METHODICAL APPROACHES TO ESTIMATING THE LEVEL OF COMPETITIVENESS OF TRADING ENTERPRISES

The article analyzes the existing methodological approaches to assessing the level of competitiveness of trading enterprises in order to identify a complex of optimal methods of assessment, which would not only objectively show the real level of competitiveness in the dynamics, but also to identify ways to improve competitiveness. The scientific research on the assessment of the competitiveness of trading enterprises has been generalized and it has been found that the whole set of valuation methods is mainly combined into some groups based on different conceptual bases. It is established that the considered methods and approaches to assessing the competitiveness of trading enterprises do not contain a consensus, in most assessment methods and approaches there are only some similarities in terms of the homogeneity of indicators or research aspects of trading enterprise activity. The expediency of assessing the level of competitiveness of trading enterprises based on a structural and functional approach based on a multidimensional comparative analysis with the definition of an integral index, which would describe the three levels of competitiveness of trading enterprises: position, potential and instruments of competition of certain trading enterprises depending on the sphere of economic activity is proved. Assessing the level of competitiveness of trading enterprises involves the implementation of successive interrelated steps (from determining the factors, selecting statistical indicators describing these factors, normalizing (standardizing) these indicators, the magnitude of the weighted coefficients of the selected indicators within each block and integrating the aggregate data business enterprises) which are based on the use of various analytical tools. A methodological approach to determining the integral index of competitiveness of trading enterprises is proposed.