XXIV Congresso da Associação Portuguesa de Investigação Operacional (IO2025)

Session

Session 3.3 - Retail and sales

Not scheduled

Room 3

40. Balancing Fulfillment Costs with Vendor Goals: Optimizing Order Allocation in Online Marketplaces with Reinforcement Learning

Sérgio Castro (INESC TEC, FEUP)

Apresentação regular

Online marketplaces provide a platform that connects suppliers with customers, allowing vendors to sell their products to a broader audience. To streamline customer experience, some marketplaces allocate a set of fulfillment vendors and stockpoints at the moment a customer is placing an order in the platform. This order allocation decision impacts not only fulfillment costs and customer...

39. Forecast-Driven Sales and Operations Planning for Balancing Supply and Demand in the Rice Industry

Francisco Monteiro

Apresentação regular

Industrial companies often struggle to balance supply and demand, leading to excess inventory, stockouts, and reactive decision-making. This case study examines a rice company that lacked formal demand planning and relied on siloed, unsophisticated forecasts. The main research goal was to improve decision-making, operational efficiency, and strategic alignment in the company. This was pursued...

52. Integrating perishables' short life into assortment optimization

Mariana Sousa (inesctec.pt)

Apresentação regular

Retailers’ product mix selection is a key determinant of market share, profitability, and long-term success. While a broader assortment increases the likelihood of meeting diverse customer preferences, it raises inventory-related costs and stockout risks, ultimately affecting operational performance and customer loyalty. This challenge is amplified for perishable goods, where limited shelf...

31. The introduction of online operations to brick-and-mortar grocery stores and its impact on spoilage

Pedro Amorim (INESC TEC | Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto)

Apresentação regular

Omnichannel grocery retailers often use stores to fulfill online orders for a variety of reasons (e.g., faster deliveries, labor availability). This strategy influences inventory management, particularly the spoilage ratio (defined as the ratio of loss to sales) in two opposing ways. Fulfilling online orders has the potential to increase the sales-to-stock ratio thereby improving turnover...