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Drilling down to store level

One key to improving the performance of retail chains is finding a better way to disseminate more appropriate best practices.

MAY 2003 • Elizabeth E. Joseph, Harry A. Kemp, and Shubham Singhal

Large chain retailers can boost their near-term revenues by 5 to 8 percent with a new, more refined approach to sharing best practices. Such a retailer arranges its stores into peer groups based on factors including location, size, and customer demographics. The remaining performance differences are related mainly to store-level management, so the chain develops detailed metrics to compare each store with its peers. Last, it identifies the top-performing stores’ best practices and disseminates them throughout the peer group. Thanks to this approach, stores adopt proven performance tactics, and retailers set realistic, bottom-up performance targets for individual stores while encouraging the best managers to share their knowledge.

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About the Authors

Betsy Joseph is an associate principal in McKinsey’s Chicago office, and Harry A. Kemp and Shubham Singhal are consultants in the Detroit office.

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