• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.23-30
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• 2014

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze the efficiency of retail businesses by dividing domestic retailers into discount stores, super supermarkets (SSMs), and department stores. It suggests retail-business investment strategies by using data environment analysis (DEA) to analyze how input elements such as store area, parking lot area, number of employees, and sales management expenses for the convenience of customers positively affect business performance measurements such as sales and visiting customers per day. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - The DEA model calculates a ratio of the weighted mean of various inputs to the weighted mean of various outputs and measures the efficiency of a specific decision making unit (DMU). The study included 19 companies (five discount store DMUs, ten SSM DMUs, and four department store DMUs). Because the business elements and sizes of retail store DMUs used in this analysis are different, average per-store input and output variables were used. Data were collected from "The Yearbook of Retail Industry in Korea (2012)." DEA analysis was used to determine differences in efficiency among discount stores, SSMs, and department stores in terms of the business elements of each retail business. It was also used to determine what business elements were excessively invested in by comparing and analyzing efficiency by business elements using SPSS software's ANOVA (Analysis of Variance). Results - The CCR and BCC efficiency analysis found that the efficiency of discount stores is low. We believe that the saturation state of discount stores is a major factor. The ANOVA analysis confirms the VRS hypothesis with a statistically significant difference among the three groups, based on an analysis confidence interval of 95%. CRS and SE were not found to be significantly different among the three groups. As for the post hoc test, which concretely shows differences by group, the Scheffe's multiple comparison analysis test found the average differences between group 1 (discount stores) and group 2 (SSM) to be statistically significant. Conclusions - The DEA efficiency analysis implies that investment in input elements, including store area, parking lot area, and sales management expenses, were excessive in the case of discount stores, while SSMs need to invest more in promotion activities such as gifts, events, and coupons for customer management. Department stores have found that small companies invest excessively in input elements. Department stores need to invest in differentiated shopping mall complexes. This study was limited in acquiring statistical data; various input variables which might have shown more secure customer management and promotional expenses could not be applied. As the study was limited in various aspects of the efficiency analyses because financial analyses of the companies and of causal relationships, including satisfaction and loyalty of visiting customers, were not done, these aspects will be examined in the next study.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.85-94
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• 2015

Purpose - This study attempts to examine the impacts of consumers' perceived service convenience of retailers on various service performance metrics such as service quality and customer satisfaction. It also tries to investigate differences in the importance of service convenience dimensions on service performance between a department store and a general super market. Research design, data, and methodology - The four hypotheses in this study were proposed and tested. Two hypotheses were on the causal relationships between service convenience dimensions and service performances (service quality and customer satisfaction). The other two hypotheses were on comparisons for the effects of convenience dimensions on service quality and customer satisfaction between department stores and general super markets. To test the hypotheses, three department store chains (Hyundai, Lotte, and Shinsegae department Store) and three general super markets (E-mart, Homeplus, and Lotte mart) were involved. Overall, 510 usable responses were used. The data were analyzed using regression analysis. Results - The results largely support the hypothesized relationships of the proposed model. The results show that access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, and post-benefit convenience have positive influences on service quality, whereas decision convenience, access convenience, transaction convenience, benefit convenience, and post-benefit convenience have positive effects on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the results show that there are differences between department stores and general super markets in the effects of benefit convenience and post-benefit convenience on service quality as well as the effects of transaction convenience and post-benefit convenience on customer satisfaction. Conclusions - The concept of service convenience is important in retail environments but little is known about this topic in retail literature. Specially, while service convenience dimensions have different impacts on service performance in distinct retail environments, there has been little investigation or comparison between retail types as regards service convenience. This study is the first to test the differences between distinct retail types (department stores and general super markets) on the service convenience-service performance links. Managerially, the findings of this study suggest that the service convenience management of retailers is an important part of successful service performance management. Because it is most important that both department stores and general super markets enhance benefit convenience to improve service performance, managers of both store types need to invest their resources to reduce consumers' perceived time and effort expenditures to experience the retailer's core benefits. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that retail stores should spend human and financial resources to enhance customer perceptions of service convenience, while also considering what constitutes the service outcome in the consumer's mind. Furthermore, the findings suggest that managers need to use different service convenience management tactics in department stores and general super markets. Specifically, managers in general super markets should pay more attention to benefit convenience and transaction convenience to achieve better service performance whereas managers in department stores should concentrate on post-benefit convenience to create customers' positive evaluation.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.90-99
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• 2017

This paper is to understand the impact of systematic risk on capitalization rate at office building market and retail real estate market in Seoul and to see if CAPM(Capital Asset Pricing Model) is applicable. For this, this paper considers eight different office building and retail real estate markets in Seoul city area, called GBD, YBD, CBD, and Other Business District, and GBD, SBD, CBD, and Other Business District, to find out if there is any positive-linearity between systematic risk and capitalization rate for each business district not. Then, this paper tries to verify applicability of CAPM to four office building markets and four retail real estate markets with Black, Jensen, and Scholes(1972)'s statistical methodology. At last, the result shows that there is positive linearity between systematic risk and capitalization rate only GBD except Others(YBD, CBD, and other business district) in office building market. In addtion, SBD and CBD, they could be figured out that it is not efficient market because increasing systematic risk declines capitalization rate in retail real estate market. However, CAPM is not applicable in all office building(GBD, YBD, CBD, and other business district) and retail real estate markets(GBD, SBD, CBD, and other business district) in Seoul.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• no.34
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• pp.124-131
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• 2002

Lighting is the single most important part of the design of a retail store. Good lighting can enhance a product's appearance, accentuate a special display, balance the visual elements of a store, and create the proper mood. In shops the lighting is required to draw the customer's attention to the goods help him to appraise them, and provide an atmosphere conducive to sales. The method will vary according to the types of good displayed, the form of trading, the design of the shop, and the class of customers expected. For the all reason, this study is focused on how the lighting design effects the customer's interest to the goods and intended to prescribe the possibilities of effective lighting design.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.55-64
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• 2017

Purpose - PB products at convenience stores take up about 20% of all products, and strategies for differentiation from other companies and brand image building are very important. This study would investigate the strategy for differentiating PB products and successful brand building strategy, focusing on BGF Retail that is operating 'CU', the leader in the convenience store industry in Korea. Research design, data, and methodology - This study would attempt to make an exploratory approach to PB products limited to those in convenience stores. As a research subject, this study chose BGF Retail, the operator of CU, which is the leader in the convenience store industry in Korea and chose the case study method in order to examine the strategy for differentiating PB products in convenience stores more in depth. For this purpose, this study collected materials such as papers, newspaper articles and various reports on convenience store-related PB products and conducted an in-depth study including more practical contents through an interview with CU workers. Results - CU pursued the diversity of PB products and has had the diversity of products, more than 120 kinds. It founded a product research institute and has been in charge of the differentiation strategy from planning products to launching them. Changing the target layer of consumers to those in middle age of the 40s-50s, it succeeded in the strategy expanding the consumer class. In the long run, despite it changed the name of the company, it has built a successful image, and both revenue and operating profit have continuously grown up. Conclusions - In results, CU has reset the changing main target population, and the product research institute succeeded in the innovation of products, reflecting new trends the customers want. Through this study, the practical implications could be provided for competitors.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.617-627
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• 2020

This study investigates the apparel sizing communication presented in online retail websites focusing on women's ready-to-wear tailored jackets and to analyze the meaning of these information as the actual product size guide factor. A total of 34 retail websites were selected based on the highest growth fashion companies list and the best fashion brands list. We collected size information in two types: size specifications including sizing code, body measurements, garment measurements, and size references including customized size guide tools, size information in customer reviews, model size information, and others. Most websites prefer to present garment measurements rather than body measurements that are recommended notations under Korean standards and related regulations. In addition, there was the absence of consistency in presenting measurements list and terms that can confuse consumers in size communication. This study found that the stature measurement was a key factor in size reference despite that it did not represent a proper garment size. The obsolete Korean numbering sizing code such as '55 and '66 was still used in many ways such as idiomatic expressions for body shape. It also implied that we can take advantage of the old sizing code for accessible size information. The finding of this study gives an in-depth diagnosis of current online sizing information problems and suggests useful basic data for developing online apparel size standards and marketing strategies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.73-82
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• 2017

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate a profit maximizing incentive of foreign traders in distributing the KOSPI 200 Futures. Such an incentive may induce unsophisticated retail traders to suffer loss from speculative trading. Since Korean government increased the entry barriers of the market to protect unsophisticated traders, the market size has been decreasing while the proportion of the contract held by foreign traders has been increasing. These on going changes make the market imperfectly competitive, where a profit maximization incentives of foreign traders are expected to grow. In this paper, we attempt to find any evidence of such behavior, thereby providing implications regarding market policy and market efficiency. Research design, data, and methodology - According to Kyle(1985), an informed trader exploits his/her monopoly power optimally in a dynamic context so that he/she makes positive profit, where he/she could conceal his/her trading utilizing noise trading as camouflage. We apply the KOSPI 200 Futures market to the Kyle's model: foreign traders who take into account the effect of his/her trading to maximize expected profits as an informed trader, retail investors as noise traders, and financial institutions as market makers. To find any evidence of monopolistic behavior, we test the variants of trading volume and price data of the KOSPI 200 Futures over the period of 2009 and 2017. Results - First, we find that the price of the KOSPI 200 Futures are more volatile than the price of underlying asset. Second, we find that monopolistic foreign trader's trading order flows are consistent with exploiting his/her monopoly power to maximize profit. Finally, we find that retail investors' trading order flows are inversely consistent with maximizing profit, that is, uninformed retail investors suffer loss continuously in speculative trading against informed traders. Conclusions - Our results show that the quantity of strategic order flows may have a large effect on the price, therefore, resulting the market inefficiency. The results also imply that, in implementing regulations, the depth of the market must be considered to maintain market liquidity, and suggesting interesting research topics regarding the market structure.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.39-56
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• 2019

This study addresses the management performance of the retail industry in Korea. The Non-store e-commerce business, consisting of TV home shopping and online shopping, grew very fast during the 2000s. For roughly six years in the 2010s, the diversification of online shopping business models, intensifying competition, and the proliferation of competition accelerated the entry of offline shopping retailers. During the analysis period from 2001 to 2016, the performance of the Non-­store e-commerce business was statistically better than that of the offline shopping retail business, department stores, general retailers, and small­-sized retailers. As expected, a significant difference between performance and some of the indicators of growth and activity could be seen because of the capital and operating structure of the retail industry. In particular, the Non-store e-commerce businesses have diverse sales media and heterogeneous business models. In this study, we have presented the significance of the differences in the indicators of operating profit and inventory turnover, as well as the discussion required for managing in the future.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.411-424
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the location characteristics of convenience stores, a consumption industry that forms a new retail environment and implements unattended, and reveals the geographic factors that affect its location. For this purpose, we first examine the growth and regional distribution of manned convenience stores and then construct a gamma generalized linear regression model that explains the distribution of the unmanned convenience stores as well as the manned and unmanned combined convenience stores. As the result, it was observed that the unmanned convenience stores and the unmanned discount stores are located close to public transportation facilities and they have relatively little movement of the population but they are distributed in areas with a higher density of young residential population and densely distributed retail stores and restaurants. The effects of demographic factors on the location of the unmanned convenience stores and the unmanned discount stores differed according to the scope and characteristics of their sales items. Our findings provide an empirical basis for subsequent academic research as an initial study that identified geographic factors influencing the selection of opening locations for unmanned stores.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.117-126
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• 2022

This study aims to analyze the sizing information of women's ready-to-wear pants as indicated on online retail websites and to suggest better sizing communication that can assist customers in making successful apparel size selections. We gathered size specifications and size reference information for basic straight pants from 34 online apparel retail websites. Although the Korean standard recommends labeling the body dimension-based sizing code and specification, most websites preferred to use various types of sizing codes. Body measurements were only used by a few websites, and garment dimension descriptions were the most common method to indicate product size. Many websites provided size reference information through customer review boards and fit model images, however, there was insufficient body size information to allow customers to infer the fit of their body type. When using the size guidance tools, the major data input points were stature and weight measurements. However, the waist measurements of pants sizes guided only by stature and weight values revealed inconsistent ease allowance for corresponding body size populations, especially in the overweight group. Based on our findings, we propose a more effective method of communicating the size information of pants online. We expect that this will contribute to the efficiency of online apparel product display and build a better shopping environment that satisfies both sellers and consumers.