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Industry

Retail

Retail

Achieve the scale and profit diversification essential for Retail Convergence

Our Experience

3,900
projects completed over the last 10 years
70%
of the top 50 global retailers worked with us in the past decade

The fast-changing world of retail demands adaptability. And our retail consultants know what it takes to stay out front. We pioneered the omnichannel concept a decade ago, and since then have been at the forefront of defining the Future of Retail.  

We're now entering the age of Retail Convergence, in which we see traditional incumbent retailers and digital natives battling for the same customers, talent, profit pools, and shareholders. This convergence—coupled with new waves of technology, proliferating consumer touchpoints, and table stakes sustainability agendas—accelerates the urgency for all players to transform their core retail and digital capabilities.   

We have a proven track record of delivering measurable results, including increased sales, reduced costs, improved customer experience, impactful innovation, and higher shareholder value. Leveraging our proprietary analytics, software platforms, and deep customer insights, we help leading retailers around the world use data, technology, and shopper trends to navigate uncertainty and leapfrog the competition. 

Let us help you refine your retail strategy in order to: 

  • Maximize customer love. Use your deep and proprietary knowledge of your customers to increase customer loyalty and retention, generate promoters, and create personalized shopping journeys that delight consumers beyond their expectations.  
  • Excel at core retail.  Build the right assortment, pricing, and promotions, balanced with localization, private labels, and innovation to entice customers.
  • Redefine the omnichannel footprint. Evolve your supply chain and store networks to not only delight during customer-facing moments, but also ensure fast, resilient, and cost-effective fulfillment.  
  • Accelerate the tech transformation. Future-proof your technology and shift spending to business-growing innovation, automation, and data management, all while transforming to an agile, product-based operating model.  
  • Tap into new profit streams. Diversify profit pools by moving “beyond trade” into high-growth and high-margin adjacencies such as retail media, data monetization, and new marketplaces.  
  • Build a scale ecosystem. Define your role in the ecosystem, from hub to spoke; build scale and new in-house capabilities or through strategic M&A and partnerships. 
  • Achieve an ultralean cost base. Fund your transformation through a tight cost base, from procurement to stores to your operating model. 
  • Kick-start your ESG journey. Position your company for a more sustainable future, converting the challenges that seem insurmountable into bite-sized, actionable, and measurable projects.
  • Push web3 boundaries. Create connected consumer experiences with innovative store concepts and immersive metaverse encounters that integrate everything from browsing to NFTs to payments.  

We collaborate with you to ensure you win with all stakeholders—customers, communities, NGOs, employees, suppliers, and shareholders—as you future-proof your business. To do so, we prioritize building diverse and inclusive teams that collaborate with a broad ecosystem of industry leaders, including the National Retail Federation and The Consumer Goods Forum. These partnerships, along with our expert executive networks and proprietary data and software tools, uniquely position us to solve your most demanding challenges.    

Read more Read less

Sector Expertise

Sector Expertise

Grocery

We help grocery organizations across the industry ensure their strategy both realizes near-term results and positions them to win in the future. 

Learn more

Fashion and Luxury

As the preeminent thought leader in fashion and luxury goods we have helped hundreds of companies in every category tailor winning strategies to gain a competitive edge.

Learn more

Restaurants

The pace of innovation in the restaurant industry has accelerated. Rapid shifts in consumer behavior and digital technology are forcing companies to reinvent every facet of the business.

Learn more

Envision the Future of Retail

Envision the Future of Retail

As retail thought leaders, we’ve always had our fingers on the pulse of the industry’s evolution. Today we see signs of a new Retail Convergence, as emerging winners combine the perfect execution of retail incumbents with the innovative power of digital natives. Our retail consulting teams can show you how to disrupt your own business and evolve in anticipation of new disruptions. Our Future of Retail ecosystem encompasses four key areas:

AI in Retail

AI is redefining the retail experience for customers and employees alike—increasing engagement, improving service levels, and transforming how people shop. In addition to streamlining back-office functions, retailers are deploying AI to:

• make it easier for customers to find exactly what they’re looking for
• perfect hyper-personalization—delivering the right experience, at the right time, in the right place
• offer next-gen customer support via chatbots and real-time customer feedback
• boost efficiency with predictive inventory management

Learn how AI is powering new discoveries in retail

Real Outcomes

We partnered with Target to build and launch several of the retailer’s first generative AI use cases—including its proprietary chatbot, Store Companion—as well as build an enduring capability for future success.
Learn more about our Target partnership See how we’re helping global industry leaders win with AI

How We Help

We’ll help you develop table stakes use cases that improve product discovery and merchandising, tailor and automate your marketing, and improve customer service. We also support you in making bigger bets (think agentic shopping assistants, omnichannel customer experiences, and real-time customer observation).
Learn more about our AI approach

Our Client Results in Retail

Retail

A Global Retailer Transforms Technology and Data to Conquer the Digital Future
Business and technology align to enable stronger data and analytics strategies, clear decision making, and modern work methods.

Retail

Retailer Revamps Its Technology Operating Model for the Digital Age
A major specialty retailer sought Bain’s help to revamp its overall IT operating model.
See more

A Powerful Diagnostic Guides Your Future

Do we truly know our consumers—how they live, work, and shop? Are our tech and data skills good enough? Are we struggling with profitability or with finding the funds to invest in key projects?

Our Future of Retail diagnostic sheds light on these and related critical questions so you can develop a winning strategy and take all the right actions to succeed. No matter your starting point, we can help you assess where you are today and map the most efficient journey to your ideal end state.

The Future of Retail diagnostic is a fast, flexible assessment powered by highly curated data and benchmarking capabilities. It evaluates your company and identifies gaps to best practices on seven key pillars:

  1. ESG
  2. Customer centricity
  3. Omnichannel operations
  4. Financial performance
  5. Technology
  6. Talent management
  7. Adjacent profit pools

The Future of Retail diagnostic generates visually rich results that include:

  • A detailed, outside-in scorecard displaying your performance vs. peers across a range of metrics, as well as deep dives on critical themes (personalization, ESG performance, and much more)
  • A survey-based maturity assessment that identifies the largest gaps across seven pillars, leveraging feedback from key stakeholders, so you see how to prepare for the future of retail
  • A roadmap that clarifies your point of departure, provides an overview of the most promising performance boosters, and presents a plan to scale and embed your new approach
  • Map your course
  • What is it?
  • What you can get

Do we truly know our consumers—how they live, work, and shop? Are our tech and data skills good enough? Are we struggling with profitability or with finding the funds to invest in key projects?

Our Future of Retail diagnostic sheds light on these and related critical questions so you can develop a winning strategy and take all the right actions to succeed. No matter your starting point, we can help you assess where you are today and map the most efficient journey to your ideal end state.

The Future of Retail diagnostic is a fast, flexible assessment powered by highly curated data and benchmarking capabilities. It evaluates your company and identifies gaps to best practices on seven key pillars:

  1. ESG
  2. Customer centricity
  3. Omnichannel operations
  4. Financial performance
  5. Technology
  6. Talent management
  7. Adjacent profit pools

The Future of Retail diagnostic generates visually rich results that include:

  • A detailed, outside-in scorecard displaying your performance vs. peers across a range of metrics, as well as deep dives on critical themes (personalization, ESG performance, and much more)
  • A survey-based maturity assessment that identifies the largest gaps across seven pillars, leveraging feedback from key stakeholders, so you see how to prepare for the future of retail
  • A roadmap that clarifies your point of departure, provides an overview of the most promising performance boosters, and presents a plan to scale and embed your new approach
Get in touch with us

How We Can Help

Bain Omnichannel Strategy

Bain Omnichannel Strategy

Seamlessly integrate physical and digital worlds to deliver outstanding and often previously unimaginable customer experiences that lead to profitable growth.

Read More

Bain Advanced Retail Buying

Bain Advanced Retail Buying

Unlock the full value of data with Advanced Analytics so you can grow categories significantly while reducing costs.

Read More

Vantage℠

Vantage℠

A retail location intelligence solution to inform your footprint decisions

Read More

Retail Supply Chain Strategy

Retail Supply Chain Strategy

The supply chain is a powerful tool for retailers’ many challenges, including delivering the customer value proposition. Our comprehensive approach helps you transform it to not only navigate uncertainty but also boost your bottom line.

Read More

Pricing and Promotions

Pricing and Promotions

Our Promotions Accelerator helps drive profitability by combining data-driven analysis and strategy to deliver lasting impact.

Read More

Net Promoter System®

Net Promoter System®

Focus on earning the passionate loyalty of customers while inspiring the energy, enthusiasm and creativity of employees to accelerate profitable, sustainable organic growth.

Read More

Enterprise Technology

Enterprise Technology

Companies with a strategic focus on technology outperform across industries. Stay ahead with tech foundations that fuel lasting growth.

Read More

Zero-based Budgeting

Zero-based Budgeting

Make sure that every dollar you spend serves your strategy. Zero-based budgeting creates an ownership mindset that reduces costs by 20 to 40 percent, and keeps costs out.  

Read More
See more

Our Retail Consultants

Headshot of Aaron Cheris

Aaron Cheris Partner San Francisco

Headshot of Marc-André Kamel

Marc-André Kamel Partner Paris

Headshot of Kurt Grichel

Kurt Grichel Partner Seattle

Headshot of Miltiadis Athanassiou

Miltiadis Athanassiou Partner Zurich

Headshot of Weiwen Han

Weiwen Han Partner Hong Kong

Headshot of Claudia D'Arpizio

Claudia D'Arpizio Partner Milan

Headshot of Chris Bierly

Chris Bierly Partner Boston

Headshot of Stephen Caine

Stephen Caine Partner Chicago

See more

Our Retail Insights

Retail
The 2026 Retail Executive Agenda
Here are letters to the C-suite to help strengthen strategy, catalyze collaboration, and expand value creation in the AI age.
Retail Holiday Newsletter
Retail
The 2025 Chinese Personal Luxury Goods Market
Recalibration, resurgence, and more selective consumers are edging China’s personal luxury market toward recovery.
Report
Retail
2026 Global Retail Sales Outlook
What can retailers in the US, UK, France, and Germany anticipate from shoppers this year?
Snap Chart
Macro Strategy
US Consumer Health Update
Upper-income earners seem to be adopting a defensive position but are not yet reporting negative spending intentions.
Snap Chart
See more
View All Consulting Services
Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, Net Promoter System®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score℠ is a service mark of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Vantage℠ is a service mark and Bain Radar 360 Strategy® is a registered trademark of Bain & Company, Inc.

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