Case Article—The RealPro Customer Benefits Program: Rekindling Shopper Loyalty Through a Subscription Service

In this case study, students combine data-based insights with strategic considerations to make fundamental business decisions at the German grocery retail chain Real. In response to dwindling numbers of customers and reduced revenues, Real developed the RealPro customer benefits program to achieve a quick turnaround. For a fixed annual fee, RealPro members receive substantial and permanent discounts of 20% on nonpromoted items from a broad range of food categories. Students employ data analytics methods to extract insights from the provided data set, which contains point-of-sale information from the actual market test of RealPro. Based on these insights, decisions concerning the rollout and design of the RealPro program must be made. We provide data analysis solutions in both Excel and R to analyze 75 thousand customer transactions. In the case extension, students can apply the difference-in-differences method and two covariate balancing algorithms for in-depth statistical analyses. For this purpose, we provide an additional unbalanced data set with 83 thousand transactions, on which the students can test and analyze propensity score matching and entropy balancing models.

Specific Innovation Projects of the Retail Chain ‘Magnit’ and Their Risk Management

Today in conditions of severe competition of commercial enterprises it is necessary to upgrade their work by using different methods, one of them is the development and introduction of innovation projects. However, when an innovation project is worked out each developer faces certain risks requiring high-quality and effective management. Risk management in innovation projects is a complicated process, which is connected with the high level of uncertainty typical of innovation projects. Therefore, to manager risks of innovation projects highlyqualified personnel with sufficient knowledge and information is essential. The author studied the notion ‘innovation project’, investigated the causes of innovation risk rising and provided their classification. Apart from that, innovation projects of the retail chain ‘Magnit’ were analyzed, key problems of managing risks of innovation projects were identified and recommendations on resolving such problems were put forward.

Using Machine Learning to Compare the Information Needs and Interactions of Facebook: Taking Six Retail Brands as an Example

This study explores the interactive characteristics of the public, referencing existing data mining methods. This research attempts to develop a community data mining and integration technology to investigate the trends of global retail chain brands. Using social media mining and ensemble learning, it examines key image cues to highlight the various reasons motivating participation by fans. Further, it expands the discussion on image and marketing cues to explore how various social brands induce public participation and the evaluation of information efficiency. This study integrates random decision forests, extreme gradient boost, and adaboost for statistical verification. From 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2019, the studied brands published a total of 25,538 posts. The study combines community information and participation in its research framework. The samples are divided into three categories: retail food brand, retail home improvement brand, and retail warehouse club brand. This research draws on brand image and information cue theory to design the theoretical framework, and then uses behavior response factors for the theoretical integration. This study contributes a model that classifies brand community posts and mines related data to analyze public needs and preferences. More specifically, it proposes a framework with supervised and ensemble learning to classify information users′ behavioral characteristics.

INCREASING THE VITAMIN VALUE OF YOGURT WITH THE HELP OF BERRIES OF THE LIPETSK REGION RETAIL CHAIN

The work is aimed at assessing the vitamin value of yogurt after adding berries from the Lipetsk region retail chain to its recipe. The addition of crushed strawberries, cherries, blueberries and cranberries to yogurt preserves the organoleptic characteristics of the product within the GOST 31981-2013 standard. The introduction of strawberries, cherries and cranberries into the yogurt recipe gives the product a light pink, and blueberries - a light blue color. Of the berries used, only cranberries did not give the yogurt any taste. This berry acidified yogurt to the greatest extent. All the added fruits reduced the density of yogurt, especially strawberries. Judging by the acidity of the yogurt, the shelf life at a temperature of 4 oC of the control sample, as well as with the addi-tion of blueberries and strawberries, was the longest – 7 days. On the 6th day, the cherry variant went beyond the standard for acidity, on the 5th day - the cranberry variant. Taking into account the organoleptic parameters, the shelf life of acidity and the content of nutrients in yogurt, it is necessary to single out the option with the addition of blueberries as the most successful.

Retail Channel Services and Customer Retention in Physical Chain Stores in Nigeria

Extant literature indicates that despite the growing importance of retailing to the development of nations, it is imperative to ask; to what extent does retail channel service relates to customer retention in chain stores in Nigeria. The main objective of the study is to examine the significant relationship between retail channel service and customer retention in chain stores in Nigeria. The study adopted a quantitative research design using a survey method. The study population comprised 65 retail chain stores registered with the Enugu Branch of Pillars Association of Nigeria as of July 2020. The questionnaires were pretested for comprehension, relevance and validity through ten operators of retail superstores and three scholars in the field of distribution channel management. The reliability of the instrument was tested using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient analysis in order to ensure the internal consistency and reliability of measures. The reliability coefficient obtained was 0.85. The findings of the study show that bulk breaking, spatial convenience, waiting time and product variety are positively related to customer retention. We conclude that retail channel service has a positive and significant influence on customer retention of retail chain stores in Nigeria. The retail chain stores, if effectively coordinated, and their marketing channel service properly managed, is capable of enhancing the tendencies of these retail stores in retaining their existing customers.

Estimating Substitution and Basket Effects in Retail Stores: Implications for Assortment Planning

Many retailers are reducing store footprint and downsizing their assortments accordingly to improve store productivity. Some of the revenue for items removed from the assortment may be recouped by substitution, but also some of the revenue for items kept in the assortment may be lost due to basket abandonment. For a practical setting where baskets may contain any subset of items from thousands of products, estimating both substitution and basket effects is a challenge. To address this, we develop a demand model that combines a multinomial logit (MNL) model to estimate substitution within a subcategory and a purchase-incidence model to estimate basket retention. Using transaction and product availability data from 12 stores of an office supplies retail chain that were dramatically downsized from large- to small-format stores, we show that (i) storewide basket effects are substantial (our model with basket effects predicts out-of-sample transactions with mean absolute percent error (MAPE) of only 7% compared with 22% for a model with only substitution effects), (ii) poor service level can significantly exacerbate lost profit due to abandoned baskets at these stores, and (iii) consideration of the basket effect in assortment selection for the small stores can significantly improve basket retention and increase profits (by up to 16%) at these stores. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.

Determinants of Organizational Culture and Lean Thinking: Basis of a Post Pandemic Strategic Planning in Distribution and Retail Chain of Stores

The study's goal was to give stakeholders information drawn from employees' lean thinking on organizational culture during a hostile moment, as well as to produce a strategic planning idea for the distribution and retail chain of outlets. To discover significant facts about the topic, a descriptive survey with a mixed qualitative and quantitative research approach was used. Employees of ten (10) corporations involved in distribution and retail chain stores in Metro Manila were polled for information, to learn about substantial and minor variances in employees' attitudes toward lean thinking in terms of organizational waste, as defined by the organizational culture in the workplace. Findings between lean thinking and business culture revealed significant disparities in employee status. It refers to personnel who, regardless of their job title, may contribute to the organization's waste. This research will be used as a foundation for strategic planning for supply networks in distribution and retail chains in any company industry during and after an adversarial phase.