Retail Strategy Planning Checklist

Pull loyalty CRM data (Yotpo, Smile.io, Klaviyo) and POS transaction history to segment by spend tier, visit frequency, and category affinity. Note the top three segments by gross margin contribution — not just by sales volume, since clearance shoppers can dominate revenue but erode margin.

Walk the competitor stores within a 5-mile trade area. Capture price points on overlapping SKUs, planogram density, and promo cadence. Note any new entrants — Amazon-adjacent specialty, DTC pop-ups, or category killers expanding their footprint.

Pull 24 months of same-store sales, door count, conversion rate, UPT, and ATV from Lightspeed Analytics or Square Dashboard. Flag any months where conversion fell while traffic held — usually a staffing or assortment signal, not a demand signal.

If the analysis points to a new location or banner, the downstream real-estate and capex workstream kicks in. If not, planning stays within the existing footprint.

Define the good-better-best ladder per category and the role of each (traffic driver, margin builder, basket builder, image item). The buyer owns this; the store team will execute against it during resets.

Lay out BOH, receipts, sales, markdowns, and EOH per month to land at target weeks-of-supply by season. Watch for over-receipting in Q3 — the most common cause of forced terminal markdowns in Q4.

Define first/second/third markdown triggers (weeks on floor, sell-through %) and the cost-protection floor that requires DM override. Without a floor, store-level discretionary markdowns can drop GMROI on a category before anyone sees the weekly close.

Map MSRP, regular price, and promo price bands per category against the competitor scan from the SWOT. Document keystone vs. variable-margin categories so the store team knows where they can promote and where they cannot.

Lay out promo windows by month — BOGO, GWP, loyalty events, friends-and-family, clearance. Align with the markdown cadence so promo and markdown aren't stacking on the same SKUs. Distribute to store managers no later than 4 weeks before each event.

Set tier thresholds, point earn/burn rates, and exclusive event cadence in Smile.io, Yotpo, or LoyaltyLion. Confirm the gift-card liability tracking process — balances inactive over 3 years may be escheatable depending on state.

Decide which stores fulfill online orders, what the pick-time SLA is, and how labor for fulfillment is funded against SPLH. Misaligned fulfillment labor is the single most common reason BOPIS conversion drops after the first quarter of launch.

Pick the pilot stores, set the pick SLA (typically 2 hours), define the staging area, and choose the KPIs: pick accuracy, on-time rate, attach rate at pickup. Tie pilot success criteria to a go/no-go decision at 90 days.

Visual director publishes the schematic packet, end-cap rotation calendar, and window-change cadence. Require weekly photo-back from store managers to catch planogram drift before it costs sales on advertised items.

Set cycle count frequency by category velocity (weekly for A items, monthly for B, quarterly for C) and the variance threshold that triggers investigation rather than blind adjustment. Budget for a full RGIS or WIS count if shrink exceeded 1.5% last year.

Confirm SAQ type (B-IP, C, or D) based on POS architecture, schedule quarterly external scans through an ASV, and budget for the annual self-assessment. Verify the POS vendor's patch cadence — unpatched Windows-based terminals are a known vector for RAM-scraper malware.

Loss-prevention manager audits EAS coverage (Sensormatic, Checkpoint), CCTV retention in Verkada or Solink, refund-fraud reports by cashier, and the shoplifting response policy. Reinforce the observe-document-call-police rule; in-store pursuit creates more liability than any recovered merchandise is worth.

Lay out sales, gross margin, labor, occupancy, marketing, and shrink by store and by month. Tie back to the OTB and promo calendar so the merchandise plan and the financial plan are reconciled rather than parallel.

Set SPLH targets per store based on traffic patterns from Homebase or Deputy. Factor predictive-scheduling premium-pay exposure for stores in NYC, Seattle, San Francisco, Oregon, Philadelphia, and Chicago — last-minute shift changes inside the notice window cost 1 hour of premium per change.

Define the weekly flash report (sales, comp, traffic, conversion, UPT, ATV, shrink, markdown %) and who owns it. District managers should see the report Monday morning so corrective action lands within the week, not at month-end.

Map hiring needs against Q4 ramp, back-to-school, and any new-store openings. Confirm E-Verify enrollment in states that require it (AZ, AL, MS, NC, SC, TN, UT, GA, FL above thresholds) and I-9 retention policy.

If selling alcohol, tobacco, lottery, or firearms, refresh the carding policy and POS DOB-prompt configuration. One missed card during a state compliance check can mean $1,000+ fine and license risk — the regular-customer exception is the most common failure point.

Define the path from Sales Associate to Key Holder to ASM to Store Manager, with the training milestones and tenure requirements at each step. Store-level turnover under 60% annually is the realistic target for specialty retail.

If a new store is in plan: define the trade-area criteria, target rent per square foot, co-tenancy requirements, and the broker engagement. Build the capex line into the P&L and confirm the buildout timeline against the planned open date.

Review the greeting standard, fitting-room service standard, BOPIS handoff standard, and post-purchase follow-up. Tie the standards to mystery-shop scoring and to the customer-feedback channel (Yotpo reviews, Klaviyo NPS).

Director of Operations, Head Buyer, and CFO sign off on the integrated plan. Lock the version and distribute to district managers; mid-year revisions go through a formal change-control rather than ad-hoc edits.