Modeling an organizational decision support system to improve retailers' decisions

Retail organizations (grocery stores, department stores, etc.) have access to rich data, based on scanner technology at store check-out counters. Most experts acknowledge that these data are under-utilized for lack of sophisticated organizational decision support systems to transform the scanner data into useful information that can be disseminated and used across the many stores of a retail organization. This paper offers a mathematical model that can be used in conjunction with scanner data in a retailer’s decision support Aystem. The proposed model can help retailers maximize individual store proJts by helping choose “optimal” bran& for the price promotions. By maximizing store profits, the overall profit potential of the organization is enhanced. Additionally, the proposed model has substantial theoretical appeal as it tr based on the literature from the field of ecology.