Nanostore distribution: high-density logistics in megacities

In most developing economies, the major consumer goods retail channel consists of thousands of small traditional retail stores. We denote these stores as nanostores. Management of this channel is generally not understood: management practices tend to be local, and academic research is very sparse. In this talk, I will characterize this channel from a retail operations and from a logistics perspective, based on extensive qualitative fieldwork. Moreover, I will give an overview of recent more formal model-based studies that we are conducting in this channel. Our research addresses issues such as formal models that optimize channel selection by manufacturers and structural estimation models to understand nanostore channel evolution.