Product pack size decisions in the emerging market spaza retail sector

Abstract

Despite research around marketing mix recommendations, granular analysis on product unit pack size in emerging markets has not been extensively researched. Furthermore, the impact of modern-day retailers on the distribution and sales of product unit pack sizes has received limited attention. Research has focused on the broader role that product variety plays in the marketing mix and its impact on firm performance (Ford, Moodie & Hastings, 2012; Jaiswal & Gupta, 2015; Kumar, Fan, Gulati & Venkat, 2009). However, little work has been done on how product variety impacts firm performance in emerging markets and specifically in terms of product unit pack size (Wan, Dresner & Evers, 2014) which this current study aims to address. A second aspect of the current study is the influence of modern-day retailers and the impact that distance between them and emerging market spaza shops has on the distribution and sales of product unit pack sizes. Secondary quantitative data from Clover was used to conduct exploratory research on different products in three geographical clusters. Both the availability of product unit size and the sales thereof were found to be influenced by the distance between the spaza shops and the modern-day retailers.