Retail Performance Research Articles

The impact of weather on consumer behavior and retail performance: Evidence from a convenience store chain in China

Despite extensive use of weather data to adjust replenishment and inventory strategies in the retail industry, these companies do clearly know the effect of weather on consumer behavior and retail performance. How does weather affect consumers' purchasing behavior and thus retail performance? We study empirically these questions by analyzing more than 6 million transactions made by more than 1.62 million unique consumers at 146 convenience stores in a convenience store chain in China. We choose sun, rain, temperature, and air quality index as the main weather variables. We use the average number of items per order and the average price of each item in each order as indicators of consumer behavior, and use store daily sales as an indicator of retail performance. We found that under rainy weather, people will buy more products with higher item prices in one order. When temperature rises, people will buy fewer products with a lower item price in one order. In addition, sunny weather and rainy weather have a positive impact on daily sales than cloudy weather. Air quality has a negative impact on daily sales, while temperature has a positive impact on sales. Finally, we study the impact of weather on different product categories. We find that the results depend on the product category characteristics.

A Comparison of Return Rate Calculation Methods: Evidence from 16 Retailers

The product return rate (RR) is an important metric for retailers; even small RR changes can significantly impact retailers’ profit. Companies and researchers typically favor and employ one of three methods to calculate the RR: based on the number of returned items, these items’ revenue, or their profit contribution. Interviews with 24 managers and industry experts reveal that two methods, item-based and revenue-based, are often used. However, little is known about how much the interpretation of RRs depends on the calculation method. In this article, the authors rely on extensive datasets to investigate these potential differences empirically. Analyzing more than 8 million transactions at sixteen different retailers, the authors find that RRs calculated via the three methods differ on average by 24.3%. The size of these differences makes cross-sectional comparisons of RRs calculated via different methods difficult. In contrast, the authors find that the developments of the RRs over time are similar, which allows for a meaningful time-series comparison of RR developments, regardless of the method. Finally, this research shows that all three calculation methods result in RRs that are equally insightful (leading) indicators of relevant retailer performance metrics.

Performance and analysis of retail store‐centered microgrids with solar photovoltaic parking lot, cogeneration, and battery‐based hybrid systems

AbstractTo examine the potential of distributed microgrids using sustainable energy sources centered on retail store parking lots, this study provides a methodology to simulate medium‐scale solar photovoltaic (PV) + combined heat and power (CHP) + battery hybrid microgrid systems deployed at big box retail stores. First, a method is provided to agglomerate 15‐min load data for a community of residences in the region of the store to provide baseline electricity load profiles. The systems are then modeled using dispatch strategies previously shown to be stable for smaller, but more dynamic loaded systems. The methodology is demonstrated with a case study for a Walmart Supercenter located in Nova Scotia, Canada. The electricity generated by each component of the hybrid system is coupled and optimized to fulfill the electric demands of the local community. The results provide the total electricity generated by the PV + CHP + battery hybrid system, total operating hours by each unit, fuel consumed, and hourly energy produced by each unit. The results show that such microgrid systems could serve the electrical needs of ˜1000 people (350 residences) for each parking lot of 3.5 MW PV system and CHP unit of 1 MW. The technical viability of this approach warrants future work.

COVID-19이 뷰티 제품의 전자상거래 매출에 미치는 영향: 이벤트 스터디를 활용한 분석

The devastating COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our lives in many ways. Retailers, in particular, are suffering from these catastrophes, and consumers are forced to change their shopping behavior to conform to the next normal. To understand the impact of COVID-19 on consumer behavior, we investigated the impact of the product characteristics on changes in sales performance caused by COVID-19. For this, we collected data on online sales performance of a beauty retailer in Korea, and analyzed them by using an event study approach. Overall, sales of beauty products was found to decline due to COVID-19. However, the level of negative impact was different depending on product characteristics. Specifically, sales of dietary health foods and skin improvement products had less negative impact than general cosmetics. We also found that the negative impact the pandemic had on credence product sales was not as much as its impact on experience product sales. Moreover, the decline in sales of skin care products was less than makeup products. Lastly, the decline in low-priced products was less than that of high-priced products, but the difference was not statistically significant. This research sheds a light on how to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic for online retailers.

How does the adoption of digital payment technologies influence unorganized retailers’ performance? An investigation in an emerging market

Unorganized retail dominates the retail landscape across emerging markets (EMs) and is undergoing rapid digitalization. However, the extant literature has not explored the impact of digital payment system adoption on unorganized retailer (UR) performance. By conducting three related studies and relying on the tenets of the resource-based view of firms, we show that digital payment technologies’ adoption increases economic performance (i.e., revenue) for a sample of 403 EM URs. This effect is enhanced by such retailers’ prioritization of technological investments and attenuated by their credit facilities. We find that card-based and app-based technologies positively impact UR performance. URs can maximize their performance by adopting two technologies, and there is a synergistic effect between card-based and account-based technologies. On average, adoption increases a UR’s economic performance by 9.6%. We present a nuanced understanding of whether, how much, and which digital payment technologies should be adopted by EM URs.

Does brand-relationships matter? The role of brand attachment in salesperson performance in retailing

Purpose Salesperson performance is accepted as a relevant factor of retailing success. However, scarce studies reveal the relationship between sales performance and brand relationship. The purpose of this study is both, from one side, to empirically demonstrate the impact of salesperson brand attachment (SBA) on sales performance and, on the other side, to identify the mediators of this relationship in small retailing. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted with a sample of 206 small retailers from different sectors of an emerging country. The proposed model was tested using partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS3. Findings The results demonstrated that SBA is relevant to driving sales performance through two relevant paths – one following SBA–satisfaction–performance and one path following the SBA–commitment–performance. The model was able to explain 63% of the outcome performance. Practical implications Regarding small retailers, where the owners, employees and managers have higher levels of interaction than the large national retail chains, the marketing executives must invest in improving the attachment to the brand and create emotional bonds and cognition between marketers and the brand. They must develop strategies to promote job satisfaction and organizational commitment because they determine performance. Originality/value Despite the relevance of small businesses for economies worldwide and the importance of salesperson brand relationships, no study has been developed to demonstrate the impacts of such relationships on salesperson performance in retailing. Furthermore, in addition to the central role of organizational commitment in the sales research, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore how to mediate the relationship between brand attachment and sales performance.

The effect of supply chain practices on retailer performance with information technology as moderating variable

Today, the retail industry has been overgrowing in offering various products to its customers. The retailer needs excellent support from the supplier to replenish the requirement based on the demand. This support can be achieved by using a secure and fast information system. Retailers, suppliers, and customers should be integrated using information technology and also practicing supply chain management for the benefit of all parties. This study examined the influence of supply chain practices on retailer performance and moderated by information technology. The study has surveyed eighty-six (86) retailer, using a questionnaire, domiciled in the city of Surabaya, Indonesia. Data analysis used SPSS software version 25 to examine the hypothesis. The results showed that supply chain practices had a direct impact on retailer performance; secondly, information technology moderated the effect of supply chain management practices on retailer performance with an increase of 14.70%. Finally, information technology had an impact on increasing retailer performance. This research has an impact on modern retailers to keep adjusting their business with the use of information technology. This finding also contributes to the current research in supply chain management.

Enhancing competitiveness by innovative inventory pooling system for multi-retailers

The main objective of this research was to optimise responses to random demands from multiple locations during appropriate periods and it also attempted to ensure opportunity cost of lost sales was minimised. The simulation model represented the inventory levels of sports retailers. Employing Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) integrated Microsoft® Excel, the paper establishes two simulation models of the whole process from product demand to supply in traditional mode (no pooling stores) and pooling mode (IIPS), respectively. The simulation system aimed to maximise system service fee after users joined the pooling system and limit the percentage of opportunity cost of lost sales to not more than the percentage of opportunity cost of lost sales for individual stores. By quantitative comparison and analysis, it is proved that inventory pooling could be effective method to improve performance of sport retailers in Thailand, especially in decreasing the percentage of opportunity cost of lost sales.

Kinks as Goals: Accelerating Commissions and the Performance of Sales Teams

We study the performance of small retail sales teams facing an incentive scheme that includes both a lump sum bonus and multiple accelerators (kinks where the piece rate jumps upward). Consistent with standard labor supply models, we find that the presence of an attainable bonus or kink on a work-day raises mean sales, and that sales are highly bunched at the bonus; inconsistent with those models we find that teams bunch at the kinks instead of avoiding them. Teams' responses to the kinks are consistent with models in which the kinks are perceived as symbolic rewards, and inconsistent with reference point models where kinks induce loss aversion.

Kinks as Goals: Accelerating Commissions and the Performance of Sales Teams

We study the performance of small retail sales teams facing an incentive scheme that includes both a lump sum bonus and multiple accelerators (kinks where the piece rate jumps upward). Consistent with standard labor supply models, we find that the presence of an attainable bonus or kink on a work-day raises mean sales, and that sales are highly bunched at the bonus; inconsistent with those models we find that teams bunch at the kinks instead of avoiding them. Teams’ responses to the kinks are consistent with models in which the kinks are perceived as symbolic rewards, and inconsistent with reference point models where kinks induce loss aversion.

Corporate Social Responsibility of Retailers: A Review of the European Studies

The purpose of the article is to provide an overview of publications by European authors on the corporate social responsibility of retailers. The initial data were the publications of the Scopus database. The analysis included three stages: analysis of the dynamics and structure of publications; analysis and grouping of keywords; citation analysis, including extensive citation analysis of the most cited publications. The results allowed identifying three areas of research in the field of corporate social responsibility of retailers, which are of the greatest interest to the European scientific community: a study of the economic aspects of corporate social responsibility, its impact on the financial performance of retailers; research on the impact of corporate social responsibility of retailers on consumer behavior; research on corporate social responsibility of retailers in relation to health management. Problems of corporate social responsibility of retailers to personnel and environmental responsibility of retailers are relevant and promising, but less studied in European science. The results will help scientists make a more informed choice of research topics. It is also of practical importance to disseminate advanced European experience in countries where corporate social responsibility has been developing not so long and not so actively, including in Russia.

Sustainable Retailing Performance of Zara during COVID-19 Pandemic

From an international business risk management perspective, the widespread and catastrophic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of Zara (Parent company Indetex) are studied and analyzed to contribute to ongoing research on the conventional brick-and-mortar retail business. Brick-and-mortar retail has headed into decline over the last several years, and e-retailing has grown exponentially during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this study is to understand and highlight the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on the performance of Zara in Saudi Arabia. It was found that consumers’ preferences and purchasing behavior experienced a paradigm shift from the earlier behavior patterns. Because this crisis has caused many businesses to collapse altogether, this study tries to understand the specific factors that were responsible for affecting the overall performance of Zara. This helped generate several key findings. This study also aims to identify the main challenges relating to sustainable retailing at Zara and review how Zara has incorporated sustainability into their business. The concept of sustainability has gained widespread appeal due to growing concerns over environmental externalities. The results from this review also indicate that there is a lack of research on sustainable retailing with respect to Zara in the global market. Further, this review proposes potential digital strategies for Zara to maintain their performance in the global market during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on retailer performance: empirical evidence from India

The study aims to synthesize the challenges that retailers are facing during the COVID-19 emergency. The research is definitive, informative, and based on a single design of cross-sectional research. Quantitative data based on the research instrument were produced (a questionnaire). Five hundred responses were collected from employees of major retail stores in India. Retailer performance is considered a dependent variable, whereas employee well-being, customer and brand protection, use of technology, government policies, and supply chain are used as independent variables. The current study results indicated that employee well-being and government policies have a significant positive impact on retailer performance, while customer and brand protection, use of technology, and supply chain have a significant positive impact on retailers’ performance. This study will help retailers develop strategies for their employees to protect them and understand that technology is needed in the new normal times. This study highlights the need to be flexible in executing strategic strategies, but retailers need to develop comprehensive action plans, including selecting managers of initiative and defining goals and deadlines. Provided that retailers’ current reality is different from the old normal, no time is lost in taking audacious action.

The Importance of Food Control for Retail Development – Evidence Using Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System Approach

Retail and retail development have become increasingly important in the economies of a number of countries in recent years. Given that retail chains are in direct contact with consumers, food retail control is important for both consumers and retailers. Additionally, food control is an important business segment of all companies involved in the food distribution chain, from food production, processing, storage, and sales to end consumers. On the one hand, the right to healthy and safe products is one of the basic consumer rights. On the other hand, retail chains tend to deliver healthy and safe products to consumers, using the principle of efficiency and positive business performance. In line with the above, i.e. food retailers’ challenge to satisfy consumer demands for healthy and safe products, but also to achieve positive business performance, the aim of this paper is to analyse the importance of food control for retail development, with particular reference to the market of the Republic of Serbia. For this purpose, empirical research is carried out on a sample of 169 food retailers. Using the available financial data, as well as data obtained from field research, the paper tests hypothesis on the impact of food control, as measured by the percentage allocation for the introduction of food safety standards, on food retail performance. The ANFIS method is used, and the results show positive impact of food control on food retail development in the Republic of Serbia.

The Value of Descriptive Analytics: Evidence from Online Retailers

Does the adoption of descriptive analytics impact online retailer performance, and if so, how? We use the synthetic control method to analyze the staggered adoption of a retail analytics dashboard by more than 1,000 e-commerce websites, and find an increase of 13–20% in average weekly revenues post-adoption. We demonstrate that only retailers that adopt and use the dashboard reap these benefits. The increase in revenue is not explained by price changes or advertising optimization. Instead, it is consistent with the addition of prospecting and personalization technologies to retailer websites. The adoption and usage of descriptive analytics also increases the diversity of products sold, the number of transactions, the numbers of website visitors and unique customers, and the revenue from repeated customers. In contrast, there is no change in basket size. Put together, these findings are consistent with an indirect effect of descriptive analytics, and they suggest that the adoption of analytics serves as a monitoring device that allows retailers to assess the value of new technologies. Without using the descriptive dashboard, retailers are unable to reap the benefits associated with these technologies.

A Joint Comparative Analysis of Routing Heuristics and Paperless Picking Technologies Using Simulation and Data Envelopment Analysis

Recent literature demonstrates that warehouse order picking performance is reflected in the logistics performance of downstream retailers. Warehouse solutions and policies significantly contribute to the improvement of distribution and delivery to retailers. This paper therefore reports an analysis of the joint performance of routing policies and picking technologies, and provides insights into the best ways to combine routing strategies and paperless solutions in order to optimize cost efficiency. We follow a multistage approach that combines mixed integer linear programming algorithms, data envelopment analysis (DEA), and ranking and selection. The results show that traversal-voice picking and midpoint-voice picking combinations are equally distributed over the most efficient subsets and that superior technology can enhance picking efficiency only to a certain level. The study provides guidelines for logistics managers on ways to combine warehouse solutions and policies in order to better streamline the operations. It offers an original framework to analyze the joint performance of picking routing and picking solutions by considering the effect of picking errors.

Decision-making mechanism of online retailer based on additional online comments of consumers

With improving capability of providing online comments, more and more e-business firms have been developing their online platforms that enable consumers to offer their comments and user experiences. However, there might be conflicting information contained in initial and additional consumer comments, and that information have different value perceptions for potential consumers. Therefore, it is of great significance for online retailers to investigate subsequent rounds of comments and their relationship with potential consumers' purchasing decisions. Enriching the relevant literature, we develop an analytical model to analyze the impact of online retailers' after-sales service on their profits, leading to discussions of the decision-making mechanism of online retailers. The results show that product pricing is influenced by consumers’ perceived utility through after-sales service, and product-demand mismatch and after-sales service quality play important roles in the performance of the online retailer and the after-sales service expand the amount of positive additional comments, and earn the retailer more profits.

Chief stores officer and retailer performance

This research investigates the performance implications for retailers of having a chief stores officer (CSO) in the top management team (TMT). Using a matched sample consisting of 120 public retailers, we find that CSO presence is positively associated with 3 different performance metrics, namely, comparable store sales, profit per store, and Tobin's q. We also identify a partial mediating mechanism and find that CSO presence improves retailer performance through enhanced inventory turnover. Our results are robust to controlling for a series of TMT characteristics (such as chief marketing officer presence, chief operating officer presence, and TMT diversity), time-invariant unobservables at the retailer level, different measures of key variables, and alternate model specifications. As the first study that explores the phenomenon of CSO presence, our findings have important implications for public retailers on how to leverage marketing expertise in the TMT to improve performance.

The Costs of Store Sales for Retail Workers.

In the context of economic stagnation and recession, retailers face fierce competition and experience enormous pressure to increase their sales. In this study, we focus on the potential costs of higher store sales for retail workers by examining its effect on work engagement. Drawing on work intensification literature and the job demand-resources model, we study how job variety and workload, two job characteristics, mediate the relationship between store sales and engagement. Store revenue data and survey data of 525 sales employees, embedded in 110 stores of a large Dutch retail organization were used, to perform mixed models analyses. The analyses demonstrate that store sales is negatively related to job variety and positively related to workload. In turn, job variety positively affects work engagement, while workload negatively affects work engagement. Based on multi-source, multilevel data it is thus shown that there are negative effects of store sales in retail. More insight is created into the job characteristics that explain the negative link between store sales and engagement. As it is empirically demonstrated that there are indeed costs associated with improved performance in retail, it is crucial that organizations ensure investments in maintaining resourceful work environments.

Strategic orientations and digital marketing tactics in cross-border e-commerce: Comparing developed and emerging markets

In this article, the impact of strategic orientations on the use of digital marketing tactics and, subsequently, on the international business performance of small electronic retailers (e-retailers) in cross-border electronic commerce (e-commerce) is analysed. Furthermore, these relationships are compared between e-retailers originating in both developed and emerging e-commerce markets. Using a sample of 446 small business-to-consumer e-retailers from 20 European countries, we find that the deployment of digital marketing tactics has a positive effect on international business performance. Of the strategic orientations examined, foreign market orientation is most associated with the use of digital marketing tactics. Remarkably, growth orientation only has a positive effect on e-retailers from developed e-commerce markets, while customer orientation negatively affects e-retailers from emerging e-commerce markets. The differences between e-retailers from developed and emerging e-commerce markets are prominent and show that markets should not be considered as either uniform or generalisable.