It is apparent that severe weather should hamper the productivity of work that occurs outside. But what is the effect of extreme rain, snow, heat and wind on work that occurs indoors, such as the production of automobiles? Using weekly production data from 64 automobile plants in the United...

The share of e-commerce sales is rapidly increasing and so are the associated losses generated by website outages and slow websites. We leverage novel retail and website performance data to investigate the impact of website performance on online sales. This question is especially relevant in the...

The rise in online and multichannel retailing has pushed retailers to give increased attention to their order fulfillment operations. We study "chaotic storage" fulfillment systems in which dissimilar items are stored together in a single location. This necessitates a searching task as part of...

Problem Definition : Omnichannel retailers face hard choices when they decide how to improve the way they serve their customers. They use such levers as improving delivery and return policies, providing access to detailed product information and reviews, and offering lower prices. Because it is...

What is the relationship between inventory and sales? Clearly, inventory could increase sales: expanding inventory creates more choice (options, colors, etc.) and might signal a popular/desirable product. Or, inventory might encourage a consumer to continue her search (e.g., on the theory that...

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 --...