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Managing long queues for holiday sales shopping

Author

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  • Chun (Martin) Qiu

    (Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University)

  • Wenqing Zhang

    (Labovitz School of Business and Economics, University of Minnesota)

Abstract

Long queues during holiday shopping events seem undesirable for both shoppers and retailers. However, the following article shows that, under some conditions, long queues benefit retailers for two reasons. First, long queues, by turning away high-time-cost shoppers, serve as a device of segmentation and targeting. Consequently, retailers deliver promotions only to low-time-cost shoppers. High-time-cost shoppers choose to purchase at a regular time (non-holiday shopping event) and pay the full price without having to make the wait. Second, longer queues prompt shoppers who stay in the line buy more products. In addition, the article shows that shoppers tend to wait longer when price discounts are greater. Accounting for the above findings, this article provides a numerical solution to jointly optimizing retailers’ promotional and operational decisions on holiday promotional sales.

Suggested Citation

  • Chun (Martin) Qiu & Wenqing Zhang, 2016. "Managing long queues for holiday sales shopping," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(1), pages 52-65, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorapm:v:15:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1057_rpm.2015.46
    DOI: 10.1057/rpm.2015.46
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Elisabeth Obermair & Andreas Holzapfel & Heinrich Kuhn, 2023. "Operational planning for public holidays in grocery retailing - managing the grocery retail rush," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 931-948, June.
    2. Tomasz Antczak & Rafal Weron & Jacek Zabawa, 2020. "Data-driven simulation modeling of the checkout process in supermarkets: Insights for decision support in retail operations," WORking papers in Management Science (WORMS) WORMS/20/16, Department of Operations Research and Business Intelligence, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology.

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