The Value of Weather Information for E‐Commerce Operations

To be efficient, logistics operations in e‐commerce require warehousing and transportation resources to be aligned with sales. Customer orders must be fulfilled with short lead times to ensure high customer satisfaction, and the costly under‐utilization of workers must be avoided. To approach this ideal, forecasting order quantities with high accuracy is essential. Many drivers of online sales, including seasonality, special promotions and public holidays, are well known, and they have been frequently incorporated into forecasting approaches. However, the impact of weather on e‐commerce operations has not been rigorously analyzed. In this study, we integrate weather data into the sales forecasting of the largest European online fashion retailer. We find that sunshine, temperature, and rain have a significant impact on daily sales, particularly in the summer, on weekends, and on days with extreme weather. Using weather forecasts, we have significantly improved sales forecast accuracy. We find that including weather data in the sales forecast model can lead to fewer sales forecast errors, reducing them by, on average, 8.6% to 12.2% and up to 50.6% on summer weekends. In turn, the improvement in sales forecast accuracy has a measurable impact on logistics and warehousing operations. We quantify the value of incorporating weather forecasts in the planning process for the order fulfillment center workforce and show how their incorporation can be leveraged to reduce costs and increase performance. With a perfect information planning scenario, excess costs can be reduced by 11.6% compared with the cost reduction attainable with a baseline model that ignores weather information in workforce planning.     

中国零售业并购分析

零售业的并购近年来成为中国经济生活中的热点问题倍受人们关注。本文对2000年以来的中国零售业的并购问题进行分析。首先是描述中国零售业2000年以来的并购概况,对中国零售业并购的数量规模、区域分布和跨国并购等基本情况进行描述;从横向并购、举牌并购、强强联合兴起、跨国并购和国退民进等方面对中国零售业并购的特点进行分析;从融资难度、整合乏力、效益欠佳和外资强占市场等方面对中国零售业并购中存在的问题进行探讨;从微观和宏观两个层面提出了优化中国零售业的并购重组的思路和对策。     

广州大型零售企业发展滞后的成因及其治理思路

与上海、北京、深圳相比,广州一直没有酝酿出像上海百联、北京国美、深圳华润万家这样的全国性零售龙头企业。本文结合国际零售企业的发展脉络,在对零售企业发展的影响因素及其驱动力机行进行理论分析的基础上,从企业战略构建能力和外部环境因素两大角度探讨制约广州本土零售巨头诞生的成因。论文认为,广州本土零售企业要做强做大必须重新进行定位、创新经营模式,强化资本运作,加强高端人才的培养和引进;同时,还应该深化业态创新、实施差异化经营,寻找适合自己的发展道路。     

Analyzing the Efficient Execution of In‐Store Logistics Processes in Grocery Retailing—The Case of Dairy Products

In this article, we examine in‐store logistics processes for handling dairy products, from the incoming dock to the shelves of supermarkets and hypermarkets. The efficient execution of the in‐store logistics related to such fast‐moving, sensitive, and essential items is challenging and crucial for grocery retailers' sales, profits, and image. In our empirical study, we survey in‐store logistics processes in 202 grocery supermarkets and hypermarkets belonging to a major retail chain in central Europe. Using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) and simulation, we facilitate process benchmarking. In particular, we identify ways of improving in‐store logistics processes by showing the performance impacts of different managerial strategies and tactics. The DEA results indicate different efficiency levels for different store formats; the hybrid store format of the small hypermarket exhibits a comparatively worse performance in the analyzed execution of in‐store logistics processes. The process simulation analysis reveals that the strategic and tactical design of in‐store logistics processes (such as store locations/layouts, capacity management, reorder time, order period, and safety stock factors) lead to substantial service performance improvements (such as higher on‐shelf availability combined with reduced inventory obsolescence costs). The results also show marginal improvements in the performance figures when delivery delays and damage to products are reduced.     

论社区零售订购业态

在短缺经济时代甚至直到19世纪,零售订购依然是人类重要的购物方式和销售方式。大工业资本主义的兴起几乎摧毁了零售订购业。在经济高速发展的今天,社区零售订购又恢复了他的生机,电话和电视订购也赋予了它新的涵义。B2C零售订购业将成为中国电子商务的E—SHOP零售营销大趋势。     

论电子商务应解决的问题

在全球经济一体化趋势中 ,电子商务改变了企业对消费者或市场的合作与竞争关系 ,为经营管理方式带来了变革。在电子商务模式之下 ,零售商和消费者都面临着新的问题和思考。零售商应如何利用信息和技术来经营管理 ,消费者又将选择何种方式来购买商品等诸多问题在文章中得到了系统地论述。在比较分析之后提出了电子商务应具备的条件及成功实施的策略     

全渠道零售体验价值共创行为对顾客忠诚的影响——基于服务主导逻辑视角

移动网络技术和人工智能技术的发展日益推动着全渠道零售体验价值共创行为的变化,全渠道零售企业和顾客有效整合线上线下资源共创零售体验价值已成为实现顾客忠诚的重要来源。基于文献回顾和访谈研究,从服务主导逻辑视角构建了全渠道零售体验价值共创行为对顾客忠诚的影响模型。实证分析发现:共创服务产品对认知体验价值有积极影响,共创服务产品、共创体验环境和共创服务互动对情感体验价值有积极影响;共创服务产品、共创服务互动对顾客忠诚有积极的影响;认知体验价值、情感体验价值对顾客忠诚有积极影响;认知体验价值部分中介了共创服务产品对顾客忠诚的影响,情感体验价值部分中介了共创服务产品和共创服务互动对顾客忠诚的影响;技术化和适当的程序控制在全渠道零售体验价值共创行为与体验价值之间有一定程度的正向调节作用。因而,提升和优化线上线下融合的全渠道零售体验价值共创行为,强化顾客体验价值获取,促进技术化水平提升,以及提供适当的程序控制是促进全渠道零售顾客忠诚的关键。     

考虑消费者网购体验滞后的产品定价研究

随着电子商务技术的发展，网络购物越来越便利。与此同时，网络购物带来的产品体验滞后也导致了消费者对产品的认知不确定性。而这种不确定性正在成为消费者策略性退货行为的主要原因，如消费者同时购买多件具有横向差异的产品，在收到货物后经亲身体验后保留一件而将其他产品退货。本文通过构建Hotelling模型，探讨了企业在考虑此种影响情况下的最优定价策略，分析得出：当消费者的退货成本增加时，企业最优定价也随之增加；消费者对产品的先验效用差异化越小，企业的最优定价也越低。同时发现，若某种产品无消费者单独购买，企业的最优定价会随消费者偏好的增加而增加；而当两种产品均有消费者单独购买且消费者退货成本较大时，企业的最优定价不但不会随消费者偏好的增加而提高，反而会随消费者偏好增加而减少。此外，本文给出了消费者策略性退货行为存在的临界条件，当消费者的退货成本高于这一临界条件时消费者的策略退货行为将消失。     

零售市场价格策略的演化博弈分析

基于一个三阶段Hotelling博弈模型:位于[0,1]线性城市两端的零售A和B第一阶段同时选择价格策略变量,第二阶段确定价格的大小,第三阶段由消费者选择零售商。应用演化博弈论进行研究,分析了零售市场价格策略的演化稳定性。     

迎接中国多渠道零售革命的风暴

近几年,随着信息技术的快速发展,我国涌出诸多新的零售渠道类型,导致多渠道零售革命的爆发。这场革命的原因是信息技术发展,内容是多渠道协同并存,主体是制造商、销售商、物流商、信息商和银行等共同参与。多渠道革命包括零售组合和整合的两种基本类型。其应对策略是根据零售业购物、娱乐和社交的三个本质特征,以及顾客关注和竞争优势,选择零售的定位,并通过营销组合以及多渠道协同实现确定的定位优势。