Examining the Effectiveness of Huff Model in Store Performance Assessment

Abstract

Huff model and its variants have been used extensively in location decision making. This study has compared two versions of Huff model of location decision making in their appropriateness to analyze sales performance of selected shopping center. The sales have been estimated by using original Huff model given by David L. Huff (1964, Journal of Marketing, 28, 34–38) and modified version of it is suggested by Li and Liu in 2012 ( Applied Geography, 32, 591–600). The modified version considered the effects of agglomeration and competition on similar stores. But the selected stores were standalone stores. In this study instead, a famous shopping mall consisting of cluster of stores, which create bundling effect and provide more choices to customers, has been used to understand the effectiveness of discussed two versions of Huff model. The results were obtained for different agglomeration and competition factors in case of modified Huff model. These different factors were found to have significant influence on estimation of sales suggesting utmost care in their selection. Overall modified version was found to be more suitable in fulfilling the objective.