Performance optimization of an online retailer by a unique online resilience engineering algorithm

Online shopping has become more attractive and competitive in electronic markets. Resilience engineering (RE) can help such systems divert to the normal state in case of encountering unexpected events. This study presents a unique online resilience engineering (ORE) approach for online shopping systems and customer service performance. Moreover, this study presents a new ORE algorithm for the performance optimisation of an actual online shopping system. The data are collected by standard questionnaires from both expert employees and customers. The problem is then formulated mathematically using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The results show that the design process which is based on ORE is more efficient than the conventional design approach. Moreover, on-time delivery is the most important factor from the personnel’s perspective. In addition, according to customers’ view, trust, security and good quality assurance are the most effective factors during transactions. This is the first study that introduces ORE for electronic markets. Second, it investigates impact of RE on online shopping through DEA and statistical methods. Third, a practical approach is employed in this study and it may be used for similar online shops. Fourth, the results are verified and validated through complete sensitivity analysis.     

零售店连锁经营的物流分析

阐述了零售店业态的概念,指出物流配送在零售店连锁经营中居于核心地位,并从超市、便利店、百货店的经营特点出发,对它们的物流模型进行了分析。     

中国零售业的SCP分析——以连锁经营业为例

在SCP分析框架下以连锁经营业数据为例分析了中国零售业发展状况,认为：零售市场的垄断竞争或寡头垄断态势并不明显,企业需要通过积极打造差异化战略,加强内部经营管理等提升核心竞争优势。政府则要注重城市商业网点的规划,规范行业准入制度,克服我国中小零售企业的盲目扩张和重复建设问题。     

中国零售业的国际化战略

中国国内零售业竞争日益激烈,中国零售企业不断成长,能够利用全球的资源在全球市场进行博弈,开拓自己的国际化业务。文章从中国零售业国际化动机和现状出发,利用定量和定性相结合的分析方法,分析了零售业国际化进程中的问题,并针对这些问题分析了中国零售业的国际化战略。     

Assessing consumer logistics functions in grocery shopping: Evidence from an emerging market

Abstract

Consumer logistics (CL), focuses on the role of consumers in the logistical processing of goods for the purpose of consumption from point of acquisition to the point of disposal. The objective of this study is to test and validate the CL scale as introduced by Bahn, Granzin, and Tokman for grocery shopping in a previously unexplored country setting, namely in Turkey. Our findings show in contrast to Bahn et al. only six CL functions: information search, transportation management and materials handling, storage management & inventory needs assessment, contingent inventory operations & product acquisition, intra-household communication, and interdependent transportation operations. These six CL functions are more applicable for an emerging market, such as Turkey. These findings are consistent across the different socio-demographic characteristics in our sample.     

Investigating the impact of shopper personality on behaviour in immersive Virtual Reality store environments

The increasing availability of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) hardware in private households has opened up significant opportunities for innovations in online retailing. Online retailers can develop realistic, albeit simulated, three-dimensional retail environments that use immersive elements to create a more exciting online shopping experience. Nevertheless, to date, very little is known about how observed shopper behaviour in immersive VR store environments compares to existing knowledge in the physical or other online retail research literature. To that end, this paper focuses on human personality traits and whether these translate to familiar observations of in-store shopper behaviour. Specifically, the research examined the ‘Big Five’ personality traits – agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience, and their impact on purchase behaviours such as product inspection time, proportion of private label purchases, and impulsive buying. It is further investigated how the purchase behaviours impact the outcomes of the shopping trip. The results revealed a variety of expected relationships between purchase metrics and the outcomes of the shopping trip; however, in stark contrast to the findings of extant studies, shopper personality did not show any impacts on the investigated purchase behaviours. Further research is needed to determine whether this failure to replicate past studies of shopper personality was, in fact, due to differences in the store environment or rather due to the moving from survey-based method of shopper data collection to naturalistic observation. Nonetheless, this finding has important implications for e-retailing strategies and market research practices.     

Intermediate Choice Lists: How Product Attributes Influence Purchase Likelihood in a Self-Imposed Delay

Many online retailers enable consumers to postpone a purchase decision by placing a desired item onto an intermediate choice list, such as a wish list or saved-for-later list. This research demonstrates that using a list in this way decreases purchase intent for the wait-listed products, relative to the same choice made without the option to delay the decision. The findings of five experiments show that purchase likelihood is affected by a shift in the importance, or weight, of product attributes. Specifically, the attributes that are weighted more heavily in the decision to place an item on an intermediate choice list are then weighted less heavily in the decision to purchase an item from that list. This shift in attribute weighting suggests that consumers may switch from more noncompensatory to more compensatory decision-making between the initial decision to use an intermediate choice list, and the later decision of whether to purchase the item from the list. This process tends to diminish the importance of the attractive attributes that encouraged consumers to put these items on lists in the first place. These findings have implications for retailers who wish to understand the risks and benefits of wish lists and related tools, and for consumers who desire to reduce impulsive purchases.     

The Cosmopolitan Servicescape

Marketing scholars have developed a solid literature on servicescapes, the physical environments where services are performed, delivered and consumed, with a particular interest in themed retail environments. Themed servicescapes rely heavily on signs and symbols and emplaced ideologies to build brands, attract consumers, and increase sales. We extend this literature by introducing, defining and theorizing the cosmopolitan servicescape, one that emplaces the cosmopolitan ideology by supporting performances of consumer cosmopolitanism. By drawing on an ethnographic examination of a quintessential cosmopolitan servicescape, Red Rooster Harlem, and applying an analytical lens grounded in the cultural understanding of retail spaces, we conceptualize the cosmopolitan servicescape in relation to other themed environments. Cosmopolitan servicescapes provide consumers a playground for encounters with cultural difference through enlisting cultural resources that shift out in time, place, and identity, thus enabling the performance of cosmopolitan competence. In addition, cosmopolitan servicescapes juxtapose cultural resources to create incongruent meanings, promote heteroglossia, and appeal to different levels of cosmopolitan competence. Finally, cosmopolitan servicescapes use decoding cues to facilitate cosmopolitan engagement and recognition cues to frame the environment as cosmopolitan. These findings contribute to the themed retailing literature and provide guidelines for managers and servicescape designers interested in creating an emplaced strategy for attracting cosmopolitan consumers.     

‘In the best position to reap mutually beneficial results’: Sole-agency agreements and the distribution of consumer durables in inter-war Britain

This article uses a case-study approach to explore the use of exclusive sole-agency agreements in the distribution and retailing of specialty branded consumer durables in inter-war Britain, a neglected topic in the business history literature. Utilising an extensive correspondence between piano manufacturer Broadwood and Sons, and Liverpool-based musical instrument retailer Rushworth and Dreaper (with comparisons made with two smaller sets of manufacturer–retailer correspondence) we argue that the stability of a sole-agency agreement encouraged the emergence of a highly reciprocal and collaborative relationship that led to innovations in marketing, selling, branding and product development. We urge a reconsideration of the value and effect of sole-agency agreements.     

Integrating embeddedness with dynamic capabilities in the internationalisation of fashion retailers

The paper presents an integration of the theoretical approaches of embeddedness and dynamic capabilities. Based on in-depth interviews with key informants of international fashion retail companies we show that dynamic capabilities enhance different types of embeddedness at different levels. Generic dynamic capabilities of adaptability and knowledge management play a role as they affect retailer-specific capabilities and societal, network and territorial forms of embeddedness. Integrating the two theoretical approaches provides new and deeper understanding of the nature of retail internationalization.