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.
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?
- ?How can relevant footfall, conversion and customer value be improved?
- ?How should digital discovery, CRM, loyalty and ecommerce connect with physical locations?
Four 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, footfall and conversion
Build a location-by-location view of commercial performance, understand why results vary, and connect local demand, discovery and conversion to prioritise the interventions most likely to improve the network.
Typical work
- ✓Location and portfolio-performance review
- ✓Store economics and contribution analysis
- ✓Footfall, conversion and local-demand analysis
- ✓Local demand and acquisition strategy
- ✓Digital discovery and local search
- ✓Location-level marketing and community activity
- ✓Visit-to-purchase conversion
- ✓Test-and-learn programmes
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.
Customer experience, layout and omnichannel performance
Shape the commercial role of the location, create a clearer brief for how customers should move through and buy from the physical experience, and connect it to the digital journeys and data surrounding it.
Typical work
- ✓End-to-end customer journey
- ✓Customer flow and commercial zoning
- ✓Online-to-store customer journeys
- ✓CRM, loyalty and click-and-collect connections
- ✓Pop-up, concept and flagship commercial briefs
- ✓Digital engagement within locations
- ✓Online-to-store attribution
- ✓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.
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
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.
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
Performance is measured against the commercial purpose of the work — footfall, conversion, location economics, network and format performance, and operational execution. Measures are selected to support decisions and improvement, not presented as guaranteed outcomes.
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
Start with the commercial decision that matters most — one location, a wider network, or a new format.