With the explosion of social media platforms in the interactive digital media realm and companies increased comprehension of the importance of having loyal customers, the question of social media usage in developing customer loyalty has become more and more prominent. Since social media allows firms to engage directly with the end‐consumer at a relatively low cost and with a higher level of efficiency, it is particularly important for small online branded retailers with limited marketing and PR budgets. The purpose of this study is to research how the use of social media can enhance customer loyalty on the Internet. A both qualitative and quantitative approach to data collection and interpretation form the methodological basis of the study. An in‐depth interview was conducted with small online branded retailer L’Homme Rouge to get an understanding of the brands current social media usage as well as future goals and aspirations. An online survey was conducted with L’Homme Rouge’s customers to examine their opinion concerning brands and social media as well as L’Homme Rouge’s social media usage. A total of 82 questionnaires were collected from customers in the age 20‐30 years. The findings indicate that small online branded retailer L’Homme Rouge has a good understanding of what their customers want to see on their social media platforms. This provide them with the possibility to post and upload content that the consumers value. However, the retailer to a certain extent lack knowledge of which factors are important for customers to be loyal and consequently how social media can be used to enhance customer loyalty. The study has found that gaining trust as well as getting customers to recommend a brand, are two important factors in terms of establishing customer loyalty on the Internet. Due to its interactive nature, which is useful for establishing relationships as well as sharing content, the study further provides compelling evidence that social media is an effective tool when it comes to trust and recommendations. The study concludes by presenting various suggestions that small online branded retailers can use to develop and maintain customer loyalty on the Internet. The fact that only one small online branded retailer was examined means that the exploratory findings need to be investigated more rigorously. A larger sample, including more online branded retailers, would permit a more detailed exploration of customer loyalty and social media and further strengthen and extend the results. / Program: Master Programme in Fashion Management

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo lograr la fidelización de los clientes, respecto al servicio y a los productos que ofrece el restaurante, debido a que no existe una adecuada relación entre los clientes y el restaurante. The present work aims to achieve customer loyalty, regarding the service and the products offered by the restaurant, because there is no adequate relationship between customers and the restaurant

Abstract not available

E-commerce is increasingly recognised as an integrated, rather than independent, part of the retail industry. As online competition grows and online marketing activities intensify, the importance of customer loyalty in e-retailing has also taken central stage in marketing research. This study explores the nature and characteristics of e-loyalty and its direct and indirect antecedents. Drawing from the literature on customer loyalty in the traditional, offline business context, it contends that e-loyalty is determined primarily by the quality of the relationship between an Internet retailer and its customers, and the customers' overall satisfaction with the retailer. Relationship quality, in turn, is influenced by the levels of perceived safety, trust and commitment that customers have in relation to their retailer, while service quality, Web site quality and value perception contribute to overall customer satisfaction in this context. Thus, relationship quality and overall satisfaction mediate the relationship between e-loyalty and its indirect predictors. To test these relationships, over 500 customers of four Australian Internet retailers were surveyed online. The questionnaire contains 92 indicators that have been either employed in prior research, or newly developed based on existing theory. These indicators were first factor analysed to determine the underlying dimensions of the research constructs. The relationships between these constructs were subsequently tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). In general, most hypothesised relationships were well supported, suggesting a consistency in the relationships between these constructs across online and offline settings. To this extent, the results indicate that existing offline marketing theories can provide a platform to create a body of knowledge pertinent to Web-based marketing. The results of the analysis, however, also show that not all hypothesised relationships could be upheld. Also, the findings indicate that the dimensionality of some constructs differs, to varying degrees, from what is reported in prior studies. These suggest that online consumer perception and behaviour are likely to differ, in some way, from those in the offline context, signalling a need for more context-specific research into this domain. On the whole, the study confirms the existence and benefits of customer loyalty in online retailing. In addition, it identifies four underlying dimensions of e-loyalty. Dimension 1 comprises behaviours commonly cited as the most prominent and beneficial indicators of customer loyalty (such as repurchase behaviour and word-of-mouth communication). Dimension 2 reflects the level of attachment that loyal customers feel towards their retailers. Dimension 3 indicates customer willingness to adjust their consumption patterns in favour of the retailer's range of offerings. The last dimension is related to customer willingness to move beyond a pure buyer-seller relationship, and to engage in partner-like behaviours (e.g., tolerating mistakes and providing feedback). With regard to relationships between the research constructs, the SEM results confirm that service quality, web site quality, and value perception are major predictors of overall satisfaction, while trust and commitment, but not safety perception, are antecedents of relationship quality. E-loyalty is not found to be significantly affected by overall satisfaction, whereas relationship quality only has a slightly noticeable impact on this construct. The findings thus fail to support the notion that customer satisfaction and relationship quality are two major antecedents of e-loyalty. The results also do not support the speculation that satisfaction and relationship quality are the main mediators of the relationship between e-loyalty and its primary antecedents. On the contrary, e-loyalty is found to be influenced directly by customer commitment, value perception and service quality, and indirectly by Web site quality, safety perception and trust. With online shopping growing in popularity, insights into the dimensionality of e-loyalty, as well as the factors that engender e-loyalty, can provide a useful framework on which appropriate marketing strategies could be developed to enhance the loyalty of online shoppers. To this extent, findings from this research are meaningful not only for marketing academics but, also, for Internet retailers.

"July 2003" / Bibliography: p. 161-170. / 170, [28] p. : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Builds a model of performance based on customer defined market orientation and which includes customer service (customer process) and customer retention (business performance). Examines the nature of market orientation and its impact on customer satisfaction and customer retention in the service sector. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Commerce, 2003

<p><strong>Aim: </strong>The aim of this study is to investigate how retailer’s customer loyalty program can influence the channel power and what relationship between retailer with manufacturer can be created when channel power changes.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A case study was adopted, and a qualitative research and face-to-face interview were used to collect the fundamental data.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Result & Conclusions</strong>: The results exhibit that the customer loyalty program implemented by retailer can increase its channel power (both in basic power and market power) and create a dominant relationship with high channel conflict with its manufacturer. Based on the research of the case company, I found a close relationship with cooperation and trust could be developed based on the customer loyalty program between retailer and manufacturer to create benefit for the both.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Suggestions for future research: </strong>Only adopted one case and one interview in the research is the main limitation. Additionally, the limited sample size limited the research in some generalizations. It is difficult to use only one case to represent the whole situation of the market. In the further, a larger sample size adopted in research can increases the reliability of researcher’s generalization.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Contribution of the thesis:</strong> The research discloses how retailer’s customer loyalty program can influence the channel power. The drawbacks of the dominant relationship which caused by channel power rising have been researched. How to develop close relationship and what benefit it can bring to retailer have also been investigated in the end.</p>

<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose of this essay is to study how the hotel chain Radisson SAS works with prolonged customer relations with their business clients, with other words the clients that have business agreements with them.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study will contain an inductive approach and qualitative methods. The qualitative research method is in the shape of a deep interview with the sales manager of Radisson SAS and qualitative interviews of chosen business clients to the hotel.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The results of this investigation show that business clients are controlled by what kind of agreements their company has.</p><p>The companies sign agreements with hotels and hotel chains that are able to satisfy big parts of their needs, if not all of them.</p><p>With the help of flexible solutions, a well known brand, and good relations, Radisson SAS has made sure that their business clients have prolonged their agreements.</p><p>They are a global hotel chain near transports, and business clients feel secure with Radisson SAS.</p>

Purpose:The purpose of this study is to investigate the most important factors for creating customer loyalty, which contribute to competitive advantage in the DMP industry.   Background: The emergence of the digital music industry in recent years has resulted in a competitive situation with new digital music portals (DMPs) entering the market. A DMP can be defined as ‘an e-business whose core service is to legally offer digital music by means of stream and/or download’. The industry has experienced rapid developmental changes on the online platform with an outcome of a steady growth in online sales. Customers can choose from a large music assortment and DMPs function as intermediaries between right holders and end-consumers, and customers can easily switch between rivals at low costs. Method: The research strategy used in this thesis was a qualitative research strategy. Data was collected from eleven interviews, from people working within the DMP industry, using semi-structured questions. The sample was selected through a combination of convenience and snowball sampling. The collected data was later interpreted and analysed. Coding was used as an analysis method, where the authors selected relevant data and created groups of themes related to the purpose and the research questions. Conclusion: The analysis results show that DMPs have to focus on performance, explicitly performance competing strategies for creation of customer loyalty, which overlaps value and trust creation activities. The most important factors for creating customer loyalty contributing to competitive advantage in this industry are gathered under three concepts: developing innovative new transaction structures, increasing customer affiliation through usability and editorials and to engage the customer in the portal’s service.

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate how retailer’s customer loyalty program can influence the channel power and what relationship between retailer with manufacturer can be created when channel power changes.   Method: A case study was adopted, and a qualitative research and face-to-face interview were used to collect the fundamental data.   Result &amp; Conclusions: The results exhibit that the customer loyalty program implemented by retailer can increase its channel power (both in basic power and market power) and create a dominant relationship with high channel conflict with its manufacturer. Based on the research of the case company, I found a close relationship with cooperation and trust could be developed based on the customer loyalty program between retailer and manufacturer to create benefit for the both.   Suggestions for future research: Only adopted one case and one interview in the research is the main limitation. Additionally, the limited sample size limited the research in some generalizations. It is difficult to use only one case to represent the whole situation of the market. In the further, a larger sample size adopted in research can increases the reliability of researcher’s generalization.   Contribution of the thesis: The research discloses how retailer’s customer loyalty program can influence the channel power. The drawbacks of the dominant relationship which caused by channel power rising have been researched. How to develop close relationship and what benefit it can bring to retailer have also been investigated in the end.

Title: Investigating factors that can have an impact on customer loyalty -an empirical study of IKEA     Level: thesis for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration   Author: Nana Wei 8502202-T141   Supervisor: Dr. Aihie Osarenkhoe   Date: 2010 – May   Aim: The aim of this thesis is to investigate which factors will have impact on customer’ loyalty strategy. And in this study, both markets of China and Sweden will be discussed. Therefore, the focus of this thesis is on the international companies.   Method: As the purposes of this thesis are descriptive and explanatory, the method used in this thesis is the qualitative method. Interview method is used in the thesis to collect data and information. Besides that, case study method is used in the thesis to analyze the data and information.   Findings: when considering how to retain customer loyalty, service quality, communication, advertisements is important for companies. Moreover, trust and commitment are also important for companies. Besides that, there are some differences between Chinese and Swedish markets, such as different attitude towards customer classifying method, and the different reasons of implementing customer loyalty strategy. Finally, some problems of customer loyalty strategy are studied.   Contribution: This research is about customer loyalty strategy and the focus of it is the comparison of Chinese and Swedish markets. Therefore, this thesis helps to better understand customer loyalty strategy in different markets.    Key words: customer loyalty, customer classifying, trust, commitment, communication