IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v79y2024ics0969698924001346.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Product assortment and online sales in community group-buying channel: Evidence from a convenience store chain

Author

Listed:
  • Tian, Xin
  • Jiang, Hailiang
  • Zhao, Xuan

Abstract

Although community group-buying (CGB) has been adopted worldwide since its emergence in China, empirical research examining how retailers' assortment strategies affect sales performance and consumer behavior in CGB channels is scarce. We explore the impact of three product assortment characteristics–assortment width, perishability, and recommended diversity–on CGB sales and consumer behavior. Our assessment of CGB sales relies on sales revenue per group-buying for each store as a primary metric; the average item quantity per order (average basket size) and average item price in all orders (average item price) are utilized as fundamental indicators for evaluating consumer behavior. This study employs panel fixed effects models to analyze operational CGB data. Our results show that assortment width, perishability, and recommended diversity have significantly positive impacts on CGB sales. Furthermore, assortment width positively and significantly influences both the average basket size and average item price. The perishability of an assortment negatively affects the former but positively impacts the latter. Conversely, the recommended diversity of assortments positively impacts the average basket size but has a negative impact on the average item price. Additionally, holidays can moderate the impact of product assortments on CGB sales and consumer behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Tian, Xin & Jiang, Hailiang & Zhao, Xuan, 2024. "Product assortment and online sales in community group-buying channel: Evidence from a convenience store chain," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:79:y:2024:i:c:s0969698924001346
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.103838
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698924001346
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.103838?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kautish, Pradeep & Paul, Justin & Sharma, Rajesh, 2021. "The effect of assortment and fulfillment on shopping assistance and efficiency: An e-tail servicescape perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    2. Sun, Shuxing & Zhang, Bin, 2022. "Operation strategies for nanostore in community group buying," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Arhami, Omid & Aslani, Shirin & Talebian, Masoud, 2024. "Dynamic assortment planning and capacity allocation with logit substitution," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    4. Alexander Hübner & Fabian Schäfer & Kai N. Schaal, 2020. "Maximizing Profit via Assortment and Shelf‐Space Optimization for Two‐Dimensional Shelves," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(3), pages 547-570, March.
    5. Guo, Junpeng & Wang, Xiaopan & Wu, Yi, 2020. "Positive emotion bias: Role of emotional content from online customer reviews in purchase decisions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    6. Li, Chia-Ying, 2019. "How social commerce constructs influence customers' social shopping intention? An empirical study of a social commerce website," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 282-294.
    7. Yu, Bin & Shan, Wenxuan & Sheu, Jiuh-Biing & Diabat, Ali, 2022. "Branch-and-price for a combined order selection and distribution problem in online community group-buying of perishable products," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 341-373.
    8. Mehta, Ritu & Balakumar, Karthikeyan, 2021. "Redesigning after-sales service: Impact on incumbent product distribution channels," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    9. Dmitri Kuksov & Chenxi Liao, 2019. "Opinion Leaders and Product Variety," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(5), pages 812-834, September.
    10. Wilfred Amaldoss & Chuan He, 2018. "Reference-Dependent Utility, Product Variety, and Price Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(9), pages 4302-4316, September.
    11. Tom Fangyun Tan & Serguei Netessine & Lorin Hitt, 2017. "Is Tom Cruise Threatened? An Empirical Study of the Impact of Product Variety on Demand Concentration," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 643-660, September.
    12. Victor Mejía & Philippe Aurier & Richard Huaman-Ramirez, 2021. "Disentangling the respective impacts of assortment size and alignability on perceived assortment variety," Post-Print hal-03126705, HAL.
    13. Yi Yang & Youhua (Frank) Chen & Yun Zhou, 2014. "Coordinating Inventory Control and Pricing Strategies Under Batch Ordering," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(1), pages 25-37, February.
    14. Mejía, Victor D. & Aurier, Philippe & Huaman-Ramirez, Richard, 2021. "Disentangling the respective impacts of assortment size and alignability on perceived assortment variety," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    15. Soysal, Mehmet & Bloemhof-Ruwaard, Jacqueline M. & Haijema, Rene & van der Vorst, Jack G.A.J., 2015. "Modeling an Inventory Routing Problem for perishable products with environmental considerations and demand uncertainty," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 118-133.
    16. Xiang Fang & Surendra Singh & Rohini Ahluwalia, 2007. "An Examination of Different Explanations for the Mere Exposure Effect," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(1), pages 97-103, March.
    17. Baumann, Chris & Hamin, Hamin & Chong, Amy, 2015. "The role of brand exposure and experience on brand recall—Product durables vis-à -vis FMCG," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 21-31.
    18. Zhu, Huimin & Xiao, Xinping & Kang, Yuxiao & Kong, Dekai, 2022. "Lead-lag grey forecasting model in the new community group buying retailing," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    19. Jinzhi Bu & Xiting Gong & Xiuli Chao, 2023. "Asymptotic Optimality of Base-Stock Policies for Perishable Inventory Systems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(2), pages 846-864, February.
    20. Sun, Chunhua & Fang, Yuan & Kong, Meng & Chen, Xiayu & Liu, Yezheng, 2022. "Influence of augmented reality product display on consumers’ product attitudes: A product uncertainty reduction perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    21. de Keizer, Marlies & Akkerman, Renzo & Grunow, Martin & Bloemhof, Jacqueline M. & Haijema, Rene & van der Vorst, Jack G.A.J., 2017. "Logistics network design for perishable products with heterogeneous quality decay," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 262(2), pages 535-549.
    22. Liu, Wumei & Batra, Rajeev & Wang, Haizhogn, 2017. "Product Touch and Consumers’ Online and Offline Buying: The Role of Mental Representation," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 369-381.
    23. Sharma, Varinder M. & Klein, Andreas, 2020. "Consumer perceived value, involvement, trust, susceptibility to interpersonal influence, and intention to participate in online group buying," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    24. Behera, Rajat Kumar & Gunasekaran, Angappa & Gupta, Shivam & Kamboj, Shampy & Bala, Pradip Kumar, 2020. "Personalized digital marketing recommender engine," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    25. Xin Chen & Zhan Pang & Limeng Pan, 2014. "Coordinating Inventory Control and Pricing Strategies for Perishable Products," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(2), pages 284-300, April.
    26. Knoeferle, Klemens M. & Paus, Vilhelm Camillus & Vossen, Alexander, 2017. "An Upbeat Crowd: Fast In-store Music Alleviates Negative Effects of High Social Density on Customers’ Spending," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(4), pages 541-549.
    27. Li, Jianfei & Li, Bei & Shen, Yang & Tang, Kun, 2022. "Study on the steady state of the propagation model of consumers’ perceived service quality in the community group-buying," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    28. Boto-García, David & Alvarez, Antonio, 2020. "Modelling the effect of store flyers on supermarket sales: An application to olive oil demand," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    29. Merlino, Valentina Maria & Mastromonaco, Giulia & Borra, Danielle & Blanc, Simone & Brun, Filippo & Massaglia, Stefano, 2021. "Planning of the cow milk assortment for large retail chains in North Italy: A comparison of two metropolitan cities," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    30. Pizzi, Gabriele & Scarpi, Daniele, 2016. "The effect of shelf layout on satisfaction and perceived assortment size: An empirical assessment," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 67-77.
    31. Youngsoo Kim & Ramayya Krishnan, 2015. "On Product-Level Uncertainty and Online Purchase Behavior: An Empirical Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(10), pages 2449-2467, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Babaee, Sara & Araghi, Mojtaba & Rostami, Borzou, 2022. "Coordinating transportation and pricing policies for perishable products," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 105-125.
    2. Avinadav, Tal, 2020. "The effect of decision rights allocation on a supply chain of perishable products under a revenue-sharing contract," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    3. Ding, Jingying & Peng, Zhenkang, 2024. "Heuristics for perishable inventory systems under mixture issuance policies," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    4. Soumya Ranjan Pathy & Hamed Rahimian, 2024. "Value of risk aversion in perishable products supply chain management," Computational Optimization and Applications, Springer, vol. 89(2), pages 517-552, November.
    5. Xiuyan Ma, 2019. "Pricing to the Scenario: Price-Setting Newsvendor Models for Innovative Products," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-15, September.
    6. Seyed Jafar Sajadi & Ali Ahmadi, 2022. "An integrated optimization model and metaheuristics for assortment planning, shelf space allocation, and inventory management of perishable products: A real application," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-30, March.
    7. Li‐Ming Chen & Amar Sapra, 2021. "Inventory renewal for a perishable product: Economies of scale and age‐dependent demand," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(3), pages 359-377, April.
    8. Hanukov, Gabi & Avinadav, Tal & Chernonog, Tatyana & Yechiali, Uri, 2020. "A service system with perishable products where customers are either fastidious or strategic," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    9. Gholami-Zanjani, Seyed Mohammad & Klibi, Walid & Jabalameli, Mohammad Saeed & Pishvaee, Mir Saman, 2021. "The design of resilient food supply chain networks prone to epidemic disruptions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    10. ElHafsi, Mohsen & Fang, Jianxin & Hamouda, Essia, 2021. "Optimal production and inventory control of multi-class mixed backorder and lost sales demand class models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 291(1), pages 147-161.
    11. Onur Kaya & Aylin Lelizar Polat, 2017. "Coordinated pricing and inventory decisions for perishable products," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 39(2), pages 589-606, March.
    12. Zhou, Haijie & Chen, Kebing & Wang, Shengbin, 2023. "Two-period pricing and inventory decisions of perishable products with partial lost sales," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(2), pages 611-626.
    13. N. Bora Keskin & Yuexing Li & Jing-Sheng Song, 2022. "Data-Driven Dynamic Pricing and Ordering with Perishable Inventory in a Changing Environment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(3), pages 1938-1958, March.
    14. Nan Yang & Renyu Zhang, 2022. "Comparative Statics Analysis of An Inventory Management Model with Dynamic Pricing, Market Environment Fluctuation, and Delayed Differentiation," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(1), pages 341-357, January.
    15. Zheng, Qi & Zhou, Li & Fan, Tijun & Ieromonachou, Petros, 2019. "Joint procurement and pricing of fresh produce for multiple retailers with a quantity discount contract," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 16-36.
    16. Miao, Jie & Liu, Aijun & Wang, Ruiyao & Lu, Hui, 2022. "The influence of information asymmetry on the strategic inventory of deteriorating commodity," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    17. Hailun Zhang & Jiheng Zhang & Rachel Q. Zhang, 2020. "Simple Policies with Provable Bounds for Managing Perishable Inventory," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(11), pages 2637-2650, November.
    18. Hongbo Tu & Mo Pang & Lin Chen, 2023. "Freshness-Keeping Strategy of Logistics Service Providers: The Role of the Interaction between Blockchain and Overconfidence," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-35, August.
    19. Janssen, Larissa & Claus, Thorsten & Sauer, Jürgen, 2016. "Literature review of deteriorating inventory models by key topics from 2012 to 2015," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 86-112.
    20. Kim, Nayeong & Lee, Dongmin & Cho, Seonghwan & Moon, Junghoon, 2023. "The effect of exclusive distribution on the sales of ready-made meals in online retail," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:79:y:2024:i:c:s0969698924001346. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.