Purpose

This study aims to discern emerging trends and provide a longitudinal perspective on merchandising research by identifying relationships between merchandising-related subdomains/themes.

Design/methodology/approach

This study sourced 657 merchandising-related articles published since 1960, from the Scopus database and 425 from Web of Science. After processing and normalizing the data, this study performed co-word and thematic network analyses. Taking a text mining approach, this study used topic modeling to identify a set of coherent topics characterized by the keywords of the articles.

Findings

This study identified the following merchandising-related themes: branding, retail, consumer, behavior, modeling, textile and clothing industry and visual merchandising. Although visual merchandising was the first type of merchandising to be used in-store, only recently has it become an emerging topic in the academic literature. There has been a further trend over the past decade to understand the adoption of simulation technology, such as computer-aided design, particularly in supply chain management in the clothing industry. These and other findings contribute to the discussion of the merchandising concept, approached from an evolutionary perspective.

Research limitations/implications

The conclusions of this study hold implications at the intersection of merchandising, sectors, new technologies, research methodologies and merchandising-practitioner education. Research trends suggest that, in the future, virtual reality and augmented reality using neuroscientific methods will be applied to the e-merchandising context.

Practical implications

The different dimensions of merchandising can be used to leverage store managers’ decision-making process toward an integrated store-management strategy. In particular, by adopting loyalty merchandising tactics, the store can generate emotional attachment among consumers, who will perceive its value and services as unique, thanks to merchandising items designed specifically with that aim in mind. The stimulation of unplanned purchases, the strategic location of products and duration of each merchandising activity in the store, the digitalization of merchandising and the application of findings from neuroscience studies are some of the most relevant practical applications.

Originality/value

This study provides the first-ever longitudinal review of the state of the art in merchandising research, taking a holistic perspective of this field of knowledge spanning a 60-year period. The work makes a valuable contribution to the development of the marketing discipline.

中文翻译：

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自助商品营销的过去，现在和将来的研究：共词和文本挖掘方法

目的

本研究旨在识别新兴趋势，并通过识别与商品相关的子域/主题之间的关系，提供有关商品研究的纵向观点。

设计/方法/方法

这项研究从Scopus数据库中检索了1960年以来发表的657篇与销售相关的文章，从Web of Science中检索了425篇。在对数据进行处理和规范化之后，本研究进行了共词和主题网络分析。本研究采用文本挖掘方法，使用主题建模来识别一组以文章关键字为特征的连贯主题。

发现

这项研究确定了以下与销售相关的主题：品牌，零售，消费者，行为，模型，纺织和服装业以及视觉销售。尽管视觉商品化是商店中使用的第一类商品，但直到最近它才成为学术文献中的新兴话题。在过去的十年中，人们对理解仿真技术（例如计算机辅助设计）的采用有了进一步的发展趋势，尤其是在服装行业的供应链管理中。这些发现和其他发现有助于从进化的角度探讨商品概念。

研究局限/意义

这项研究的结论对商品，行业，新技术，研究方法和商品从业者教育的交叉领域具有启示意义。研究趋势表明，将来，使用神经科学方法的虚拟现实和增强现实将被应用于电子商品化环境。

实际影响

可以使用商品的不同维度来利用商店经理的决策过程来实现综合的商店管理策略。尤其是，通过采用忠诚度促销策略，商店可以在消费者之间引起情感上的依恋，这要归功于专门针对此目的设计的商品，他们将其价值和服务视为独特的。刺激计划外的购买，产品的战略位置和商店中每种推销活动的持续时间，推销产品的数字化以及神经科学研究的结果的应用是一些最相关的实际应用。

创意/价值

这项研究对商品研究的最新状态进行了有史以来的首次纵向回顾，从整个60年的时间里对该知识领域进行了全面的研究。这项工作为营销学科的发展做出了宝贵的贡献。