Phase 1 — Locate
Before you spend $5M on a system, know exactly what you're buying.
Most retailers discover a system doesn't fit their operations 6–12 months after go-live — when ripping it out costs more than keeping it. Vendor claims go unchallenged because buyers have no independent reference point.
ShopVisor Strategy changes that. Run your vendor's claims against the most comprehensive retail operations model ever built — before you sign.
Locate is powered by two ARTS tools — ARTS Evaluation Rubrics and RFP Response Scoring. Explore the tools →
ShopVisor Strategy
The most complete map of retail operations ever assembled.
ShopVisor Strategy is not software. It is a living body of retail operational knowledge — built by 1,600+ retail professionals across every retail branch type worldwide. It defines how retail should work: from store operations and inventory management to workforce scheduling and supply chain coordination. Every branch type. Every region. 150+ years of Retail Strategic Thinking by The Retail Profits, encoded and queryable.
iVURM — ShopVisor Strategy Explorer
In plain terms: iVURM (the interactive Virtual Unified Retail Model) is a living map of how retail really works. Ask it about any part of a retail operation and get a clear, sourced answer — drawn from 1,600+ retail professionals.
1,600+
Retail professionals
Contributors from every major retail segment worldwide shaped the model
150+
Years of strategic thinking
The Retail Profits team's combined retail expertise, encoded and queryable
Global
Every retail branch type
Specialty, grocery, big-box, fashion, convenience — all represented
60%
of retail tech projects fail
Nearly 60% fail to deliver expected ROI within 24 months — poor requirements is the leading cause
Why C-suite executives use ShopVisor Strategy before signing
Vendor claims are unchecked
Every vendor says they support your operational model. ShopVisor Strategy is the only independent reference that can verify that claim — down to the workflow level.
Requirements are invented, not derived
Most RFPs are built from last year's template or a consultant's generic framework. Requirements derived from ShopVisor Strategy reflect how your specific retail format actually operates.
Failure is discovered late and costs more
Nearly 60% of retail technology projects fail to deliver expected ROI within 24 months. The gap between vendor promise and operational reality is always visible in the requirements — if you have the right model to look.
The cost of getting it wrong
$1–3M
typical rework cost when a platform doesn't fit operations
6–12 mo
average time to discover the system doesn't fit
RFP Evaluation
Evaluate RFPs and vendor responses against the ARTS standard.
We're focused on evaluation, not generation. Two ARTS MCP tools — ARTS Evaluation Rubrics and RFP Response Scoring — let you judge any vendor response against published ARTS criteria, with a cited score you can defend.
01
Pull the ARTS rubric
Use ARTS Evaluation Rubrics (get_arts_eval_rubric) to get the published, ARTS-grounded criteria for the system type you're evaluating — the exact yardstick a response should be judged on.
02
Score each response
Run vendor responses through RFP Response Scoring (score_rfp_response): a 0–100 score with a confidence band, improvement notes, and ARTS citations — no more incomparable proposals.
03
Compare on one standard
Every vendor is measured against the same ARTS criteria, so shortlisting is objective and defensible — not a matter of who wrote the best prose.
04
Surface gaps before contract
Cited, repeatable scores make capability and integration gaps visible while you can still act on them — before you sign.
Next in the Sequence
Once you've Located — Integrate.
ShopVisor Strategy doesn't just help you buy the right system — it ensures that system integrates without the 6–12 month consulting debt that typically follows. ARTS-native from day one means the model that validated your purchase is the same model that connects it.
Explore Integrate →Ready to start?
A 30-minute call is enough to identify which vendors to validate and what the RFP scope looks like.
Join the ShopVisor Tools waitlist