At a glance
- Who it is for: multi-category, multi-channel retailers whose SKU count has outgrown their ability to explain it.
- Brief: one trusted view of product, category and channel performance, in the hands of the people who decide the range.
- Engagement: data integration and metric definition, a pilot with one category team, then rollout.
- Services: Market Intelligence, Platforms & Process.
The situation
Range reviews in most retailers are decided by the strongest voice in the room and last year's numbers. Categories grow by accretion, every buyer defends their lines, and the SKU count climbs while margin quietly leaks into stock that does not turn, products that cannibalise each other, and promotions that were never measured.
Finance knows the total. Nobody can see which products, categories and channels actually earn their place.
The challenge
- Sales, stock, cost and promotion data sit in point-of-sale, e-commerce, warehouse and supplier systems that have never been joined.
- Product information is inconsistent, so the same item appears under several codes.
- Reports arrive monthly, after the decisions they were meant to inform.
- Category managers need answers in a form they can act on, not a data warehouse project.
What we build
A single product truth. Point-of-sale, e-commerce, inventory and supplier data integrated and cleansed, with product codes reconciled so a SKU means one thing everywhere.
Performance at every level. Sales velocity, revenue contribution, margin after cost-to-serve, and stock turn at SKU, category, brand and channel level, refreshed daily.
Rationalisation and pricing signals. The products that duplicate each other, the long tail that ties up working capital, and the price points where elasticity suggests headroom.
Forecasting. Demand models that use seasonality, promotions and market signals to plan stock and avoid both markdowns and lost sales.
Dashboards built with the buyers. Metric definitions agreed with category managers, merchandisers and finance, piloted with one team, and proven to reconcile to the management accounts before rollout.
What changes
- Range decisions are made on margin and turn, with the evidence visible to everyone in the room.
- Underperforming SKUs are identified and acted on in the same quarter rather than discovered at stocktake.
- Buyers spend their time on assortment and negotiation instead of building spreadsheets.
- Leadership has one view of portfolio performance across stores and online, updated daily.
Why it works
The value is not in the dashboard. It is in agreeing what good looks like, joining data that was never meant to meet, and giving the people who make range decisions a tool they trust. We pilot with one category team, prove the numbers reconcile to finance, then scale.
