We love retail. As long as there is currency, there will be places to spend it. Unfortunately, retail is one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated industries. There is a science behind retail – and if you have a retail business contact us. No successful retailer stayed that way by staying still – and we’d love to talk to you about your business and how we might be able to help.
We help small and independent retailers improve performance through practical merchandising, buying, marketing, and commercial support, grounded in real-world retail experience from ourselves and our consultants.
Simply, our approach is helping you achieve “Right Product, Right Quantity, Right Place, Right Price, Right Time”* – choosing the right products, ordering the correct quantity, presenting them to the correct customer (place), pricing them intelligently, and ensuring that they are on time.
*see The Five Rights of Procurement – Right Quality = Right Product in our version!
Experience Across Retail Sectors
We bring hands-on experience from across a wide range of retail environments, including:
- Fashion and apparel
- Specialist and independent retail
- Supermarket and grocery
- Discount and value-led retail
This breadth of experience allows us to apply proven principles from larger and more complex retail operations in a way that is practical, proportionate, and achievable for smaller businesses.
Buying Strategies & Range Development
The right range drives sales, margin, and customer loyalty. We help retailers build and refine product assortments that make commercial sense.
Our support includes:
- Putting you in contact with relevant suppliers and brands
- Supporting product sourcing and range planning
- Helping you diversify product lines without losing focus
- Reviewing performance to identify duplication, gaps, and underperformers
- Advising on price architecture, margin, and range balance
We can also support the development of own-brand products, helping you:
- Improve margins
- Reduce direct price comparison and competition
- Strengthen brand identity and differentiation
Own brands don’t have to be complex — when done well, they can be a powerful commercial tool.
Merchandising, Layout & Fixtures
Good merchandising turns products into sales. We help you make the best possible use of your existing fixtures and fittings, improving flow, visibility, and shopability, and plan for expansion (or even contraction where appropriate).
We can assist with:
- Store layout planning and zoning
- Optimising shelving, rails, tables, and displays
- Improving product adjacencies and cross-merchandising
- Creating strong focal points and logical customer journeys
- Ensuring your physical space reflects your brand and values
The aim is always to make the store easier to navigate, easier to understand, and easier to buy from.
Pricing Strategy, Promotions & Commerciality
Pricing is one of the most powerful – and most misunderstood – retail tools. We focus on strategy, not discounting.
Our approach helps you:
- Stock the right products and brands at the right price points
- Build clear price ladders and entry points
- Balance margin, volume, and perceived value
- Plan promotional activity that adds value, rather than eroding it
Promotions don’t have to mean discounts. They can be about newness, exclusivity, bundles, storytelling, seasonal relevance, or clearer communication of why a product is worth its price.
Marketing, POS & Visual Communication
Clear communication at the point of sale has a direct impact on conversion. We help maximise the effectiveness of your marketing and POS, both in-store and online.
Our support includes:
- Promotional planning and campaign development
- Designing and supplying effective POS and visual materials
- Improving clarity, hierarchy, and messaging
- Aligning visual communication with your brand
- Even down to the design of clear, effective price labels (if you don’t believe price label design is important, prepare a hot drink and have a chat with Tee.)
Small details – when applied consistently – make a significant difference.
Physical Stores & Ecommerce: Working Together
Your physical store and ecommerce shop should support and promote one another, not compete or undermine each other.
We help ensure:
- Ecommerce actively promotes the physical store (and vice versa)
- Ranges, pricing, and messaging are aligned where appropriate
- Each channel plays to its strengths
- Customers experience a joined-up brand, regardless of how they shop
When done properly, omnichannel retail builds trust, loyalty, and overall sales.
Customer Service Training & Store Standards
Great customer service turns browsers into buyers and buyers into repeat customers. We help retailers improve service standards in a way that feels natural, authentic, and aligned with their brand.
Our support includes:
- Practical customer service training for store teams
- Tailored e-learning courses
- Improving engagement, selling skills, and product knowledge
- Helping staff understand how service supports commercial outcomes
- Reinforcing consistency across shifts, stores, and channels
Good service isn’t scripted — it’s confident, informed, and customer-focused.
Secret Shopper Visits & Insight
Sometimes the most valuable insights come from seeing your business through a customer’s eyes. We offer secret shopper visits (please contact us for availability according to location and frequency) to provide honest, objective feedback on the real customer experience.
These visits can assess:
- Customer service and staff engagement
- Store presentation and merchandising standards
- Pricing clarity and POS effectiveness
- Overall customer journey and brand experience
Findings are turned into clear, actionable recommendations, not just reports.
If it’s something you would rather keep it in house, or in an area we don’t cover – we can also help you build your own secret shopper programme – helping you avoid the many pitfalls in designing and interpeting.
KPIs, Data & Better Decision-Making
KPIs (Key Point Indicators) are one of the most misused and dangerous tools in retail. Poorly designed metrics can drive the wrong behaviours, hide problems, and lead to short-term thinking.
We have deep expertise in retail KPIs and performance analysis and can help you:
- Develop useful, measurable, and meaningful KPIs
- Identify data blind spots in your business
- Understand what negative behaviours your current KPIs may be encouraging (and what positive behaviours they are discouraging)
- Remove or redefine metrics that are driving unintended behaviours
- Focus on insights that genuinely support better decisions
If you use KPIs in your business as targets or to measure performance, you could benefit from our help.
Practical, Commercial Support for Independent Retailers
Everything we do is grounded in commercial reality. No theory for theory’s sake practical support that helps you sell better, operate more efficiently, and grow sustainably.
With UntangleIT.tech, we help you:
- Build stronger, more profitable ranges
- Improve merchandising and shop layout
- Price with confidence and clarity
- Add value through smart promotions
- Strengthen both physical and online channels
- Improve customer service and store standards
- Make better decisions using the right data
If you’d like to discuss how we can support your retail business whether in-store, online, or both – get in touch with us today.