Retail store layout optimization for maximum product visibility
提出一种分层优化方法，将产品类别和子类别分配到商店位置和子位置，以最大化产品对购物者的可见性，并通过线性化技术解决二次分配问题，用实际案例验证了布局改进效果。
It is well-established that increased product visibility to shoppers leads to higher sales for retailers. In this study, we propose an optimization methodology which assigns product categories and subcategories to store locations and sublocations to maximize the overall visibility of products to shoppers. The methodology is hierarchically developed to meet strategic and tactical layout planning needs of brick-and-mortar retailers. Layouts in both levels of planning are optimized considering eligibility requirements and complete set of shopper paths, thus, they successfully capture the unique shopping behaviour of consumers in a store’s region. The resulting mathematical optimization problem is recognized as a special instance of the well-known Quadratic Assignment Problem, which is considered computationally as one of the hardest optimization problems. We adopt a linearization technique and demonstrate via a real-world numerical example that our linearized optimization models substantially improve the store layout, hence, can be used in practical applications as a vital decision support model for store layout planning.