Renée Richardson Gosline, a senior lecturer in the Sloan School of Management, writes for WBUR’s Cognoscenti about whether it is a good idea to integrate artificial intelligence in all aspects of the online shopping experience. People often “outsource decisions and tasks to technology based on the assumption that it will improve your performance,” explains Gosline.
A Wall Street Journal article by James Rice Jr. of MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics examines the problem of “phantom inventory,” an issue for many retailers unaware of how low on-shelf availability is for many products. Rice and his co-authors suggest that “paying special attention to retail operations and employing modern data analytics” can help resolve the issue.
Writing for Fortune, Professors Juanjuan Zhang and T. Tony Ke provide tips for making the most out of holiday sales. For big-ticket items, Profs. Zhang and Ke suggest “price checks throughout the year so that you have a better sense of the market.”
In an article for The Huffington Post, Prof. Georgia Perakis writes about her research on optimizing online retail bundle recommendations. Perakis explains that the model she developed with her colleagues uses optimization and machine learning to increase revenues and help customers "find more interesting and relevant items.”
Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray writes that a study by Prof. Alberto Cavallo finds that prices for online and in-store items were identical about 72 percent of the time. Cavallo found that “prices were more likely to be the same for clothing and electronics, while drug stores and office supply stores showed greater price variations.”
Megan Turchi writes for Boston.com about ‘The Good Jobs Score,’ a method for evaluating food retailers based on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and productivity, developed by Professor Zeynep Ton. Ton hopes “the score will bring attention to some of the drivers of success that are rarely included in annual reports.”
David Morris writes for The Huffington Post about Professor Zeynep Ton’s research that shows investing in employees and operational practices is beneficial. “The combination makes work more efficient and more fulfilling while, lowers costs, boosts sale and profits and improves customer satisfaction,” Morris writes.