Improve store performance and turn physical locations into a growth engine
Retail strategy and senior commercial leadership for businesses improving existing locations, planning a network, entering physical retail or creating a pop-up, concept or flagship experience.
hitsuzendō connects location economics, footfall, conversion, customer experience, digital behaviour and operations, so decisions are based on the performance of the whole commercial system.
Built for businesses that grow in the real world
Physical growth is not limited to traditional retail. The same commercial questions apply to stores, branches, showrooms, service environments, venues, temporary locations and branded experiences.
A multi-site business has significant differences in performance between locations.
A digital brand is considering its first permanent physical presence.
An established network needs to expand, consolidate, relocate or prioritise investment.
Locations attract visitors but do not convert enough of them into customers.
A business is planning a pop-up, concept store or flagship location.
Digital, customer, marketing and location data remain disconnected.
Store layout or customer flow is limiting performance.
Central teams and local operators are not working towards consistent commercial outcomes.
The decisions this work helps you make
- ?Which locations should be improved, refitted, relocated, consolidated or closed?
- ?Where should the network expand, and which formats are commercially appropriate?
- ?Should a new market be tested through a pop-up, partnership or permanent location?
- ?What role should a flagship or concept store play within the wider business?
- ?How can relevant footfall, conversion and customer value be improved?
- ?How should digital discovery, CRM, loyalty and ecommerce connect with physical locations?
- ?Which operating standards and reporting measures should apply across the network?
- ?What should be piloted before further capital is committed?
Six connected capabilities for physical growth
The work can address one immediate constraint or connect several disciplines into a wider store, location or network-performance programme.
Store performance and portfolio optimisation
Build a location-by-location view of commercial performance, identify why results vary and prioritise the interventions most likely to improve the network.
Typical work
- ✓Location and portfolio-performance review
- ✓Store economics and contribution analysis
- ✓Location segmentation and benchmarking
- ✓Footfall and conversion analysis
- ✓Revenue, margin and customer-value assessment
- ✓Performance constraints and opportunity mapping
- ✓Investment and intervention priorities
Retail network and location planning
Decide where the business should operate, how the network should develop and which locations or formats justify further investment.
Typical work
- ✓Network and market assessment
- ✓Catchment and customer-opportunity analysis
- ✓Network gaps and expansion priorities
- ✓Location and format criteria
- ✓Cannibalisation and portfolio considerations
- ✓Opening, relocation, consolidation and closure recommendations
- ✓Commercial investment cases
- ✓New-location performance framework
Specialist property, surveying or location-data partners can be incorporated where an assignment requires expertise beyond commercial strategy.
Footfall, conversion and local demand
Connect awareness, discovery and local relevance to visits, enquiries, purchases and repeat customer value.
Typical work
- ✓Local demand and acquisition strategy
- ✓Digital discovery and local search
- ✓Location-level marketing
- ✓Partnerships, events and community activity
- ✓Visit-to-purchase conversion
- ✓Local customer segmentation
- ✓Location launch and relaunch planning
- ✓Test-and-learn programmes
Customer experience, layout and physical formats
Shape the commercial role of the location and create a clearer brief for how customers should move through, interact with and buy from the physical experience.
Typical work
- ✓End-to-end customer journey
- ✓Customer flow and commercial zoning
- ✓Product or service presentation
- ✓Navigation, signage and decision points
- ✓Service and interaction principles
- ✓Pop-up and temporary-format strategy
- ✓Concept-store proposition
- ✓Flagship-store commercial role
- ✓Commercial briefs for design and delivery partners
hitsuzendō provides the commercial concept, customer-experience direction and performance brief. Architectural, interior-design, planning and construction work should be delivered by appropriately qualified specialists.
Digital, data and omnichannel performance
Connect physical locations with the digital journeys, customer data and commercial systems surrounding them.
Typical work
- ✓Online-to-store customer journeys
- ✓Ecommerce and physical-location integration
- ✓CRM and loyalty connections
- ✓Click-and-collect, booking or appointment journeys
- ✓Inventory and availability visibility
- ✓Digital engagement within locations
- ✓Online-to-store attribution
- ✓Location-level reporting and dashboards
- ✓Customer insight and test design
Retail operations, pilots and implementation
Turn the strategy into repeatable operating practices, practical tests and accountable implementation.
Typical work
- ✓Central and local team responsibilities
- ✓Operating standards and service principles
- ✓Performance routines and reporting
- ✓Governance and decision-making
- ✓Pilot design and implementation
- ✓Pop-up or new-format launch support
- ✓Learning and optimisation cycles
- ✓Rollout recommendations
- ✓Fractional or interim leadership
What you can bring hitsuzendō in to do
Diagnose
Understand why a location, format or network is not performing as expected.
Decide
Prioritise markets, locations, formats, interventions and investment.
Design
Create the commercial strategy, customer experience, operating principles and delivery brief.
Pilot
Test a location improvement, pop-up, new format or connected customer journey before scaling it.
Scale
Turn validated improvements into a practical network or implementation programme.
Lead
Provide senior project, advisory, fractional or interim leadership across the work.
How the engagement can be structured
The right structure depends on the scale of the decision, the evidence already available and the level of leadership required.
What the first 90 days can look like
A wider location-performance or physical-growth programme can follow this structure. A focused diagnostic, investment decision or pilot may be completed over a shorter period.
Establish the commercial baseline
- ✓Review location, network and format performance.
- ✓Understand footfall, conversion, revenue, margin and customer-value patterns.
- ✓Assess the customer journey, physical experience and operating model.
- ✓Review digital, data and omnichannel connections.
- ✓Identify the most important constraints and evidence gaps.
Output
A performance diagnosis, opportunity map and clear set of priorities.
Make the strategic decisions
- ✓Segment the network and prioritise locations or markets.
- ✓Define the role of each relevant format.
- ✓Create the customer-experience and operating principles.
- ✓Develop the physical-growth, improvement or expansion strategy.
- ✓Agree investment criteria, ownership and performance measures.
Output
A commercially grounded strategy and prioritised implementation plan.
Pilot, implement and learn
- ✓Launch a priority improvement, pilot or activation.
- ✓Test the revised customer, commercial or operating experience.
- ✓Connect physical and digital measurement.
- ✓Review early performance and operational learning.
- ✓Create the next-stage investment, rollout or optimisation plan.
Output
Evidence from live implementation and a clearer basis for future investment.
What the business receives
- ✓Location and portfolio-performance diagnostic
- ✓Prioritised store-improvement plan
- ✓Network, market or location strategy
- ✓Footfall and conversion plan
- ✓Customer-journey and physical-experience framework
- ✓Store-layout or format commercial brief
- ✓Pop-up, concept-store or flagship business case
- ✓Retail operating-model recommendations
- ✓Digital, data and omnichannel integration plan
- ✓Pilot and implementation roadmap
- ✓Performance dashboard and governance framework
- ✓Senior leadership and decision support where required
How performance can be measured
The measurement framework is agreed around the commercial purpose of the location, network or initiative.
- Relevant footfall
- Local discovery and directions
- Enquiries, appointments or bookings
- Campaign, event and activation response
- Location conversion rate
- Average transaction value
- Enquiry-to-sale conversion
- Repeat visits
- Loyalty participation
- Customer retention and value
- Revenue per location
- Like-for-like growth
- Gross margin and contribution
- Sales per square foot or square metre
- Investment payback
- Store-level acquisition cost
- New-location ramp-up
- Performance by location segment
- Format or concept performance
- Online-to-store attribution
- Pop-up learning and commercial return
- Network coverage and cannibalisation
- Service consistency
- Product or service availability
- Execution against operating standards
- Location-level accountability
- Speed of improvement implementation
Measures are selected according to the business model and assignment. They are tracked to support decisions and improvement, not presented as guaranteed outcomes.
Experience at global retail scale
Experience from Andrew Duggan’s in-house role at bp
Before founding hitsuzendō, Andrew worked within bp’s global retail centre of excellence, supporting digital marketing and customer experience across a network of approximately 22,000 branded locations.
The experience reinforced the importance of treating a physical network as a connected commercial system rather than a collection of independent sites. Store performance, customer behaviour, digital touchpoints, operational consistency and local demand all need to support the same growth agenda.
Frequently asked questions
What does a retail strategy consultant do?
A retail strategy consultant helps a business make better decisions about its locations, formats, customers, commercial performance and future investment. The work can cover existing-store improvement, network planning, physical expansion, customer experience, omnichannel performance and new retail concepts.
Can you help improve underperforming stores?
Yes. The work can identify why performance differs between locations, establish a more useful commercial baseline and prioritise changes to demand, conversion, experience, operations or local execution.
Can you advise which locations to open, improve or close?
Yes. hitsuzendō can develop the commercial criteria, network priorities and investment cases required to support those decisions. Property, surveying and specialist location-data advice can be incorporated where needed.
Do you design stores and layouts?
hitsuzendō develops the commercial concept, customer journey, layout principles and performance brief. Qualified architects, interior designers, planning consultants and construction partners should complete the relevant technical and creative design work.
Can you connect ecommerce and physical retail?
Yes. This can include digital discovery, online-to-store journeys, CRM, loyalty, inventory visibility, click-and-collect, appointments, customer data and location-level attribution.
Can you help with pop-ups, concept stores and flagship locations?
Yes. Support can cover the commercial purpose, customer proposition, format, location criteria, business case, measurement, operating requirements and pilot plan.
Do you only work with traditional retailers?
No. The service is relevant to businesses operating stores, branches, showrooms, service locations, venues, temporary environments and other customer-facing physical networks.
How can the work be structured?
The engagement can begin with a rapid diagnostic, a defined strategy or pilot, ongoing advisory support, or fractional and interim commercial leadership.
Make every location work harder
Whether you are improving one location, reviewing a wider network, planning physical expansion or testing a new format, start with the commercial decision that matters most.