Retail Cost Reduction

Be a better services buyer.

Retailers of all types are excellent at knowing how their product prices and quality stack up to their competitors. But knowing what operating costs and business services like shipping, waste management, credit card processing, telecom, and energy should cost is another story. How does one reduce operating expenses in retail stores?

That’s why thousands of online businesses, bricks and mortar stores, warehouse clubs, department stores, grocery store chains, and other types of retailers partner with the cost reduction and vendor contract optimization experts at SIB.

25% Average Costs Savings Achieved for Retail Clients

Our retail clients seek our support to reduce escalating costs for small parcel shipping, energy, waste removal, and payroll processing. They often reqeust additional services for energy procurement in deregulated markets, regulated ulitilty rate analysis, utility bill pay services, energy dashboards, sustainabity reporting, utility account opening and closing transition services, and identication of third party logisitcs (3PL) providers. SIB combines spend area expertise, benchmarking data, and deep knowledge of retailers operational challenges to ensure greater profitablity for retail operations.

Risk-Free Expense Reduction

Enjoy the benefits of reduced operational costs with no upfront investment. Our performance-based model means we succeed only when you achieve measurable savings.

All Gain – No Pain

Save money and reduce complexity without changing vendors, service levels, or operational processes. Our self-funded services means we only share in the savings we unlock.

Best-in-Class Contracts

Take advantage of our 500,000+ pricing benchmarks to promote more successful vendor negotiations and secure best-in-class rates, terms, and conditions.

On-Time Open + Close

Keep bricks and mortar stores running on schedule without delays or interruptions with dedicated attention to utility and telecom service turn on and shutoff.

Our Retail Clients

Our Process

Review Vendor Spend
We look at 12 months of expenses across all categories from your general ledger to give you the big picture view of your spend and identify high-potential savings areas.
Define the Scope and Roadmap
Decide which expenses you want to tackle first. We meet with internal stakeholders in each expense category to gather additional details and data and obtain authorization letters permitting us to work directly with your vendors.
Analyze, Negotiate, and Present the Opportunity
We thoroughly audit your spend, invoices, and contract terms and conditions, uncovering every area for savings and optimization with existing vendors and services. Upon request, we can also look at sourcing alternate vendors. You review the full scope of opportunities and decide which to approve and implement.
Implement Savings Strategies
We put new contracts and rates into effect and provide your internal teams with documentation of all new pricing agreements, terms, and conditions. When you save, we share a portion of the savings, so there are no upfront costs and no risks to you.
Validate Savings and Ensure Contract Compliance
We partner with you throughout the scope of your new contracts and service agreements to keep vendors in compliance, validate savings, and ensure you are receiving all negotiated services. We proactively look for new or additional savings opportunities to ensure best-in-market rates for the long term.

Spend Areas We Help

Waste + Recycling

Save an average of 31% on solid waste, medical waste, compost, and recycling costs while improving ESG compliance through better program design, pricing, and management.

Treasury Fees

Secure best-in-class pricing to reduce bank fees and merchant services by 27-34% while reducing risk and preserving existing banking relationships.

Telecom

Reduce telecom expenses by an average of 28% with a rightsized network, competitive market rates and terms, and a proactive approach to eliminating common billing errors.

Utilities

Power up your business and bottom line with an average of 11% savings on electricity, natural gas, water, and propane, more reliable service, and reduced billing errors.

Linen, Laundry, and Uniforms

Secure and validate the best prices and terms to improve your current service levels while reducing your linen, laundry, and uniform costs by an average of 26%.

Payroll Processing

Optimize your payroll processing solution to simplify and better meet your company’s human capital management needs while saving an average of 24%.

See What Our Clients Say

“…SIB’s biggest success was savings on our fleet leasing costs. We move a high volume of material everyday…we dramatically reduced our fleet leasing costs in addition to thousands saved in monthly telecom and armored car services.”

Bryan Beam

Chief Operating Officer

“With 80+ retail stores, we were concerned that the time and energy required from our staff would be overwhelming…SIB proved their value by effectively finding better rates and redundancies with our telecom and waste removal vendors–helping us to save over $1.2 million.”

Joanne McGowan

Retail Accounting Manager

“…we recently engaged SIB to lower our expenses. We wanted to make sure we had the best rates available, but were happy with our current service providers. They have gotten us tens of thousands of dollars in credits and refunds for billing errors and negotiated new, reduced pricing for the future. We recommend SIB…as a way to reduce expenses with very little effort and zero upfront costs.”

Lonnie J. Lawton

Senior Vice President & CFO

Resources and Case Studies

Peak and Demand Surcharges Considerations for Your Holiday Shipping Matrix

SIB’s Utilities Team, Cost Control Associates, Implements Open + Close Utility Account Service to Help Retailer Save Millions and Overcome Growing Pains

SIB’s Shipping Experts, Shipware, Help Major Fashion Retailer Position for Growth While Maintaining Excellent Customer Experience Standards

Take Control of Your Spend Today

Ready to reduce your costs across your top spend categories? Get started with a no risk, comprehensive evaluation of your vendor transaction history and put our market intelligence and industry expertise to work to spend smarter and improve your bottom line.