The Future of Retail Operations

Retailing consists of all the activities associated with the selling of goods to the final consumer. In this article, we review the research on retail operations published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Research (M&SOM) since 1999. We then discuss the current retail landscape and the new research directions it offers, in which M&SOM can play a prominent role

Optimal and competitive assortments with endogenous pricing under hierarchical consumer choice models’,

T his paper studies assortment planning and pricing for a product category with heterogeneous product types from two brands. We model consumer choice using the nested multinomial logit framework with two different hierarchical structures: a brand-primary model in which consumers choose a brand first, then a product type in the chosen brand, and a type-primary model in which consumers choose a product type first, then a brand within that product type. We consider a centralized regime that finds the optimal solution for the whole category and a decentralized regime that finds a competitive equilibrium between two brands. We find that optimal and competitive assortments and prices have quite distinctive properties across different models. Specifically, with the brand-primary model, both the optimal and the competitive assortments for each brand consist of the most popular product types from the brand. With the type-primary choice model, the optimal and the competitive assortments for each brand may not always consist of the most popular product types of the brand. Instead, the overall assortment in the category consists of a set of most popular product types. The price of a product under the centralized regime can be characterized by a sum of a markup that is constant across all products and brands, its procurement cost, and its marginal operational cost, implying a lower price for more popular products. The markup may be different for each brand and product type under the decentralized regime, implying a higher price for brands with a larger market share. These properties of the assortments and prices can be used as effective guidelines for managers to identify and price the best assortments and to rule out nonoptimal assortments. Our results suggest that to offer the right set of products and prices, category and/or brand managers should create an assortment planning process that is aligned with the hierarchical choice process consumers commonly follow to make purchasing decisions

Retail Assortment Planning Under Category Captainship

Retail assortment planning can have a tremendous impact on a retailer's bottom-line performance. Over the past years, retailers have increasingly relied on their leading manufacturers for recommendations regarding the assortment to be offered to the consumers in a particular category, a practice often referred to as category captainship. Our research investigates the consequences of using category captains for assortment selection decisions. We develop a game-theoretic model where multiple manufacturers sell their products to consumers through a single retailer. We compare a model where the retailer selects the assortment in the category with a model where the retailer relies on a category captain for assortment decisions in return for a target category profit. We show that category captainship can, in some circumstances, benefit not only the retailer and the category captain, but also the noncaptain manufacturers. Our results have implications regarding the implementation of category captainship practices.retail supply chains, category management, category captainship, assortment planning, game theory

Performance Measurement im Einzelhandel

Die Ausgestaltung von Performance Measurement orientiert sich an branchenspezifischen Charakteristika. Mit Hilfe eines Mixed-Methods-Ansatzes zeigt die Autorin für den Einzelhandel, welche Erfolgskennzahlen relevant sind. Der Fokus liegt auf der Verwendung von Performance-Kennzahlen auf der Filialebene. Die Ausgangsbasis der Analyse bildet ein Literaturüberblick, der die kennzahlenorientierte Handelsmarketingforschung der letzten 50 Jahre beleuchtet. Problemzentrierte Leitfadeninterviews mit Handelsmanagern aus dem US-amerikanischen und deutschsprachigen Raum zeigen Unterschiede im Verständnis der Konzeption. Eine Face-to-Face-Befragung von Managern sowie ein conjoint-analytischer Ansatz präsentieren Relevanz und Nützlichkeit von Handelskennzahlen im Alltag