Market Environment, Assortment Policy, and Performance of Small Retailers

Abstract

This study surveys small retail pharmacies to examine the relationship between managers' perceptions of local market environments, their stated assortment policies, and their reported performance levels for a large product category. Managers report wider assortments when market diversity and market munificence are high. In turn, wider assortments have a positive effect on reported relative category sales and stock. In addition, market uncertainty has a direct negative effect on reported margins. This study controls for both store space as well as the potential direct performance effects of the local market environment faced by small retailers

Proximity Trade and Urban Sustainability: Small Retailers’ Expectations Towards Local Online Marketplaces

“…The crisis that began in 2008, with its direct impact on consumption, has severely affected small businesses, a "silent majority" [1] often ignored [2], despite its importance for economy and employment. In fact, for the European Union, small firms contribute more to job creation than larger firms [3].…”

Trade‐offs between operational performance and sales in a retail environment: The simultaneous impact of product variety on inventory levels, product availability, and sales

“…Specifically, Wan et al (2012) and Wan et al (2014) find that higher amounts of product variety within a firm can lead to lower fill rates, which in turn lead to lower‐than‐expected sales. In the case of a retailer, product variety has been correlated with higher store‐wide aggregate inventory levels and has been associated with other sorts of operational complications such as phantom inventory (Cadeaux & Dubelaar, 2012; Dubelaar et al, 2001; Kök et al, 2009; Ton & Raman, 2010).…”

Coping with demand volatility in retail pharmacies with the aid of big data exploration

“…The pharmaceutical retail business presents a unique challenge as profits are increasingly threatened by short expiry dates, increasing government regulation in the sale of medicines and fierce (sometimes monopolistic) competition by rivals (Gibson, 2012). Cadeaux and Dubelaar (2012) attributed the challenge of demand volatility faced by retail pharmacies to the lack of a reliable inventory management system which should provide useful forecasting information on relationships between sales volatility and stock at the level of the specific product item. This has resulted in overstocking in some cases leading to excessive inventories, while understocking on the other hand resulting in poor customer satisfaction levels (Mahar et al, 2012).…”