• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2013

According to the Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) published by A.T. Kearney (2012), India is the $5^{th}$ most attractive retail destination in the world. The retail industry in India has been largely fragmented with small businesses dominating the retail landscape, with very few large players having multiple retail outlets. However, in the last few years, the industry has witnessed a significant growth in the number of large retailers having a chain of outlets across the country. This growth in the organised retail sector has driven primarily by large Indian retail organisations and conglomerates. With the government reducing the restrictions on foreign participation in Indian retail business by increasing the FDI cap on both single and multi-brand retail outlets, the industry is likely to see an explosive growth in the organised retail sector which accounts for only 8 percent of the total industry. With more foreign retailers poised to enter into the country, one of the key issues that the industry may face is finding the right quality of manpower. Literature suggests that in an industry which is characterised by players offering similar kinds of product assortments at similar price levels, success would be governed by the quality of service, which entails employees having the right skills and attitudes for offering quality service. Therefore, the two key issues that may be of importance for retailers are levels of skills and the motivation of the employees. However, according to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC, 2009), a significant skill gap exists in the industry, which may widen further in the years ahead, leading to greater challenges for organisations. This paper highlights some of the challenges and issues which characterise the industry in India, and suggests how companies could look at these challenges and seek ways to overcome these challenges.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.71-98
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• 1998

This study aimed to investigate how such retailers as department stores, large discount stores, book wholesalers, and clothing wholesalers used information technology for the QR strategy and whether the QR strategy had an effect on performance with a focus on the pipeline strategy. For this purpose, the QR strategy was divided into transaction efficiency, supplier partnership, and customer detail strategy. The differences in performance and information technology were analyzed according to the fit of the pipeline strategy, such as internal focus, supplier focus, and customer focus, the business strategy which were used by the retailers. And, an attempt was made to investigate whether performance was raised according to the level of adopting information technology. The results can be summarized as allows. First, the adaptive level of information technology had an effect on performance. But, seeing that the explanatory power of the regression analysis on the effect of the adaptive level of information technology on performance was shown to be very weak, it is judged that the level of QR information technology in the responding firms was very low compared to that of foreign firms. Second, information technology used by the retailers included universal product code, bar coding, customer database, and information utilities. It was shown that the group of firms seeking the transaction efficiency QR strategy and the internal focus pipeline strategy had the higher level of information technology than the retailers seeking other customer detail QR strategy and the customer focus pipeline strategy and the retailers with inconsistent strategy. This indicates that the firm seeking to raise its internal efficiency has a high level of using information technology. At the end of the paper, managerial implication and future research directions were discussed.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.49-68
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• 2012

When a channel is vertically separated, there can be inefficiencies, double marginalization. Channel coordination to amend this inefficiency has been an important issue in marketing and economics. Channel coordination deals with maximization of joint profit and achieving proper profit sharing among participants. In this paper, a manufacturer and heterogeneous multiple retailers with exclusive territory are assumed, and channel coordination with two-part tariff is considered. When multiple heterogeneous retailers are assumed, profit sharing can be an issue even though the tariffs based on marginal cost can maximize joint profit. In case of multiple heterogeneous retailers, the manufacturer earns the same profit (fixed fee) from each retailer. This means that a large retailer occupies all the gaps of channel profit between small and large markets. Then, the manufacturer, which generally plays the role of Stackelberg leader, will consider increasing fixed price or marginal price to earn more profit from large retailer. Those reactions can sacrifice maximization of joint profit by making small retailer withdraw or by changing the sales quantities. In this paper, to maximize joint profit and achieve proper profit sharing, two kinds of optional tariffs are considered. The first is an optional two-part tariff based on marginal cost and the second is an optional modified two-part tariff in which marginal prices are higher than the manufacturer's marginal cost. In both types of optional tariffs, maximization of joint profit in each market can be achieved. Moreover, optional tariffs alleviate the problem of profit sharing. Optional tariffs can provide a manufacturer more profit from a large retailer when profit from a small retailer is given. However, the analysis shows that the maximum share of manufacturer from a large retailer is restricted by the condition for self-selection. In case of optional two-part tariffs based on marginal cost, if the gap between demands is large, the maximum share of the manufacturer is sufficient to achieve proper profit sharing. If the gap between demands is not sufficiently large, the manufacturer cannot earn sufficient share from increased profit. An optional modified two-part tariff where marginal price is more than marginal cost of manufacturer is considered because of this scenario. The marginal price above the marginal cost may additionally control the distribution of the increased profit. However, the analysis shows that a manufacturer's maximum profit from a large retailer with given profit from a small retailer is the same as or lower than the maximum profit when optional two-part tariffs based on marginal cost are applied. Therefore, it can be concluded that the optional modified tariffs do not have additional contribution to profit sharing relative to the tariffs based on marginal cost. Although this paper does not cover all kinds of optional tariffs that are different from tariffs based on marginal cost, it shows the advantage of optional tariffs based on marginal cost and has important theoretical implications. The result of this paper also gives guide for channel coordination. Optional two-part tariff based on marginal cost can increase efficiency in channel coordination.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.7-16
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• 2018

Purpose - This research addresses the question of how an international retailer like Costco can succeed in a foreign mature market and satisfy the local consumers. Our study aims to promote our understanding of how foreign retailers influence local consumers in a mature market with differentiated business models. Research design, data, and methodology - Our study uses company publications, secondary sources of information and the results of a questionnaire survey consisting of 106 participants. Consumer responses were solicited through a questionnaire survey conducted in the city of Kobe in December of 2013. Results - Product differentiation from local retailers in a mature market like Japan gave Costco a competitive edge. Compared with local supermarkets, Costco was preferred by Japanese consumers for its variety of goods that it carries, as well as in-store promotion large package of selling units, in-store amenities, and customer services. Conclusions - First, a theoretical framework is proposed in this study that can aid in developing localization strategies in a mature market such as Japan. Second, it reveals that an international retailer can succeed in a foreign market by stimulating local consumers to change their purchasing behavior, without having to alter the prevailing format of operation.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.65-75
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• 2021

Purpose: During the pandemic, a large number of orders forced online retailers of fresh produce to quickly change their emergency logistics capabilities to meet the needs of ordinary consumers during the pandemic. Our research aims to help online retailers establish an emergency physical distribution framework for fresh produce during disasters to meet consumer needs. Research design and methodology: 160 effective responses were collected from the online response team in Wuhan, China, and exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the emergency logistics capability framework. Twelve experts were invited online to collect their scoring opinions and use the entropy method to determine the importance of emergency logistics capabilities. Results: Our results have identified a total of 17 emergency logistics factors for online retailers, and we found that Transportation route planning and reconstruction capabilities, Emergency plan planning ability, and Supply chain real-time information sharing capability are the most important in the overall framework. Conclusions: This research completely established the physical distribution framework of fresh agricultural products online retailer in emergency situations. It enriches academic resources in the field of emergency distribution and provides a scientific basis for corporate managers to improve their physical distribution capabilities in emergency situations.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.79-102
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• 2012

The last year, the government restricted a new store open and businness hours of a large-scale stores, discount store and super super market(ssm). So, this research was examined the effect that the retailer was affected and its correspondence strategy First this research examined how the government restricted a large-scale stores in 2009 earlier and then this research analyzed how the Japan and France restricted it. Second this research examined that a new establishment and business hours change of a large-scale stores. Bacause of a small trader resistance in 2009 latter. Finally it analyzed the effect that a retail industry was affected in the future. bacause law was enforced. On the basis these things, a victim remedy was presented by retailers view. Bacause of international law and an excess regulation. Also, this research suggest that large retailer should expand a overse market and increase retailers private brand component ratio and develop overse brand. Finally this research also suggest that trader and retailer should continue to coperate and turn business direction into franchise system.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.123-140
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• 2011

This study analyzed large distributors' trade features with local suppliers and their direct purchase features through the survey and the interview targeting some MDs(Merchandisers) in large retailers responsible for buying fresh foods (agricultural, fishery, livestock and proceeded products). As the result of conducting the survey targeting the large purchase MDs, it was found that when they select local suppliers, they importantly consider the factors of stable products supply, the quality management, the aggressive management attitude, the affordable (cheap) price, and the suggestion of differentiated goods in order. Concerning their direct purchases in local places, their preference toward the direct-purchase traders were higher than that toward vendors and whole markets as their existing major traders. Among the traders for direct purchase, they preferred farm corporations (including agricultural corporations) the most, and followed the National Agricultural Cooperative, and the unit agricultural cooperative in order. Regarding to the trades with suppliers, when they set the trade price, the merchandisers (MDs) of large distributors preferred long-term trades over 2 years, and utilized the factors of market rate(50.9%), production cost(31.2%) and sale price in the same industry(18.0%). For the local distribution organizations to aggressively counteract the changes of distribution environment in the consumption places, it needs some strategies to organize the agricultural production, to expand the production size and to specialize the distribution channels. And the supply system's continuality and stability are required, so it needs to establish the counteract system enabling to supply all year round through the link of production organizations. Additionally, as an effort to intensify the market negotiation ability, it should collect various market information from the consumption places.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.36-39
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• 1998

It is very difficult for the large-scale retailers, who deal with tens of thousands of items, to price all the items dynamically reflecting all the constraints and policies. In spite of its importance, the prices are determined by human experts because the process of setting the prices of all the items is not established yet. To solve this problem, we adopt a mixed model that combines three typical pricing models: cost-plus model, competition-oriented model, and demand-oriented model. Since each model an be converted to a set of constraints in point and interval forms, solving the pricing problem with the three groups of models requires an algorithm which can solve the problem with weighted constraints of intervals and points. So we have devised an algorithm named “Point Determination Algorithm”. From the rules that represents tile models, the constraints are extracted to be solvable by tile Point Determination Algorithm. A prototype KAPA (Knowledge Assisted pricing Advisor) is developed with this idea using the expert system environment UNIK - a tool developed by KAIST. According to the experiment with 76 items in comparison with 53 human pricing experts we confirmed that the KAPA can perform highly consistent with human experts. This implies KAPA system is applicable to pricing millions of items dynamically.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.17-26
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• 2016

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to measure the effect on the attributes for store selection and Korean government regulations for large retailers on consumption emotion. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - Using SPSS ver.22, factor analysis & Cronbach's alpha, correlation, and regression test were performed. The total of 287 questionnaires were used for the analysis Result - Familiarity, perceived price, and perceived image have a positive effect on consumption emotion, but perceived quality & service did not. The Consumption emotion had a positive effect on traditional market revisit intentions. Retail regulation preference has a mediate effect between consumption emotion and familiarity & perceived price. Retail regulation preference also has a mediate effect between consumption emotion and traditional market revisit intension. Conclusion - Relationship marketing with sincerity is very important to keep familiarity, perceived price and image. People's consumption trend was changed due to dual career couple and heavy traffic jam in big cities. Therefore, a retail regulation cannot be a right solution for revitalizing traditional markets. So we need to find out an actual situation and design a win-win strategy between large retailers and traditional market.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.125-138
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• 2006

This paper considers a periodic review, two-echelon inventory system with one central warehouse and several re-tailers facing normally distributed demand. The goal is to attain target fill rates, while the systemwide total holding costs are minimized. An important aspect of this problem is material rationing in the case of shortages. If a central warehouse has insufficient inventory to deliver all replenishment orders to retailers, all order quantities are should be adjusted according to some rationing rule. A simple but efficient rationing rule is proposed and compared with the Balanced Stock (BS) rationing as introduced by Heijden which is known to be the best rationing policy in the literature. Numerical results show that the proposed rationing rule is more cost effective than BS rationing, especially for the differences in holding costs between retailers are large.