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retail Case Interview Questions & Answers
Circuit city considers introducing private label brands.
Case Type: new product . Consulting Firm: ZS Associates first round full time job interview. Industry Coverage: consumer electronics ; retail .
Case Interview Question #00866: Your client Circuit City Stores, Inc. is an American consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. It sells all kinds of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software, and large home appliances. The company opened its first store in the 1970s,… Read the rest
Clothing Retailer Ascena Group to Restructure Business Units
Case Type: finance & economics ; organizational behavior . Consulting Firm: Capital One first round full time job interview. Industry Coverage: Retail ; Apparel & Clothing .
Case Interview Question #00820: Our client Ascena Retail Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASNA) is a large national retailer of women’s clothing headquartered in Mahwah, New Jersey, United States. Ascena owns the Dress Barn, Ann Taylor, Maurices, Justice, Lane Bryant, and… Read the rest
Saks Fifth Avenue Formulate Strategies for Future Growth
Case Type: growth ; merger & acquisition (M&A) . Consulting Firm: McKinsey & Company 1st round full time job interview. Industry Coverage: apparel, clothing & textiles ; retail .
Case Interview Question #00805: Our client is Saks Fifth Avenue, an American chain of luxury fashion stores for women’s apparel. Its flagship store and corporate headquarters are located on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.… Read the rest
Trader Joe’s Opens More Stores to Regain Market Share
Case Type: increase sale, increase market share ; business competition . Consulting Firm: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Advisory first round full time job interview. Industry Coverage: retail .
Case Interview Question #00798: Our client Trader Joe’s is an American privately held chain of specialty grocery stores based in Monrovia, California, in Greater Los Angeles. As of 22 April 2015, Trader Joe’s had 457 stores, approximately half which are… Read the rest
Local Ann Arbor Supermarket to Add a Pharmacy in Store
Case Type: new business ; math problem . Consulting Firm: Oliver Wyman first round full time job interview. Industry Coverage: small business ; retail .
Case Interview Question #00758: After graduating from business school, you work as a consultant at Oliver Wyman. You have a friend who owns a single supermarket (mom & pop store) in the town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. This friend has called… Read the rest
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Best Retail Consultant Case Studies Worth Reading
Access My FREE 5-Part Retail Sales Training Email Course!
Here are several business makeover case studies from some of the smallest retailers to some of the largest who've used me as their guide to growing their sales.
While I don't rely on a sales staff or cold-calling to get new business, use these case studies to familiarize yourself with my work.
I help various sizes of businesses, these case study successes are theirs.
At Eklund’s, a Business Makeover Story of Astonishing Retail Transformation
Retail Business Makeover – The Importance Of Owning Your Own Space [Case Study]
Local Grocer & Nursery Makeover [Case Study]
A reinvention of a family business completed in the first quarter of 2013. Discover this 3-part blog featuring Black Horse Farms which includes great lessons on how to attract customers to your store and get them to return.
Creating Buzz For Your Small Business [Case Study]
The way you get buzz buzz in your business that is sustainable and leads to higher profits, is to be a business worthy of buzz. That means you have to earn your customers' trust. This is the transformation story of one of my first clients, Polly’s Gourmet Coffee with lessons on how to grow your retail business.
How to Attract Customers to Your Retail Store
Location a problem? This case study spotlights the results of creatively leveraging your retail location. So many times the thing that can most attract a customer - or make them drive right on by - is the exterior of your store.
Where To Find Customers For Quickserve Restaurant - Case Study
When people ask for success stories of working with me as a retail consultant, I offer case studies. This owner wasted his marketing dollars on people who would never try his food product no matter how low-fat or high-quality it is. And he'd lost sight of their most important selling point: taste.
Retail Consultant Sales Training Results In Double-Digit Increase
This is a case study that featured a custom program developed to incorporate a new store design with custom phone scripts, sales training, personal coaching and role playing for owners and their salespeople.
Retail Consultant Success Changing A Regional Chain's Culture
This case study spotlights changing a company's entire culture from one of nurturing to nurturing and selling . From the CEO, "We had become bogged down in survival. And it wasn’t a healthy place to be… Not for me as the leader or my team. I needed someone to help me work on a new direction for my business and help me hear and observe what was going on. I was looking for a shift change in who we were."
What Retailers Can Learn From A Hotel Makeover [Case Study]
This 3-part study of a culture change shows how the client focused on a remarkable experience for their customers. And the revenues followed.
How Brand Identity Makes Your Marketing Easier [Case Study]
Knowing your brand identity - what it is based on and who it is targeting makes your marketing job much easier.
![Best Retail Consultant Success: Changing A Toy Store Retail Sales Culture [Case Study]](https://www.retaildoc.com/hubfs/iStock-153681911.-new-directionjpg.webp "retail consulting case study")
Best Retail Consultant Success: Changing A Toy Store Retail Sales Culture [Case Study]
Retail Advice: 7 Reasons Independent Retailers Go Broke
5 Signs Your Retail Store Needs A Makeover
Optimized Offer and Messaging Leads to Large Contract Win With Dream Client
As a direct result of the strategies he learned at Consulting Success®, Howard Bryant won a major contract with a large corporation dream client.
Building an Independent Business
After many years in the corporate world, Howard Bryant decided to strike out on his own. His vision was to become a full-time independent consultant. Initially, he partnered with a company in the UK to provide corporate training products. Eventually, he relocated to Thailand, where he sold training products to retail companies, but he also began to do consulting work for mid-sized companies in developing markets looking to increase their commercial capabilities and capacity. This led to project management and strategy work, helping leadership teams write and implement business plans, as well as some personal development coaching.
Though he was moving more and more into consulting, Howard explained, “What I didn’t have was some real structure for my business.” He had no formal training on running a consulting business, so while he had plenty of expertise to share with clients, he struggled to develop processes for effectively growing his business and reaching the right clients. Though he read some content in an effort to learn, as he said, “It's all very well to read books, but somehow it's not the same as having somebody who's been there, done it, got the tee shirt.”
Learning to Dig Deeper
Along the way, he came across some of the social media content put out by Consulting Success®, and he was drawn to our clear processes, organizational strategies, and business management advice—in particular, our encouragement to dig deeper with clients in order to find their real problems. This inspired him to join the Consulting Success® coaching program.
In our program, he said, “The most important thing I learned was how to clarify my offer and structure my pricing.” He also learned how to create targeted messaging and relevant content on his website and social media, and how to navigate the stages of a sales conversation, which gave him a clear process for talking to prospective clients.
A Tactical and Methodical Approach to Consulting
As a result of implementing these strategies, he won a major project with a large corporation. The six-month project involved work across eight business units, so he leveraged his network to create a team of consultants. Throughout the six months, Howard used Consulting Success® as a resource, speaking frequently to the Consulting Success team to discuss the challenges of managing both consultants and key client stakeholders at the same time.
In the end, Howard’s time at Consulting Success® provided him with the tactical and methodical approach to building a consulting business that he needed in order to grow. As he put it, “Consulting Success is consistent, has a proven formula, and a vast amount of knowledge on consulting. I could discuss challenges with them, and they always had a good answer. Sometimes, I already knew the right answer, but they provided confirmation that helped me to trust my instincts.”
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Privacy Overview
A global retailer with 400+ stores across China faced pressure from online and smaller-format stores. Traffic was in a multi-year decline because customers found the retailer’s stores inconvenient and unappealing. Furthermore, the retailer lacked a holistic digital membership program and therefore had limited ability to assess the reasons for customer churn or to re-engage lapsed customers.
Tomorrow conducted shop-alongs, focus groups, and in-depth customer interviews to identify the friction points causing customers to reduce trips. Our research showed that customers struggled to find merchandise, to identify relevant promotions and — most important – to check out quickly. Customers pinpointed the wait times as a key reason to shop elsewhere.
To alleviate these pain points, Tomorrow proposed the creation of digital platform. The platform would help customers find products, provide personalized recommendations on promotions, and streamline checkout through a scan-and-pay system.
By using an agile development approach, Tomorrow launched the platform within 10 weeks. The rollout began with a proof of concept in one store and subsequently expanded to over 400 stores. While Tomorrow was leading this initiative, we were also analyzing data collected from users of the platform. Our analysis informed the development of another platform feature: an engine based on machine learning that enhances the personalization of item recommendations and promotions.
Customers immediately saw the benefit of the digital platform, and adoption moved quickly from 7% in POC to nearly 50% in the best stores, all within 12 months.
Meanwhile, the personalization engine has rapidly emerged as a key competitive advantage for our client, and it has attracted additional brand investment from suppliers who are seeking this type of efficient, 1-to-1 channel to grow their sales.
Studying case interview examples and practicing consulting cases is the best way to prepare for consulting interviews. Below, you'll find 34 of the best case interview examples and practice cases.
McKinsey Case Interview Examples and Practice
- Diconsa case interview practice : Non-profit case focused on deciding whether to leverage a chain of convenience stores to deliver basic financial services to inhabitants of rural Mexico. Great practice case for the non-profit sector.
- Electro-light case interview practice : New product launch case focused on deciding whether a beverage company should launch a new sports drink. Outstanding case to practice interpreting various charts and graphs.
- GlobaPharm case interview practice : Acquisition case focused on deciding whether a large pharmaceutical company should acquire a smaller startup. This case has very difficult math calculations that you can practice.
- National Education case interview practice : Non-profit case focused on helping an Eastern European country’s Department of Education improve their school system. Another great practice case for the non-profit sector.
BCG Case Interview Examples and Practice
- Medical Device Company case interview example : Revenue growth case focused on helping a medical devices company who recently purchased an administrative systems software company increase revenues. This case example is in a written dialogue format.
- Cereal Company case interview example : Distribution strategy case focused on helping a cereal manufacturer decide how to respond to a discount chain growing to become its largest distributor. This case example is in a written dialogue format.
- Airline case interview practice : Profitability case focused on helping a low-cost carrier airline improve profitability. This is an interactive case that lets you practice leading the direction of a case interview. It takes quite a bit of time to get through, but is highly recommended.
- Drug case interview practice : Pricing case focused on helping a pharmaceutical company determine the optimal price for a new drug. This is also an interactive case and is highly recommended.
Bain Case Interview Examples and Practice
- PrintCo case interview example : Market entry case focused on helping a restaurant menu printing company decide whether to enter the electronic restaurant menu market. This case is in a video format and is helpful in understanding what an associate consultant-level interview looks like (post-undergraduate role).
- NextGen Tech case interview example : Partnership case focused on helping a wearable computer device company determine which cellular network company to partner with in order to make $1B over the next two years. This case is in a video format and is helpful in understanding what a consultant-level interview looks like (post-MBA role).
- CoffeeCo case interview practice : Market entry case focused on helping a friend decide whether she should open a coffee shop in Cambridge, England. This case is on the simpler, more basic side.
- FashionCo case interview practice : Profitability case focused on identifying how a fashion retailer can increase revenues. This case is on the simpler, more basic side.
Deloitte Case Interview Examples and Practice
- Retail strategy case interview practice : Business strategy case focused on helping a warehouse club retailer decide between two different business models. This case provides great practice for interpreting charts and graphs and practicing case math.
- Finance strategy case interview practice : Non-profit case focused on helping a Federal Health Agency manage the financial activities related to eliminating Ebola.
- Extreme Athletes World Games case interview practice : General business strategy case focused on helping an Organizing Board develop a strategic plan for hosting the Extreme Athlete World Summer Games.
- Green Apron case interview practice : Operations case focused on helping a grocery chain redesign and implement a new e-commerce platform.
- Technology Institute of the West case interview practice : Post-merger integration case focused on helping an educational institution realign employee and leadership roles after merging six sister institutions.
- Footloose case interview practice : Strategy case focused on helping a footwear company decide whether to focus on growing in the work boot sector of the market or the casual boot sector of the market. This case provides great practice for interpreting multiple different pieces of data simultaneously.
Accenture Case Interview Examples and Practice
- At this time, Accenture does not provide any official case interview examples and practice cases. They provide a case interview handbook , but it is not as helpful as the other resources in this article.
Oliver Wyman Case Interview Examples and Practice
- Wumbleworld case interview practice : Profitability case focused on helping a theme park operator in China improve profitability. This case is fairly basic, but provides great practice for interpreting charts and graphs and practicing case math.
- Aqualine case interview practice : Revenue case focused on helping a small powerboat manufacturer identify sales growth opportunities. This case is fairly basic, but provides great practice for interpreting charts and graphs and practicing case math.
LEK Case Interview Examples and Practice
- Theater Co. case interview example : Revenue growth case focused on helping a theater location increase revenues. This is a very short case in a video format.
- Market sizing example : This video provides an example of how to estimate the market size for medical consumables by general practitioners in the United Kingdom. The video is short and provides a great example on how to structure an approach to market sizing.
AT Kearney Case Interview Examples and Practice
- At this time, AT Kearney does not provide any official practice cases. They provide an overview of a promotional planning case example , but it is not as helpful as the other resources in this article.
Roland Berger Case Interview Examples and Practice
- Transit-oriented development case example : Profitability case focused on helping a local public transit operator improve its profits. This case is split into two videos, part one and part two .
- 3D printed hip implant case example : Market entry case focused on helping the client assess whether additive manufacturing and the selling of hip implants is an attractive business. This case is split into two videos, part one and part two .
Bridgespan Case Interview Examples and Practice
- Robinson Philanthropy case interview practice : Non-profit case focused on helping a philanthropy group develop a strategy for selecting organizations to give multi-year, multi-million dollar grants.
- Home Nurses for New Families case interview practice : Non-profit case focused on helping a nurse home visitation program develop a strategy for growth.
- Reach for the Stars case interview practice : Non-profit case focused on helping a national initiative focused on improving student success in community colleges develop a strategy for growth.
- Venture Philanthropy case interview practice : Non-profit case focused on helping a charity group select opportunities for high-impact philanthropy.
Simon-Kutcher Case Interview Examples and Practice
- At this time, Simon-Kutcher does not provide any official practice cases. They provide a case interview handbook with some example questions, but it is not as helpful as the other resources in this article.
OC&C Case Interview Examples and Practice
- Hotel and Casino Co. case interview practice : Business strategy case focused on helping a hotel and casino operator decide what they should do with their health club business, whether they should divest it, grow it, or acquire another player in the market. This case helps illustrate the difference between good answers and excellent answers.
- Whisky Co. case interview practice : Profitability case focused on helping a whiskey manufacturer and distributor determine how to increase profitability. This case helps illustrate the difference between good answers and excellent answers.
Capital One Case Interview Examples and Practice
- Ice Cream Co. case interview example : Profitability case focused on helping an ice cream company increase profits by considering a pricing promotion strategy. Note that Capital One cases are more quantitative than typical consulting cases. This video is helpful in seeing a wide variety of answers and approaches that candidates take.
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A major retailer rejuvenates sales by thinking local
A major department store chain’s growth strategy was in trouble—its same-store sales were slumping. Working with the top executives, we transformed the way the retailer selected products for its stores. Instead of a standardized approach, we helped decentralized the system so that stores could cater to local preferences, giving customers what they wanted—and boosting sales.
The Situation
A leading department store chain, with hundreds of outlets, had pinned its growth strategy on a cookie-cutter approach, stocking similar products nationwide despite a huge range in store sizes, layouts and customer demographics.
Department StoreCo's* strategy was straightforward: After acquiring other retail chains, it wanted to grow revenues and maximize efficiencies by taking full advantage of its scale.
It wasn't a new strategy. Many giant retailers have built their success with a chain of identical stores. But times were changing; shoppers wanted more customized merchandise.
This trend was reflected in Department StoreCo's slumping sales. As pressure intensified, the CEO needed to find a way to rejuvenate sales.
Our Approach
Working with the CEO, we helped transform the retailer's growth strategy. Our research shows that tailoring product assortments to local tastes can boost same-store sales by 1 to 3 percentage points, and only 10 percent to 15 percent of the inventory needs to be customized.
Together with senior management, we designed a pilot project to identify localization opportunities. The process involved four steps:
- Perform an assortment analysis to find inventory gaps in pilot stores.
- Collaborate with vendors to spot sales growth opportunities.
- Conduct customer research to learn about their preferences and needs.
- Gather management feedback from regional and local store managers about assortment decision-making.
Our Recommendations
Based on our assortment analysis and feedback from vendors, customers and store managers, we recommended that the company launch localization pilots in a range of stores, varying in size, location and customer demographics.
The database we developed and information from managers would allow the retailer to offer merchandise, geared to customers' different lifestyles and budgets. To succeed, the retailer needed to launch the pilot in stores with the largest growth opportunities and make some key changes:
- Decentralize decision-making and empower managers to select more products based on local demand.
- Develop sophisticated systems and capabilities to coordinate a localized production selection process.
- Lead an organization-wide management change initiative to support the new localized strategy.
The Results
The pilot store initiative we collaboratively developed quickly demonstrated success, proving the power of tailoring merchandise to shoppers' tastes and pocket books:
- Higher sales: Pilot stores quickly racked up increased sales. In just the first quarter of 2009, pilot stores achieved growth that was 2.1 percent higher than in all of the retailers' other stores.
- Stronger competitor: By empowering managers close to customers, the retailer could quickly respond to market shifts, making it a more nimble competitor.
Most of the pilot stores were located in top performing regions. Even so, Department StoreCo was surprised when the pilot project debunked one its practices—offering limited product assortments in smaller stores. Some of the biggest sales increases were in small pilot stores with wealthier customers who were willing to buy more expensive fashions—if they were on the racks.
How We've Helped Clients
Business strategy a location intelligence solution fuels restaurantco’s bold footprint expansion, performance improvement turning losses into profits for a major apparel retailer, strategy a regional strategy helps global retailer find its way, ready to talk.
We work with ambitious leaders who want to define the future, not hide from it. Together, we achieve extraordinary outcomes.
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Clothing Retailer
This business case interview will stretch your casing abilities. Jump into the case now!
Case Interview Prompt
Your client is a clothing retailer similar to the Gap or Abercrombie & Fitch. They have expanded their number of store locations and achieved significant sales growth.
As a result, they are considering an IPO, however, recently the company had moved from profits to losses.
Why has the company recently moved from profits to losses? What needs to be done to become profitable again?
Overview of the Case
In this business case interview, the client has hired you to address a major profitability issue. Recently, the company has moved from profits to losses. Your job is to dig into the profit numbers and determine the cause of the change, and what the company needs to do to become profitable again. The company is trusting your recommendation on this.
You can use the Profitability Framework to solve the problem, but don’t pigeonhole yourself into that framework alone. The best casers know what frameworks to use, how to blend them, and which frameworks NOT to use. Use your business acumen and knowledge of frameworks to build a custom structure for the case.
This is an intermediate to advanced level case you might find in a Bain second round interview. The case contains several math exhibits – get your diagram interpretation game on.
Interview Tips at Bain
One of the things Bain looks for in candidates is practicality. Could the interviewer see you on the job conversing with the CEO of a F500 corporation?
in this case, focus on the clarity of your communication, and your overall polish.
If you need out-loud case practice, book an hour with one of our ex-MBB coaches.
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Consulting Firm: ZS Associates final round full time job interview. Industry Coverage: e-commerce, online business; retail. Case Interview Question #01311: Your
Case Interview Question #00866: Your client Circuit City Stores, Inc. is an American consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.
Case studies from some of the smallest retailers to largest who've used Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor as their retail consultant.
... Howard Bryant won a major contract with a large corporation dream client. Consulting Case Studies > Howard Bryant. Retail/Operations Consultant.
CASE STUDY. DIGITIZING THE STORE: IMPROVING ... A global retailer with 400+ stores across China faced pressure from online and smaller-format stores.
Watch as Erick dives head-first into the tech case study to show the interviewer why he would make a top consultant at BCG.
Studying case interview examples and practicing consulting cases is the best ... Retail strategy case interview practice: Business strategy case focused on
Based on our assortment analysis and feedback from vendors, customers and store managers, we recommended that the company launch localization pilots in a
There are many studies and consultant opinions detailing the demise of bricks and mortar retailing. The rise of e-commerce-only companies like Amazon
Consulting Case Library. 550+ online cases and PSTs (with full solutions); Covers 25+ firms; Market Study Cases, Profitability Cases, Human Capital