Fast-moving Consumer Goods Retail Research Articles

Ensuring the Success of Unorganized Retail Supply Chains of Current Times- A Developing Nation Perspective

The goal of this study is to identify and evaluate key success factors (CSF) for unorganized retail supply chain management (UORSCM). The interpretative structural modelling (ISM) approach is applied for analyzing the CSFs. In India, the unorganized fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail sector occupies a sizable amount of space and makes a significant GDP contribution. A total of 13 CSFs are analyzed, and to determine their driving and dependency power, MICMAC analysis is carried out. The outcome demonstrates that unorganized retailing suffers a variety of difficulties, like, the arrival of new competitors, product substitution, supplier problems, buyer threats, an increase in organized retailers, and co-manufacturer threats, in developing country settings. The factors with the highest positive impact are service quality in FMCG retail, time management at stores, product quality, and spoilage adjustment in retail. The factors, service quality in retail, time management at stores, and product quality have resulted in the highest driving power and lowest dependence power to attain the desired performance of UORSCM. The study’s findings also indicate that by focusing on these factors, unorganized retailers can efficiently handle customers.

Examining the influence of social media eWOM on consumers’ purchase intentions of commercialised indigenous fruits (IFs) products in FMCGs retailers

Despite noteworthy advancement of theoretical and practical knowledge of social media eWord-of-Mouth with evidence from prior empirical research, the influences consumers’ purchase intentions of commercialised indigenous fruits products in fast moving consumer goods retailers remains unexplored in academic domain. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to examining the role of social media word-of-mouth on consumers’ purchase intentions of commercialised indigenous fruits products in fast moving consumer goods retailers. It is based on a nomothetic quantitative methodology, where a survey was applied to collect responses from consumers of commercialized indigenous fruits products in selected fast moving consumer goods retailers in Marondera town, in Mashonaland East province of Zimbabwe. The structural equation modelling validated results confirm that quality, source credibility, usefulness of information and information adoption have influence on social media electronic word-of-mouth on consumers’ purchase intentions of commercialised indigenous fruits products in fast moving consumer goods retailers. In line with the current research results, complementary cross-sectional studies using the same methodology in different geographical areas in the same focus can be applied to check for relevancy, reliability and applicability. However, the current study, originally contributes to digital marketing, information communication technologies or information systems and food marketing practice and theory building. Further to this, it provides researchers with an agenda for future research directions.

The Unraveling Loyalty Model of Traditional Retail to Suppliers for Business Sustainability in the Digital Transformation Era: Insight from MSMEs in Indonesia

The development of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) retail has demonstrated an evolution of buyer–seller interactions. In the era of digital transformation, FMCGs and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can easily use website applications to shop for various products from suppliers, make payments, and access a wider variety of products with more efficient delivery. However, empirical studies on loyalty drivers on B2B relationships for business sustainability in the retail industry have not received much attention. This research aimed to examine the factors that influence loyalty and analyze the mediating role of MSME loyalty by discussing a new conceptual framework designed based on the buyer–seller relationship theory and relational marketing. Data were collected from 500 owners or managers of FMCG retail stalls in various provinces in Indonesia and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that merchandising, website quality, commitment, and satisfaction have a positive effect on loyalty, as opposed to service quality and trust. There are also different roles in the mediating variables of trust, commitment, and satisfaction on retail store loyalty. These findings were useful for policymakers, managers, and practitioners to clarify the influence of service quality, merchandising website quality, and the role of relationship quality on loyalty in the era of digital transformation.

Reverse Logistics Strategies and Their Effect on the Competitiveness of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Firms in South Africa

Background: The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector contributes significantly to the gross domestic product (GDP) growth of a country. This has therefore led to the growth in importance of reverse logistics (RL) since the FMCG sector cannot avoid RL. It is therefore important for the sector to implement RL strategies that can lead to firm competitiveness. Through the implementation of RL strategies, this sector will achieve many goals as well as lead to firm competitiveness. This study mainly sought to investigate RL strategies and their effect on firm competitiveness. Methods: A positivist research philosophy was employed. Data were collected through two close-ended questionnaires via SurveyMonkey from 418 FMCG retailers and consumers. This is because customers and employees are the greatest asset for any sector. Results: The descriptive results revealed the following RL strategies as the highly implemented ones among FMCG retailers: integration of forward logistics (FL) and RL, the implementation of new technology, the adherence to environmental policies and regulations, knowledge management, eco-compatibility and strategic alliances. The structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that RL strategies have a positive and significant influence on firm competitiveness. Conclusion: The results offer insight into the RL strategies that must be carried out to achieve firm competitiveness.

Critical success factors in e-marketing adoption and implementation among the fast-moving consumer goods retailers in Zimbabwe

The institutionalization of e-marketing strategies, their adoption, and implementation hinges on the customers' perceptions of the critical success factors that the literature identifies in terms of an online competitive advantage, online shopping infrastructure development, online customer relationship, and online shopping risk. To assess the critical success factors, a sample of 300 customers of the fast-moving consumer goods retailers throughout the provinces of Zimbabwe participated in this study. The results indicated that customers' province of residence, their education and computer literacy levels are significantly associated with the critical success factors (CSFs) of e-marketing adoption and implementation. However, the study found that gender does not significantly affect the e-marketing CSFs. It is suggested that the demographic characteristics, related to education, computer literacy levels, and the province of residence are the strategic criteria for niche market segmentation and development that the fast-moving consumer goods retailers need to leverage for the successful adoption and implementation of e-marketing.

The Influence of Reverse Logistics on the Leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods Retailers in South Africa

BackgroundEnterprises endeavoured being competitive in their pursuit for customer satisfaction in provision of product/service in the marketplace. The emergence of supply chain management strategy addressed this objective, as it streamlined the coordination of supply and demand sides of business in enterprises. The forward flow of goods from fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) suppliers to the end-customers led to accumulation of damaged goods being returned back to the suppliers for replacement through the process of reverse logistics. ObjectivesThis study explored the process of reverse logistics on the leading retailers of fast moving consumer goods in South Africa, to establish how the process influenced their business. MethodThe study pursued qualitative research methodology and constructivism research paradigm and was grounded in the theory of sustainable development and competitive advantage. Non-probability sampling process was used in which 13 participants were interviewed. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated, coded and analysed via Atlas ti.8 software to determine the results.ResultsThe outcome of the study indicated that reverse logistics created value for the retailers through replacement of the damaged goods, improved competitiveness and sustainability due to continuous recovery of value, and waste reduction ensured a cleaner environment. Conclusion The recovery of damaged products through the reverse logistics process benefitted enterprises with additional resources as value-added that improved earnings which made them more competitive. As the process was continuous and reduced waste, it ensured the enterprises’ sustainability and spared environmental degradation.

Supply chain design dimensions for supply chain resilience in the South African fast-moving consumer goods retail industry

ABSTRACT This paper intends to empirically establish the supply chain design dimensions that influence the ability of retailers in South Africa’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry to perform effectively with resilience. It further examines the extent of supply chain design dimensions impacting the variance on resilience in this industry. The study surveyed managers and supervisors of major South African supermarkets within the FMCG industry and employed univariate and multivariate methods to analyze the data collected. The paper established that technology advancement, economic influence, environmental changes, desired supply chain outcomes, and transport networks are the supply chain design dimensions with the most impact on the capability of the retail industry to perform efficiently and effectively with resilience. Furthermore, the paper revealed that transport networks, as an integral part of retail industry, impact the most on the variance of resilience for product availability. The findings imply that, despite the susceptibility to external and internal disruptions, performance and operations with resilience resonate with proper investments in technology, the available capacity under turbulent economic behavior, and a transport network for better customer experience. The paper further acknowledges the disruptive environmental changes, desired supply chain outcomes, and the need for a supply chain design for resilience in the retail industry.

Opportunities and challenges of social media in supply chain management: A study in the South African FMCG retail industry

Orientation: Social media is often described a double-edged sword, yielding opportunities and challenges. It brings organisations closer to their customers, and when executed properly it can help drive business and provide a significant return on investment.Research purpose: To explore the opportunities and challenges that social media has created in SCM in the South African FMCG retail industry.Motivation for the study: Limited research has been conducted on the innate link between supply chain management (SCM) and social media, especially within the context of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail industry and within a developing country context such as South Africa.Research design, approach and method: A generic qualitative research approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 top and middle managers from the South African FMCG retail industry. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. This was done in sequential phases, namely by data familiarisation, generating codes, identifying themes, constructing thematic networks and drawing conclusions from the data.Main findings: The findings indicate that social media has created faster and more collaborative communication between an organisation’s suppliers and their customers. However, it has also empowered consumers and forced FMCG retailers to respond faster to consumer complaints and queries to maintain customer relationships for sustained competitive advantage. The lack of control over content that is shared by customers on organisations’ social media platforms is a challenge that organisations experienced. The predominant social media platforms found to be used were WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.Practical/managerial implications: Traditional methods of communicating are changing, and organisations need to adapt to social media as an alternative form of technology customer engagement and relationship management. For managers, if social media is embedded in the supply chain, the supply chain can gather information from a broad base of different sources.Contribution/value-add: This collective intelligence can be used to uncover evolving trends or for better-informed decision-making, planning and overall collaboration between supply chain partners.

DEMAND IMPACT FOR PRICES ENDING WITH “9” AND “0” IN ONLINE AND OFFLINE CONSUMER GOODS RETAIL TRADE CHANNELS

Studies on demand impact for 9-ending and rounded prices have so far offered controversial results, with hardly any research focusing on their effect on online commerce or in a multichannel sales context. Our study aims to fill this gap by analyzing the conditions that influence the strategy behind setting such type of pricing in the multichannel retail business of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). To test the formulated hypotheses, scanner data from FMCG retailers are used. In addition to “demand” and “price”, “promotion communication”, “retailer type” and “price level” are included as moderators between 9-ending, rounded prices and demand. The results aim to provide, both in the academic and business fields, systematic findings of pricing relationships between online and offline channels which contribute to a better management strategy for “9-ending” and “rounded” prices.Keywords: Prices; 9-ending Prices; Rounded Prices; E-Commerce.JEL Classifications: M31, L81, C32DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.10683

Sustainable supplier selection in the retail industry: A TOPSIS- and ANFIS-based evaluating methodology

In this study, a hybrid model based on ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems), a predictive intelligent-based technique, and TOPSIS (Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution) was implemented for sustainable supplier selection. Selection of supplier is a crucial task for companies to achieve the objectives of inbound and outbound supply chain system. This selection process may be complex due to the inclusion of diverse subjective and objective factors. There is, therefore, the need for a reliable methodology to provide higher accuracy in predictions of anticipated supplier performance, and this article makes contributions in that direction. The model was applied in the retail end of a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry to select the best possible suppliers using the sustainability criteria of the triple-bottom-line. Available data from the FMCG retail sector was fed into the TOPSIS and ANFIS model to rank the suppliers. Results indicated that the most dominant sustainability factors in the Nigerian FMCG retail sector are advanced technology, cost, reliability, on-time delivery, and environmental competencies. The finding should encourage companies in the retail sector to explore sustainability opportunities in order to improve their competitiveness for selection during bidding processes. The novelty of this study is the application of ANFIS to sustainable supplier selection problem in the context of a developing economy like Nigeria. It should also assist managers in the FMCG retail sector to highlight areas of possible sustainability improvements.

The Challenges of Traditional Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) Retailers of Sylhet in Emergence of Organized Retailing

Organized retailing in Bangladesh is growing rapidly. Though the researchers and academicians studied the retail industry of Bangladesh in different dimension, very few of them intended to explore the challenges of traditional retailers so far. In line with this problem, the objective of this study is to identify the challenges of the traditional FMCGs retailers in emergence of organized retailing in Sylhet city. The study is quantitative in nature, data were collected from 400 traditional retailers on the basis of convenience with a semi-structured questionnaire. In analyzing data, descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used with the SPSS software. The traditional retailing is male dominated, low capital and turnover, small sized business in Sylhet and are facing challenges like decrease in sales and revenue, maintaining more hygienic environment, ensure the availability of quality products, launching the use of technology etc. in emergence of organized retailing. To minimize the challenges, the traditional FMCGs retailers need to be educated to obtain knowledge on business, ensure quality products and services, establish joint venture or partnership with other retailers to create chain stores, design effective loyalty programs and arranging customized merchandize for the loyal customers etc. The present study will help the traditional retailers in identify the real challenges of their business and designing strategies to minimize those. The policy makers and stakeholders may also get insight from the study in formulating policies to protect the traditional retail business from the competition of organized retail.

The Effects of In-Store Category Adjacencies on Consumer Purchase Behavior

This paper aims to get a deeper understanding of the gradual background of the concepts of in-store category adjacencies and consumer behavior, and how the different dimensions of category adjacencies can influence the consumer purchase behavior, thus affecting the retailer’s sales and profitability. The study was based on compiling both theoretical and empirical studies conducted so far on in-store category adjacencies and consumer behavior, in order to explore the potential for future empirical studies to examine the impact of in-store adjacencies in improving the in-store navigation and the shopping experience, and their reflection on the consumer purchase behavior in the fast moving consumer goods retail outlets in Kuwait.

The Consumer Demand Estimating and Purchasing Strategies Optimizing of FMCG Retailers Based on Geographic Methods

The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry is expected to grow dramatically given the rapid increase in purchasing power of Chinese consumers over recent years. In order to facilitate the sustainable development of the Chinese FMCG market, it is important for FMCG retailers to understand the provincial market demand and make out flexible purchasing strategies. This paper proposes a new combination of geographic methods to estimate market demand at the micro-scale through historical sales data. Based on the consumer demand of regions and the sales performance of nearby regions, this study also proposes a method to decide what kinds of optimizing purchasing strategies should be adopted for the retailers in different areas, the positive strategies or the conservative strategies. The sales data of FMCG retailers in Guiyang was used in the experiment, and the results showed that their theoretical sales could be improved by over 6.5% and 10.2 under two strategies. The findings indicate that this study can provide practical guidance for retailers to estimate the market demand, and develop suitable optimizing purchasing strategies, thus improving the profit of retails and decreasing the risk of products waste.

Marketing store brands and manufacturer brands: Role of referent and expert power in merchandising decisions

The purpose of this article is to explore the use of power in the merchandising of store brands and manufacturer brands in a highly concentrated fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail environment where grocery retailers wield phenomenal power over manufacturers. The study employed in-depth interviews and in-store category observation in five product categories and triangulated the results of the two study methods and the five categories. While grocery retail chains own the point of sale and market their own store brands alongside competing manufacturer brands, despite having the balance of power over manufacturers in a highly concentrated grocery retail environment, it is not necessarily coercive power that drives merchandising practice for store and manufacturer brands. Indeed, referent and expert bases of power play a key role. Consistent with rational business judgement, what is best for the consumer and the business is what largely gets factored into merchandising policy. Little research has specifically scrutinised the merchandising patterns of store and manufacturer brands in a highly concentrated FMCG retail environment using specific sources of power as a theoretical base. This article further suggests a relevant theoretical framework for store and manufacturer brand merchandising practice in a highly concentrated FMCG retail environment.

Mobile self-checkout systems in the FMCG retail sector: A comparison analysis

Abstract. New business models are emerging in the FMCG retail sector due to the wide diffusion of digitaltechnologies; innovative tools - such as Pervasive Retailing Information Systems - are wide spreading allover the world aiming to increase customer loyalty and retailer performance. Furthermore, the recent massdiffusion of mobile technologies is also contributing to modify customer satisfaction towards the shoppingprocess. In this context, new generations of self-service systems – i.e. mobile Self-Checkout Systems(mSCSs)- are becoming widely adopted by FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) retail companies: theaim is to both speed up the customer-shopping trip and increase customer satisfaction. A mSCS is a self-checkout system based on mobile technology. Traditionally, self-checkout systems have been applied tospeed up the customer purchase process; impacts on retailer performance could also be evaluated in orderto optimize labor force at store level. The paper proposes a comparison analysis about the application ofdifferent types of mSCSs at FMCG retail stores: the study will focus on analyzing quantitatively impactson time based metrics both from the customer and the retailer points of view. The study will be helpfulfor practitioners in designing their own mSCS; furthermore, a structured model for evaluating potentialimpacts of innovative technologies at the retail sector as a result. Finally, a discrete-event simulation modelhas been developed to quantitatively compare different mSCSs in a case study.Keywords: Mobile Self-Checkout system, FMCG, NFC, customer satisfaction, customer cycle time,scenario analysis

The impact of RFID technology and EPC system on stock‐out of promotional items

This paper examines the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) and EPC Network on out‐of‐stocks of promotional items during a sales promotion in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) context. A mathematical model is developed to estimate savings achievable by reducing the main causes of unavailability of promotional items. In particular, the model compares the current performance of sales promotion of FMCG retail stores, in terms of stock‐out occurrence and related duration, with a re-engineered situation where RFID and EPC are exploited in the store to reduce stock‐out causes. The model has been applied to a retail store of a major Italian distributor of FMCG. Results of the application suggest that RFID and EPC have the potential to substantially reduce economical losses due to unavailability of promotional items, thus proving the economical profitability of their implementation in the FMCG field.

Re-assessing strategic motives of retail internationalisation: the case of The People's Republic of China

China has emerged as a potential economic super-power in recent years. Its remarkable political and economic development has attracted many leading international fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) retailers. Although the motives behind retail internationalisation have been heavily researched in the last two decades, none of those studies can provide a satisfactory account of the long-term strategic objectives behind foreign direct investment (FDI) of FMCG retailers under the radically changing global retail climate. In-depth case studies were conducted in the present study. It is found that China is perceived as an important strategic location for retailers that desire to develop a strong international network, which in turn enhances their bargaining power over suppliers and strengthens their global market positions. This working explanation emerged from the study has important implications on predicting how retail internationalisation will be developed in the future.