Decision Support System for Selection of Market for Purchase of Food Grains-A Retailers perspective

The revolution in Indian retailing industry has brought many changes and also opened door for many foreign players. In a market like India there is a constant clash between challenges and opportunities but chances favor those companies that are trying to establish themselves. So to sustain in a market like India companies have to bring innovative solutions.

It is observed that although the retailing in India is booming but it is still dominated by the unorganized retail sector. According to an estimate the unorganized retail sector has 97% presence whereas the organized accounts for merely 3%. With the increase in retail players and demand from the market, there is a need to ensure continuous supply of products at low cost. It is observed that most of the unorganized retailers are unaware of the market rates for different products. Especially in case of food grains product cost and transportation cost plays an important role in the profit calculation. There decision merely depends on the nearness to market.

This paper discussed the problem associated with the selection of market for purchase of food grains. Further it proposes a Genetic Algorithm(GA) based Decision Support System(DSS) to help retailers in market selection for purchase of food grains in an optimum manner.