Bakgrund: Majoriteten av e-handelsföretagen verksamma inom klädbranschen når inte lönsamhet vilket till viss del beror på den höga returandelen som i dagsläget ligger mellan 20-50 procent. Returandelen har ökat under de senaste åren och tros öka även i framtiden. Genom att minska sina returer med ett fåtal procent skulle e-handelsföretag kunna spara flera miljoner, dock kan kundlojaliteten gå förlorad om inte företaget möter kundens förväntningar gällande returhanteringen. Syfte: Syftet är att identifiera olika kunders returbeteenden för att förstå hur företagens returhantering kan anpassas till olika kundgrupper. Metod: I studien har författarna använt sig av en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod med ett hermeneutiskt förhållningssätt och tillämpat en explorativ samt deduktiv ansats. Resultat: Studien har identifierat två olika typer av kundgrupper med olika köp- och returbeteenden, således bör företagen segmentera kunderna utifrån dessa faktorer för att skapa en väl utförd returhantering. Företagen kan förbättra sin lönsamhet genom att kundanpassa sin returhantering eftersom en kundanpassad returhantering medför en ökad kundtillfredsställelse, ett ökat mervärde och en förbättrad kundlojalitet, vilket resulterar i en ökad lönsamhet hos företagen. / Background: The majority of the e-commerce companies in the retail industry are not profitable which is partly due to the high percentage of returned goods, which in the current situation is between 20-50 percent. In recent years the proportion of returned goods has increased and is also believed to increase in the future. By lowering the returns of goods with a few percent the e-commerce companies could save several millions, however customer loyalty can be lost unless the companies meets the customers’ expectations regarding the returns process. Purpose: The purpose is to identify the difference in customers’ returning behaviors in order to understand how companies' returns management can be adapted to different customer segmentations. Research method: The authors of the thesis have used a qualitative research method with a hermeneutic approach and applied both an explorative and a deductive approach. Results: The study has identified two different types of customer groups with different purchase and returns behaviors, thus companies should segment the customers based on these factors and the customers should be treated differently by the companies when it comes to returns management. The companies can improve their profitability by customizing their returns management because it generates greater customer satisfaction, increased added value and improved customer loyalty which results in increased profitability for the companies.

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Although culture and subcultural norms have been subjected to increased scrutiny in recent years as explanatory constructs for various dimensions of consumer behaviours, religion as a subsystem of culture has received only slight attention in the marketing literature. The purpose of this study was to examine the religious influences on some selected aspects of consumer behaviour. Utilising consumer behaviour model of retail patronage as a framework, religious influences on the following aspects of consumer behaviour were examined: lifestyle, use of information source, shopping orientation, store attribute importance and store patronage. Consistent with previous research, religion was viewed from two different perspectives namely religious affiliation and religiosity. Religious affiliation is the adherence of individuals to a particular religious group while religiosity, or religious commitment, is the degree in which beliefs in specific religious values and ideals are espoused and practiced by an individual. Fieldwork for this study was carried out in Malaysia where the populace contains sizable percentages of adherents to four of the world’s leading religions, namely Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. The research data was collected by means of a survey through personal interviews with a structured questionnaire. Out of three hundred respondents targeted, two hundred and twenty-six questionnaires were deemed usable for statistical analysis. Statistical tests were calculated using statistical procedures of SPSS version 11.5. The main statistical techniques used include exploratory factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate ANOVA and multiple linear regression analysis. Findings indicated significant differences between religious affiliation groups in the areas of lifestyle, store attributes and store patronage. Significant differences between religiosity groups were also revealed in the areas of lifestyle, information source, shopping orientation and importance of store attributes. The usefulness of religious variables was further tested using multiple linear regression analysis with demographics and lifestyles were entered as extraneous variables. Results indicated that when the effect of other predictor variables were explicitly controlled (i.e. held constant) during the regression analysis, religious affiliation appeared to influence the perceived importance of store attributes. Intrapersonal religiosity, when controlling for the effect of other predictor variables, appeared to influence the use of information source, shopping orientation and perceived importance of store attributes. Similarly, interpersonal religiosity, when controlling for the effect of other predictor variables, was found to influence the use of information source, shopping orientation and importance of store attributes. Overall, findings indicated that consumer religiosity, as compared to religious affiliation, was more useful in predicting aspects of retail patronage activities. Thus it is suggested that religiosity variable should be given consideration in future patronage behaviour model building and research efforts. The implications of these results for theories of consumer behaviour along with the practical implications of the findings were discussed and opportunities for future research were provided.

[pt] Diversos estudos sobre risco percebido em compras online têm sido realizados, porém poucas foram as pesquisas que compararam a percepção de risco do consumidor entre canais distintos de uma mesma empresa de varejo. Da mesma forma, também são poucos os estudos encontrados na literatura que consideram o efeito da orientação para compras sobre a propensão do consumidor realizar compras online. Nesta pesquisa, conduziu-se um survey em uma amostra de 397 consumidores de um grande varejista multicanal, para mensurar a percepção de risco e a orientação de compra predominante em decisões de compra que privilegiam um dos canais disponibilizados pela empresa – Internet ou suas lojas físicas. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que o risco de desempenho e a orientação por conveniência são predominantes para a escolha do canal utilizado para a busca de informações, enquanto que os riscos de tempo, psicológico e financeiro são relevantes para a escolha, pelo consumidor, do canal em que será efetuada a transação de compra. Os consumidores que buscam informações no canal online, mas efetivam a compra na loja física, parecem perceber risco financeiro e risco de tempo (ou de conveniência) mais elevados do que os consumidores que privilegiam a loja online para essas duas etapas do processo de compra. Os consumidores que buscam informações na loja física, mas preferem efetuar a transação na loja online, parecem perceber maior risco de desempenho, sendo orientados mais por recreação do que os consumidores que tanto buscam informações quanto efetuam a transação no canal online. / [en] Many studies on perceived risk in online shopping has been made, but few of them compared the consumer s risk perception between different channels of the same multichannel company. Similarly, there are few studies in literature that consider the effect of shopping orientation on the propensity of consumers to make purchases online. In this study, a survey was performed in a sample of 397 consumers of a large multichannel retailer, to measure the predominant risk perception and purchase orientation in purchasing decisions that decide the choice of one of the channels offered by the company - Internet or their physical stores. The results suggest that the performance risk and convenience orientation are predominant in the choice of channel used for information search, while the time, psychological and financial risks are relevant to make a purchase. Consumers who seek information on the online store but buy in physical store seem to perceive higher financial and time risks (or convenience) than those consumers who prefer to use the online channel for these two buying process stages. Consumers who seek information on the physical store prefer to complete the transaction online store seem to realize higher performance risk and are more recreational oriented than consumers who seek information and buy the product on the online store.