Retail operations

Abstract

Retail operations emerged as a substantial area of research in recent years.There are several drivers of this advent.Retailing is a significant economical sector in which changes in markets, companies, processes and products occur rapidly.The retail industry is a thought leader in the development and design of advanced operations concepts and processes since the 1990s.Firms like Amazon, Zara, Tesco, Aldi or Walmart are on the forefront of operational innovations, adopted in many other industries.In the last decade, e-commerce and omni-channel retailing, technological advances and the rise in big data have changed retail practice, operational requirements and its competitive landscape.Generally, retail operations involve highly complex tasks at the interface between sales, marketing and logistics.It has unique elements, such as direct interaction between customers and logistics (e.g., for attended home delivery, in-store