The moderating factors that influence retail productivity

Abstract

Retail is a labour intensive industry and strategically, retail productivity can be used to differentiate retail stores and provides the foundation to develop strategies for growth and diversification in retail stores (Dubelaar, Bhargava and Ferrarin, 2002). This study used historical data to identify the drivers of retail productivity, measured as units per man-hour worked. Prior literature has suggested that sales mix, retail gross, basket size, shrinkage, services, managers’ experience, staff compliment, work force flexibility, number of people employed and the number of units sold could contribute to retail productivity. Of all these variables all except shrinkage and the number of store managers’ years experience proven to be significant.