Sectors/Retail & Consumer
Retail & Consumer

Margin is the measure.
Not revenue.

Retail is a margin business. Revenue growth without margin improvement is more complexity for the same return. The retailers growing profitably right now have built AI into the decisions that protect and build margin: what to hold, at what price, in which channels, for which customers.

+3.1pp

Gross margin improvement

–77%

Stockout rate on top SKUs

$1.4m

Overstock cleared

0

Range or buying changes needed

Retail distributor. AI demand forecasting and dynamic pricing deployed across 3,000 SKUs.

The AI opportunity

Where the margin is.

Demand forecasting

AI-driven stock planning that reduces overstock and stockouts simultaneously — the two biggest margin destroyers in retail, solved by the same model.

Stockout rate: 23% → 4%

Dynamic pricing

Real-time price optimisation across SKUs, channels, and customer segments. Margin-per-SKU intelligence no manual team can run at scale.

+3.1pp gross margin without buying changes

Customer lifetime value

Identifying high-value customers earlier, improving retention investment allocation, and reducing churn before it shows in revenue.

Higher retention spend ROI

Assortment optimisation

AI analysis of what the range should be, by location or channel, to maximise sell-through rate and margin contribution.

Higher sell-through, less markdown

Returns reduction

Pattern analysis on returns data to identify product, sizing, or description issues before they become systemic costs in your P&L.

Returns cost reduced

In practice

A distributor with $2.1m in slow-moving stock and $1.4m in lost sales from stockouts — simultaneously.

The business had capital tied up in overstock while simultaneously losing sales to stockouts on its fastest-moving lines. The two problems were mirrors of the same underlying issue: inventory decisions made on instinct rather than data.

We deployed AI demand forecasting and dynamic replenishment across the full product range. The system forecasts at SKU level, accounts for seasonality, promotions, and lead times, and adjusts reorder triggers automatically.

$1.4m of overstock cleared within 6 months. Stockout rate on top SKUs reduced from 23% to 4%. One third-party warehouse site was eliminated. Dynamic pricing across 3,000 SKUs added 3.1 percentage points of gross margin without a single change to buying or ranging.

Overstock

$2.1m tied up

$1.4m cleared

Stockout rate

23%

4%

Gross margin

Baseline

+3.1pp

Warehouse sites

3 sites

2 sites

The listing opportunity

AI-improved retail & consumer businesses are attracting premium valuations.

Consumer businesses with a clear DTC component, demonstrable margin improvement, and a scalable brand have strong positioning for Euronext Growth and NASDAQ Dubai listings. International brand story and digital revenue mix matter to institutional investors. The combination of AI-improved margins and growth potential makes a compelling IPO narrative.

What we look for

Revenue of $10m+ with a meaningful volume of transactions online or across multiple locations

Assortment complexity or pricing decision volume that manual processes can't handle

A brand with growth potential beyond its current market

Management ready to compete on margin, not just revenue

Talk to us about your retail or consumer business.

We'll tell you honestly whether we think we can help — and what that would look like.