Made to Measure
Strategy, transformation, and AI advisory for retailers and consumer brands navigating what comes next.
Retail, consumer products, and transformation advisory for the moments when strategy has to move from insight to execution.
Where insight becomes execution
Jackie Swanson is a Managing Partner at Gartner Consulting, advising retail, consumer-products, manufacturing, and utility leaders on strategy, transformation, AI readiness, operating-model change, and large-scale modernization.
Shelf Life tracks the signals shaping retail, fashion, consumer products, and commerce. Made to Measure turns those signals into the consulting work executives act on, from AI readiness and agentic commerce to supply chain modernization, operating-model design, customer experience, and large-scale transformation.
Retail and consumer executives are navigating a market where customer behavior, AI, supply chain pressure, cost volatility, workforce models, and technology choices are all changing at once. Jackie helps leaders turn that complexity into practical transformation agendas, clear investment priorities, and operating models that can actually deliver.
What I advise on
Thirteen areas where retail, consumer-products, manufacturing, and utility leaders ask for help. Every one is a real engagement type, with the deliverables to match.
Agentic Commerce and AI Shopping Strategy
Prepare for a market where AI assistants, answer engines, marketplaces, and digital agents shape how customers discover, compare, and buy.
- Agentic commerce strategy and roadmap
- AI shopping journey assessment
- Answer Engine Optimization readiness
- Product data and content readiness for AI discovery
- Brand control and recommendation risk assessment
- Customer journey redesign for AI-mediated commerce
AI Strategy and Operating Model Readiness
Move AI from isolated experiments to enterprise capability, with the strategy, governance, roles, workflows, and value cases to support it.
- Enterprise AI strategy
- GenAI and agentic AI use-case prioritization
- AI operating-model design
- AI governance and risk controls
- AI value-realization roadmap
- Business-process redesign for AI-enabled work
Retail and Consumer Products Transformation
Design and run large-scale transformation programs that connect strategy, technology, process, people, and measurable outcomes.
- Enterprise transformation strategy
- Transformation management office design
- Business-case development
- Process modernization
- Change-management strategy
- Executive alignment and decision governance
Supply Chain and Inventory Transformation
Build more responsive, resilient, and commercially connected supply chains that support modern commerce.
- Supply chain strategy and operating model
- Inventory visibility and availability assessment
- Demand planning and forecasting modernization
- Sourcing and supplier strategy
- Fulfillment and returns optimization
- Scenario planning for tariffs, volatility, and disruption
Merchandising, Planning, and Product Development
Modernize how retailers read demand, build assortments, plan inventory, and bring products to market.
- Merchandising strategy
- Assortment and line-architecture assessment
- Planning-process redesign
- Product-development cycle optimization
- AI-enabled merchandising use cases
- Merchant and planner operating-model redesign
Customer Experience and Store of the Future
Define how stores, digital channels, service models, and customer journeys evolve as shopping behavior changes.
- Store-of-the-future strategy
- Omnichannel customer-journey design
- Clienteling and associate-enablement strategy
- Digital and physical experience integration
- Service-model redesign
- Customer-experience measurement framework
Digital Commerce and Marketplace Strategy
Modernize commerce across owned digital channels, marketplaces, social commerce, and emerging AI-enabled shopping surfaces.
- Digital commerce strategy
- Marketplace strategy
- DTC and wholesale channel strategy
- Social-commerce readiness
- Commerce-capability assessment
- Platform and partner evaluation
Pricing, Promotion, and Margin Protection
Sharpen pricing discipline, promotional effectiveness, and margin visibility in a more transparent, more volatile market.
- Pricing strategy and governance
- Promotion-effectiveness assessment
- Markdown and margin-leakage analysis
- Competitive price-monitoring strategy
- Channel-profitability assessment
- Commercial-planning process redesign
ERP, HCM, and Enterprise Technology Modernization
Support major technology decisions and modernization programs with clear business alignment and a practical path to execution.
- ERP strategy and selection
- HCM strategy and selection
- Business-requirements definition
- Technology-roadmap development
- Implementation-readiness assessment
- Change and adoption strategy
Workforce, Change, and Organization Design
Prepare teams, structures, skills, and ways of working for new business models and AI-enabled operations.
- Organization design
- Workforce strategy
- Change management
- Future-of-work assessment
- Role and responsibility redesign
- Leadership alignment and adoption planning
Cybersecurity, Risk, and Trust in AI-Enabled Retail
Manage the risks created by AI, agents, customer data, connected commerce, and new digital operating models.
- AI risk and governance strategy
- Customer-data trust assessment
- Agentic AI security readiness
- Retail cybersecurity operating model
- Third-party and partner risk assessment
- Executive risk-scenario planning
Sustainability, Traceability, and Compliance Readiness
Help retailers and consumer brands respond as regulation, sustainability expectations, and transparency demands reshape operations.
- Sustainability operating model
- Traceability-readiness assessment
- Product-data and compliance readiness
- Circularity and resale strategy
- Digital-product-passport readiness
- Supplier-transparency roadmap
Industry Thought Leadership, Market Trends, and Executive Advisory
Help leaders see what is changing in retail and consumer products, and what it means for strategy, investment, and execution. This is where Shelf Life and the advisory work meet.
- Executive strategy workshops
- Market trend briefings
- Board and leadership presentations
- Competitive landscape assessments
- Innovation agenda development
- Scenario planning and future-back strategy
What this looks like in practice
Industries I advise
Jackie advises leaders across retail, consumer products, manufacturing, and utilities, with deep focus on the business models, operating challenges, technology decisions, and transformation agendas shaping modern commerce and enterprise operations.
From Shelf Life signal to boardroom strategy
Shelf Life spots the trends shaping retail and consumer products. Made to Measure connects those trends to the work required inside the enterprise, from AI readiness and supply chain resilience to customer experience, organization design, and technology modernization.