Com maior acesso à informação, disponível em múltiplos meios de comunicação, o comportamento do consumidor vem sofrendo uma acelerada transformação. O cliente, neste trabalho denominado de shopper, que realiza compras em um ponto de venda, está cada vez mais consciente e exigente com relação a o quê, quando, como e onde comprar. Diante deste desafio, a presente dissertação se propõe a definir um sequenciamento de etapas e ferramentas para operacionalização do gerenciamento por categorias (GC) em varejos de pequeno e médio porte, de forma a auxiliar o gestor no processo de tomada de decisão, visando atender às necessidades dos seus clientes. Desta forma, primeiramente, foi desenvolvido e aplicado um método para a identificação e priorização de atributos de compra que influenciam o shopper. Com base nestes atributos, em um segundo momento, foi desenvolvida uma sistemática para implantação de GC em varejo de pequeno e médio portes. Esta sistemática está baseada em um conjunto de ferramentas e de indicadores de desempenho que permitem às organizações melhorar a gestão dos seus departamentos. Por fim, a sistemática foi aplicada a um supermercado de médio porte, em seu departamento de hortifrutigranjeiros, sendo apresentados os resultados oriundos desta aplicação. / Considering the easier access to information, available in different types of media, the customer’s behavior is changing and very fast. The customer, so called shopper, who makes purchases in a selling point, is increasingly aware of what, when, how and where to buy things. Based on this challenge, this thesis aims to define a sequence of steps and tools for implementation of category management (CM) in small and medium-sized retailers, to help managers in the decision-making process, to meet the customer needs. Thus, first, it has developed and implemented a method for identification and prioritization of purchase attributes which influence the shopper. Based on these attributes, in a second moment, it was developed a systematic of CM applied to small and medium-sized retail. This systematic is based on a set of tools and performance indicators that enable organizations to improve their departments’ management. In the end, the systematic developed was applied to a medium-sized supermarket, in their fresh produce department, and the results arising from this application were presented.

Observations of textual document management by individuals and organizations have suggested the popularity of using categories to organize, archive and access documents. The adequacy of an existing category understandably may diminish as it includes influxes of new documents over time or retains only a part of existing documents, bringing about significant changes to its content. Thus, the existing document categories have to be evolved over time as new documents are acquired. Following an evolution-based approach for document-category management, this dissertation extends Category Evolution (CE) technique by addressing its inherent limitations. The proposed technique (namely, CE2) automatically re-organizes document categories while taking into account those previously established. Furthermore, we propose the Ontology-based Category Evolution technique (namely, ONCE) to overcome the problems of word mismatch and ambiguity encountered by the lexicon-based category evolution approach (e.g., CE and CE2). Facilitated by a domain ontology, ONCE can evolve document categories on the conceptual rather the lexical level. Finally, this dissertation further considers the evolution of category hierarchy and proposes Category Hierarchy Evolution technique (CHE) and Ontology-based Category Hierarchy Evolution technique (OCHE) to evolve from an existing category hierarchy. We empirically evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed CE2, ONCE, CHE, and OCHE in different category evolution scenarios, respectively. Our analysis results show CE2 to be more effective than CE and the category discovery approach (specifically, HAC). The ontology-based category evolution approach, ONCE, shows its advantage over CE2 which represents the lexicon-based approach. Finally, the effectiveness attained by CHE and OCHE are satisfactory; and similarly, the ontology-based approach, OCHE, also outperforms the lexicon-based one. This dissertation has contributed to the text mining, document management, and ontology learning research and practice.

The Internet with growing electronic commerce is regarded as a new selling channel for retailers. Online catalog organization has become an important issue for e-tailing business development. While most online retailing web sites provide assistance for searchers who know exactly what they are seeking, little has been done to aid browsers who take a more open-minded and exploratory approach to navigation. Good design of online catalogs is essential for browsers to shop over the web. In this paper, we propose a two-phase approach to the design of online catalogs. In the first phase, the idea of category management that analyzes customers¡¦ purchasing behaviors is employed to construct a customer-centered online catalog. Cluster-based market segmentation helps determine the web hierarchy with clusters of products in higher levels indicating more interesting to customers. The second phase is to dynamically adjust the hierarchy when customers¡¦ preference indicated by browsing patterns is changed.'Relative access' that reflects the popularity of web pages is used as a basis to make online catalog adaptation. Finally, we apply this approach to real-world data collected at Galleze.com by Blue Martini Software. It shows that our approach can result in meaningful online catalog organization for customers to navigate. Our study therefore provides a good direction for researchers in designing online catalogs. Furthermore, e-tailing practitioners can apply our approach easily and gain benefits from such a design.

Zugl.: Marburg, Univ., Diss., 2009

Inköp är idag av central betydelse för ett företags lönsamhet och bidrar även på ett avgörande sätt till dess konkurrenskraft. Vidare ökar vikten av effektivt inköp av indirekt material i takt med den ökande andelen outsourcing av icke-kärnkompetenser, expansion av servicesektorn och en ökande global konkurrens. Kategoristyrning är idag en grundläggande del av en professionell inköpsorganisation och innefattar en metodik för indelning av företagets strategiska inköpsutgifter i kategorier och segment. Framtagningen av en kategoristruktur inleder kategoristyrningsarbetet och kan sägas vara grunden till utförandet av kategoristyrning. Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka hur en kategoristruktur för strategiskt inköp av indirekt material kan utformas med hjälp av metodiken för kategoristyrning. Studien är genomförd inom tillverkningsindustrin och har utförts som en fallstudie vid Väderstad AB:s strategiska inköpsavdelning för indirekt material. Företagets nuvarande kategoristruktur var utformad empiriskt med tiden och saknade en genomtänkt grundprincip för vilka inköp som skulle inkluderas. Därmed behövdes strukturen göras om samt anpassas till företagets ambitioner om att inleda kategoristyrningsarbete inom indirekt material. Studien innefattar även en nulägesanalys av företagets förutsättningar för kategoristyrning utifrån identifierade förutsättningar i litteraturen. För att uppfylla syftet har primärt historiska inköpsutgifter från företagets affärssystem använts tillsammans med intervjuer och inköpsutgiftsinformation. Därefter har litteraturens metodik kring kategorisering använts för att skapa kategorier och segment. Studiens huvudsakliga resultat är den framtagna kategoristrukturen bestående av 22 kategorier. Kategoristrukturen är utifrån paretoprincipen baserad på 20 % av antalet aktiva leverantörer vars summerade inköpsutgifter täcker 93 % av inköpsutgifterna för indirekt material. Studien resulterar även i en identifiering av indirekta inköp som ej tidigare styrts via den strategiska inköpsavdelningen. Utifrån nulägesanalysen av företagets förutsättningar för kategoristyrning, har studien även tagit fram rekommendationer för hur förutsättningarna kan säkerställas. Implementeringen av strukturen bör göras efter det att förutsättningarna säkerställts. Införs studiens framtagna kategoristruktur kan större fokus läggas på de inköpsbehov som är av strategisk betydelse utifrån summerade inköpsutgifter.

Com maior acesso à informação, disponível em múltiplos meios de comunicação, o comportamento do consumidor vem sofrendo uma acelerada transformação. O cliente, neste trabalho denominado de shopper, que realiza compras em um ponto de venda, está cada vez mais consciente e exigente com relação a o quê, quando, como e onde comprar. Diante deste desafio, a presente dissertação se propõe a definir um sequenciamento de etapas e ferramentas para operacionalização do gerenciamento por categorias (GC) em varejos de pequeno e médio porte, de forma a auxiliar o gestor no processo de tomada de decisão, visando atender às necessidades dos seus clientes. Desta forma, primeiramente, foi desenvolvido e aplicado um método para a identificação e priorização de atributos de compra que influenciam o shopper. Com base nestes atributos, em um segundo momento, foi desenvolvida uma sistemática para implantação de GC em varejo de pequeno e médio portes. Esta sistemática está baseada em um conjunto de ferramentas e de indicadores de desempenho que permitem às organizações melhorar a gestão dos seus departamentos. Por fim, a sistemática foi aplicada a um supermercado de médio porte, em seu departamento de hortifrutigranjeiros, sendo apresentados os resultados oriundos desta aplicação. / Considering the easier access to information, available in different types of media, the customer’s behavior is changing and very fast. The customer, so called shopper, who makes purchases in a selling point, is increasingly aware of what, when, how and where to buy things. Based on this challenge, this thesis aims to define a sequence of steps and tools for implementation of category management (CM) in small and medium-sized retailers, to help managers in the decision-making process, to meet the customer needs. Thus, first, it has developed and implemented a method for identification and prioritization of purchase attributes which influence the shopper. Based on these attributes, in a second moment, it was developed a systematic of CM applied to small and medium-sized retail. This systematic is based on a set of tools and performance indicators that enable organizations to improve their departments’ management. In the end, the systematic developed was applied to a medium-sized supermarket, in their fresh produce department, and the results arising from this application were presented.

Com maior acesso à informação, disponível em múltiplos meios de comunicação, o comportamento do consumidor vem sofrendo uma acelerada transformação. O cliente, neste trabalho denominado de shopper, que realiza compras em um ponto de venda, está cada vez mais consciente e exigente com relação a o quê, quando, como e onde comprar. Diante deste desafio, a presente dissertação se propõe a definir um sequenciamento de etapas e ferramentas para operacionalização do gerenciamento por categorias (GC) em varejos de pequeno e médio porte, de forma a auxiliar o gestor no processo de tomada de decisão, visando atender às necessidades dos seus clientes. Desta forma, primeiramente, foi desenvolvido e aplicado um método para a identificação e priorização de atributos de compra que influenciam o shopper. Com base nestes atributos, em um segundo momento, foi desenvolvida uma sistemática para implantação de GC em varejo de pequeno e médio portes. Esta sistemática está baseada em um conjunto de ferramentas e de indicadores de desempenho que permitem às organizações melhorar a gestão dos seus departamentos. Por fim, a sistemática foi aplicada a um supermercado de médio porte, em seu departamento de hortifrutigranjeiros, sendo apresentados os resultados oriundos desta aplicação. / Considering the easier access to information, available in different types of media, the customer’s behavior is changing and very fast. The customer, so called shopper, who makes purchases in a selling point, is increasingly aware of what, when, how and where to buy things. Based on this challenge, this thesis aims to define a sequence of steps and tools for implementation of category management (CM) in small and medium-sized retailers, to help managers in the decision-making process, to meet the customer needs. Thus, first, it has developed and implemented a method for identification and prioritization of purchase attributes which influence the shopper. Based on these attributes, in a second moment, it was developed a systematic of CM applied to small and medium-sized retail. This systematic is based on a set of tools and performance indicators that enable organizations to improve their departments’ management. In the end, the systematic developed was applied to a medium-sized supermarket, in their fresh produce department, and the results arising from this application were presented.

This thesis deals with the topic of category management in online retailing. Its goal is to identify the assortment factors that affect a company's financial performance. The result of the thesis work is a model applicable in strategic decision making on assortment. The first part consists of basic concepts of retail, marketing and strategic management. The purpose of this part is to provide the reader with the theoretical background for the following practical part. The research for the practical part is conducted on the basis of interviews with experts in the field and the author's own research in business. Each chapter presents a group of metrics that are based on analysis of business data in online retail market. Metrics describe the specific features of a product category and their impact on a company's revenue or costs. Each metric comes also with an assessment of the given category based on business data. The aim of the thesis is to give a comprehensive overview of assortment decision making. The thesis should also help the reader gain basic knowledge useful for managing an online retail store.

The aim of thesis The Importance of Category Management for Sale is to analyze the appropriateness and effectiveness of rules and process of Category management, described in the specialized literature, in practice, on the example of two stores. Using the gaining knowledge, in conclusion there will be given adequate recommendations how to increase the efficiency of cooperation between Nestlé Czech Republic sro and retailers on traditional market.

This thesis deals with category management of baby food on the Czech market. The goal of the thesis is to determine the theoretical basis of category management and define the category management process. Subsequently, based on the analysis of primary and secondary data, will be characterized the change in current shopping behaviour of mothers. Next goal is to design a general model structure of baby food exposure and through this model to determine whether the current situation on the baby food market, in the field of presentation of products, meets the needs and desires of customers. Primary data will be collected through the quantitative on-line questionnaire survey. The source for the secondary analysis will be the data from the project Market&Media&Lifestyle, market data and shopper behaviour research 2013.