The lab is new.The results are not.
Before The RetailLAB, there was 25 years of Michael doing this work by hand: $2 billion in merchandise sales as a merchant, consultant, and operator. Same person, same method, new name.A sample of the results below.
Brands Michael has driven results for.
Across 25 years as a merchant, consultant, and operator. All before The RetailLAB was The RetailLAB.
Growth Strategy
Growing fast in natural grocery but with no roadmap for mass retail, the brand needed products, pricing, promotions, and planograms that could scale without diluting the brand. Michael built the 36-month go-to-market strategy.
Product lines grew over 72% in under 12 months.
Michael analyzed sales and consumer data to shape product timing, pricing, and retail placement for four new offerings.
Continued same-store growth plus expansion into two new regions and 900+ doors.
Stagnant in traditional channels, the brand needed an e-commerce relaunch. Michael used consumer and retail data to build a direct-to-consumer product offering.
Sales beat plan and consumer engagement rose over 300%.
Merchandising
Categories were under-represented for the core customer. Michael used consumer trends and market data to rebuild planograms across five retail tiers.
Category sales grew 100+% in three years.
Declining same-store sales and lackluster launches. Michael led trend, product, and planogram analysis and built the new merchandising strategy across channels.
Double-digit same-store growth within six months of the reset.
Under pressure to close stores or grow, Michael refined the SKU assortment and set store-level inventory targets.
80% organic growth across three categories in 26 weeks.
Sales had stalled in stores with little coming from online. Michael rebuilt mix, assortment, and merchandising plans for both channels.
Brick-and-mortar up 18% and online up 25% within the first year.
Inventory & Planning
Cash flow problems, unhappy customers, low fill rate, and high inventory all at once. Michael spent five months instituting forecasting best practices and training the team.
Fill rate rose from 82% to 97% on similar inventory, capturing roughly $500,000 in lost sales.
Michael's velocity analysis surfaced an underutilized product. Two colors were cut, one mold added, and production was rebuilt around demand.
The product became the category's #1 seller, lifting sales 40% while cutting COGS 6%. Production scaled from 680,000 to over 1 million units a year.
Michael led inventory, purchasing, planning, and line merchandising for the account, building the forecasting and trend tools along the way.
Revenue grew from $12MM to $27MM in three years at a 3.2 inventory turn.
Product & Program Creation
Seeking new growth beyond the existing portfolio, Michael identified the opportunity through retail and trend analysis, then designed, developed, manufactured, and launched a premium made-in-USA sleepwear brand. Analysis to launch: 150 days.
68% sell-through in the first 30 days on shelf.
Strong following in one category, untapped equity everywhere else. Michael envisioned, designed, and manufactured a private-label sustainable sleepwear program.
A 25,000-unit first production run.
Facing margin compression as retailers moved to in-house brands, Michael built fresh programs that repositioned the brand at retail.
97% pre-markdown sell-through on an 1,800-store Halloween program, 50% growth on an $8MM holiday loungewear business, and a kids program that reopened a $5MM+ account.
Bloated inventory was choking cash flow and starving new product development. Michael freed the cash and put it to work on seven new complementary categories.
Top line up 20+% in year one, gross margin up 300bps, and four new major retail partners.
Michael edited and amplified the men's assortment, then designed and manufactured a private-label program at the right quality-to-price ratio.
Category sales up 23% on 12% less inventory.
Licensing
Michael brought fresh creative direction to programs spanning the NBA, NCAA, Star Wars, Nickelodeon, NASA, Peanuts, and the Grateful Dead, among others.
Eight-figure incremental top-line growth in license properties over 12 months.
Stagnant growth and missed retailer timelines. Michael built and installed the company's first 18-month collaborative go-to-market process.
A three-year product pipeline and 20% cost savings in the first year.
Omni-Channel & DTC
Michael created a Fortune 100 licensed-property Amazon program in under two months, with a faster supply chain behind it.
Added 8% to total brand contribution margin and over-delivered on the licensor's projections.
Michael's market analysis uncovered unmet product demand and shaped a customized direct-to-consumer program.
Strong product-market fit and ROAS; the program now drives over 10% of total online sales.
Michael launched an apparel and accessory program across multiple marketplaces and select retailers, built on responsible manufacturing.
Exceeded third-year budgets within 16 months.
“Michael was able to come in, quickly assess and tee-up opportunities while helping us develop a new merchandising strategy that has lifted our same store sales double digit year over year. Plus he's easy to work with!”
“Michael added so much value to our business that we continue to partner with him on new initiatives. The insights provided and programs developed helped grow our sales exponentially. Highly, highly recommended to anyone that wants to drive growth in today's market.”
“Michael did a fantastic job teaching our team how to use our data in more effective ways. We were able to save money, free up cash, and meet our customer needs by managing our inventory and manufacturing in a systematic way. Thank you!”