An Advanced System for Supporting the Decision Process within Large-scale Retail Stores

摘要

This paper proposes an advanced decision system, called Virtual Dynamic Store (VDS), for sup-porting retail store management. The VDS architecture supports the decision processes within retail stores by providing users with three main functionalities: store layout analysis, item and shelf man-agement, and store monitoring and control by real-time simulation (or remote control by on-line simulation). As additional functionality, not related to the decision process within a retail store, the VDS architecture could also be used as a virtual web shop for e-commerce. To provide evidence on the relevance of the VDS, the architecture is tested within a real store by proposing four different application examples that show the potential of the VDS as an advanced decision support system.