation
- Outline KPI ownership
RACIs (Responsible, Accountable, Consult, Inform)
- Ensure ownership and involvement effective and aligned
- Provide clear direction for competencies and review
- Process and organisation development in line with system
- Ensure user is identified and supported to utilise system
- Role based training connecting systems and processes
Working with many retail software providers and systems, including
Transform key retail systems and processes
From end-to-end retail system transformation with the full suite from the likes of SAP, Oracle, Blue Yonder, and O9, to small implementations of a single application – we ensure that people, process and system all align to enable efficient and effective working.
System reviews, roadmaps and recommendations
Get a comprehensive system review to help you understand and utilise your current tools, or to assess the data structure and processes across tools within your IT ecosystem.
We can provide pragmatic tools which support the change journey, capability build and enable you to select the right systems for your end state
We can even support you in ensuring your software requirements are clear and support the way your business operates, and assist with RFPs and shortlisting, enabling you to properly assess software fit.
Retail system specialists
ERP
Merchandise Management Systems
Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP) & WSSI
Assortment Planning
Product Item Management (PIM)
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
Demand Planning
Product Order Management (POM)
Allocation and Replenishment (A&R)
Stock Optimisation
Space Planning and Optimisation
Price Optimisation
Supply Chain & Logistics
Warehouse Management
Point of Sale and Store systems
Invoice Matching
Sales Audit
Critical Path Management
Why choose First Friday as your retail consultants?
Retail experts
All of our team have retail business backgrounds, many at a senior level in areas such as Merchandising, Planning and Buying. Having done the roles operationally we hit the ground running and become part of your team.
We have extensive experience on projects, from major transformations to more focused programmes of improvements and replacements. We work with your team to develop effective processes alongside realistic systems and support the capability build needed to deliver sustainable change.
Retail consultants who feel like part of your team
We start by building a team specific to your challenges (and segment), ensuring you have consultants who understand your business, start point and aims and can work closely with your team, gaining their trust quickly.
We build a project plan that takes account of where you are today and where you aim to be, based on a full understanding of the steps required to deliver the outcome you need.
Quick wins
To sustain momentum and build capability we know it’s important to have quick wins along the transformation journey. We use your data to identify opportunities that directly improve your bottom line in line with the retail cycle.
From range planning to demand forecasting to allocation & replenishment to WSSI, we equip your team with the tools and knowledge needed to drive real change and sustainable growth.
Pragmatic help at every stage
Whether you’re undergoing an end-to-end retail transformation with major ERP systems or seeking targeted improvements in specific areas, we offer a comprehensive suite of services.
From system selection to process development to change management to training, we ensure that people, processes, and systems align to deliver improvements.
“First Friday have changed how we approach projects and it’s been really successful.”
Example retail consulting projects
Meet some of our expert retail consultants
A consultant with over 20 years’ experience, Victoria had a long career in merchandising for blue-chip retailers before joining First Friday where she now supports and guides businesses through transformation programmes, enabling them to deliver sustainable change in her role as a strategic transformation consultant.
More about Victoria »
Business Partner Gita has an accounting background and is an experienced retail professional with both executive and non-executive director-level experience. She has been involved in large transformation projects in many leading UK and international retailers.
More about Gita »
Following a long career in merchandising for George at Asda (which saw her progress to director level), Clare became a consultant in 2016 and now combines her broad merchandising experience with knowledge from a master’s degree in Business Psychology.
More about Clare »
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