Betjäningskostnader i olika distributionskanaler
En fallstudie av ett svenskt bokförlag
In a time of economic turmoil and financial crisis profitability matters rise higher and higher on company agendas. Many companies are pressured to find profitability to avoid layoffs or even bankruptcy. Profitability essentially depends on the margin on the product or service sold and the costs associated with selling these products or services and hence these areas are of vital importance if companies are to improve profitability. Previous research has focused, for the most part, on product profitability while customer profitability has received less attention. This study is based on a case study of a Swedish publishing house and aims to investigate how the company?s Cost-to-Serve varies between its distribution channels. We use Activity-Based Costing to determine the case company?s Cost-to-Serve in different distribution channels. The channels studied are bookshop, book club, department store and Internet bookshop. Our findings show that the case company?s Cost-to-Serve varies substantially between the channels. Behind the variations lie, among other things, differences in purchase and return patterns, contractual arrangements as well as shared functions between the case company and its customers.