Developing an Efficient Promotion Strategy for a Multi-Product Retail Store : A Bayesian Network Application

This paper considers a Bayesian Network analysis for understanding the heterogeneous cross-category effects of different promotion activities and developing an efficient overall promotion strategy for a large retail store. More specifically we differentiate price reduction promotion and floor promotion and study their heterogeneous effect on consumer purchase behavior under a market basket setting. We then utilize Bayesian networks in identifying complex association structure in market basket dataset by analyzing the effects of different promotional activities and also include the effects of time, family income and size. We find from our Bayesian network analysis that the dominant cross-category promotion effect of price promotion is the indirect effect whereas the dominant cross-category promotion effect of floor promotion is the direct effect. Also, among the demographic variables we find that family size of the household is linked with more product categories compared to income and see that there are differences in the extent of the effects by product category. Finally, we also show the existence of products acting as a network hub and how they can be utilized by retailers faced with a limited marketing budget and suggest a more efficient promotion strategy.