Diagnose Before You Prescribe
The Outcome Depends on Understanding the Real Problem First.
Those aren’t the same problem. So they shouldn’t receive the same answer.
RGS begins by understanding what’s actually happening inside the business, then determining where stronger leadership, operating systems, accountability or execution can create the greatest leverage.
- One retailer may be growing faster than its operating systems.
- Another may have significant performance differences between stores.
- Another may have strong standards on paper but inconsistent execution.
- Another may need stronger Store Managers or District Managers.
- Another may be entering a new market.
- Another may be trying to protect a long-standing business during a crisis.
Case Study 01From Four Pop-Ups to 58 StoresPurple
458 Pop-up locations → stores nationwide
Scaling a DTC Brand Into a National Retail Presence.
When Running Great Stores began working with Purple, the high-growth DTC brand had just four pop-up locations and limited internal retail infrastructure.
The opportunity was bigger than opening additional stores. The organization needed operating practices capable of supporting a rapidly growing physical retail footprint.
RGS worked alongside the business as it built greater structure and consistency around store operations.
The Result
- 4 pop-up locations → 58 stores nationwide
- More consistent retail execution across locations
- Stronger operating discipline
- A more scalable foundation for future store openings
What This Demonstrates
Growth doesn’t only require more locations. It requires an operating model capable of supporting them.
Relevant Solutions
- Store Growth & New Openings
- Retail Playbook™
- Leadership & Field Performance
Case Study 02From Crisis to Continued GrowthSpecialty Retailer
Reinventing the Operating Model When the Store Couldn’t Open Its Doors.
A long-standing specialty retailer was forced by COVID-19 to close its physical store. There was no e-commerce platform in place. Spring inventory had already arrived. Employees had been furloughed. And permanent closure was a real possibility.
Rachel helped the business rethink how it could serve customers when its traditional operating model was suddenly unavailable. Instead of waiting for the store to reopen, the retailer changed how it connected with customers and moved inventory.
- 80%
- Of spring inventory sold
- 140%
- Social media engagement
The Result
- 80% of spring inventory sold
- Social media engagement increased 140%
- Three team members returned from furlough
- New customers reached beyond the existing customer base
- Sustained year-over-year revenue growth
What This Demonstrates
Operating discipline doesn’t mean rigidly following yesterday’s plan. Sometimes it means understanding the customer, identifying what still matters and rebuilding the way the business operates around a completely different reality.
Case Study 03From London to the United StatesPoetry & Wrap
LondonUSA
Translating a Retail Operating Model Across Markets.
For an international retailer, entering the United States creates a different challenge. The objective isn’t to abandon the operating model that made the brand successful. It’s to determine what should remain consistent, what needs to adapt and what a new U.S. organization needs in order to execute the brand successfully.
Running Great Stores worked with Poetry and Wrap, London-based retail brands expanding into the United States. The work focused on strengthening store operations while helping the brands protect the experience and identity that had already made them successful.
The Result
- Stronger operating consistency across markets
- Clearer expectations for store teams
- Better leadership alignment
- Greater confidence opening stores in a new market
- A stronger foundation for continued growth
What This Demonstrates
International retail expansion is partly a market-entry challenge. But it’s also an operating translation challenge.
Relevant Solutions
- International / U.S. Retail Expansion
- Retail Playbook™
- Store Growth & New Openings
“It has been a total roller coaster of a year but the constant has been Rachel’s steadfast support and endless patience as we navigate our way into becoming a professional retailer, rather than a hobbiest! I am genuinely looking forward to cracking the US and with Rachel on my side I know we will make a success of it.”
What the Work Has in Common
Different Challenges. Same Standard.
RGS doesn’t need every client to have the same problem. Across engagements, the work may look different. But several themes repeat:
- Clarity
- People understand what matters, what good looks like and what they own.
- Leadership
- Store and field leaders become more capable of creating performance through their teams.
- Operating Discipline
- Important practices become easier to execute consistently.
- Accountability
- Expectations are reinforced through clearer follow-through.
- Customer Experience
- The experience becomes less dependent on the location, leader or associate working that day.
- Scalability
- The organization becomes less dependent on informal knowledge and individual heroics.
- Execution
- Strategy becomes something stores can actually do.
Great stores don’t happen by accident.
Great stores are built through strong leadership, clear expectations and consistent execution.
What Retail Leaders Say
The Best Proof Comes From the People Doing the Work.
“You have real skills in organizational enablement.”
“The Retail Playbook has been a true game-changer for our stores. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine how we managed for so many years without this comprehensive ‘one-stop shop’ that outlines exactly how our stores should operate. It contains all the essential tools, along with every process and procedure we need. The best part? The team at Running Great Stores keeps it constantly updated, ensuring we’re always working with the latest information. No more outdated instructions or scrambling through emails for the last set of guidelines!”
“My managers and I went through the Retail Playbook™ and we were just blown away. It is so in-depth and step-by-step. I have a lot of retail experience but there were so many good reminders and things I never knew.”
Clients include
Performance Is Multidimensional
Results Aren’t Always One Number.
Sometimes the most important result is building a business that can perform better without constant intervention.
Retail performance can show up in sales, conversion, customer experience, store consistency, leadership capability, operating discipline, role clarity, store-opening readiness, field execution, employee capability, scalability and decision quality.
Some outcomes are immediately measurable. Others create the operating conditions that make stronger performance possible.
Where a result can be measured, we report it. Where it can’t, we describe what changed rather than attach a number to it.
We share only the evidence we can stand behind.
Performance Has a Story Behind It
A Number Tells You What Happened. The Store Often Tells You Why.
Retail conversion isn’t simply an associate metric. It can reflect the combined influence of customer engagement, product availability, service and how the entire store team operates. That philosophy applies beyond conversion.
When one store outperforms another, the useful question isn’t only: What’s the number? It’s: What’s happening differently inside the store?
- What is the leader doing?
- What is the team doing?
- What does the customer experience?
- What standards are being reinforced?
- What isn’t happening?
- What can be repeated elsewhere?
That’s how performance data becomes operational insight.
Performance Variability
Your Strongest Stores May Already Be Showing You What’s Possible.
If several stores consistently outperform the rest of the fleet, that’s evidence. Something is working. The opportunity is understanding what.
- Leadership?
- Staffing?
- Selling behaviors?
- Customer engagement?
- Operating routines?
- Accountability?
- Merchandising execution?
- Local conditions?
Usually, the answer deserves investigation rather than assumption.
Explore the Store Performance DiagnosticResultsDiagnosis
What Could Stronger Execution Unlock Across Your Stores?
These results aren’t a promise that another retailer will get Purple’s result, the specialty retailer’s result or Poetry’s result. Their businesses are different. Their challenges were different. Their work was different.
The more useful question is: Where is performance being left on the table inside our organization?
And: What would become possible if more of our stores, leaders and operating practices performed closer to our best?
That’s where our conversations with retail leaders begin.
Common Questions About Retail Performance Results
Executive Questions
Retail operations consulting can influence outcomes such as store consistency, leadership capability, execution, customer experience, conversion, accountability, operating discipline and scalability. The relevant outcome depends on what is actually constraining performance.
Measurement should connect business results with operating behavior. Depending on the engagement, retailers may examine sales, conversion, customer experience, execution consistency, leadership capability or other indicators relevant to the identified problem.
Performance differences can reflect market conditions, but they can also reveal differences in leadership, staffing, selling behaviors, operating routines, customer experience, accountability or execution. Comparing stronger and weaker stores can help identify practices worth understanding and potentially replicating.
Sometimes. Stronger customer engagement, availability, service and team execution can create opportunities to improve the value generated from existing traffic rather than assuming more traffic is always the answer.
Store and field leaders influence priorities, coaching, accountability, customer experience and execution. Stronger leadership behaviors can create clearer expectations and more consistent store execution.
No. Retail results depend on many factors outside any consultant’s control. RGS diagnoses opportunities, strengthens leadership and operating systems, and supports execution. We don’t guarantee specific financial, performance or growth outcomes.
Your Stores Are Already Generating Evidence
Find Out What Stronger Performance Could Look Like Across More of Them.
Your strongest stores may already be showing you what’s possible. Your weakest stores may be showing you what’s getting in the way. And the difference between them may contain some of the most valuable operating information in the business.
Let’s find it.
Tell us what you’re seeing across your stores, leaders or performance. We’ll start there.