THE ASSORTMENT OF A RETAIL TRADE ENTERPRISE DIAGNOSTICS CONSIDERING THE SALES PROFITABILITY

Abstract

The development of competition in the retail sales market determines the development of methodological and practical approaches to the formation and diagnosis of the assortment of goods sold. The issues of optimizing the assortment policy are reflected in the works of both foreign and domestic researchers for a significant period of time, but there is a possibility to expand the tools of such studies. In practice of retail enterprises, due to various sales formats, location, volumes of activity and other factors, in many cases it is difficult to use knowledge-intensive econometric models for assortment diagnostics, and therefore there is a need to form tools that are user-friendly in a variety of operating conditions. The aim of the study is to develop approaches to the diagnosis of the formation of the assortment of a retail enterprise based on the synthesis of existing methods and techniques. The article defines the concept of sales profitability in the framework of assortment diagnostics, taking into account the specifics of income generation in trade. In addition, basic methodological approaches to the formation of a retail assortment from the standpoint of merchandising, marketing and category management are summarized and structured, that enabled to prove the possibility of an assortment diagnosis using a matrix combining the ABC-analysis of profitability and XYZ-analysis of the stability of sales for the formation of the basic classes of goods. The proposed methodology will expand the tools for diagnosing the assortment of retail trade enterprises and will allow making adequate management decisions on its optimization to increase the effectiveness of the functioning of retail sales entities.