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To promote the sales of a retail store in the distribution
industry, we used to focus on all kinds of promotion methods but
ignore the value brought by display techniques. According to
past experiences, the way the products displayed on the shelves
affects sales volume. An appropriate display technique may
create a selling place that the customers can watch, select, and
purchase products easily, and may prevent product shortage in
the stores.There are varieties of products along with large
volumes in a shop. However, the shelf space is limited. If the
methods adopted to classify and display products is
inappropriate, the customers can hardly buy what they want.
Even with hundreds and thousands of products, it is absolutely
useless for sales increase. Therefore, to fully utilize the
sales space, it is very important to find an efficient method to
allocate products onto shelf space.In this research, we first
investigated factors such as consumer behaviors, facility
equipment, and cost structure that affect shelf space allocation
behavior. From the results, we constructed a mathematical model
by defining the decision variables, the objective function, main
factors and their corresponding constraints. Through proper
solution procedures, we then determined the best shelf space
allocation plan.In order to verify the correctness and the
applicability of the model, we apply a set of real data as the
test basis. Through the sensitivity analysis, we conducted
further analysis about factors of the shelf space allocation
model and tried to find their effects. The results derived from
the research can truly offer the distribution industry a
reference tool to allocate the shelf space for different
products.
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