Journal Press India^®

Author Details ( * ) denotes Corresponding author

To measure the productivity of Indian grocery retail outlets with specific reference to Delhi and NCR region.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Productivity measurement rests on the right selection of input and output variables. For this study, literature review, professional opinion of Retail Managers in the area concerned, and the academia people helped to validate the variables and factors used to study the productivity in Retail. These   variables were refined using the stepwise regression. The data was collected from 180 organized grocery retail outlets. The  retail outlets were divided into two categories based  on area  i.e.,  outlets having square feet area  of less  than 2000  sq.ft., and  retail outlets having square feet area  of more  than 2000  sq.ft. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used for measuring the efficiency of 180 retail outlets for two consecutive years namely 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, which makes it 360 observations.
Findings:  As per research findings, it was found out that there were 81 highly efficient firms, 206 efficient firms, and 73 are less efficient firms out of 360 observations in total for the two years.  If we compare the performance of the firms from 2010-2011 to 2009-2010 then we can say that their overall performance has improved as the number of efficient firms has increased from 98 to 108.
Research Limitations/Implications:  Our  results cater to the retail establishment  in  Delhi   and NCR region,  and  are  area  specific,  so they cannot be generalized to every  type of retail outlets, and every  part of India. Therefore, there exists scope to carry out such study on all India level.  Only one output variable in terms of sales has been taken to measure the output, and there exists further scope to include more output variables in future studies.
Practical Implications: The  findings can  be used  by  the retailers to keep  a check  on  their retail outlets’ input factors, and  develop  strategies for success  to improve their productivity in future.
Originality/Value: This research will be a value addition in the area of grocery retailing where an application of DEA has been shown to keep a quick check on the efficiency and performance of grocery retail outlets.

Keywords

Grocery, Indian Retail, Productivity, Measurement Techniques, DEA

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