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RESEARCH ARTICLES

How Targeting Affects Customer Search: A Field Experiment

Published Online:

Management Science

    Abstract
    It has become common practice for retailers to personalize direct marketing efforts based on customer transaction histories as a tactic to increase sales. Targeted email offers featuring products in the same category as a customer’s previous purchases ...
Analytics for an Online Retailer: Demand Forecasting and Price Optimization

Published Online:

M&SOM

    Abstract
    We present our work with an online retailer, Rue La La, as an example of how a retailer can use its wealth of data to optimize pricing decisions on a daily basis. Rue La La is in the online fashion sample sales industry, where they offer extremely limited-...
Making Better Fulfillment Decisions on the Fly in an Online Retail Environment

Published Online:

M&SOM

    Abstract
    Relative to brick-and-mortar retailers, online retailers have the potential to offer more options to their customers, with respect to both inventory as well as delivery times. To do this entails the management of a distribution network with more decision ...
Social Dollars: The Economic Impact of Customer Participation in a Firm-Sponsored Online Customer Community

Published Online:

Marketing Science

    Abstract
    Many firms operate customer communities online. This is motivated by the belief that customers who join the community become more engaged with the firm and/or its products, and as a result, increase their economic activity with the firm. We describe this ...
A Demand Estimation Procedure for Retail Assortment Optimization with Results from Implementations

Published Online:

Management Science

    Abstract
    We consider the problem of choosing, from a set of N potential stock-keeping units (SKUs) in a retail category, K SKUs to be carried at each store to maximize revenue or profit. Assortments can vary by store, subject to a maximum number of different ...
Integration of Online and Offline Channels in Retail: The Impact of Sharing Reliable Inventory Availability Information

Published Online:

Management Science

    Abstract
    Using a proprietary data set, we analyze the impact of the implementation of a “buy-online, pick-up-in-store” (BOPS) project. The implementation of this project is associated with a reduction in online sales and an increase in store sales and traffic. ...
Clearance Pricing Optimization for a Fast-Fashion Retailer

Published Online:

Operations Research

    Abstract
    Fast-fashion retailers such as Zara offer continuously changing assortments and use minimal in-season promotions. Their clearance pricing problem is thus challenging because it involves comparatively more different articles of unsold inventory with less ...
Examining the Relationship Between Reviews and Sales: The Role of Reviewer Identity Disclosure in Electronic Markets

Published Online:

Information Systems Research

    Abstract
    Consumer-generated product reviews have proliferated online, driven by the notion that consumers' decision to purchase or not purchase a product is based on the positive or negative information about that product they obtain from fellow consumers. Using ...
Managing the Impact of Employee Turnover on Performance: The Role of Process Conformance

Published Online:

Organization Science

    Abstract
    We examine the impact of employee turnover on operating performance in settings that require high levels of knowledge exploitation. Using 48 months of turnover data from U.S. stores of a major retail chain, we find that, on average, employee turnover is ...
Retail-Price Drivers and Retailer Profits

Published Online:

Marketing Science

    Abstract
    What are the drivers of retailer pricing tactics over time? Based on multivariate time-series analysis of two rich data sets, we quantify the relative importance of competitive retailer prices, pricing history, brand demand, wholesale prices, and retailer ...
An Econometric Analysis of Inventory Turnover Performance in Retail Services

Published Online:

Management Science

    Abstract
    Inventory turnover varies widely across retailers and over time. This variation undermines the usefulness of inventory turnover in performance analysis, benchmarking, and working capital management. We develop an empirical model using financial data for ...
An Empirical Analysis of Determinants of Retailer Pricing Strategy

Published Online:

Marketing Science

    Abstract
    This paper empirically investigates the determinants of retailers' pricing decisions. It finds that competitor factors explain the most variance in retailer pricing strategy. Only in the cases of price-promotion coordination and relative brand price do ...
Agility in Retail Banking: A Numerical Taxonomy of Strategic Service Groups

Published Online:

M&SOM

    Abstract
    This research demonstrates that operations agility—defined as the ability to excel simultaneously on operations capabilities of quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost in a coordinated fashion—is a viable option for retail banks encountering increasing ...
Evaluating Promotions in Shopping Environments: Decomposing Sales Response into Attraction, Conversion, and Spending Effects

Published Online:

Marketing Science

    Abstract
    Retailers' marketing objectives can be classified into three broad categories: attraction effects that focus on consumers' store-entry decisions, conversion effects that relate to consumers' decisions about whether or not to make a purchase at a store ...
Clearance Pricing and Inventory Policies for Retail Chains

Published Online:

Management Science

    Abstract
    Clearance pricing and end of season inventory management are challenging and important problems in retailing. Sales rates depend upon price, seasonal effects, and the remaining assortment of items available to customers. There is little time to react to ...

Extended List of Research Material

For an extended list of readings and other materials on retail analytics, click here.

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