Selfridges is the second$-$largest department store in Great Britain. It works with House of Frasier, one of its competitors, to reduce operating costs by sharing channels of distribution to ship goods from more than $1500$ suppliers.

Refer to the scenario. In choosing a channel of distribution, Selfridges most likely relied on which of the following?

a$.$ market factors

b$.$ ownership requirements

c$.$ geodemographic requirements

d$.$ production factors