We study the effects of the introduction of cross-channel functionalities on the overall sales dispersion of retailers and the implications of these effects for inventory management. To do that, we analyze data from a leading U.S. retailer who introduced a “ship-to-store” (STS) functionality...

Chapter 1. Omni-channel operations: Challenges, opportunities, and models -- Chapter 2. New Functions of Physical Stores in the Age of Omnichannel Retailing -- Chapter 3. Omni-Channel Assortment Planning -- Chapter 4. Returns Policies and Smart Salvaging: Benefiting From a Multi-Channel World --...

Millions of nanostores serve bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers in emerging markets. Their suppliers, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, struggle with high operational costs that largely stem from shopkeepers’ liquidity constraints. We empirically investigate whether suppliers can improve...

Using a proprietary dataset, we analyze the impact of the implementation of a “buy-online, pickup-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. These results can be explained by two...

We conjecture that for online retailers, experience-centric offline store formats do not simply expand market coverage, but rather, serve to significantly amplify future positive customer behaviors, both online and offline. We term this phenomenon “supercharging” and test our thesis using...