01 — CONTEXT
Global scale, local relevance
Cider was expanding internationally with a fast-moving, digitally native fashion model.
The strategic question was how to build greater local relevance without fragmenting the global proposition: understanding what mattered to customers in different European markets, identifying meaningful commercial moments and translating those differences into marketing, merchandising and onsite decisions.
02 — STRATEGIC SHIFT
From localisation to market intelligence
Rather than approaching internationalisation as translation or isolated local campaigns, the roadmap treated each market as a distinct combination of customer behaviour, cultural context and commercial opportunity.
The proposed system connected local marketing calendars, customer portraits, onsite experience and merchandising so that market knowledge could inform decisions across functions.
Global-first planning Shared assumptions Localisation as execution
Market-informed planning Distinct customer portraits Local insight shaping decisions
03 — PROPOSITION
A connected market roadmap
The consultancy roadmap focused on the UK, Germany and France and organised the opportunity across four principal streams.
Localized marketing calendars would identify relevant product and content moments by market. Customer portraits would combine market, cultural and audience research to surface differences in behaviour and opportunity. An onsite audit would examine homepage content and navigation through a market-specific lens. A merchandising workstream would translate seasonal trend research into relevant themes and product priorities for the Holiday 2023 period.
Together, these streams created a model for connecting cultural and customer understanding with practical marketing and merchandising decisions.
MARKET CALENDARS Map product moments and content opportunities across the UK, Germany and France.
CUSTOMER PORTRAITS Build market-specific customer understanding from cultural, audience and behavioural signals.
ONSITE EXPERIENCE Assess homepage and navigation opportunities through a local-market lens.
MERCHANDISING Translate seasonal trend signals into market-relevant product themes and priorities.
04 — ACTIVATION
Turning insight into commercial questions
The roadmap was designed to connect external market and cultural research with internal audience and performance data.
Rather than producing insight in isolation, each stream was tied to a commercial application: category priorities, content planning, customer journeys, onsite testing or merchandising decisions.
A longer-term trend-scouting methodology was also scoped during the engagement, but was deprioritised in favour of a more immediate Holiday 2023 merchandising focus.
05 — OUTCOME
A roadmap for market-responsive growth
The work established a structured internationalisation roadmap across marketing, customer insight, ecommerce and merchandising, with defined workstreams for the UK, Germany and France.
It also reframed an initially proposed ongoing trend-scouting programme into a more immediate merchandising application. The longer-term trend-reporting programme should therefore be understood as a proposed direction rather than a completed deliverable.
Independent strategic consultant developing the internationalisation roadmap and workstream methodology.