IIM Lucknow| PGP | Term V | Retail and E-Commerce Operations
Mid Term exam: Nov 2021
Total marks: 20
Answer all questions.
Duration: 90 mins
The exam is closed-book. Answer in a separate answer booklet. I prefer clear, yet concise answers.
1. What is a hyperlocal LMSN? How is it different from a one-stop LMSN? (2 marks)
3. What makes grocerya difficult
category to be fulfilled online? (2 marks)
3. In a retail chain that is primarily brick-and-mortar, what are the advantages and disadvantages of
centralized assortment planning in comparison to decentralized assortment planning? ( 2 marks)
4. What is the difference between multi-channel and omni-channel retail? Give an example.
(2 marks)
5. What is crowd-sourced fulfillment? What are it's key advantages and challenges? (2 marks)
6. a. Explain RFID technology in simple words? How is this an advantage over barcodes?
b. Explain the key in-store logistics problems at METRO (which, in a way, are key problems in several
brick-and-mortar retail stores).
c. Identify which of the issues in b. above can be solved using Pallet-level, Case-level, and Item-level
RFID tags.
d. Which option do you think the company should choose and why?
(6 marks)
7. a. How did Sport Obermeyer convert a point (consensus-based) forecast to a probabilistic
forecast?
b. Generally once we have a probabilistic forecast, one approach for ordering is the classic
newsvendor model. Why would this not apply for the first order which the company places?
c. In addition to changing the forecast approach, what other process changes would you suggest to
reduce the stockout and
markdown costs?
(4 marks)
End of Question Paper