Commerce/en
http://wiki.virtonomica.ru/index.php/Principles:Commerce
Содержание
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF RETAIL TRADE
General Information
Retail Stores are at the end of production chain. Profit of the stores is the basically profit of all subdivisions, which take part in production process. Retail Trade is one of the most complicated to manage and unstable activities, but the most profitable.
Local Suppliers
In Virtonomics players have to compete not only with other players but also with local suppliers. These are retail enterprises represent a mass of various store in the city and originally they are in full control of retail market.
Each retail product in every city has average price and average quality, mostly typical for local suppliers. Which means that this product is sold by local supplier for this certain price and with this certain quality in this specific city, if there are no enterprises created by players.
In most cases, to compete with local suppliers successfully you must offer goods of higher quality at lower price. Terms of local suppliers always change as market of a certain goods grows, local suppliers decrease their price and improve quality, and competition in this sector becomes more severe.
Preferences of Customers
Wealth Level is the most important factor to define customer preferences. In cities with low wealth level people spend almost all their money on most needed goods, and they have no big interest in luxury goods. They pay special attention to the price as they prefer buying cheaper products instead of famous and high-quality goods.
While, in cities with higher wealth level people can afford buying household equipment, cars and jewelry. In their opinion, high quality is more important than low price. Wealthy customers first of all require good service.
Customers preferences often change in favor of one or other goods. For example, sudden growth in a certain city in household electronics sale can be observed, but one virtual year later this sector can come to complete stagnation, while customers will start to buy furniture and jewelry. These changes can often be unpredictable however marketing research can reveal consumer trends.
RETAIL MARKET
Trade offers, franchise and brand trade
The attractiveness of a certain product is calculated on basis of 3 main characteristics: price, quality and brand. The following factors also include evaluation of store's attractiveness: number of customers, service level and store's location. This dimensionless indicator is determined by the level of supply of local suppliers, on its basis a conditional volume of possible sales is formed. And then competition mechanisms come into force, which are described below.
Sale of franchise, non-franchise and TM-products is based on principle of diminishing returns. It is considered that commercial offer is united (for example, all sorts of cars are one offer, which is a Car), but in case if there are franchise or TM-products in the store, then overall sales volume will be increased by 25%. With the same attractiveness of varieties of one proposal (brand, quality, price), preference is not given to any of them.
If your company has several stores with similar goods, you should use sales modifier, which is related to the uniqueness of the stores. It means that customers would prefer stores with unique assortment of goods.
Competition and Markets Saturation
There are two kinds of retail markets in Virtonomics: saturated and unsaturated. Segment of local suppliers in saturated markets is always zero.
In unsaturated market all sales are determined by the attractiveness of supply (combination of price, quality and brand).
Redistribution of sales in saturated markets has two stages: competitive and proportional. During the competitive stage sales volume depends on attractiveness of the offer, and during the proportional stage all stores are equal. Percent of each stage depends on the city and on the goods: for high-developed cities (and for luxury goods) competition is more significant.
There are three basic stages of market saturation:
- First stage (saturation): minimal competition, fixed market volume, «excessive» sales are removed (due to smooth proportional bringing the specific number of purchases (see Trade in saturated markets) to the standards of saturated market).
- Second stage (stretching): all stores work with restrictions, market volume is smoothly increasing.
- Third stage (over-saturation): market volume is unstable (it can drop down to the basic volume, but in general it tends to move towards the maximum stretching of the market), competitive and proportional penalties for «excessive» sales, including district competition.
Trade in Saturated Markets
Магазины будут конкурировать друг с другом с учётом района расположения. То есть при распределении конкурентных «штрафов» на продажи более всего пострадают магазины, находящиеся в районах с избыточным количеством магазинов.
Считается, насколько много товара продалось бы всеми торгующими в этом районе магазинами, после чего уменьшаются продажи в магазинах, расположенных в перенасыщенных районах. Важно не количество магазинов в районе, а их суммарные продажи, т.е. один магазин размером 100к м2 может оказывать большее влияние, чем 10 мелких магазинов.
Stores will compete with each other depending on their location. It means that stores located in a district with high concentration of stores will have bigger penalty. The system will calculate how much goods would have been sold by all these stores and after this sales volume for certain stores will be decreased. The most considerable is not the number of stores but their total sales volume.
Uniqueness
Параметр уникальность действует только внутри одной компании и одного города. Он характеризует, насколько товары в магазинах компании в этом городе похожи друг на друга. Т.е. ваши магазины в одном городе не влияют на уникальность магазинов в другом. Также на уникальность ваших магазинов не влияют магазины конкурентов.
При определении уникальности имеет значение два параметра: широта ассортимента и схожесть ассортимента. При определении схожести товара в двух разных магазинов сравнивается их производитель (это может быть не та компания, которая продала вам этот товар, а та, которая его произвела первоначально). Если производитель одинаковый – вы получаете штраф за неуникальность. Например, три абсолютно одинаковых по ассортименту магазина с товаром от одного и того же производителя будут иметь уникальность 50%. Штрафы за неуникальность начинаются с третьего магазина. Держать два абсолютно одинаковых магазина в одном городе можно без каких либо последствий в виде потери продаж. С ростом таких магазинов уникальность будет падать дальше. В результате оборот 10 полностью одинаковых магазинов будут только в 4 раза больше одного.
Также следует учесть, что:
- Разделение на отдельные предприятия не проводится. Например: Компания производит товар на предприятиях П1 и П2. Товар с П1 поступает в магазин М1, с П2 - в М2. Результат: Магазины не будут уникальны.
- Наличие компаний-посредников не влияет на информацию о производителе товара. Например: Компания А производит товар. Компания Б его покупает. Со склада компании Б на свой склад покупает компания В. Оттуда компания В поставляет товар в свой магазин. Результат: В магазине компании В продается товар, производителем которой считается компания А.
- Широта ассортимента. Если товарные наименования в магазинах не полностью одинаковы (в одном магазине авто, в другом авто и мото, в третьем авто, мото и шины), это будет положительно влиять на уникальность и штраф будет меньше. При этом не важны объемы продаж этих товаров, учитывается лишь наличие товаров от общих производителей. При добавлении дополнительных товаров для увеличения уникальности не следует забывать, что магазины с одним отделом имеют бонус к продажам.
- Товары одинакового качества и бренда, но от разных производителей являются уникальными и штрафов не получают. Если вы продаете товар, смешенный от двух производителей, то уникальность считается для каждой компоненты отдельно.
Подробнее про ограничения на одного посетителя. Один покупатель уникального магазина с одной товарной секцией может купить, для примера, одежды:
- 100 м. | 50 ед.
- 500 м. | 10 ед.
- 1000 м. | 4 ед.
- 10 000 м. | 1-2 ед.
- 100 000 м. | ~0.6 ед.
Цифры приблизительные, для ориентировки. Естественно, крайний показатель продаж в 50 ед. относится к товару наивысшего качества и бренда при наивысшем уровне сервиса -- в этом случае магазин как бы выступает в роли сверхпопулярного модного бутика. Посетителей мало, но каждый берёт помногу. На ненасыщенных рынках показатель, особенно для больших магазинов, может быть существенно выше.
This parameter is valid for only one company and in only one city. It expresses the conformity of your goods. Stores of your competitors and your own stores in one city don't influence the uniqueness of stores in other city.
Two parameters are important in defining the uniqueness: variety of goods and conformity of assortment. Manufacturer of goods in one store will be compared to the manufacturer of goods in another store and in case if they are the same — you will have to pay a penalty for non-uniqueness. For instance, 3 stores with identical assortment produced by similar manufacturer will have 50% uniqueness. Penalty is to be paid only for the third store: it is possible to have two identical stores in one city but if you have more than two their uniqueness will go down.
Please also consider:
- There is no division for separate enterprises. For example, a company produces goods at the enterprises E1 and E2. Goods from E1 goes to Store 1 and goods from E2 goes to Store 2. As result, these two stores won't be unique.
- Agent companies won't influence the manufacturer of the goods. For example, Company A produces goods. Company B buys it. After this company C buys it from the warehouse of company B and supplies it to its own store. As result, company C will sell goods, produced by company A.
- Assortment. If the products in different stores are not completely identical (one store sells cars, second store sells cars and motorcycles, third store sells cars and tires) this will produce positive effect on the uniqueness, and the penalty will be not so big. Sales volume is not important, only goods availability is significant. If you want to add new goods to improve the uniqueness, don't forget that stores with one single department have better sales.
- Products of similar quality and brand produced by different manufacturers are considered to be unique (no penalty). If you sell mixed goods from two manufacturers their uniqueness will be evaluated separately.
One customer of a unique store with one goods section can buy. For example, clothes:
- 100 m. | 50 pcs.
- 500 m. | 10 pcs.
- 1000 m. | 4 pcs.
- 10 000 m. | 1-2 pcs.
- 100 000 m. | ~0.6 pcs.
These are approximate values only for your reference. 50 pcs. refers to the goods of highest quality and brand sold in the store with the best service level. In this situation the store plays a role of a super-popular boutique which has few very rich customers. In case with unsaturated markets this value can be much higher especially for big stores.