Retail structures in focus

Foundations for sound decision making

Through statistical observation of the development of major outlet types in retail and wholesale, EHI lays important foundations for drawing macroeconomic and microeconomic conclusions. Changes in the size patterns of outlets are identified by regular retail censuses, as are major shifts in general locational patterns.

EHI devotes particular attention to scrutinising shopping centres and supercenters. In addition, economic analyses of the performance and cost situation of retailing show the effect of different concepts on performance. In detailed profiles, EHI provides comprehensive background information about the history and the success formulas of leading retail companies. We communicate the results and recommendations of our studies to the entire retail industry.

At present our research concentrates on the following areas:

• Inter-firm and store comparisons: cost and performance ratios, benchmarking
  self-service stores, supermarkets, discounters (soft), hypermarkets and supercenters
• Analysis of retail market
• Analyse of distribution structures
• Study of markets in new EU member countries
• Training for executives of retail enterprises from other European countries
• Study of existing outlet concepts and the prospects for new concepts