Kurt Salmon
Innovative Consulting to Help Businesses Transform and Evolve

Retail companies looking to achieve operational efficiencies increasingly need to leverage a leading-edge strategy. But articulating an operations strategy is one thing; managing it successfully is something else entirely. Helping retail organizations to articulate, implement and manage both operations and related strategies for success is Kurt Salmon, a New York-based management consulting firm whose inception dates back nearly 80 years. An adviser to some of the world’s leading retailers, Kurt Salmon offers a range of retail consulting services, including strategy, mergers and integration, private equity, product design and development, merchandising and planning, supply chain, customer interaction and information technology.

In the words of John Seidl, Partner and Director of Kurt Salmon’s IT practice, “It’s all about operations management—which means process transformations to allow retailers to change the experience for their customers such that they have a common interaction, no matter what channel the customer chooses to interact with.” Drawing on the firm’s extensive knowledge and experience, Kurt Salmon advises retailers on how to transform and evolve, how to become more efficient, and how to adapt to both the changing market and evolving customer expectations.

Kurt Salmon looks at a retailer’s practices across the board and identifies areas for improvement; its consultants then define and enact a strategy based on the company’s stated long-term goals. Whether it’s the business plan, IT strategy, programs for the adoption of new technology or new cross-channel marketing methods, Kurt Salmon helps the retailer to achieve more effective results, including reaching their existing and prospective customers through all available methods.

A major retailer based in the southeastern U.S. came to Kurt Salmon to find ways to expand its online business in light of a 40 percent year-over-year growth in ecommerce sales. Kurt Salmon first reorganized the retailer’s entire supply chain, which allowed it to implement ecommerce-focused initiatives while also gaining a complete view of its inventory overall.

The greatest success came through bringing together the online and brick-and-mortar divisions. The result was higher in-store sales and decreased markdowns for end-of-the-line stock, which could be sold at full price on the website. All of this was accomplished within 12 months; Kurt Salmon continues to advise the retailer to this day.

Consumers expect a seamless brand experience regardless of the channel (such as the internet, a mobile app or in-store). But while offering an omnichannel experience might seem like an easy undertaking, in fact it’s a complicated, time-consuming process that ultimately ends up affecting every facet of a retailer’s business. Kurt Salmon treats each facet as one necessary but interconnected element of the retailer’s overall retail business strategy.

For those retail businesses seeking to go global, the problems associated with reaching customers in new and existing markets will prove to be even more complex. “The new market opportunity is substantial,” says Seidl. “And there’s a whole series of process transformations and new technology solutions that need to be deployed for companies to get there.” With Kurt Salmon, retailers can reduce their financial risk even as they seek to expand their footprint.