Sebastiano Grandi

Adding store to web: migration and synergy effects in multi-channel retailing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the topic of multi-channel retailing. Specifically, the research intends to determine if and to what extent the opening of physical stores by a former web-only retailer reduces or extends overall retail sales, and whether such effects tend to change over time. Empirical analysis focuses on data elaboration from a retailer who has passed from the initial mono-channel model (pure online), to a multi-channel one with the opening of stores. Design/methodology/approach – Through the analysis of an internal data set of a leading consumer electronics retailer applying Probit and Logit estimation techniques, the authors extract information about actual customers’ purchases (or rather retail sales) in three newly opened stores and about online purchases (through an e-commerce web site managed by the same retailer with the same store brand) by people living in the new store service areas before and after the openings. Findings – The paper shows that, for the sin...

Retailing in Italy - Players, Strategies and Trends

Retailing in Italy is characterised by slowness in modernisation and internationalisation compared to the other European countries. The main reasons are restrictive regulations, especially governing the opening of large stores, and small firm size. This paper introduces the main players in the Italian food and nonfood retail market. The first part focuses on current developments in grocery market structure, strategic retail banner positioning and store format performance, at national and local level. Competition in nonfood retailing is also analysed, emphasising the key role played by international chains. The second part of the paper focuses on three major trends. The first is the growth of private labels. The second is the spread of loyalty programmes and the increasing use of loyalty card databases in planning and implementing micro-marketing strategies. The third and last trend concerns shopping behaviour, where there are changes in shopper profiles and needs.

Le leve della competizione assortimentale

Retailer assortment competition - The aim of this paper is to in-depth analyze assortment as a key-dimension of competition between grocery retailers. Supermarkets located in the same area are generally characterized of a part of product range which is the same as the one proposed by direct competitors. Each retailer tends to frequently monitor this kind of products and brands, which are directly comparable, in order to well know pricing strategies of other retailers. However, in the actual hyper-competitive markets, large retailers need to find out new sources of competitive advantage, different from low pricing. So that it could be useful to focus attention on the exclusive part of assortments, which is a great differentiation (and non-price) lever. Keywords: assortments, competition, superposition, modern trade, differentiation, exclusiveness Parole chiave: assortimenti, competizione, sovrapposizione, distribuzione moderna, differenziazione, esclusivita

Le promozioni di prezzo sulle marche private: variabilità tra categorie ed effetti competitivi inter-brand

Il presente lavoro discute il tema delle politiche di pricing di breve periodo praticate dai retailers sui prodotti di marca commerciale. In particolare l’analisi si focalizza sull’elaborazione dei dati di sell-out 2008-2009 relativi alle categorie merceologiche di Largo Consumo Confezionato (LCC) nell’ambito del mercato italiano della Distribuzione Moderna (ipermercati e supermercati). In tale contesto emerge un crescente ricorso alla promozione di prezzo per le linee di private label, soprattutto all’aumentare del valore complessivo del giro d’affari di categoria, della pressione promozionale sulle marche industriali e dell’entita media dello sconto. Il lavoro evidenzia altresi come l’efficacia delle promozioni sulla marca commerciale possa risultare estremamente elevata in termini di generazione di vendite incrementali, di aumento della market share e di contributo alle vendite complessive.