The people who run the shelf, the route and the floor — matched to the question
Definition
What is a consumer, retail or hospitality expert?
A consumer, retail or hospitality expert is a former practitioner who has carried a number in the sector: a category buyer who set the listing and the terms, a distributor who financed the stock and moved it, a franchisee or multi-unit operator who ran a store or restaurant P&L, a brand and trade marketing lead who set price pack architecture, or a hotel general manager who ran rate and occupancy. Nextyn recruits them to the brief across consumer goods, retail, e-commerce and quick commerce, restaurants and food service, and travel and hotels.
Brief to expertmatched against the question you are asking
5 sub-sectorscovered across the industry
India, SEA & the Gulfregional edge in the trade
The sector
Every sub-sector runs on different numbers.
01
Consumer goods and CPG
Numeric and weighted distribution, price pack architecture, trade spend and the gross-to-net bridge, private label pressure on the shelf, and the margin a distributor needs before the next order goes in.
02
Retail and grocery
Like-for-like growth split into footfall, conversion and basket. Four-wall economics, rent to sales, shrinkage, category resets and supplier terms, and what a buyer has to see before a listing changes.
03
E-commerce, marketplaces and quick commerce
Take rates and retail media, contribution per order after delivery and returns, dark store throughput and rider cost, and how repeat cohorts behave once the first-order incentive comes off.
04
Restaurants and food service
Same-store sales split into traffic and price mix, prime cost, unit payback and cash-on-cash return, the franchise development pipeline, and what an aggregator relationship adds to volume and takes out of margin.
05
Travel, hotels and leisure
RevPAR, ADR and occupancy read against the competitive set, management versus franchise terms and key money, the direct-to-OTA booking mix, and the labor and F&B lines that sit under the reported margin.
Six things clients most often need settled in this sector, and the former operators who can settle them.
Whether growth is sitting in stores or sitting in a warehouse. Former category buyers can speak to how the SKU is moving in their banner, how many weeks of cover the account is carrying, and whether the reorder actually went in. Former distributors add the part a brand does not report: returns, damages, credit terms, and how hard the last order was to place.
How much of the growth was bought. Former buyers and trade marketing leads can walk through the promotional calendar, the depth and frequency of the deal, and what the account was given in listing fees, rebates and display support to secure the feature. That gives you a view of the gross-to-net bridge, and of what volume does in the quarter after a promotion comes off.
What it costs to get on shelf, and to stay there. Former distributors and national sales leads can size listing and slotting terms, the margin each layer of the trade needs, and the working capital a new channel demands before it returns anything. Across India, Southeast Asia and the Gulf they can also describe the stockist and general trade layer the market runs through.
The numbers underneath a format. Former operators and franchisees can reconstruct a four-wall P&L line by line: rent to sales, labor, shrinkage, prime cost in food service, and the payback the last cohort of openings actually delivered against the plan. In hotels the same conversation covers rate, occupancy and the competitive set, and how a management or franchise agreement splits the economics between operator and owner.
What is being bought, and what it is being bought instead of. Former category managers can describe how the shelf has been reset, which segments are taking space and which are giving it up, and where private label is closing the gap on a branded price point. Where the answer has to be counted, an opinion survey puts a number on it across shoppers, diners or guests.
The commercial case, built from the people a target sells to and sells through. Nextyn runs buyer, distributor, franchisee and customer conversations to test demand durability, pricing power, customer concentration and competitive position, then sizes the market from the bottom up off real account and outlet numbers. It runs on a deal clock, and every expert is screened before a call is booked.
Why Nextyn
Depth in consumer and retail, reach, and a compliance file.
Sector depth former buyers, distributors, franchisees and operators, matched to the banner or the brand
Regional edge India, Southeast Asia and the Gulf, where retail runs through distributors and general trade
Pace experts matched while the question is still live
Compliance every engagement screened and documented before a call is booked
Expertise in action
What the work looks like here.
Case studies and writing from this sector. Imagery is placeholder
until cleared engagements replace it.
Your questions, and the thesis behind them. A paragraph of context is enough.
02
We come back with angles and expert profiles
A shortlist with rates included.
03
Approve, then we field
You select and approve the experts you want to speak to.
04
Nextyn IQ reads across the whole project
Agreement, contradictions and open gaps, read across every call in the project.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Nextyn covers consumer goods and CPG, grocery and specialty retail, e-commerce, marketplaces and quick commerce, restaurants and food service, and travel, hotels and leisure. Coverage runs the length of the chain, from the plant and the distributor through to the shelf, the store and the property, which is where a demand or distribution assumption is actually tested. Nextyn sources across 70+ countries and covers modern trade and general trade equally, which matters in markets where most volume still moves through distributors and independent retailers rather than organised retail.
Nextyn reaches former category buyers and merchants, distributors and wholesalers, national and regional sales leads, brand and trade marketing executives, franchisees and multi-unit operators, store and regional managers, restaurant and hotel general managers, and revenue management leads. Coverage spans modern trade and general trade equally, which matters in markets where a majority of volume still moves through distributors and independent retailers. Nextyn recruits against the specific channel and market in the brief rather than defaulting to the most senior available name.
Consumer and retail briefs to Nextyn concentrate in five questions. - Is demand real or promotional? Answered by former category buyers who can separate baseline from promoted volume. - What does distribution cost and return? Answered by distributors and national sales leads on trade terms and margin. - How does a unit actually perform? Answered by multi-unit operators and general managers on four-wall economics. - Where is the category moving? Answered by merchants and trade marketing leads. - Does a target’s commercial case hold? Answered across all four seats. Nextyn recruits against whichever of the five the brief centres on.
Yes. Independent trade is where Nextyn’s consumer sourcing runs deepest, reaching stockists, wholesalers, distributors and independent retailers alongside modern trade buyers. Nextyn recruits both layers on the same brief, so a market where volume moves through a distributor network is covered as completely as one dominated by organised retail. That reach comes from in-market recruiters across 70+ countries rather than from a database, which is what makes the independent layer reachable at all.
Yes. Nextyn covers restaurant chains, franchising and food service; hotel operators, brands and asset owners; and travel distribution. Conversations cover same-store sales and the split between traffic and ticket, four-wall unit economics, franchise terms and franchisee returns, RevPAR against a defined competitive set, and the split between direct and OTA bookings with the commission cost attached. Nextyn recruits multi-unit operators and general managers who have carried a P&L rather than corporate staff, since unit economics are known at the unit.
Yes. Nextyn runs store walks and planogram checks, mystery shops, dark store visits, market tours and hotel property visits. Fieldwork is scoped on three variables the client sets at briefing: the number of outlets, the number of cities, and the turnaround. Nextyn runs these in market with local field teams across 70+ countries, which is what makes secondary cities reachable rather than only the primary metros. Findings are reported outlet by outlet as well as in aggregate, so an outlier store is visible rather than averaged away.
Nextyn schedules most first calls within 24 to 48 hours of the brief. That timeframe is inside the first week of a typical consumer diligence timetable. A senior operator in a narrow segment takes longer to source than a category specialist, and where a brief falls into that category Nextyn says so upfront and commits to a date it can hold. A research lead returns angles, candidate names and rates before anything is booked, and no call is scheduled until the client approves the expert.
Nextyn screens every expert under the Nextyn compliance framework before a call is booked. Screening covers current employment, confidentiality obligations, and independence against every company in scope. Experts are briefed on what is in scope for the engagement, including unreleased trading updates, confidential trade terms at a current employer, and material non-public information about any listed retailer or brand owner, and reminded that material non-public information about a listed company stays with them. Every transcript is reviewed before delivery.
Nextyn confirms the cost of an engagement in writing before any expert is approached. A research lead returns candidate names and their rates within 24 to 48 hours of the brief, so a client sees the real cost of the experts actually proposed before committing. Cost reflects the seniority of the experts involved and the number of conversations a question needs, scoped against each brief. A client can start with a single project. Teams running continuous research move to a credit arrangement sized to expected usage.
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