Dongwang / DDTEvaluate an assortment through both product terms and coordination costs.
Begin with the buying task
A March 2025 Guangzhou Commerce Bureau report describes overseas Chinese buyers sourcing mixed, small-quantity assortments for local supermarkets and restaurants. This gives us a concrete research question: a buyer needs a set of products, while supply is spread across merchants and origins.
Separate the transaction costs
Search involves comparing specifications, packaging, minimum quantities and product information. Coordination links availability, collection timing, cartons and batch documents. Waiting matters because a delay in one item can affect dispatch of the whole assortment.
These costs influence the plan alongside purchase prices. A multi-merchant assortment can expand choice and also require more coordination. Its value depends on order size, relationships between items, replenishment frequency and destination conditions.
The Dongwang perspective
Organise the research around one buying list: define the customer, channel and destination, compare product terms, then bring packaging, collection, information and transport into one plan. The result should help select an assortment worth developing.
AI can keep organising requirements and product information, identify differences and support assortment comparisons. Industry experience helps interpret constraints and exceptions. This is an analytical framework grounded in a public buying scenario; it does not claim measured cost savings from actual orders.