Retail System Research Articles

Agency or reselling: optimal return policy in E-commerce retail systems under cap-and-trade regulation

In recent years, the government has issued regulations on environmental protection, carbon emissions, and trading. Enterprises’ environmental awareness has increased, and the operational strategies of manufacturers and platforms have also been affected by environmental regulations. This study considers the interactive effects of agency and reselling contracts between manufacturers and platforms and the cap-and-trade regulation on return policy. Our findings reveal that government-imposed caps on total carbon emissions consistently influence optimal pricing and profits under cap-and-trade regulation, regardless of the presence of a return policy. Additionally, the emission intensity of manufacturers plays a pivotal role in determining the return policy. High manufacturer emission intensity leads decision-makers to provide return services only under specific conditions. Moreover, manufacturers opt for agency contracts when faced with low commission rates, and this threshold is intricately linked to carbon emission intensity, the cap, and the return rate. The government’s ability to adjust the cap enables control over changes in manufacturers’ profits and output, thereby influencing industrial structure and carbon emissions. Manufacturers strategically choose return policies, considering factors such as carbon intensity, return rate, and commission rate. Remarkably, even under cap-and-trade regulations, manufacturers remain inclined to offer returns under optimal conditions.

Scalable Microservices Architecture: Leadership Approaches for High-Performance Retail Systems

The rapid evolution of retail systems in the digital age necessitates the adoption of scalable microservices architectures to meet the demands of high-performance and responsive platforms. As the retail sector increasingly relies on technology to drive customer engagement, operational efficiency, and competitive advantage, the role of leadership in designing and implementing scalable microservices architectures becomes critical. This paper explores leadership approaches that are essential for guiding the successful deployment of microservices in high-performance retail systems. The shift from monolithic to microservices architectures represents a fundamental change in how retail systems are built and maintained. Microservices, characterized by their modularity, independence, and scalability, offer significant advantages over traditional monolithic architectures, particularly in handling the dynamic demands of modern retail environments. However, the successful implementation of microservices requires more than just technical expertise; it demands strategic leadership that understands the complexities of system design, cross-functional collaboration, and long-term maintenance.

Leadership in Platform Engineering: Best Practices for High-Traffic E-Commerce Retail Applications

High-traffic retail applications need great platform engineering leadership to assure operational excellence and scalability in the continually changing e-commerce industry. This study examines how leadership matters in platform engineering for high-traffic e-commerce retail systems. It covers best practices, methods, and frameworks for managing and optimizing platforms with high traffic and flawless user experiences. The report defines platform engineering executives' key duties as connecting technology strategy with business objectives. Platform engineering leaders must be technical, innovative, manage cross-functional teams, and respond to market changes. Leaders must promote continual development and adaptability to maintain high performance in dynamic e-commerce settings. it focuses on the architectural design concepts that support high-traffic e-commerce systems. Leaders must ensure platform design is durable, scalable, and can handle peak traffic without performance deterioration. The article explores microservices architectures, containerization, and cloud-native solutions for scalability and flexibility. Effective data management and caching are also investigated to improve platform performance and user experience. Security is another important paper topic. E-commerce sites are obvious targets for cyberattacks, therefore executives must employ robust security measures. Proactive security, strict access limits, and vulnerability monitoring are best practices. The article emphasizes the need of data protection rules and industry standards to secure consumer data and build confidence.

Systematic analysis of Intelligent retail system structure and its optimization

Systematic analysis of Intelligent retail system structure and its optimization

“Like the Wild West”: Health care provider perspectives on impacts of recreational cannabis legalization on patients and providers at a tertiary psychiatric hospital in Ontario, Canada

IntroductionLegalization has increased cannabis availability in Canada. Research shows complex relationships between cannabis use and mental health, and a need for health care providers to engage with patients about cannabis use. Providers have noted gaps in knowledge and research on the medical effects of cannabis as barriers to service delivery. It is unclear how providers and patients in mental health care settings have been impacted by legalization. MethodsFrom June 1 to July 2, 2021, we conducted a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 20 health care providers in a range of roles (e.g., physicians, pharmacists, nurses) within a psychiatric hospital setting. Participants responded to open-ended questions with follow-up probes on various topics related to cannabis legalization. Topics included impacts on patient mental and physical health, clinical impacts, education and training, legal cannabis retail system and the medical cannabis access system. ResultsThematic analysis identified several themes in the data. Participants reported that legalization has had some positive impacts relating to clinical care and cannabis safety. They also expressed concerns with increased rates of cannabis use, risks to mental health and ongoing challenges engaging with patients about cannabis. Participants made recommendations for medical educators and regulators (e.g., updated curriculums, clinical guidelines), the mental health care sector (e.g., implementation of standardized screening), government (e.g., public health campaigns, safe use guidelines), the medical cannabis access system (e.g., increased regulation, research), and the legal cannabis system (e.g., zoning changes, point-of-sale information). ConclusionsThis study begins to address the paucity of data on impacts of legalization from mental health service delivery settings. Findings show that although legalization has had some positive impacts, there are ongoing patient concerns and unmet provider needs. More research is needed to understand the experiences of providers delivering care to populations experiencing mental health and/or substance use concerns who use cannabis in the post-legalization era.

Should cannabis self-cultivation be part of a public health‒oriented legalization policy framework?

Cannabis control policies are increasingly being liberalized, including the legalization of non-medical cannabis use and supply in multiple settings, for example inCanada, with main policy objectives focusing on improved public health. An important while contested matter has been the appropriate design of legal cannabis supply structures and sources. These, in most Americas-based legalization settings, have included provisions for (limited) 'home cultivation'. Recent data suggest that about 8% of active consumers engage in cannabishome cultivation for their own supply, while approximately 14% are exposed to it in/around their home. Home cultivation commonly exceeds legal limits and/or occurs where not allowed, and is disproportionately associated with high-frequency and/or other risk patterns of cannabis use. In addition, home cultivation may facilitate exposure or diversion of cannabis to minors, as well as pose possible environmental exposure risks especially when occurring indoors. Given its placement in private spaces, related regulations are largely shielded from enforcement. Home cultivation, therefore, bears substantive potential to circumvent or work counter to public health‒oriented legalizationpolicy objectives. Recent assessments of health outcomes from cannabis legalization show mixed-including multiple adverse-results, implying the need for regulatory revisions towards protectingpublic health outcomes. Especially in settings where extensive (e.g. commercial) retail systems were established to provide regulated, legal cannabis products to consumers, it is questionable whether home cultivation overall serves primary public health‒oriented objectives; relevant data should be expanded and used to review related provisions.

Continuous increasing consumer service for multi-item dual-channel retail management

Along with the advancement of technology and consumer expectations, online-to-offline retailing is seeking attention in the retailing industries. Online-to-offline retailing is a powerful strategy that bridges the gap between the convenience and reach of online shopping with the tangible experience and service of physical stores. Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty are basic pillars to enhance profit for the retail industry. Providing different services like repairs, exchanges, and home delivery enhances customer satisfaction and builds trust in the particular industry. In e-commerce, the importance of delivery service is emphasized, with fast and reliable delivery being a key factor in customer satisfaction. An online-to-offline retailing system for multiple items is developed in this study by considering consumer service efficiency demand. A pricing strategy that relies on the channel of distribution and the impact of advertising on consumer demand is taken into account. The manufacturer offers complimentary home delivery services for orders surpassing a specified threshold. To implement advanced technologies, a huge budget is required. To make the study realistic, a budget and space are considered. The retailing system's total profit is ultimately maximized by determining the optimal values for selling price, advertisement investment, customer care costs across various channels, ordering quantity, and investment to minimize setup costs for different items. A classical optimization approach is employed to derive a semi closed-form solution for the proposed model. Sensitivity analysis and examination of special cases are provided to demonstrate the practicality of this research. Through numerical illustrations, it is established that the profit maximization occurs when the defective rate adheres to a Chi-square distribution. Imposing budget and space restrictions leads to a 19.91% increase in system profit while offering free home delivery services boosts the profit by 15.77%.

Органические продукты питания: медико-социальный аспект.

The article presents current information on trends in the consumption of organic food products in the world, information from foreign studies on their impact on public health. The market for these food products has grown significantly since the late 20th century and today represents a multi-billion dollar industry with distinct production, processing, distribution and retail systems. The relevance of studying the prevalence of consumption of organic food products among the population of various countries is increasing due to the increase in the modern world of demand and motivation among social groups of the population, especially among adherents of a healthy lifestyle. The purpose of the study is to review and analyze modern scientific foreign literature on the development of the organic food market from the standpoint of health conservation and medical and social perspectives. As a result of the review, it was revealed that the understanding currently clearly manifested in various social circles of the need to improve the level of quality of health of the individual and the population as a whole, the demand for the production of safe, micronutrient-rich, healthy food products, especially products of plant origin, actualize the expansion of production organic food products. In many countries around the world, there is an increase in consumer demand for organic food products; their regular consumers are people, mainly women, who care about their health, are physically active, have a higher level of education and income, and live mainly in high-income countries. The certain high cost of organic food products, depending on labor-intensive production methods and certification costs, often leads to unequal access to organic food products. The positive impact of organic foods on health status and the risk of developing chronic diseases is associated with a higher content of biologically active compounds and a lower content of substances harmful to health. Overall, large intervention and population-based studies are needed on the health effects of organic foods, comparing the quality, safety, bioactive compounds, nutritional and phytochemical value of foods in conventional and organic production systems using new research methods.

Web-based E-retailing system for CTU food innovation centers: Design, acceptability, and functionality

The advantages of using e-retailing in promoting and distributing the products and services are so coveted that an e-retailing system to enhance the traditional way of marketing and distributing the products and services of CTU Food Innovation Centers (FIC) not only in Tuburan but across satellite campuses will be developed to enhance the current system of marketing products and services in the FIC Tuburan is word of mouth or referral system, un-systematized posting using social media, brochures, and exhibits, which results in a low generation of income and less attention to the public. This study designs and proposes a web-based e-retailing system and subsequently determines its acceptability as perceived by stakeholders and experts. This research study utilized quantitative research methods and applied design with the use of a descriptive method to determine how a web-based application can be developed for promoting a product. Improvement of the current system of delivering the products and services of the FIC to its clientele is the main objective. The survey questionnaires using 4-point Likert scale helped in assessing the perception of the intended customers of FIC towards the acceptability of the system. In light of the discoveries, it may be reasoned that FIC Web-based Retailing Systems are compliant with the basics of e-commerce, which leads to positive behavior and acceptance, the system’s design was able to overwhelmingly catch the attention of the respondents, the system’s features were satisfactorily observed; the system’s functionality was able to effectively transmit a quick and fast way of service to the respondents; the system’s aesthetics was able to create the necessary impression to its users, and the system’s security was effectively observed.

A participatory approach to model the neighbourhood food environment.

Inequalities in exposure to a health-promoting local food environment have been implicated in the generation of inequalities in diet-related behaviours and outcomes, including obesity and diabetes. Increasingly, poor diet and diet-related disease have been characterised as an emergent property of a complex system and, as such, the drivers of poor diet may be better understood by using a complex system perspective. In this study, we describe a participatory approach for understanding the system drivers of unhealthy food consumption. System dynamics (SD) was used to identify, understand, and visualise the elements of the neighbourhood food retail system that influence individuals' eating behaviour. Group Model Building (GMB), undertaken online with stakeholders (n = 11), was used to funnel existing knowledge and evidence on urban food environments and to build a conceptual system map of the local food retail environment inclusive of the drivers that influence the decision to purchase and consume meals that are high in fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS), and calories. The GMB was organised as a knowledge elicitation process involving a questionnaire, a workbook, and a structured workshop. The GMB generated a comprehensive causal loop diagram (CLD) of the retail environment inclusive of the drivers that influence the decision to purchase and consume unhealthy meals. The CLD was designed around two main variables (i) exposure to food outlets and (ii) food consumption. The system map built during the Group Model Building session linked exposure to food outlets with the possibility to purchase and consume unhealthy meals. The effectiveness of this link will be tested in an Agent-Based model. The conceptual model illustrates the complexity of the factors responsible for inequalities in unhealthy eating. The GMB approach provides a basis for building an agent-based model for local authorities to characterise their food retail environment, uncover potential leverage points for interventions and test them 'in silico' in a virtual environment.

Mail back or in-store dropoff? Optimal design of product-exchange policies in omnichannel retailing systems

Online retailing has been booming over the past several years as people grow increasingly comfortable with it and accustomed to its ease and speed. A major drawback of online retailing is the lack of consumer–product interaction before a purchase is finalized, which often leads to consumer dissatisfaction due to mismatched expectation of the received product. In response, retailers usually promise that online orders may be returned or exchanged free of extra charges, which can be processed either online (e.g., by mail) or onsite i.e., in-store dropoff. In this work, we study the implications of both online and onsite exchange policies in the setting of a queueing model that offers omnichannel services. Taking into account customers’ behavioral responses to these policies, we aim to inform the retailer of the one that generates a higher system revenue. Our results reveal that the online exchange policy is a double-edged sword: On the one hand, it helps eliminate the inconvenience cost for exchange customers to revisit the store; on the other hand, it can trigger more feedback orders and render a higher system congestion level, which in turn, deters future customers from placing orders. Specifically, we discover that online exchange becomes an inferior policy relative to in-store exchange when the market size is large.

Scalable Microservices Architecture: Leadership Approaches for High-Performance Retail Systems

The rapid evolution of retail systems in the digital age necessitates the adoption of scalable microservices architectures to meet the demands of high-performance and responsive platforms. As the retail sector increasingly relies on technology to drive customer engagement, operational efficiency, and competitive advantage, the role of leadership in designing and implementing scalable microservices architectures becomes critical. This paper explores leadership approaches that are essential for guiding the successful deployment of microservices in high-performance retail systems.The shift from monolithic to microservices architectures represents a fundamental change in how retail systems are built and maintained. Microservices, characterized by their modularity, independence, and scalability, offer significant advantages over traditional monolithic architectures, particularly in handling the dynamic demands of modern retail environments. However, the successful implementation of microservices requires more than just technical expertise; it demands strategic leadership that understands the complexities of system design, cross-functional collaboration, and long-term maintenance.

Gender and generational differences in omnichannel shopping travel decisions: What drives consumer choices to pick up in-store or ship direct?

Omnichannel distribution is a retail innovation that provides a seamless purchasing experience to customers through cohesive experience across channels, cross-channel integration, and integrated assistance. Blurring the lines between offline and online shopping, concepts like “Buy-Online-Pickup-In-Store” (BOPIS) and “Buy-In-Store-Ship-Direct” (BSSD) are increasingly becoming accepted in retail operations. While many retailers are still in a nascent phase of integrating online channels and physical stores, consumer-centric studies are called for to investigate the diffusion of these new strategies in the evolving marketplace. Our study explores the key adoption determinants of these new omnichannel strategies, focusing on the case of India. A detailed online survey was used to collect data for a sample of 311 Indian consumers. Econometric analysis reveals the main purchase influencing factors. We find that a quick purchase process, elimination of product delivery delays, delivery and shipping costs, ease of receiving product, retail system reliability and, trust in retailer are key adoption determinants. Purchase returnability is only weakly associated with BOPIS purchase choices while payment security has no significant effect. Among six demographic variables, only gender and age are found to differ significantly between the two concepts. These insights from this study should be useful for retailers to design omnichannel strategies and for transport policy makers to predict the future growth of e-commerce related transport movements.

Fulfillment Flexibility Strategy for Dual-channel Retail Networks

Flexibility design has been widely adopted in practice as a competitive strategy to respond effectively to uncertainties. In this paper, we analyze the fulfillment flexibility for dual-channel retail networks, in which the firms should fulfill both online demands from retailing platforms and in-store offline demands. In particular, by setting the order of fulfillment, we find that a dual-channel retail network can be equivalently transformed to an online retail network with stochastic inventory and demand. By implementing a copositive programming, we obtain an asymptotic robust lower bound for the ratio of expected sales to fully flexible expected sales under a K-chain design. This bound only depends on the partial moment information and support set of demands, rather than the complete demand distribution information. Interestingly, we derive the optimality of K-chain in symmetric balanced networks and the performance of K-chain under different distributions is robust. In addition, numerical experiments are conducted to further deliver some insights for practitioners. The uncertainties of in-store demand or inventory will reduce the expected sales while both fulfillment flexibility and safety inventory can be used to enhance the performance of a retail system. Finally, we find that the correlation coefficient between in-store demand and online demand will affect the decision-making significantly.

Knowledge Advancing Shopping Mall Living Labs and Customer Value Co-Creation, with a Focus on Social Integration

This paper aims at a broad scan of needs for knowledge advancing living labs and broader customer value co-creation in shopping malls. Special attention is given to the meeting and social integration function and metaverse development. Living labs are understood as a methodology of co-creative and open experimentation that is customer-led in a real-life environment. Emerging metaverse development tends to change opportunities and limitations, about which almost nothing is known. The paper uses a qualitative approach in two steps. The first step explores relevant theory on systems, like retail systems, customer-value co-creation (marketing) and capability and personal traits in behavioural change (individuals), while distinguishing between three living lab stages, namely, anticipation, processes on the way, and ex-post evaluation. A few central themes that are becoming increasingly important are the emerging metaverse, if and how traditional malls can continue serving as physical meeting places, and the possibility they will change course towards new combinations of physical and virtual activity. In the second step, a broad array of knowledge-advancing needs is discussed, and this results in a smaller set of knowledge gaps on the basis of urgency, like interests of new ICT stakeholders in shopping malls, impacts from metaverse on site-specificity, and benefits and barriers of disabled persons. The paper also forwards the need for more attention to the ex-post evaluation of co-creation projects, which calls for standard protocols and AI-supported data systems. The paper closes with contributions, management implications, and ideas about future research.

Assembling a Zero-Waste World: From situated to distributed prefiguration

The concept of prefiguration is drawing increasing interest as a lens to study the collective dynamic and transformative potential of alternative organizing. We introduce an analytical distinction between two modes of prefiguration. Situated prefiguration emphasizes affective bonds and direct struggle taking place in bounded organizational spaces, while distributed prefiguration manifests in wider socio-spatial formations. While situated prefiguration has been studied substantially, distributed prefiguration has so far not been adequately theorized. To conceptualize more spatially dispersed forms of prefiguration, we approach prefiguration from a relational perspective, drawing especially on assemblage thinking, which reveals a different way of thinking about how prefigurative practices are spatially organized. We demonstrate different socio-spatial forms of prefiguration in action through an empirical investigation of the zero-waste phenomenon. Our empirical material is built on site visits to zero-waste stores, interviews with zero-wasters and conventional retailers and online sources related to zero-waste. We find that zero-waste stores transcend situated prefiguration by being part of a zero-waste assemblage that aims to radically transform the food and retail system through distributed prefiguration.

Current Legal Management in Drug Retail by Private Retailers in Vietnam

Aim: This article aims to analyze the current state of private drug retailers in Vietnam's lower-middle-income context, investigating the causes and consequences of inadequacies in drug retail practices. The study intends to offer effective solutions to address these issues and serve as a reference for other lower-middle-income countries facing similar challenges. Method: Employing data gathered from documentation, legal analysis, and comparative methods, this study examines the state of drug retail by private retailers in Vietnam. By analyzing the existing practices and regulations, the study identifies the factors contributing to the inadequacies in the drug retail sector. Implications: The research reveals substantial inadequacies in the drug retail sector in Vietnam, stemming from a lack of robust regulations, inadequate oversight, and other systemic issues. These inadequacies have significant adverse effects on consumer health and the overall economy, hindering sustainable development efforts. Addressing the inadequacies in drug retail in lower-middle-income countries like Vietnam requires comprehensive regulatory reforms, improved oversight mechanisms, and enhanced collaboration between government agencies and private sector stakeholders. Results and conclusion: By rectifying these issues, countries can better protect the health and well-being of their citizens while fostering an environment conducive to sustainable development. This study's findings and recommendations offer valuable insights for other LMICs grappling with similar challenges in their drug retail systems.

The impact of sales effort on a dual-channel dynamical system under a price-sensitive stochastic demand

Sales efforts play a crucial role in dynamic retail management and can have a significant impact on the overall success of a retail business. The primary goal of sales efforts is to generate revenue. By effectively promoting and selling products or services, sales teams can drive sales and increase the company's revenue. Demand of products play a critical role for retailing sector and demand cannot be predicted perfectly in reality. Owing to this situation, a dynamical system with dynamic sales effort and price-sensitive stochastic demand is proposed in this study. A dual-channel (online & offline) is considered in this study to provide the best consumer experience. Contradictory to the existing literature, geometric Brownian motion under a fuzzy environment is utilized to handle the dynamic price situations, which is solved through the Black-Scholes equations. The effect of preseason cost on the optimal results is analyzed. To validate the study, a numerical analysis of the dual-channel retailing system is presented with optimal selling price, sales effort, and profit under stochastic demand. Sales efforts have a profound impact on dynamic retail management. They drive revenue generation, customer acquisition and retention, inform inventory management decisions, provide market insights, contribute to competitive advantage, align with marketing strategies, and enable performance measurement and improvement. From the findings, it is clear that sales effort can provide 0.02% higher profit per cycle in a dual-channel retailing.

Robust pricing and inventory strategies for an omnichannel retailer under carbon tax and cap-and-offset regulations

While an increasing number of retailers use the buy-online-and-pick-up-in-store (BOPS) service to improve operational efficiency, it increases the uncertainty between the offline and online channels. Furthermore, the implementation of different carbon regulations creates certain challenges for an omnichannel retailing system because of the tradeoff between the economy and the environment. These factors motivate us to study the joint pricing and inventory decisions of an omnichannel retailer regrading the stochastic demand of BOPS customers with limited information under carbon tax and cap-and-offset regulations. A distributionally robust newsvendor model is developed for the omnichannel retailer under carbon tax regulation to derive the joint decisions on the sales price and inventory. An interesting result indicates that under carbon tax regulation, differential pricing strategy increases the profit of the omnichannel retailer. The distributionally robust newsvendor model under cap-and-offset regulation is solved by the Karush-Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions. The comparison shows that adopting uniform pricing strategy under cap-and-offset regulation brings more profits than adopting it under carbon tax regulation. Finally, a numerical study is conducted to illustrate and complement the theoretical results. The value of addition demand information is also tested. Key findings show that the omnichannel retailer gains higher profit and emits more carbon emissions under cap-and-offset regulation than under carbon tax regulation. Under each type of regulation, the performance of robust solutions is close to that with normal distribution.

Is online-to-offline customer care support essential for consumer service?

Customer satisfaction is the main pillar for convenient and profitable retailing. The retail sector continuously tried to develop new strategies to improve consumer satisfaction. It is impossible to provide each service directly to the consumer by the retailer. In this direction, the retailer establishes customer care to provide the best service to consumers. Consumer care can provide promotional or prevention services, increasing the consumer's satisfaction level. This study is developed to show the impact of retailers' customer care service for an offline-to-online retailing strategy. The demand is consumer support, advertisement, and selling price dependent. For maintaining consumer service, some free home delivery policies are offered, when consumers ordered more than a certain percentage of the amount. Finally, the total profit of this O2O retailing system is calculated by the classical optimization technique. Some special cases are discussed in the numerical section to prove the impact of customer care services. Numerical results prove that customer care support enhances the profit by 48.20%, whereas investment in the advertisement and home delivery strategy helps the retail industry to earn 44.80% and 16.74% more profit, respectively. Finally, from this study, it is clear that customer care activities are essential to increase the profit of the retailing sector.