Publications

July 1991 (Revised June 1992)
Case

Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (A)

Addresses the controversy that surrounds highly promotional retail pricing referred to as "high-low pricing" by the trade. High-low pricing involves setting prices at an initially high level for a brief period of time, then discounting off the so-called "regular" or... View Details

Keywords: Courts and Trials; Price; Ethics; Consumer Behavior; Product Marketing; Retail Industry; Colorado

Web

Industry Information - Alumni

and news on emerging designers, disruptive technologies and global brands in the fashion and luxury goods industries. United States Census Bureau: Retail Trade Provides the industry monthly sales and... View Details

Article

Innovations in Retail Operations: Thirty Years of Lessons from Production and Operations Management

By: Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman

We review papers published in Production and Operations Management (POM) during its thirty-year history that deal with retail operations issues with an empirical approach. The papers span a range of issues, from traditional ones like forecasting and inventory... View Details

Keywords: RFID; Innovation and Invention; Technology Adoption; Operations; E-commerce; Strategy; Retail Industry

April 2021
Case

Buy Online, Pickup in Store: Evaluating an Omnichannel Intervention in Retail

By: Antonio Moreno, Santiago Gallino and Amy Klopfenstein

In October 2018, fashion, wellness, and beauty retailer Sylvarella implemented a Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program in an attempt to counteract a sales decline. While BOPS had the potential to meet customer expectations for a seamless order and fulfillment... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Service Delivery; Logistics; Infrastructure; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Analysis; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

September 1988 (Revised November 1988)
Supplement

Watt Group: Consumer Product and Retailing Doctors (B)

By: Ray A. Goldberg

Keywords: Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

August 2008 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Finland's S Group: Competing with a Cooperative Approach to Retail

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Tarun Khanna, Samuli Skurnik and Jordan Mitchell

The case looks at the two dominant Finnish retailers: S Group and Kesko. S Group is a customer-owned cooperative, which has a unique holding structure whereby 1.7 million residents (or 70 percent of Finnish households) own 22 regional cooperatives. In turn, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Cooperative Ownership; Public Ownership; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry; Finland

13 Jul 2010
News

Setting an Industry Standard

Keywords: beer; brewaries; Retail Trade; Retail Trade; Retail Trade; Retail Trade

30 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Should Retailers Match Their Own Prices Online and in Stores?

results will help retailers work through the complicated pricing puzzle and pinpoint the best fit for their businesses. In deciding whether to self-match, companies should start by determining whether their competitors are already doing... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

September 2006
Supplement

CEMEX: Rewarding the Egyptian Retailers - Video Supplement

Keywords: Retail Industry; Egypt

February 1992 (Revised December 1992)
Case

European Retail Alliance: (Ahold--The Netherlands, Argyll--United Kingdom, Casino--France)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Keywords: Alliances; Retail Industry; Netherlands; United Kingdom; France

October 2011 (Revised September 2014)
Case

Moda Operandi: A New Style of Fashion Retail

By: Mukti Khaire

Moda Operandi is a startup in the fashion industry. The firm organizes online trunk shows of designers' collections, allowing its members to directly order clothes from the collections shown in Fashion Weeks all over the world. Moda Operandi conveys the preorders to... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Distribution Channels; Internet and the Web; Design; Fashion Industry; Fashion Industry

14 Mar 2014
Blog Post

Looking to the Next Decade of Change: A Recap of the 10th Annual Retail & Luxury Goods Conference

marked a decade of hosting business leaders and industry insiders and to celebrate the occasion was themed The Consumer Revolution: Redefining Retail and Luxury for the Next Decade. The discussions at the... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

September – October 2010
Article

The Effect of Product Variety and Inventory Levels on Retail Sales: A Longitudinal Study

By: Zeynep Ton and Ananth Raman

We examine the effects of product variety and inventory levels on store sales. Using four years of data from stores of a large retailer, we show that increases in product variety and inventory levels are both associated with higher sales. We also show that increasing... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Design; Logistics; Product; Quality; Sales; Retail Industry

September 1988
Supplement

Watt Group: Consumer Product and Retailing Doctors (C)

By: Ray A. Goldberg

Keywords: Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

Other Unpublished Work

Cross Sectional Analysis of Phantom Products at Retail Stores

By: Zeynep Ton and Ananth Raman

Keywords: Distribution; Logistics; Retail Industry

Article

National Image as a Competitive Disadvantage: The Case of the New Zealand Organic Food Industry

By: Geoffrey Jones and Simon Mowatt

This article examines why organic agriculture and food consumption developed more strongly in some countries than others between the 1970s and the 2000s. The focus is the limited growth of the New Zealand organic sector, which contrasts with countries such as Denmark,... View Details

Keywords: Industrial Organization; Chinitz; Agglomeration; Clusters; Cities; Mines; Political Economy; FDI; Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture; Agribusiness; Entrepreneurship; Business History; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; New Zealand; Denmark

July 28, 2004
Article

Generic Dispensing and Substitution in Mail and Retail Pharmacies

By: Marta Wosinska and Robert S. Huckman

Keywords: Health; Sales; Pharmaceutical Industry

Read Now

January – February 2011
Article

'Bricks and Clicks': The Impact of Product Returns on the Strategies of Multichannel Retailers

By: Elie Ofek, Zsolt Katona and Miklos Sarvary

The Internet has increased the flexibility of retailers, allowing them to operate an online arm in addition to their physical stores. The online channel offers potential benefits in selling to customer segments that value the convenience of online shopping, but it also... View Details

Keywords: Price; Profit; Marketing Channels; Consumer Behavior; Online Technology; Retail Industry

June 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Background Note

Digital Commerce and Delivery: Preparing Food and Retail Value Chains for a 50-50 World

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor, Paige Boehmcke and Will Ensor

Increasing digitalization of grocery retail and quick commerce reveals insights about managing complex supply chains at scale and shifting revenue streams from product sales to data monetization. How are the roles of retailers changing? What happens if marginal cost... View Details

Keywords: Grocery Delivery; Grocery; Digitalization; Fulfillment; Delivery; Supply Chain; Disruption; Food; Supply Chain Management; Market Design; Trends; Value Creation; Goods and Commodities; Customer Value and Value Chain; Digital Transformation; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States; China