Next Retail Group

 

 

The Retail Landscape

Retailers operate at the confluence of consumers, product and service suppliers, and technology.  All of these are in constant flux.  Retail success  is dependent on how the retailer reacts to these external forces.  Next Retail Group’s departure point for all engagements is a firm understanding of the retail landscape. 

 

We know where we are.  We know where we have come from.  We know where we are headed.  Our approach is to understand the client’s context and apply our knowledge base in the following areas to produce the best possible outcome for the client.

 

 

Hindsight

Much has changed in society, business and technology since the first computerized POS systems were installed.

 

The first POS systems were met with public and retailer skepticism and were severely strained by the rigorous demands of store operation. Skepticism gave way as commitment, effort and perseverance to store automation paid off handsomely for all constituencies.

 

Understanding what has come before is critical in planning for the future.  Experience allows us to keep problems and potentials in perspective and sort hype from reality.

 

 

Insight

Applied technology has provided more convenience for consumers and greater choices, scales and efficiencies for retailers and their partners.

 

Enter the empowered consumer and the embattled retailer. While business choices are myriad, the challenges are daunting. Technology and social change are accelerating while executives, operators and implementers are expected to deal gracefully and invisibly with it all on reduced budgets.

 

Rapid change is an accepted and expected fact of life today – despite a general human antipathy to change among all but the young.

 

Businesses as well as individuals have little choice but to join the fray given the dynamics of today’s global opportunities and competition. Bystanders will be quickly left behind.

 

Next Retail Group was founded to address this dynamic state of affairs in retailing. Retailers are experiencing turbulence at the confluence of ever more demanding consumers, organizational inertia, and assets deployed over long time frames and large scales.

 

 

Foresight

NRG expects the pace of change of the last decade to accelerate and has positioned itself to assist retailers in successfully navigating the ensuing turbulence.

 

We can find new efficiencies for organizations in stable environments, generate improvements and extensions for the competitively pressed, and create new designs where appropriate.

 

We have resources and expertise to bring to bear in the “hard” arts - technology, hardware, software, infrastructure, project oversight – as well as the “softer” ones such as organizational and process structure and assessment, human factors and store performance.

 

We are accustomed to accounting for a broad range of practical constraints – whether financial, organizational, or technical.

 

Finally, we have a partner network that can assist or take on large and small scale projects across all retail segments for retailers and the companies that serve them.

Making the Future Manageable