Antony Stores Group (ASG) Retail Business Illustration

Throughout the book we will be using our own fictional retail business called ‘Antony Stores Group’ or ‘ASG’. This is a large retail business experiencing many of the issues retailers and brands face in the current world.

Using ASG, we will illustrate the uses of Blockchain technology in a highly complex retailer. See more details about ASG in the next section.

ASG Challenges and Pain Points

As we have seen, ASG has grown from a one-store business to a com- plex, large-scale retailer based on organic growth and acquisitions. This makes the company a significantly complex organization, which would benefit greatly from Blockchain technology, owing to its:

• Multiple countries of operation
• Multiple product ranges spanning clothing, home and food
• Various channels of operations (stores, online, mobile, market-
• places, collection points, call centre, etc.)
• Large, complex and outdated IT systems from legacy systems to
• own built systems
• Old systems with the operations/back-end systems over 10 years old
• Challenges for the business to be a truly mobile first retailer, due to
• the scale and complex business
• ASG Card (The loyalty scheme) is old and not fit for the current
• customer expectations
• Gift cards are still very manual, processed overnight and suffer from
• significant fraud levels
• Returns process – The rise of online sales, has led to a significant
• rise in returns, which is managed inefficiently and is a big profit
• destroyer
• Financial reporting, taxes, intercompany and management information are all complex and need constant manual reconciliation
• With a complex supply chain, and over 1000 direct suppliers, the
• visibility is very limited
• Inventory visibility is poor, due to vast range of warehouses, stores
• and collection points
• High stock holding levels are in place, due to the poor visibility and
• demand forecasting
• Lead times for fast fashion clothing are significantly behind the competition
• Own brand clothing is suffering from counterfeiting
• Customers are becoming more interested in the provenance of the products and expect detailed product history
• Its high-end own brand products are being sold through second life markets, but lack tracking and authenticity
• Food traceability is complex and takes too long
• Operating in 11 different currencies, it is costing significant amount in transaction fees and delays in settlements across borders.

Antony Stores Group (ASG) Illustration ASG Background

To help you understand the ideas, concepts, and examples, I will refer to ASG, a retailer established in the UK in 1923. ASG is a global, complex retail business, with multiple suppliers, systems, and channels of operation.

ASG represents the wide range of issues current retailers, CPG and supply chain companies are dealing with and where Blockchain technology can improve significantly.

I have had the pleasure to work with global retailers and brands my entire life and have used this experience to create this fictional retailer. ASG is therefore a great example of the complexities for many current retailers across the world.