CROSS Agency

What CROSS Agency does

CROSS Agency is a Paris-based retail merchandising consulting firm operating under the legal entity "Agence Cross," structured as a SARL unipersonnelle. Founded in 1994, the company serves brands and retail chains (enseignes) across all retail sectors — food/GMS, generalist specialized stores (GSS), DIY/garden, pharmacy, fashion, B2B/retail, and services — with a horizontal segmentation approach. The firm is headquartered at 41 rue Barrault, 75013 Paris, with a secondary office in Nantes, and operates with 11-50 employees led by PDG Sébastien Tourné.

The company's offering is organized around four service pillars: (1) merchandising consulting (strategy, methodology, and tools including planograms and point-of-sale advertising), (2) category management consulting (analysis, vision, and category action plans), (3) retail design concept creation (new store concepts, flagships, and concept optimization), and (4) Merch'Academy, a Qualiopi-certified professional training institute. CROSS's proprietary "Merch-Design" methodology integrates merchandising and retail design from project inception, and senior consultants deliver both inter-company public sessions and bespoke intra-company programs in présentiel, distanciel, and blended formats.

Revenue is generated entirely through professional services fees — project-based consulting engagements for enterprise brands and retailers, and recurring training revenue from Merch'Academy (inter-company sessions priced at €600 H.T./person with volume discounts, plus bespoke quote-based intra-company programs). Distribution is direct-to-client with no channel intermediaries for consulting, though Comundi acts as a training catalog reseller and Focus Shopper co-animates certain training sessions. Customer logos span Pernod Ricard, FDJ, Logitech, Daunat, Mayoly, Bayer Animal Health, Leroy Merlin partners, and Krys, with deployments ranging from single-store concepts to 1,300-store rollouts.

Name

CROSS Agency

Legal name

Agence Cross

Website

https://agencecross.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CROSS Agency is a Paris-based retail merchandising consulting firm serving brands and retailers across all retail sectors with strategy, category management, retail design concept creation, and Qualiopi-certified Merch'Academy training. Founded in 1994.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Retail Consulting & Merchandising Services

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Marketing Consulting Services (541613)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Customer, Marketing & Sales Consulting (BPAHACAG)

akta.pro secondary industry

Integrated Full-Service Creative Agencies (MPAAAAAA)

Keywords

• Merchandising consulting
• Retail design services
• Category management consulting
• Retail training programs
• Store concept design

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Merchandising Consulting: Project-based consulting engagements for brands and retailers covering merchandising strategy, category management, and retail design. Revenue is earned through professional service fees tied to specific client engagements.
2. Merch'Academy Training: Certified professional training programs (Qualiopi) offered as inter-company sessions (public, 600€/personne) and intra-company bespoke programs. Training formats include présentiel, distanciel, and blended learning. Generates recurring training revenue from repeat corporate clients.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

CROSS Agency is a French merchandising and retail design consulting firm that delivers four service lines to brands and retailers: (1) merchandising consulting covering strategy, methodology and operational tools (planograms, point-of-sale advertising, sales argument books); (2) category management consulting including category analysis, category vision and category action plans; (3) retail design concept creation for new store concepts, flagships, concept optimization and brand corners; and (4) Merch'Academy, a Qualiopi-certified training institute delivering inter-company public sessions (€600 HT/participant) and bespoke intra-company programs in presencial, distanciel and blended formats.

Product overview

CROSS Agency is a retail consulting and merchandising firm offering a comprehensive portfolio of services organized around four core pillars: merchandising consulting (including strategy, methodology, and tools), category management consulting (analysis, vision, and action plans), retail design concept creation (new store concepts and optimization), and training programs through Merch'Academy. The firm operates primarily as a professional services company, combining merchandising expertise and design capabilities through a unique methodology. Services are delivered through specialized sub-services covering strategic analysis, planogram design, point-of-sale advertising, merchandising books, and various training formats for headquarters and field teams.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Merch'Academy: Training institute for merchandising professionals, offering certified Qualiopi training programs for retail and merchandising teams.

Products and services

• Conseil en merchandising (Merchandising Consulting) Strategic merchandising consulting for brands and retailers, covering visibility, product placement strategy, methodology design and the development of operational merchandising tools (planograms, point-of-sale advertising, sales argument books) to improve brand and category performance in retail environments.
• Conseil en Category Management (Category Management Consulting) Strategic category management consulting that builds partnerships between brands and retailers to develop product-category performance oriented toward shopper satisfaction, covering category analysis, category vision and category action plans.
• Cr\u00e9ation de Concepts Retail Design (Retail Design Concept Creation) Retail design concept creation service delivering new store concepts, flagship stores, concept optimization and brand corners, combining creativity, design and commercial effectiveness.
• Merch'Academy - Formation en Merchandising (Merchandising Training Programs) Qualiopi-certified training institute offering merchandising and category management programs for retail professionals, including strategy, fundamentals and sales-techniques courses, delivered in inter-company public sessions and bespoke intra-company programs in presencial, distanciel and blended formats.
• Formation Si\u00e8ge - Strat\u00e9gie Merchandising et Category Management Training program for headquarters teams on strategy merchandising and category management, targeting marketing, commercial, merchandising and category management functions. Pricing on quote; format adaptable (presencial or distanciel).
• Formation Terrain - Fondamentaux du Merchandising et Techniques de Vente Training program for field teams covering macro-merchandising, micro-merchandising, CLV, point-of-sale advertising and sales techniques. Target audience: store staff, store managers and field sales forces. Pricing on quote; delivered in presencial or distanciel.
• Formation Sessions Inter-Entreprises (Inter-Company Public Training Sessions) Public inter-company training sessions on strategic merchandising topics, providing competency development for HQ and field teams. Publicly disclosed pricing: \u20ac600 HT per participant for the 7-hour 'Strat\u00e9gie Merchandising' session (50% discount for the second participant from the same company), delivered in presencial format by S\u00e9bastien Tourn\u00e9 and certified Qualiopi.

Quantifiable outcome

• +20% revenue since opening (Le Club by Pernod Ricard X Intermarché)
• +9 more outcomes

Named customers52 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Klee StoreminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCROSS co-hosted a webinar with Klee Store and Univers Retail on géomerchandising and store performance through data-driven personalization. Klee Commerce (a Klee Group company) presented a case study showing +12% product rotation improvement across 300 stores.
• Univers RetailminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint webinar partner with Klee Store and CROSS on data-driven store personalization and géomerchandising topics.
• Focus ShoppercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCROSS and Focus Shopper co-develop and co-animate the 'stratégie merchandising, du shopper à l'excellence des solutions' training session. This partnership delivers 3 public training sessions per year targeting merchandising and category management professionals across sectors.
• ComundicoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorComundi is a major French professional training provider that distributes CROSS's merchandising training sessions (point de vente et merchandising) through its catalog. Sessions animated by Sébastien Tourné grow in number each year. Described as 'l'un des premiers acteurs de la formation professionnelle en France'.
• ICONOMEDIAminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerManufacturer ICONOMEDIA collaborated with CROSS on the Vandemoortele BVP (boulangerie-viennoiserie-pâtisserie) merchandising design project, providing co-construction support (Saison 2) alongside CROSS, marketing, and field teams.
• Various pharmaceutical laboratories (for Pharm UPP)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCROSS designed merchandising recommendation books for all pharmacy categories in partnership with reference laboratories. Recommendations help pharmacists improve in-store layouts while accounting for local specificities.
• Milleret (Fromagerie)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCROSS collaborated with Milleret and Synergies Fromages as part of the Entremont cheese category redesign project, creating a collaborative and impactful merchandising approach reorganizing the category by culinary uses.
• Synergies FromagescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCROSS partnered with Synergies Fromages and Milleret on the Entremont project to create a collaborative approach to reorganizing the cheese category by new culinary uses.

Scale indicators15 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Emakina: European digital-and-retail-experience agency with strong French/Belgian roots delivering retail concept design, e-commerce, and digital storefront work. Comparable on the integrated retail-experience side but with materially broader digital services scope and scale than CROSS.
• Carré Noir: Part of Publicis Group, this French brand-and-retail design consultancy delivers branding, retail design, and shopper marketing at scale. Comparable on integrated retail-design mandates but materially larger and broader in scope than CROSS.
• Capgemini Invent (Retail): Global strategy and transformation consultancy with a dedicated retail and consumer products practice. Comparable in retail-strategy and category-management advisory mandates, but with vastly greater resources, geographic reach, and breadth of services than CROSS.

Direct peers

• WMH Project (formerly Sidiète): French retail design and brand-environment consultancy creating store concepts, merchandising tools and visual identity for retail networks. Directly comparable in retail-design mandates and parallel customer base of major European brands and retailers.
• Dagobert: French retail-design and brand-environment agency creating flagship stores, retail concepts and in-store experiences for major brands. Directly comparable to CROSS's retail design / nouveau concept d'enseigne offering and serving a similar mix of premium and mass-market retail clients.
• Alixio Retail: French retail-and-shopper consulting practice within the Alixio group, providing category management, merchandising, and in-store execution advisory. Overlaps directly with CROSS's consulting and training pillars for enterprise FMCG and retail clients.
• MBA Consulting: French retail and category-management consulting firm providing merchandising strategy, category management, and training to retail and consumer-goods clients. Comparable service offering, methodology orientation, and target audience to CROSS.
• Elephant Paname: Independent French retail-design agency focused on flagship stores and experiential retail concepts for premium and luxury brands. Comparable to CROSS's retail-design pillar, particularly in fashion and lifestyle accounts such as Figaret, De Fursac, and Clarins.
• Univers Retail: French retail and shopper merchandising consulting firm operating in the same space as CROSS — frequently co-hosts webinars on the same themes and competes for category-management and retail-concept briefs from similar enterprise clients.

Emerging players

• Klee Group / Klee Store: French digital solutions group whose Klee Store unit offers geomerchandising and personalization tooling. Closely comparable thematic territory — co-hosts webinars with CROSS — but product-led where CROSS is service-led.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCX8O9acnBKCpy1zLb9Az-DA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/entreprise-agence-cross

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CROSS Agency