No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the connection between store layout and how it affects us as shoppers. We formed our research questions based on literature. The study was based on observations of shoppers without their knowing they were observed. We didn’t tell shoppers since the science of shopping says that shoppers pattern of movement is something that’s subconscious and if the shoppers had known it would have affected the result of the study. The character of this study therefore demanded that shoppers were free to move naturally around in the stores where our study took place. After only a few observations we could see what the result was going to be. Shoppers were affected by the store layout. We also discovered a pattern of the shoppers’ movement and came to the conclusion that the store layout at MQ in Borås wasn’t optimal. The back part of their store wasn’t as well visited by the shoppers as it could have been with a better layout. The store manager, Jägmark, had in an interview confirmed that products that were places in this back part weren’t as new and even as trendy as the products in the front part of the store. She also said that this was due to products that was placed in the back part didn’t get as much attention as the ones in the front part. We came to the same conclusion but could see that this was partly because of a lack of understanding of their costumers’ pattern of movement through the store. Based on our research we think that MQ should make a few changes and by that receive a higher number of visitors in their back part of the store as well as get a better flow through the store. We found it especially interesting that the store, after all, already had a good store layout. For example we observed a phenomenon called “the pinball effect” which is a very good way of leading the shoppers through different parts of the store. We were surprised by the fact that Jägmark already had an understanding of how her costumers moved around in her store. Even if her understanding, according to us, can become better it was a new fact for us that managers or store owners already was considering the science of shopping as a tool for improving their store layout. The fact that shop owners should consider shopping as a tool for development and to improve their store layout is something we have made the conclusion of with this study. Perhaps even more important is that we think shop owners should all take some time to observe their shoppers in order to make improvements on their layout in order to enhance their strength as competitors. Since the costumers are kings in today’s competitive business of fashion retailer, all store owners should consider that the best place to influence consumers is in the store. / Program: Textilekonomutbildningen

Magíster en Gestión y Dirección de Empresas / Como objetivo general de este informe se propuso evaluar la factibilidad estratégica, técnica y económica para la creación e implementación de una empresa de servicios de asesoría en imagen personal y personal shopping en Santiago de Chile, focalizado al segmento Mujeres ABC1. Los resultados de este estudio demuestran que se ha cumplido con el propósito establecido, concluyendo que la propuesta es viable tanto estratégica, como técnica y económicamente. Se partió con una aproximación teórica y metodológica respecto al tema de estudio. Luego se realizó un estudio de mercado con el objetivo de entender al cliente, sus necesidades y disposición de pago por estos servicios. El público objetivo ha manifestado alto nivel de expectativas en relación a la contratación de los servicios y alta disponibilidad de pago, lo cual revela una tendencia al crecimiento del mercado en Chile. De la información relevada en las encuestas, entrevistas y análisis del mercado, se pudo constatar que el nivel de competencia y de oferta de estos servicios en Chile es bajo y que existe una oportunidad para desarrollar alianzas estratégicas con empresas de productos colaterales al servicio. Se diseñó una propuesta de negocio sobre el eje de una estrategia de diferenciación que permita captar una porción de mercado que no se está atendiendo con la oferta actual, y mediante una estrategia publicitaria agresiva ofrecer un producto que incorpora niveles de diseño, tecnología y calidad de servicio que han sido factores altamente valorados por parte de los potenciales clientes. Si bien la mayoría de los negocios que hoy están ofreciendo los servicios de asesoría en imagen personal y personal shopping argumentan que una estructura fija de personal no conviene porque genera más costos que ganancias, aquí se ha demostrado que con una propuesta diferencial, un desarrollo de marca que posicione a la empresa y una fuerte inversión en publicidad y promoción, se pueden lograr altos niveles de rentabilidad. El proyecto requiere una alta inversión inicial de US$ 29.545.000 que se podría recuperar en el plazo de un año de funcionamiento de la empresa, con una rentabilidad creciente en una proyección a 5 años. Finalmente, se realizó una evaluación económica financiera que confirma que el proyecto es rentable con una TIR de 135%.

No description available.

People all over the world are embracing online shopping and there is a general agreement that trust plays a key role in influencing online shopping frequency. This project seeks to address the increasing need for new studies in this area. This is an empirical project that investigates the moderating effects of culture on the impact of trust on online shopping frequency. The central focus of this project was to examine whether culture affects the decision of the international consumer to trust in online shopping contexts. In an attempt to contribute to both cross-cultural and e-commerce research, the project examined shoppers across 34 countries using two of Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions: Uncertainty avoidance and Individualism. The project took a post-positivist approach to research and adopted a mixed method research design. Thus, data were collected using both quantitative and qualitative research designs, which provided a complimentary triangulation of the results. Both secondary and primary data sources were used, as the project developed a model and tested several hypotheses based on the literature on e-commerce, social psychology, and culture. Seven hypotheses were tested and research results revealed that trust has a positive impact on online shopping frequency in a multicultural context. Interestingly, no moderation effects were found for culture. The importance of this project lies in the fact that it seeks to further research at the intersection of culture, trust, and online shopping. Moreover, unlike most e-commerce projects that gather data from students within a single country, this project examines data from respondents of various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, across several countries.

Background Worldwide, one-third of all produced food is going to waste, and the number is increasing every year which consequently calls for action. A substantial share of the food waste is the outcome of grocery stores throwing away suboptimal food which yet is eatable but due to the date labeling, damaged packaging or in terms of appearance standards cannot be sold. Throughout the last years, numerous unique businesses have been formed in Sweden to offer suboptimal food both online and in physical stores. Still, Swedish grocery stores stand for 30 000 tons of food being wasted which is directly linked to the still evident unwillingness to offer, purchase and consume suboptimal food. By no means, this is a significant problem and need to be changed in order to reach a more sustainable world. Till this day, qualitative research on the topic is scare. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to understand which components that affected Swedish grocery shoppers’ attitudes and purchase intentions towards suboptimal food in-store. Method In order to fulfil the purpose of this study, a qualitative methodology has been utilized. The qualitative data has been collected through semi-structured interviews amongst Swedish grocery shoppers. To explore the attitudes and purchase intentions towards suboptimal food product, an abductive research approach was applied to strengthen previous research findings and attempt to discover possible new theory.  Conclusion The empirical findings revealed that Swedish grocery shoppers in this research study hold an overall positive attitude towards suboptimal food. The study further reports four prominent barriers towards Swedish grocery shoppers’ purchase intentions of suboptimal food. In result, even though an overall positive attitude presented, the intention to purchase suboptimal food could be severely weakened by substantial restrictions encountered in grocery stores.

Going from having bought the most essential at the small shops close to home, better communications and an increasingly consumption oriented lifestyle has created a change in shopping behavior and has led to phenomenon such as shopping centres and more. These are constantly being built in Sweden: in the cities, outside the cities and more recently even in small cities -small cities as for one reason or another have access to a larger customer base which can have businesses to flourish economically. During the first decade of the 21st century, shopping centres have been established along the Swedish/Norwegian border. Since the Norwegian Krone is much stronger than the Swedish Krona Norwegians save a great deal of money on going to Sweden to shop. During the shopping trips to Sweden, it is mostly alcohol, meat, tobacco and candy that are being bought. However, other products such as clothing, technology, household appliances and more are also being purchased, all to save money on the trip. Together these cross border shoppers spent 11, 6 billion in Sweden during the year of 2010. This gives an average spending of approximately 10 900 SEK per cross border shopper on annual basis. Nordby, Töcksfors and Charlottenberg (small cities located in southwestern Sweden) are places characterized by Norwegian cross border shopping. Together, they generate billions every year and this only seems to increase. These places are relatively small in size but have prominent attributes such as proximity to the Norwegian border. Apart from these resorts and shopping centres, there are few or none similar places near the Norwegian border in the rest of Sweden. However, a place which is geographically well located and has a relatively large Norwegian and Swedish customer base is the ski resort of Sälen in west central of Sweden. Sälen is a village located near the Norwegian border, although fairly sparsely populated. The destination has annually about one million official guest nights, based on the 414 000 visitors who stay an average of about 4, 5 days.  Per visit, these tourists individually spend an average of 862 SEK on shopping at the destination. The expenditure of the mountain tourists together with the Norwegian border shoppers makes it very interesting to explore the opportunities for shopping development in terms of a shopping centre in the region of Sälen.

Abstract The purposes of the study were to improve the understanding of the Internet shoppers¡¦ motives and their influences on other stages at the EKB Model. According to an on-lined survey at 2001 with 6069 valid samples, 5 factors of motives were extracted. They were the needs of ¡§achievement, approval and happiness¡¨, ¡§self-recognition and show off¡¨, ¡§economical benefits¡¨, ¡§convenience¡¨, and ¡§ no disturbance¡¨. The factors in the information search stage were ¡§references to outside information¡¨, ¡§basis of own experiences¡¨, ¡§searching sequence with web information¡¨, ¡§promotion messages on web media¡¨ and ¡§information quality on current web shopping¡¨. The factors in the evaluation and choice stage were ¡§opinions from reference groups¡¨, ¡§contents in the web site¡¨, ¡§subsidiary service with the product¡¨, ¡§previous experiences of direct sales¡¨ and ¡§personal economical needs¡¨. Three clusters were formed according to the 28 motive variables. All respondents attached importance to the needs of ¡§no disturbance¡¨ and ¡§convenience¡¨. These needs were the main reasons why they shop on line. They differed from the needs of ¡§achievement, approval and happiness¡¨ and ¡§self-recognition and show off¡¨. Therefore we named the 3 clusters as ¡§ high-achievement motivated persons¡¨, ¡§mid-achievement motivated persons¡¨, and ¡§low-achievement motivated persons¡¨. The 3 clusters had different buying behaviors on information search, evaluation and choice, purchase and post-purchase. They also differed from the web usages and shopping patterns. Additionally, the results showed that women and young generation might play as crucial roles on Internet shopping in the future.

The goals of this dissertation were to determine the salient cognitive dimensions of retail image in the perceptions of consumers and the image attributes related to those dimensions. This study took advantage of multidimensional scaling techniques (MDS) to create dimensioned perceptual maps based on nonpredetermined attributes. Similarities data about five Dallas shopping centers, gathered by questionnaires from a sample (n=181) of women shoppers interviewed at the centers, were analyzed to discover the perceived dimensions of image. Similarities data were also collected on fifteen attributes previously found to be significant. MDS configurations of the attributes were compared with the retail image configuration by means of a matrix fitting technique. These comparisons categorized the attributes according to the dimensions with which they were congruent. Evaluation of these groups provided a means for identifying and naming the primary perceptual dimensions. Saliency of the perceived dimensions was tested by congruency matching respondent preferences to perceptions.

The Law of One Price (LOP) is one of the most frequently tested economic laws. In simple terms the LOP states that once price is converted to a common currency, the same goods should sell for the same price in different countries. We have extracted the data from the price comparison website PriceSpy over seven different countries to analyze the trend in price dispersion. The methodologies we have used were regression for comparison of three different country pairs along with descriptive statistics to analyze the price dispersion trends related to the exchange rate. We concluded that there are many factors to make the fluctuation in prices and deny the LOP.