Bespoke Commercial Advisory

Retail Growth Initiatives

Tailored advisory projects that take your commercial questions, calculate the 'size of the prize', show you what to execute, and track and measure your progress.

What we provide

By combining detailed shelf intelligence with category expertise and relevant client data, we identify the opportunities, model the commercial prize and prioritise practical actions.

Focused Diagnosis

An objective audit of where and why value is being lost across store pricing, promotional overlap, and assortment gaps.

Competitive Benchmarks

Direct comparisons against your immediate category competitive set across target markets, airports, and retailer estates.

Quantified Scenarios

Revenue and margin modeling (“size of the prize”) using transparent, agreed assumptions to calculate projected commercial return.

Prioritised Action Plan

A ranked, practical roadmap detailing specific SKU and pricing adjustments by retailer and store, showing what to act on first.

How an engagement works

Sprint-based advisory delivered in sync with your planning cycles, from brief definition through to commercial rollout.

Define the brief

We frame the initiative around your specific commercial question, target brands, categories, key retailers, and priority geographies.

Integrate intelligence

We combine Shelftrak’s verified shelf audits with category expertise and your relevant internal sales or margin figures.

Deploy the roadmap

We deliver executive recommendations, commercial scenario models, and store-by-store action checklists ready for commercial and field teams.

Commercial briefs in practice

While the Perfect Store Growth Programme proactively flags execution issues, our Retail Growth Initiatives go further — delivering a tailored action plan scoped around your commercial priorities.

Here’s how that looks in practice across four typical focus areas.

Pricing & Margin Strategy

Price optimisation and margin headroom

Identify where products are priced inconsistently across stores, where price increases protect margin, and where reductions build volume.

Typical brief in practice

Premium spirits brand

30 European airport concessions & specialist accounts

The commercial challenge

A premium spirits brand discovered core 70cl and 1L malt whiskies were priced inconsistently across 24 European airport terminals. In some locations prices sat below discount competitors, while in others they were priced so close to entry blends that shoppers traded down.

Diagnostic audit and modeling

Audited shelf prices across 180+ store locations against direct competitor sets, indexing price elasticity by terminal footfall tier and passenger nationality profiles.

Recommendations and roadmap

SKU-level price adjustments recommending targeted 4–7% price increases across high-traffic international terminals where volume elasticity was low, alongside pilot store thresholds to protect baseline velocity.

Commercial prize

+£420k projected annual margin gain with zero volume loss.

Promotional Effectiveness

Promotions with a clear commercial purpose

Evaluate promotional depth, frequency, mechanics, and visibility against commercial intent: recruiting shoppers, lifting conversion, or trade-up.

Typical brief in practice

Major confectionery brand

1,200+ domestic supermarket stores across 2 major accounts

The commercial challenge

A major confectionery brand was running frequent multi-buys and seasonal price-off promotions across domestic grocery, but post-promotional dips and margin dilution suggested shoppers were merely pantry-loading rather than recruiting new buyers.

Diagnostic audit and modeling

Audited 12 months of promotional mechanics, off-shelf feature compliance (gondola ends, promotional bays), and true discount depth against baseline rate-of-sale data.

Recommendations and roadmap

Rationalised promotional calendar eliminating overlapping multi-buys, establishing a strict 20% maximum discount depth rule, and reallocating spend into high-visibility front-of-store impulse fixtures.

Commercial prize

+3.2 margin percentage points reclaimed across the promotional calendar.

Range & Assortment Architecture

Price ladders and range clarity

Assess how pack sizes, formats, and price points interact to eliminate crowded price bands and create clear visual steps for shoppers.

Typical brief in practice

Premium gifting brand

Travel retail terminals & high-street station flagships

The commercial challenge

A premium gifting brand suffered severe shelf cannibalisation where 14 SKUs crowded tightly into an £8–£12 price band, confusing shoppers and suppressing trade-up into premium gift formats.

Diagnostic audit and modeling

Audited shelf adjacencies, facing share, and price per 100g across all formats, tracking shopper flow and decision friction across store tiers.

Recommendations and roadmap

Reconstructed regional price ladder establishing three distinct tiers: entry impulse (£5.50), family sharing (£11.00), and luxury gifting (£19.50). Trimmed 4 cannibalising SKUs and repositioned premium gift packs on top shelves.

Commercial prize

+16% trade-up conversion into high-margin gift formats.

Format & Pack Architecture

Price pack architecture (PPA)

Align pack formats and prices with clear trade-up incentives, benchmarking unit economics across single packs, sharing bags, and multipacks.

Typical brief in practice

Cross-border FMCG snack brand

Supermarkets, forecourts, and transport hubs across 3 markets

The commercial challenge

Inconsistent pricing across single packs, multi-buys, and family sharing sizes meant the brand’s price per 100g was higher on large sharing formats than on single bags in several key retailers, penalising high-value basket shoppers.

Diagnostic audit and modeling

Indexed price-per-unit-weight across 42 SKUs against immediate competitive sets across every retailer format and store cluster.

Recommendations and roadmap

Harmonised price-pack curve with a guaranteed 12–15% value benefit per 100g on sharing formats, coupled with a newly introduced travel-exclusive multipack to capture high-value gifting.

Commercial prize

+8.5% increase in average transaction basket value.

Typical Commercial focus

Typical Brief in practice

Premium spirits brand
30 European airport concessions & specialist accounts

The commercial challenge

Diagnostic audit and modeling

Audited shelf prices across 180+ store locations against direct competitor sets, indexing price elasticity by terminal footfall tier and passenger nationality profiles.

Recommendations and roadmap

Commercial prize

+£420k projected annual margin gain with zero volume loss.

Deployed across international and domestic retail

Tailored to the distinct commercial mechanics and compliance realities of each channel.

Travel Retail

Model margin expansion, price pack architecture, and promotional ROI across global airport duty-free and terminal estates.

Shelftrak for Travel Retail →

Multi-Sector Retail

Deploy store-by-store price ladders and assortment reviews across domestic supermarket and specialist retail networks.

Shelftrak for Multi-Sector Retail →

On-Trade & Hospitality

Optimise brand pricing, menu placement, and pourage terms across high-volume hospitality and venue estates.

Shelftrak for On-Trade & Hospitality →

Retail Growth Initiatives — FAQ

How do Retail Growth Initiatives differ from the Perfect Store programme?

The Perfect Store Growth Programme is an ongoing advisory programme built on regular shelf audits, working all four pillars store by store. Retail Growth Initiatives are focused, sprint-based advisory projects built to answer a specific commercial question — such as restructuring a price ladder, auditing promotional depth, or modelling margin expansion headroom.

What data does our team need to provide?

Projects can run entirely on Shelftrak’s verified shelf audits and category intelligence. Where available, client sales, volume, or margin figures can be integrated to produce tailored financial models and quantify the size of the prize.

How long does a typical project take to deliver?

Timing depends on scope, the markets covered and the depth of data involved — we agree a timeline with you when the brief is set.

Can Retail Growth Initiatives cover both travel retail and domestic retail?

Yes. While our category expertise is deeply grounded in travel retail, projects frequently span domestic supermarket networks, high-street specialists, and hospitality estates.

Have specific questions about your portfolio? Read more in our general FAQ →

Let’s talk about your shelves.

Tell us where you sell and what’s frustrating you. We’ve got the data, the people and the know-how to put it right.

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