An Evaluation using AHP technique
Abstract
Among all retail formats hypermarket is growing very fast in UAE that is at the rate of 150 percent. The major players in this sector are Carrefour, Spinney’s, United, Choithram and Lulu. The focus of the problem is selecting a best hypermarket among the existing operators of Sharjah and for which we used seven major criteria for evaluating the hypermarkets such as product availability and variety, market coverage, channel density, customer density, nationality served, facilities and services and customer spending pattern. We used Analytic hierarchy process (AHP), developed by Thomas saaty (1980) to provide a simple but theoretically sound multiple criteria methodology for evaluating the alternatives.
Key Words: Hyper market, Analytical Hierarchical Process, Multiple Criteria
Introduction about UAE Hyper Market Industry
The retail sector in United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) is growing rapidly in the past 10 years. To absorb the growth, Different retail formats are introduced into the U.A.E market. The supermarkets are introduced into the market around 1992 and the one stop shop concept of hyper market is introduced in 1996. The retail sales and growth is mainly determined by Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, the three largest emirates of the U.A.E which account for nearly 75 percent of the population. The nearly 75 percent of the products sold in the super markets and hypermarkets are imported for the other countries where as only 25 percent of the products are produced locally.
The estimated annual value of the U.A.E. retail market is $2.5 billion. The estimated average annual growth in retail sales is 5-10 percent. The introduction of hypermarkets and superstores is re-shaping the retail sector. Hypermarkets openings increased 150 percent, reflecting the future market strength investors’ hold for mega store operations. Superstore and supermarket
References: Avraham Shtub, Jonathan F. Bard and Shlomo Globerson (1994), Project management: engineering, technology, and implementation, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Annual Reports of Hypermarkets in UAE Carlos Pestana Barros and Carlos Alberto Alves (2003), Hypermarket retail store efficiency in Portugal; International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Vol Carlos Pestana Barros (2005 ), Efficiency in Hypermarket Retailing: A Stochastic Frontier Model; The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, Vol. 15, No. 2 , pp 171 – 189. Carlos Pestana Barros and Carlos Alves (2004), An empirical analysis of productivity growth in a Portuguese retail chain using Malmquist productivity index ; Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 11, No.5, pp 269-278. Carlos Pestana Barros (2006), Efficiency measurement among hypermarkets and supermarkets and the identification of the efficiency drivers: A case study; International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Vol. 34, No.2, pp 135 – 154. Justo de Jorge Moreno (2008), Efficiency and regulation in Spanish hypermarket retail trade: A cross-section approach; International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Vol. 36, No.1, pp 71 – 88. Óscar González-Benito, Pablo A. Muñoz-Gallego and Praveen K. Kopalle (2005), Asymmetric competition in retail store formats: Evaluating inter- and intra-format spatial effects; Journal of Retailing, Vol. 81, No.1, pp 59-73. Óscar González-Benito (2002), Geodemographic and socioeconomic characterization of the retail attraction of leading hypermarket chains in Spain; The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, Vol. 12, No.1 , pp 81 – 103. Ricardo Sellers-Rubio and Francisco Mas-Ruiz (2007), Different Approaches to the Evaluation of Performance in Retailing; The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, Vol. 17, No.5 , pp 503 – 522.