Thought Leadership Reports
Scroll through our most-read resources, guides, tips, and more!
Turning Targets into Action: How Smart Planning Drives Retail Performance
In retail, targets shape how teams plan their day, allocate resources, and measure progress. They’re built into everything from staffing schedules to dashboard views, and they help stores stay aligned with business goals. When targets are thoughtfully set and clearly distributed, they become a practical tool for execution—not just a number to hit.
Smarter Labor Banding: A Practical Framework for Retail Efficiency in 2026
Retailers know that labor is one of their biggest investments—and one of the hardest to optimize. The challenge isn’t just about cutting costs. It’s about making sure stores are staffed appropriately for their size, format, and sales volume, especially during peak hours.
The Strategic Role of a Retail Administrator in Operational Enablement
Retail administrators are the operational backbone of modern retail organizations. Their work behind the scenes ensures that systems are configured correctly, teams are empowered with the right tools, and performance data is both visible and actionable. Especially during high-impact periods like the holiday season, administrators play a vital role in enabling execution at scale.
Unlocking Available Capacity: A Smarter Approach to Retail Labor Optimization
Retail operations are constantly balancing labor efficiency with customer experience. One often-overlooked opportunity lies in Available Capacity—the hidden pockets of time created by minimum staffing levels, shift commitments, and overstaffing.
Lead Before the Label: Spotting Future Leaders in Retail
Retail thrives on leadership, yet many brands wait until after a promotion to define it. The reality is that future leaders reveal themselves long before a new title appears on their badge. The challenge for executives is knowing where to look—and what to measure.
The State of Retail 2025: Fragmentation, Focus, and the Path Forward
Retail in 2025 is not one story but many. Growth is modest but present. Fragmentation is real and permanent. Some brands will fade, as Gap did, while others will thrive, as YETI has, by aligning authenticity, execution, and consumer relevance.
Plan Ahead: Sensormatic’s 2025 Global Top Busiest Days
By integrating traffic insights into operational planning, retailers can ensure peak performance, maximize sales, and deliver an exceptional customer experience throughout the holiday season.
From Labor ROI to Talent ROI
For retailers, the path forward is clear: stop looking only at labor ROI and start measuring talent ROI. Spot the spark, track beyond traditional metrics, and create space for people to learn and grow. The payoff is stronger leaders, lower costs, and teams ready to deliver results well into the future.
The True Value of Store Visits
Store visits are often treated as routine, but they are a powerful lever for performance when approached strategically. Beyond compliance checks, structured visits align in-store execution with corporate priorities, uncover opportunities for improvement, and drive measurable outcomes.
From Chaos to Clarity: Turning Retail Data into Real Results
Retailers generate more data than ever, but too often it goes unused or misunderstood. In his Community Conference session, Rakish Naipal emphasized that collecting numbers is meaningless without a plan to act on them. His core message: break down silos...
The Other Side of the Schedule: Why Non-Selling Hours Deserve a Seat at the Table
When retailers talk about labor planning, the focus is almost always selling hours—time associates spend directly with customers driving revenue. But what happens outside of transactions matters just as much...
The Importance of 90: Why peak coverage defines retail success
Peak coverage is not just a scheduling metric—it’s a sales strategy. The closer retailers align selling labor to peak traffic, the stronger their comp growth.
Rethinking Labor Targets: Smarter KPI Target Setting in Retail
Labor targets shouldn’t be a copy-paste from last year’s numbers. They should reflect the future of the business and the reality in stores today. When finance and operations align, labor shifts from being a cost to being a driver of growth.
Setting the Pace for Incremental Improvements
In retail, numbers set the pace. Sales, margins, and labor targets flow from the top down, shaping expectations for every level of the business. Executives define strategy, finance locks in goals, and operations translate those into KPIs like conversion, average transaction value (ATV), and units per transaction (UPT).
Setting The Standard
For senior leaders, the priority is straightforward: set a clear service standard, align labor to it, and protect coverage at peak moments. Doing so transforms traffic into revenue, interactions into loyalty, and stores into destinations that consistently deliver a world-class experience.
Cross-Functional Retail Strategy: Aligning Operations, Merchandising, and Marketing for Peak Performance
Retail success doesn’t happen in silos. Operations, merchandising, and marketing each have essential roles, but when these functions work independently, stores risk missed opportunities, inconsistent execution, and lost revenue...
Omnichannel Execution in Retail: Aligning Store Teams to Drive In-Store and Online Success
Customers expect a seamless shopping experience across both physical stores and digital platforms...
Hourly KPI Monitoring in Retail: What to Track During High-Density Traffic
During peak periods, store traffic can spike—and performance gaps widen just as quickly. The difference between a well-managed rush and a missed opportunity often comes down to one thing: visibility.
Operational Blind Spots: 6 Hidden Drivers of Retail Performance You Can’t Afford to Miss
Every Retailer runs into the same operational trap: you’re flooded with data but missing the signals that actually move the needle. The issue isn’t effort—it’s focus.
Adapting Retail Execution to Weather-Driven Foot Traffic Fluctuations
Retail has always been weather-sensitive—but now, retailers have the data to act on it. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF)...
From Data to Action: How the Missed Opportunities Report Drives Store Performance
In Specialty Retail, performance rarely comes down to just one factor. It’s a mix of traffic, staffing, product availability, and customer experience—and it shifts daily. That’s why the weekly averages, while helpful, often fail to tell the full story...
Maximize Back-to-School Retail Strategy
The back-to-school season has always been a key revenue moment for specialty Retailers. But this year, something different is happening...
Retail’s New Reality: How AI is Reshaping Operations for Specialty Retail
Retail is evolving faster than ever. From artificial intelligence to experiential shopping, the rules of engagement are changing—and for Specialty Retailers...
Regional Back-to-School Traffic Peaks: Why Timing is Everything
In our recent Back-to-School webinar with Journeys and Sensormatic, we look at why Retailers are not making the most of the Back-to-School (BTS) season.
It’s Tough Out There
Retailers have always been resilient. But today’s climate is testing even the most seasoned operators with rising operational costs, shifting customer traffic, and tariff-driven pressures are all squeezing margins.
Crush The Holiday Rush: 5 Tips For Holiday Readiness
The holiday season is here, bringing big opportunities—and plenty of competition—to Specialty Retailers. With retail growth predictions...
2024 Black Friday Report
If you’ve been following the news, you may have read that this Black Friday was particularly challenging for brick-and-mortar retailers...
Driving Labor Optimization and Performance Uplifts in Retail
Retailers today face increasing pressure to optimize labor costs while maintaining high levels of customer service.
2025: 6 Retail Trends
Yes, of course! Embracing technology is essential for enhancing the shopping experience...
The Mall: Retail's Comeback Kid
Once upon a time, a trip to the mall was all about the shopping...
The False Economy of Blanket Labour Increases in African Retail
In South Africa, many Retailers follow a common yet misguided practice: they automatically increase labour costs in direct proportion to sales growth, usually by 3-5% each year.
Good Peak Gone Bad
In retail, maximizing sales during your busiest hours is crucial. It’s important to ensure that you have the right staff in the right place at the right time.
The State of Retail
We can’t help but reflect on how technology continues to shape and transform how Retailers operate.
Leading Retailers Win With Storeforce
The age old question is true. The only constant thing we can rely on is change; and in Retail, change moves faster than ever.
BoF - McKinsey State of Fashion 2025
In 2025, the leading influence of conversion and loyalty for Specialty Retailers lies in their in-store consumer experience.