THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF APPROACHES TO COST MANAGEMENT IN THE RETAIL TRADE SECTOR

Abstract

The article addresses the pressing issues of cost management in the retail trade sector, which plays a crucial role in the national economy by generating significant tax revenues and ensuring employment. It emphasizes that the activities of retail enterprises are characterized by high competition and cost intensity, which are further complicated by external factors such as inflationary fluctuations, war-related risks, currency instability, and global digitalization processes. The research problem is defined as the need to identify effective mechanisms for cost optimization that will ensure a balance between resource savings and improved customer service quality.

The study systematizes scientific approaches to cost management in retail trade (resource-based, process-architectural, functional, organizational, and strategic), presents their comparative analysis, and highlights their advantages and limitations. Special attention is given to the classification of retail costs according to several criteria: by relation to quality (costs of service improvement, defect prevention, corrective actions), by recoverability (recoverable, non-recoverable), by department of origin (sales floor, warehouse, administrative), by accounting method (financial, economic), by time continuity (fixed, variable), by decision relevance (relevant, irrelevant), by inclusion in product cost (basic, overhead), by impact on cost price (direct, indirect), and by economic content (material, labor, taxes and duties, other expenses).

The results of the study allow for a comprehensive assessment of the cost structure of retail enterprises, the identification of reserves for cost reduction, and the justification of optimization directions in logistics, marketing, human resources, and managerial subsystems. The article concludes that systematic classification and rational cost management are key factors in enhancing the competitiveness of retail enterprises in a dynamic market environment.