Manufacturers and Retailers in the Global Economy

We develop a general-equilibrium model to capture key features of the retailing and of the manufacturing industry in order to understand how these two industries interact and how labor is allocated between them. We show that the observed shift in employment from manufacturing to retailing, the rise in retailer product assortment and the emergence of slotting allowances in many retail markets are consistent with the global integration of product markets, while higher retail market concentration is best explained by technological change in retailing. We also identify a novel benefit from market integration consisting of efficiency gains in the vertical distribution chain.international trade, product variety, retailing, slotting allowance, multi-product firms

Determinants of Shopping Behavior of Urban Consumers

This study explores the influence of geo-demographic settings of commercial centers, customer attractions in shopping malls, and route to shopping of urban shoppers. The present research analyzes retailing patterns in urban areas in reference to customer orientation strategies, product search behavior and enhancing the customer value. Interrelationship among urban retailing, marketplace ambiance, conventional shopping wisdom of customers, long-term customer services, and technology led selling processes are also addressed in the study based on empirical survey. Broadly, this study makes contributions to the existing research in urban retailing towards factors determining shopping attractions, routes to shopping, and establishing the customer-centric strategies of the firms.Shopping mall, multi-channel retailing, consumer behavior, customer-centric strategy, market attractiveness, customer satisfaction

Why Not a Career in Retailing

A pamphlet promoting a 2 year bachelor\u27s degree in Retailing which began in September 1954

Returns Policies and Retail Price Competition

We show that returns policies do increase manufacturer profitability by attenuating price competition between retailers. This effect holds only in the presence of end-user demand uncertainty. The conditions under which a returns policy raises the manufacturer's profit are weaker when retailing is a duopoly than when retailing is a monopoly. This suggests that returns policies serve both to dampen competition and resolve demand uncertainty.channels, competition, returns, pricing

FOOD RETAILING

Agribusiness,

Insinking: A Methodology to Exploit Synergy in Transportation

vehicle routing;cooperative games;retailing;insinking;Shapley Monotonic Path;Logistic Service Providers

The Rise of Supermarkets and Vertical Relationships in the Indonesian Food Value Chain: Causes and Consequences

This paper reviews the causes of the emergence of modern retailing and the vertical relationships in the Indonesian food value chain, and the consequences of these changes on market organization and value distribution. The findings of this paper suggest that there are both demand- and supply-side factors that contribute to the emergence of modern retailing. The evolution of vertical relationships between farmers and modern retailers observed in Indonesia is a direct response to risks and quality uncertainty. In the vertical relation, large-scale retailers may earn a monopsonistic rent, and there are risks of exclusion of small-scale farmers from the emerging food value chain. However, there are alternative channels through which farmers may sell their products, albeit at a lower price compared to the modern channels, and measures can be instituted to protect them against monopsonistic rents. The findings have important policy implications for developing countries.supermarkets, retailing, Indonesia, food value chain

Grocery retailing in Germany: Situation, development and pricing strategies

Like many other industrialised countries Germany has experienced a powerful concentration process in food retailing. There are some issues, however, which make Germany a special case in Europe and among industrialised countries in general. This holds true in terms of market structure and concentration, market development and pricing strategies. The market share of hard discounters like Aldi and Lidl has grown continuously in recent decades and the market share of discounters in general has reached a magnitude that is well above that found in other European countries. This has led to robust price competition in German food retailing. Along with this development, it has been very difficult for inward foreign direct investment (FDI) to gain ground in the German food retailing industry. One example was the market entry by Wal-Mart which, given its initial ambitious goals, was not successful. On the other hand, German hard discounters have strongly affected outward FDI by other German food retailers. In the process of expanding into other markets abroad, these companies have had a positive impact on exporting by the German food industry. This article describes and analyses these major trends in German food retailing in detail. It is organised as follows. The structure of food retailing is described and explained in Section 2. Section 3 deals with the importance of inward and outward FDI in German food retailing. It is discussed in both sections how increased concentration in food retailing affects the marketing chain. Price competition is intense in Germany, and studies of food pricing strategies have used scanner data. Therefore a special case study in Section 4 is the analysis of food pricing strategies in Germany based on scanner-data evidence. The analysis shows that the pricing behaviour of food retailers is characterised by the every-day-low-pricing (EDLP) strategies of discounters and the high-lowpricing (HiLo) strategies of their major competitors. The main elements of pricing policies are indicative of firms' market power: repeated price discounts for major food brands, frequent changes of loss leaders, the dominant role of psychological pricing, and a strong price rigidity for all other foods which are not on special offer. --