A new generation of conscious consumers have placed pressure on fashion retail businesses to implement sustainability into their respective business operations. Conscious consumerism is a driving force behind sustainable consumption as these consumers play a strong role when influencing business practices. Although many retailers have adapted responsible procedures by offering sustainable products to their consumers, there is a lack of research on identifying and understanding the conscious consumer holistically. The aim of the present research is to gain a better understanding of the conscious consumer in relation to the three pillars of sustainability (people, planet, profit). This study sets out to examine the Generation Z consumer market as they display traits of sustainable behaviour and also aims to unpack the main drivers of their sustainable purchase intentions within the South African fashion retail market. A self-administered online questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 years. From the self-administered questionnaires, 159 responses were completed and deemed usable. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) version 24. Firstly, descriptive statistics was used to provide an overview of the sample. Secondly, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to examine the relationship between the variables. This study found that the Health and Labelling and Peer Pressure dimensions of the Consumers' Sustainability Consciousness construct has a positive influence on Sustainable Purchase Intentions. In conclusion, the findings of this study have several important implications for academia, fashion retailers and government. The contribution of this study aims to enhance the existing literature on conscious consumption by showcasing the most reliable dimensions of Consumers' Sustainability Consciousness and Sustainable Purchase Intentions. The study offers significant insights for fashion retailers and government as the impact of eating healthy, the role of product labels and peer pressure were found to have a positive influence on Gen Z's intentions to purchase sustainably. Ultimately, the insights from this body of work will generate both important implications and opportunities for further research.

The ongoing consumer transition from offline to online shopping in the fashion retail industry requires retailers to take action. Not only do consumers shop more online, they also go online for research of retail products. Forecasts tell that bringing the online experience to offline stores might bridge the gap between the two channels. The online experience provides high-end digital content, and puts a demand on the product information offline as this was found crucial for the customer experience. The marketing possibilities in-store was found to be an advantage to bricks-and-mortar retailers. Thus, this study aims to investigate how the customer experience can be enhanced in retail bricks-and-mortar stores through digital product information. A survey was conducted to identify user requirements in terms of product information. An augmented reality prototype was formed to satisfy the identified user requirements. The prototype was tested in two user studies that evaluated the content, visualization, interaction and satisfaction. The prototype was iterated between the two user studies. The most crucial parameters of fashion retail product information were established, together with implications for the visual representation and interaction. It was found that there were unfulfilled user needs with existing service options, which were satisfied with the use of an augmented reality prototype for product information retrieval. The use of AR for this purpose also proved to be able to contribute to an omnichannel solution for multi-channel retailers. The conclusion was thus that the customer in-store experience could be enhanced by the introduction of an augmented reality prototype for product information retrieval, taking into account the implications for content, visualization and interaction provided in this study. / Den pågående konsumentövergången från offline till online shopping i modedetaljhandeln kräver att detaljhandlare vidtar åtgärder. Förutom att konsumenterna handlar mer online, använder de också onlinebutiker allt mer för undersökning av produkter. Prognoser förtäljer att införandet av onlineupplevelsen till offline-butiker kan överbrygga klyftan mellan de två kanalerna. Onlineupplevelsen tillhandahåller högklassigt digitalt innehåll och ställer krav på produktinformationen offline, eftersom denna konstaterades vara en avgörande faktor för kundupplevelsen. Marknadsföringsmöjligheterna i fysiska butiker har visat sig vara en fördel för detaljhandlare som existerar i offlinekanalen. Således syftar denna studie till att undersöka hur kundupplevelsen kan förstärkas i fysiska detaljhandelsbutiker genom digital produktinformation. En enkätundersökning genomfördes för att identifiera användarnas krav när det gäller produktinformation. En augmented reality-prototyp formades i anspråk att tillfredsställa de identifierade användarkraven. Prototypen testades i två användarstudier, som utvärderade prototypens innehåll, visualisering, interaktion och tillfredsställelse. Prototypen itererades mellan de två användarstudierna. De mest kritiska parametrarna för produktinformation fastställdes, tillsammans med implikationer för visuell representation och interaktion. Det kunde konstateras att en AR-prototyp kunde tillfredsställa ännu omötta användarbehov för inhämtning av produktinformation. Användningen av AR för detta ändamål visade sig också ha möjligheten att bidra till en omnichannel-lösning för modehandlare som existerar i flera kanaler. Slutsatsen var således att kundupplevelsen i fysiska detaljhandelsbutiker kan förstärkas genom införandet av en augmented reality-prototyp för produktinformationsinhämtning, genom att ta hänsyn till de implikationer gällande innehåll, visualisering och interaktion tillhandahållna i denna studie.

[pt] O conhecimento ou reconhecimento da marca é conceituado de acordo com um modelo de memória associativa e ocorre quando o consumidor está familiarizado com a marca, tendo em mente um conjunto de associações favoráveis. O alinhamento das estratégias de branding garante que as premissas do posicionamento da marca sejam identificadas pelo cliente. A partir da revisão de um referencial teórico multidisciplinar e de pesquisa de campo com entrevistas semiestruturadas, pretendemos compreender o conhecimento organizacional a partir da gestão pelo design, buscando a integração de competências transdisciplinares, a fim de garantir o alinhamento das diretrizes de branding no varejo de moda omnicanal. Inicia-se, assim, um ensaio sobre a geração do conhecimento organizacional transdisciplinar, baseado nas diferentes práticas de design, incluindo a projeção e avaliação de seus impactos, e garantindo a transformação contínua desse conhecimento para a manutenção de uma política de branding. / [en] Brand knowledge (or recognition) is conceptualized according to an associative memory model and occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand, holding a set of favorable associations in mind. The alignment of branding strategies ensures that the brand s positioning assumptions are identified by the customer. Building on a review of a multidisciplinary theoretical framework and field research using semi-structured interviews, we aim to understand organizational knowledge from a design management perspective, enabling the integration of transdisciplinary competencies to ensure alignment of branding guidelines in omnichannel fashion retail. Thus, an essay begins on the generation of transdisciplinary organizational knowledge based on different design practices, including the projection and evaluation of their impacts, and ensuring the continuous transformation of this knowledge for the maintenance of a branding policy.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T19:31:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Anthoula Fyskatoris.pdf: 12675240 bytes, checksum: 637a35caf864d1bba184f7e581bc7f0a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-23 / During the 1st half of the 20th century São Paulo consolidated itself as an urban center in which an important textile industry grew and caused important social transformations - not only in the retail market but algo in women manners and fashion. Some characteristics of the fashion retail and the social clothing universe in São Paulo during this period are the focus of this study. Through investigations it was possible to realize how this subject is full of aspects that sometimes do not converge, such as: fashion - more specifically retail fashion, trade features - including urban life, the press, the perception of elegance, life style, comfort or poverty. Besides that, the commercial establishments and retail dealers had an important status on the transformation of São Paulo into a metropolis, modulating the consumption of the growing population. These business men algo contributed to spread the irriage of a modern city (even more than it truly was). At that time, in the capital of São Paulo, the store window displays showed fashionable items desired by the elite. Somehow this provoked a sensation of closeness or a great distance among poor consumers regarding the foreign references from Paris, London and New York. Simultaneously, the analysis of fashion retail granted the knowledge of socio- economic changes in the city during the first decades of the last century, and further, it evidenced the lower class consumer's habits in clothing commerce. Due to the lack of official documents, this study is grounded on the dialogue among the press media, especially, the advertisement released in the magazine A Cigarra and the newspapers O Diário de São Paulo, Folha da Noite and Estado de S. Paulo. Other bibliographic references are books, theses, publications and documents available on the Internet. Additional documentation was also provided by Casas Pernambucanas. This abstraction aims to comprehend the fashion democratization and the beginning of consumption in this market throughout 1910 and 1940. The sources revealed that the fashion retail, through demand and supply of products (from stores and outdoors) that reflected the modernity - usually European, American or even similar - corroborated to widen the esthetical and cultural values. The fashion retailers, using the publicity of their stores and products as additional resource made possible to "sell" the images and foreigner manners, recognized by the residents of São Paulo as a symbol of distinction and social identification / Durante a primeira metade do século XX, São Paulo consolidou-se como centro urbano no qual se expandiu uma significativa indústria têxtil provocando transformações sociais relevantes não só para o varejo, como também para o comportamento feminino e a moda. Algumas características do varejo de moda e do universo social das vestimentas dos paulistanos neste período formam o eixo central desta pesquisa. Ao longo das investigações realizadas, foi possível perceber o quanto este campo temático é repleto de histórias que nem sempre são convergentes: história da moda e, em particular, do varejo, mas, também, história do comércio, da vida urbana, da imprensa escrita e das noções de elegância, bem viver, conforto ou pobreza. Além disso, a função dos estabelecimentos comerciais e de seus comerciantes ocupou um lugar importante na história da transformação de São Paulo em metrópole e na modificação dos padrões de consumo da crescente população paulistana, contribuindo, ainda, para que estes percebessem a cidade como mais moderna do que em seus tempos passados (e até mais moderna do que realmente era). Nesse momento, na capital paulista, as vitrinas exibiam os objetos de desejos das elites, provocando, em certa medida, uma sensação de proximidade ou de terrível distância entre os consumidores mais pobres e as referências vindas de capitais estrangeiras como Paris, Londres e Nova York. Ao mesmo tempo, a análise do varejo de moda possibilitou o conhecimento de algumas mutações socioeconômicas da cidade de São Paulo nas primeiras décadas do século passado, além de fornecer indícios sobre 0$ hábitos dos consumidores de baixa renda no comércio de roupas. Diante da escassez de documentos oficiais significativos, este estudo tem como fio condutor o diálogo entre a imprensa, em especial, a publicidade veiculada pela revista A Cigarra e pelos jornais - O Diário de São Paulo, Folha da Noite e Estado de S. Paulo - e as demais referências bibliográficas - livros, teses, periódicos e documentos disponibilizados na Internet - além da documentação fornecida pelas Casas Pernambucanas, objetivando a compreensão da democratização da moda e a inserção do consumo de baixa renda entre os anos 1910 e 1940. As fontes pesquisadas revelaram que o varejo de moda, através da demanda e da oferta nas lojas (e fora das lojas) de produtos que traduziam a modernidade - bens de origem européia ou americana, ou à semelhança de -, corroborou para a propagação de valores estéticos e culturais, em que os varejistas de moda, tendo como recurso adicional a publicidade de seus estabelecimentos e produtos, colaboraram para a "venda" de imagens e estrangeirismos, reconhecidos pela população paulistana como símbolos de distinção e identificação social

This study looks at human movement in order to formulate a principle that can potentially enrich the understanding of interior design and spatial awareness within it. It considers the spatial identity of the dis/abled body by looking at the importance of the embodied experience in relation to environment. The body has dynamic abilities; therefore it is an instrument for creating form. This tangible form in context with interior design can inform our understanding of spatial needs and be used as a design-informing tool. Specifically this project uses spatial identity as a theory to guide the conceptual ideas and as a practical tool to design a work environment and showroom for a client with Thrombocytopenia Absent Radius (TAR) syndrome. / October 2007

By the later decades of the twentieth century, retail internationalization was no longer the activity of a few multi-national retailers; revising the traditional view of retailing as a national business and the need to understand the process of internationalization. Academic research enriched the understanding of this activity, moving away from the early use of surveys to delve into the specific processes of the retailers in order to properly analyze foreign expansion activity. Initial research focused on the perspective of the firm, contributing to knowledge of the why, where, and how of the internationalization process. As this research expanded its scope, it became necessary for researchers to explore when internationalization occurs and to document what was the impact of internationalization on the host country. This call for research was made by Dawson (2003), who proposed a framework for the study of foreign impact on the domestic retailers of a host country. This study utilizes the Dawson model to measure, analyze, and explain the when and what of the retail internationalization process. In recognition of the complexity of the retail internationalization process, it was determined that the study would focus on one type of impact: changes in sectoral competitiveness. It was also determined that this study should be undertaken in a market and retail sector where substantial foreign entry had occurred and could potentially be measured, analyzed and explained. Therefore, the study is undertaken in the Canadian apparel sector between 1989 and 2007. The study was conducted as a mixed method research in two stages: an empirical study of market data and an interview study of industry experts. Since retail functions at the local level, the shopping centre was used as a microcosm of the market and provided empirical evidence to measure impacts in a temporal sense and by intensity. The interviews with industry experts were used to collaborate and explain the mall data, providing important first-hand context to explain the retail internationalization process. This study contributes to the validation of the Dawson model as a tool to measure and explain the impacts of foreign entry on a host country’s sectoral competitiveness, and through its methodology will provide the necessary modifications to the model for continued study of the retail internationalization process.

This study looks at human movement in order to formulate a principle that can potentially enrich the understanding of interior design and spatial awareness within it. It considers the spatial identity of the dis/abled body by looking at the importance of the embodied experience in relation to environment. The body has dynamic abilities; therefore it is an instrument for creating form. This tangible form in context with interior design can inform our understanding of spatial needs and be used as a design-informing tool. Specifically this project uses spatial identity as a theory to guide the conceptual ideas and as a practical tool to design a work environment and showroom for a client with Thrombocytopenia Absent Radius (TAR) syndrome.

This study looks at human movement in order to formulate a principle that can potentially enrich the understanding of interior design and spatial awareness within it. It considers the spatial identity of the dis/abled body by looking at the importance of the embodied experience in relation to environment. The body has dynamic abilities; therefore it is an instrument for creating form. This tangible form in context with interior design can inform our understanding of spatial needs and be used as a design-informing tool. Specifically this project uses spatial identity as a theory to guide the conceptual ideas and as a practical tool to design a work environment and showroom for a client with Thrombocytopenia Absent Radius (TAR) syndrome.

Sociala medier är idag en stor del av människors liv och har blivit en framgångsrik kanal för detaljhandelsföretag. Utvecklingen av sociala medier går ständigt framåt och har blivit en kanal för att sprida och inspirera kunder, skapa diskussioner och dela innehåll mellan deltagare. Detta medför en möjlighet för företag att vara mer tillgängliga för sina kunder, genom användning av dessa plattformar. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur företag inom den textila detaljhandeln arbetar praktiskt med strategier för sina sociala medier, i relation till mediernas utveckling. Studiens resultatet skall bidra till förståelse för vad företagen vill uppnå med sitt arbete med sociala medier, med hjälp av en utvecklad strategi-modell. På så sätt ska företag kunna tillämpa vår sammanställda sociala-media-strategi. I studien användes en kvalitativ metod där primärdata samlats in både via semistrukturerade intervjuer av sex olika textila detaljhandelsföretag samt via Högskolan i Borås sökmotor Primo och sökprogrammet Google Scholar som sekundärdata. Företagen tillämpar i de flesta fall inga strategier för sociala medier. Eftersom förändringen är så kontinuerlig är det svårt för de undersökta företagen att tillämpa en strategi, därför väljer de istället att införa en generell plan för marknadsföring i stort. Sociala medier är ett verktyg som utvecklas till att bli av större vikt i framtiden, vars syfte är att skapa värde för både kund och företag. När det kommer till att välja vilken social kanal företaget ska använda sig av behöver de först konstatera vilken plattform deras målgrupp befinner sig på. För att nå upptill kundernas förväntningar måste företagen uppdatera och utveckla kompetensen kring sociala medier. Företagen lägger stor vikt vid att bygga relationer med sina kunder för att skapa ett deltagande, på deras sociala medier. Frågor vi ställer oss utefter denna studie är, när inser företag att det är dags att tillämpa en strategi? Hur kommer strategin vara utformad? Vem tar initiativet att införa en strategi? Kommer strategin tillämpas i samband med att de traditionella kanalerna försvinner på grund av generationsbyte, eller kommer de tillämpas tidigare? Vilket vi anser blir en intresseväckande vidare forskning till ämnet. / Social media is a major part of people’s lives today and has become a successful channel for marketing for retail companies to use. The development of social media is constantly evolving and has become a platform for creating discussions and for sharing content between participants. Through the use of these platforms, this implies an opportunity for companies to be more accessible to their customers. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how textile retail companies work practically with their social media through strategies, in addition to the media development. The aim is to contribute to an understanding about how companies work with their social media, using a developed strategy model. In this way, our study will compile a social media strategy that companies can apply there after. In the thesis a qualitative method has been used where primary data is collected both through semistructured interviews with six textile retail companies and through the University of Borås search program Primo, and Google Scholar as secondary data. The conclusion is that, the interviewed companies do not apply social media strategies for their work. Due to the constant change, it is difficult for companies to apply a strategy and therefore they choose to apply a general plan for marketing instead. The companies place great importance in building relationships with their customers in order to create a participation for the customers, in their social media. Previous research shows that socialmedia is a tool of great importance that creates value for businesses and customers. The company need to identify the platform on which their target audience is located, in order to choose which social media channel the company should use. To achieve customer expectations, companies must update and develop the skills surrounding their social media. The questions we ask after this study are, when do companies realize that it is time to apply a strategy? How will the strategy be designed? Who takes the initiative to implement a strategy? Will the strategy be applied when traditional channels disappear due to generational change, or will they be applied earlier? What we consider becomes an interesting further research to the subject. This paper is written in Swedish.

Abstract Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration. Bachelor of Science with Specialization in Marketing – Main Field of Study: Business Administration. School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University, Course Code 2FE21E, 2018 Title: From Bags to Boxes: A Study of the Consumers Perception of Value in Online Fashion Retail Sales Authors: Nadine Bolm, Betty Hartigan Supervisor: Michaela Sandell Examiner: Åsa Devine Background: Online retail sales has been growing steadily since the late twentieth century. Fashion, as a segment of the online marketplace, is the largest market in cyberspace and as new companies are combined with old ones who want to establish a presence online, competition is stifling. As more companies offer fashion in the online world consumers behavior evolves with this new reality and customer-perceived value shifts as the consumers values in their transactions shifts. In order to gain and maintain a strong consumer base companies need to know what the variables are that make up customer-perceived value in hopes of affecting it. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explain the relationship between values of utilitarian nature, those being; monetary savings, convenience, product variety, product information, and customer-perceived value in online fashion retail and to explain the relationship between values of hedonic nature, those being; adventure, gratification, best deal, idea, and customer-perceived value in online fashion retail. Methodology: The research conducted here was an explanatory study to determine how different independent variables related to a single dependent variable. The study was deductive in nature and used a quantitative approach. Independent variables were studied with the use of a convenience sample and self-reporting survey posted online. Statistical analysis was conducted with data collected from 142 valid responses and through the use of validity and reliability methods the data was determined statistically meaningful and valid to test the hypothesis as accepted or rejected.   Findings: The findings of this study show that a new theoretical model was needed to better demonstrate the direct connection between variables that consumers identified as valuable to them in online fashion shopping, had with consumer-perceived value. By examining data collected through online survey it was determined that of the 8 variables, seen as valuable by research into consumer perceived value, 4 would be accepted as such. These 4 variables would become the basis for a new model that explained how consumers develop customer-perceived value. Conclusion: The research explains the relationship the 8 variables selected by previous research for their effect on customer-perceived value. It also provides a model for future research activities or for development of marketing plans with exceptional efficiency and effectiveness in mind. In directly relating each variable to customer-perceived value on its own merit it was found that the variables respondents valued most were of the more practical or utilitarian in nature aside from one, adventure, which possessed the highest level of value of the 8 variables.     Keywords: Customer-perceived value; Utilitarian value; Hedonic value; Online retail; Online fashion retail; Ecommerce; Monetary savings; Convenience; Product variety; Product information; Adventure; Gratification; Best deal; Idea