The delisting of products by retail buyers

The main aim of the research reported here is to identify any patterns in the delisting behaviour of retail buyers, where a delisted product is defined as one which is removed from sale by a retailer but which continues to be sold by other retailers. The influence of the retail buyer in the marketing of consumer products has become ever more significant. Much academic research into retail buying has aimed at identifying criteria that affect purchasing decisions but few generalizable findings have emerged due to the context‐specific nature of such decision making. In this research a specific context is chosen, that of the de‐selection or delisting of products, a topic that has received little attention to date.

The results of interviews with 125 buyers, working for large and small retailers, on their reasons for 290 examples of product delistings are reported. The influence of more detailed contextual variables such as the buyer's age, experience and qualification, the product type, and the source of the product are examined together with a number of reasons for delisting the product. Many of these contextual variables, particularly the size of the retail business and whether the buyer had experience of working in a retail outlet, correlated widely with the relative importance of decision variables. Buyers working for smaller retailers tended to delist because of low sales volumes. Nett profitability, the reason why products should be delisted, was rarely cited as a major criterion.

More detailed analysis of the data set using factor and cluster analysis revealed that delisting decisions could be categorized into two types, each defined by combinations of contextual and decision variables. The most important variables in distinguishing between the two types of decisions were the buyer's age and experience as a buyer (contextual variables) and the decision criteria of nett margin being too low or the selling price to the retailer being too high. Younger, less experienced buyers were more likely to delist products because of low nett margins and high buying prices. Older, more experienced buyers were likely to delist for reasons other than these. The implications for retailers and for their suppliers of both the major and minor findings from the study are discussed.