Consumer requirements for home networks

Sausages from three major retail outlets producing their own label pork and reduced fat sausages were sampled over a period of four weeks. A branded product was also purchased from the stores. A trained sensory panel evaluated the sausages and found that, although the overall acceptability differed between retailers, one of the low fat products matched the equivalent standard product in terms of acceptability. The overall acceptability of the branded product was within the range of the own label standard products but below the most acceptable low fat product. It was concluded that, whilst the successful production of low fat sausages is possible, a wider range would be encouraged by the adoption of modified compositional standards.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) applications are emerging as key components in object tracking and supply chain management systems. In next future almost every major retailer will use RFID systems to track the shipment of products from suppliers to warehouses. Due to RFID readings features this will result in a huge amount of information generated by such systems when costs will be at a level such that each individual item could be tagged thus leaving a trail of data as it moves through different locations. We define a technique for efficiently detecting anomalous data in order to prevent problems related to inefficient shipment or fraudulent actions. Since items usually move together in large groups through distribution centers and only in stores do they move in smaller groups we exploit such a feature in order to design our technique. The preliminary experiments show the effectiveness of our approach.

Personal computers are most commonly thought of as consumer products, but now they are being developed for use by many different classes of retailer; in fact they have found application in small newsagents, pharmacists and others. Additionally, in conjunction with portable data recording terminals they can be used as packaged systems which will read bar coded labels, and carry out localised data processing of the information gathered. This article examines some of the latest developments and looks at the relevance of this class of system at a cash point within a retail outlet.

In the dynamic landscape of e-commerce, the proliferation of products has immensely complicated the process of effective product discovery. With over 14 million items listed on platforms such as Pazarama.com, consumers often struggle to navigate through extensive catalogs to find products that genuinely meet their evolving needs. This challenge is exacerbated in categories requiring sequential consumption, such as baby products, where the progression from one product stage to another is not only inevitable but critical. Traditional recommendation systems primarily rely on static historical data. While these systems provide baseline suggestions based on past purchases or general popularity, they often fail to capture the nuanced and immediate requirements of consumers. For instance, a parent purchasing size one diapers will soon need to transition to size two, and a static system might continue to recommend size one, ignoring the child's growth. Moreover, these systems are not equipped to handle anomalies or data inconsistencies, often stemming from privacy regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which can skew the effectiveness of the recommendations provided. This paper proposes a novel approach that integrates Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks to develop a multidimensional, next-generation product recommendation system. This system accommodates time-sensitive needs and transitions in consumer product stages, predicting future product requirements based on evolving consumer stages while handling anomalies and data inconsistencies due to privacy concerns. Furthermore, it offers real-time updates and integrates seamlessly with social media and online platforms to enhance user engagement and satisfaction. By employing time series analysis and advanced AI techniques, this model aims to improve the accuracy of personalized recommendations, support the introduction and marketing of new or rare products, and ultimately enhance the overall user experience on platforms like Pazarama.com. Through this approach, the paper demonstrates the potential for advanced recommendation systems to transform online retail environments by increasing sales, enhancing customer interaction, and expanding the technological repertoire of e-commerce platforms.

With the fast development of wireless communications, ZigBee and semiconductor devices, home automation networks have recently become very popular. Since typical consumer products deployed in home automation networks are often powered by tiny and limited batteries, one of the most challenging research issues is concerning energy reduction and the balancing of energy consumption across the network in order to prolong the home network lifetime for consumer devices. The introduction of clustering and sink mobility techniques into home automation networks have been shown to be an efficient way to improve the network performance and have received significant research attention. Taking inspiration from nature, this paper proposes an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) based clustering algorithm specifically with mobile sink support for home automation networks. In this work, the network is divided into several clusters and cluster heads are selected within each cluster. Then, a mobile sink communicates with each cluster head to collect data directly through short range communications. The ACO algorithm has been utilized in this work in order to find the optimal mobility trajectory for the mobile sink. Extensive simulation results from this research show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves home network performance when using mobile sinks in terms of energy consumption and network lifetime as compared to other routing algorithms currently deployed for home automation networks.

Recent analysis of domestic prices of key staple crops in several major retail markets in Mozambique finds that due to increased demand from both international and domestic sources, since 2008, the country’s consumers and producers of staple crops appear to have entered a new higher-price environment for domestic food staples. This situation creates both a challenge and an opportunity for Mozambique, which is commonly referred to as the food price dilemma. In short, the dilemma for the Government of Mozambique (GoM)policymakers is that urban consumers (and the majority of rural households who are net buyers of key staple foods like maize) prefer lower food prices (relative to other prices in the economy) as this improves their welfare.

自從智慧型手機和平板電腦相繼問世後，帶動消費性電子產業急速成長，而各個品牌大廠廣設產品專賣店，此不但可以讓消費者可以在專賣店中實際操作產品以及諮詢各項問題，還可以讓他們體驗整體店內的裝潢、氣氛和燈光等。但學者Turley and Milliman(2000)指出商店外部環境的氣氛比商店內部環境更為重要，如果消費者沒有被外部環境氣氛所吸引的話，其餘可能並不重要。 蘋果專賣店是一個成功的專賣店經營代表，每坪銷售金額拿下全美零售店第一名；其獨特的店鋪設計，更獲得許多建築設計的獎項。蘋果公司投資許多成本在專賣店的建構，藉由專賣店來傳遞其品牌形象；然而，品牌形象是否順利傳遞給消費者，吸引其前來參觀？專賣店本身是否能直接吸引消費者，抑或必須依靠品牌形象來吸引？品牌形象在商店外部環境的氣氛對於吸引消費者前來惠顧之影響，是否具有中介效果？這些均是本研究所探討的問題。 本研究以蘋果公司專賣店為例，研究商店外部氣氛、品牌形象和消費者惠顧行為三者之間的關係。透過便利抽樣調查後，共取得270份有效問卷，並以SPSS統計軟體為分析工具。主要有以下的重要發現： 一、商店外部氣氛對於品牌形象呈正向的影響。 二、品牌形象對於消費者惠顧行為呈正向的影響。 三、商店外部氣氛對於消費者惠顧行為成正向的影響。 四、品牌形象在商店外部氣氛和消費者惠顧行為之間具有部分中介的效果。

The major portion of all food items is ultimately sold through retail outlets, most of which are large supermarkets. Since market conduct in food retailing notably affects social welfare, it warrants empirical examination. Retail food pricing and advertising behavior is of perennial interest to consumers and economists. Several studies in the past have examined various aspects of advertising and pricing behavior of food retailers. This study differs from most of the previous studies in giving a very intensive coverage of the meat counter. The study included virtually all beef, pork, poultry and lunch meat items. It was, however, concentrated solely on advertised meat prices of all major retail chains and affiliates in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Weekly data for the advertised meat prices from different firms were obtained for a total of thirteen (1960-72) years by consulting the appropriate newspaper files in the Missouri Historical Society Library. The primary objectives of this study were to determine the nature of merchandising behavior in the retail meat business and to examine the various aspects of advertising and pricing patterns developed by stores over time, insofar as these are revealed by their newspaper advertising. Regression analysis and nonparametric tests were used as analytical techniques to test various hypothesis. Findings of this study indicated that, none of the stores had a fixed specie advertising pattern through 1960-72. In other words they have been changing their proportional advertising emphasis put on various species of meat from one sample period to another. Furthermore, neither these changes had any systematic pattern over time nor did they have any systematic response to the changes in proportional share of different species in per capita supply of meat. It was found that each store had a tendency to follow the advertising pattern practiced by it during the immediate past, whereas over the long run they tend to reshuffle the mix of items going into their ads. Furthermore, it was observed that national chains have been advertising a significantly greater number of items than affiliates. Similarly they seem to advertise those items more frequently than affiliates. On the other hand, local chains have been advertising the largest array of items, and almost as frequently as national chains. Most of national chains, affiliates and regional chains have been putting significantly greater advertising emphasis on high price elastic cuts of pork. On the other hand, local chains have been putting significantly more advertising emphasis on less price elastic cuts of pork. The among-store price variances were not homogeneous over time for any of the twenty items included in the analysis. Therefore, due to this heterogeneity of variance over time, it was not possible to make any forecast about the range of prices within which different items would be advertised by retailers in the future. Similarly, it was found that there were more variations among the store prices of high price items than among low price ones. It was found that the advertised prices of whole and cut-up fryers relative to their wholesale prices have not changed significantly over time. However, the advertised prices of beef and pork items in the sample relative to their respective wholesale prices have shown a significant increase over time. Finally, it was observed that, in a St. Louis metropolitan area, there has been a significant increase in the consumers' preference (as interpreted by retailers through their advertised prices) for first cut pork chops relative to pork steak, shank portion and butt portion hams.

Anyone responsible for managing and marketing a retail brand can learn a lot simply by classifying the retail chain's outlets into types (segments). The paper describes the development of a set of standard classifications covering all the branches of all major multiple retailers in Great Britain. Segmentz, as the system is called, can classify any retail outlet with a GB postcode on four dimensions. These are the catchment demographics, workplace context (working population and employment mix), local retailing environment and strength of competition nearby. Analyses are then presented on three dimensions (competition being difficult to standardise). Applications include retail site selection, merchandising, monitoring trends in sales and customer preferences, brand positioning and competitor analysis. Standard segments are offered as a simple but effective tool for coordinating the wide range of activities encompassed in modern branded retailing.

Retailing is not only an important aspect of the economic structure but very much a part of our lives. Its current contribution which is 10% of the country's GDP, proves its significance towards the growth of country's GDP. For centuries now, India has been operating within its own unique concept of retailing. In the words of David Gilbert retail is a business that guides its marketing effort towards the final consumer satisfaction primarily based upon the organization of selling goods and services as a way of distribution. It is sure and certain that India will be the destination for retailing as existing Indian middle class purchasing power is increasing at a rapid pace. Rural India can be considered as heart land of retailing. But according to Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) study 0.6 million villages in India did not have a retail outlet of any kind. Further, the outlet density in rural India is lower than that of urban India. It indicates a lot of potential being left untapped. The retail companies are rising in India at a remarkable rate year after year. And, they have brought upon a striking change in the shopping attitude of the Indian customer. Many major international retail enterprises such as TESCO, METRO AG, WAL-MART have already recognised the scope of growth in Indian retail industry. As India is the second fastest growing economy in the world, it provides plethora of opportunities and increasing scope for the Indian retail market. Investor have outstanding investment options in Indian retail segment and allied sectors. India has the uppermost shop compactness in the entire world with around 1, 20,000 shops diagonally the country. Furthermore over, India has been rated surrounded by the top 10 FDI destinations of the world.

Ganesa has long been familiar to the people of Thailand but increasingly evident are the Ganesa cults flourishing in Bangkok. In the process, the deity appears to be acquiring new roles and functions. Ganesa now serves in a number of capacities for some; he is a "fixer," a deity of last resort that can help devotees to overcome obstacles in their lives. Not surprisingly, the growing popularity of the deity is reflected in a rapidly expanding trade in Ganesa images and icons, displayed in shopping mall exhibitions in a variety of forms, colours, shapes and sizes. Readily available at most of Bangkok's major retail outlets, Ganesa icons are traded online via social media. This paper attempts to explore this phenomenon, both by examining shifting belief practices associated with Ganesa locally and by looking at how these shifts are reflected in the evolving trade in Ganesa iconography. Considering both together, the authors will demonstrate that Ganesa cult is presently the focal point for a number of people, each with its own unique approach to the deity, powers and representation.

The efficiency of Retail Logistics is threatened by increasing regulation and up-coming consumer requirements concerning urban deliveries. A typical feature of morning deliveries to the retail outlets is the extensive traffic jams they encounter on their way – and there seems to be no improvement in sight, unless the basic system can be improved in some way. But just how can today’s retail logistics be changed? Urban Retail Logistics is presented as a new research approach to find answers to this question by following the idea of collaboration among retailers for bundling their urban store deliveries.