<p><strong><p>Title:</p>Online consumer sales promotion in retail clothing companies – a study of four American companies’ websites. <strong><p>Authors:</p>Emma Berter and Christina Blomqvist <strong><p>Advisor:</p>Venilton Reinert <strong><p>Level:</p>Bachelor thesis in Marketing, (15 Swedish credits), Spring 2010 <strong><p>Keywords:</p>Online marketing, marketing mix, consumer sales promotion <strong><p>Question:</p>How can retail clothing companies use consumer sales promotion to try to increase sales on their websites? <strong><p>Purpose:</p>The purpose was to investigate how consumer sales promotion can be used on retail clothing companies’ websites to increase sales. <strong><p>Method:</p>This thesis is done as a qualitative research and with a deductive approach since we have studied theories and then done our own research. The data collected for this research was taken exclusively from the websites of the companies chosen to be a part of this research. <strong><p>Theoretical framework:</p>This chapter is introduced with theories regarding online marketing which is followed by a section on the marketing mix online. Further a closer look is done at one of the devices of the marketing mix; the promotion tools. There are five promotion tools existing and in this thesis a closer look is taken at the sales promotion tool. Consumer sales promotion which is one of the sales promotion tools are then at focus and the reader will through this chapter develop a deeper understanding for the different ways of using consumer sales promotion online. <strong><p>Empirical studies:</p>The empirical studies consist of data collected when the websites of the companies have been studied. <strong><p>Conclusions:</p>Through the research that has been made and through comparison with theories studied, conclusions hav </strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></p>

Title: Online consumer sales promotion in retail clothing companies – a study of four American companies’ websites. Authors: Emma Berter and Christina Blomqvist Advisor: Venilton Reinert Level: Bachelor thesis in Marketing, (15 Swedish credits), Spring 2010 Keywords: Online marketing, marketing mix, consumer sales promotion Question: How can retail clothing companies use consumer sales promotion to try to increase sales on their websites? Purpose: The purpose was to investigate how consumer sales promotion can be used on retail clothing companies’ websites to increase sales. Method: This thesis is done as a qualitative research and with a deductive approach since we have studied theories and then done our own research. The data collected for this research was taken exclusively from the websites of the companies chosen to be a part of this research. Theoretical framework: This chapter is introduced with theories regarding online marketing which is followed by a section on the marketing mix online. Further a closer look is done at one of the devices of the marketing mix; the promotion tools. There are five promotion tools existing and in this thesis a closer look is taken at the sales promotion tool. Consumer sales promotion which is one of the sales promotion tools are then at focus and the reader will through this chapter develop a deeper understanding for the different ways of using consumer sales promotion online. Empirical studies: The empirical studies consist of data collected when the websites of the companies have been studied. Conclusions: Through the research that has been made and through comparison with theories studied, conclusions hav

The internet has rapidly become a part of an every day experience for the consumer. The rapid expansion of information and communication technologies in daily business activities is the most important long-term trend in the business world. Quality is related to customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty in both the products and service settings and thus quality is expected to be a determinant of online retailer success as well. This study focused on the critical components of the business environment with regard to organizations retention of their customers and maintenance of their competitive advantage within an online environment. The main aim of this study was to determine the effects that customer satisfaction and service quality have on customer behaviour within an online environment. The population consisted of broadband users in the UK and the research instrument used was a questionnaire that was administered to a sample of four hundred consumers at four locations in the city centre of Victoria, London. The findings of this study are similar to previous studies conducted by researchers of service quality. The most important elements that surfaced were what customers require from an online shopping environment viz. reliability and efficiency of the website, correct product descriptions and advertising, accurate delivery times and correct orders. Best practices and recommendations with regard to organizations using past studies and models available as well as the use of strategic instruments to enhancement the organizations viability. It was recommended that organizational surveys be conducted as well as recommendations for empowering and equipping members of staff as well keeping service promises. Research is needed in the examination of inter-relationships among technology readiness, electronic service quality and electronic shopping behaviour of customers as well as research into actions on the Web site that most affect the identified key drivers of revisits or repurchase. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2006.

Conducts a deep research of the online and smartphone consumer behaviour with a focus on the Spanish Millennials. The main goal of the thesis is to identify a different online and smartphone pattern among Millennials in Spain, compared to the general population. At the same time, obtaining valuable and insightful information about the Spanish Millennials consumer behaviour and trends is another goal of the thesis. This thesis aims to provide key findings on the topic, adding valuable knowledge, based on the current situation and behaviour of this segment of the Spanish population.

The objective of the study is to extend the emerging body and scope of research on consumer’s attitudinal and behavioral responses to online consumer reviews by examining the role of both message content and source characteristics. That is, this study investigates how consumers process online consumer reviews within the context of message and source characteristics, and how these two factors influence consumer’s attitudes toward the review, attitudes toward the product, perceived credibility of the reviewers, and purchase intention. From this perceptive, the study broadens the understanding and importance of message and source factors to the persuasiveness of online consumer reviews. / text

In order for e-commerce businesses to attract customers and consequently increase revenue, it is essential to understand the behaviour of online consumers. This involves understanding how consumers react to website elements, and what could influence the adoption of online channels. Given the applied nature of this research area, a number of studies have been carried out by marketers and information systems experts in order to develop a better understanding of consumer behaviour and web elements impact on adoption of online services. However, as web services continue to expand, so does the need for further research concentrating on specific types of products or services. Many academic articles have been published to cater for specific web portals such as retailing, banking, governmental transactions, hotel booking, and many other areas. Whilst this is the case, there remains a lack of research examining customer behaviour when using airline websites. Given the specific nature of online consumers, and the amount of business surrounding e-ticketing, it is imperative that this gap in research is addressed. Multi-faceted limitations surrounding online consumer behaviour within the airlines industry emerge from the literature. For example, the majority of previous research has relied solely upon traditional theories and as such, other important perspectives related to travel warrant investigation. Additionally, apparent links between website qualities and website adoption remain under investigated in the context of the airline industry. Another gap in research relates to the investigation of the moderating role of travellers’ characteristics such as their demographics, internet experiences, and travel habits. Based on these limitations, this research aims to develop a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary (i.e. consumer behaviour, information systems, travel and tourism) theoretical model that is capable of examining the factors that influence travellers’ online satisfaction and intention to purchase air tickets from airline websites. In developing this model, this research adopts a positivist, deductive, and quantitative approach. Thus, based on the analysis and synthesis of literature, a conceptual model comprised of nine constructs is proposed. Inspired by the Information Systems Success Model, e-satisfaction is centralised in the model and suggested as the main predictor of intention to purchase airline tickets. Information web qualities and system web qualities are considered as antecedents of e-satisfaction. The two constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) are also integrated into the model. Other important factors such as e-trust, airline reputation, and price perception are also embedded. The suggested model has been validated using a measurement scale based on previously validated items. This research adopts an online survey that targets real travellers from Saudi Arabia who have used airline websites. Interviews, focus groups, and a pilot study were conducted to validate the survey items. Data collection procedures utilized the social media channels for the two operating airlines in Saudi Arabia as well as a snowball method. Data analysis techniques including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling were used to validate the relationships and to test overarching research hypotheses. Additionally, group comparison techniques including invariance analysis were used to explore the moderation effect of demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, education level, monthly income, occupation, and location), internet experience, and travel habits (i.e. origin of the airline used, actual tickets purchase, travel frequency, motivation for travel, type of travel, and type of funding). The results from this research suggest that the most influential factors motivating travellers to purchase online are e-satisfaction followed by website trust. Furthermore, travellers’ perceptions of website quality also played an important role in influencing e-satisfaction. Price was the next influential factor. Several other factors appeared to have direct and indirect associations with intention to purchase and e-satisfaction. Additionally, findings emanating from group analysis suggest that some demographic factors and travel habits have a moderating influence over the research hypotheses. As such, this research makes several contributions to the consumer behaviour and web quality literature within the travel and tourism context. The findings from this research can assist airlines in shaping their web development priorities and enable them to focus on the most influential factors. This thesis concludes with a discussion of the application of these findings, an evaluation of the studies undertaken, and suggestions for future research.

This dissertation studies the antecedents and consequences of the flow experience in online retailing environments. Flow is the enjoyable and engrossing experience that people feel when acting with total involvement. A review of previous studies suggests that applying the notion of flow to understand the online consumer experience is a promising but underdeveloped field with several conceptual and methodological issues. This dissertation attempts to contribute to our understanding of flow in online shopping in three ways. First, a three-part validity study was carried out using different approaches to construct validity and involving two sets of two flow measures: the Flow State Scale (FSS, Jackson and Marsh 1996) and the Internet Flow Scale (IFS). The first study related flow to behavioral criteria in online shopping. The second conducted a traditional construct validity study in which we developed and tested a “nomological network” of relationships between flow measures and other logically-related constructs. This study also included a Multitrait-Multimethod validity study. The third was a factorial validity study of the flow construct. These studies provided evidence of construct validity for flow and suggested that the FSS had advantages over the IFS in terms of validity. Second, this dissertation tested a comprehensive model of flow that included the underlying dimensions of flow, the mediating effects of perceived challenge and skill on flow, and antecedents and consequences of flow. Consequences of flow include perceived usefulness, affective responses to the site, and intentions to revisit and purchase. Overall, results based on data collected by a controlled experiment supported our model, suggesting that flow is a second-order construct and positively related to outcome variables. Thirdly, we studied the effect of Web site complexity on flow. Perceived site complexity was found to effect flow negatively. Investigating the effects of it on inducing flow in online shopping may eventually lead us to guidelines for improving the shopping experience by designing more capable Web sites.

In recent years, social commerce sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial have achieved great success in attracting new consumers and increasing store traffic for a growing number of businesses. However, it is still unclear how the information flow to reach new consumers is generated. Understanding this information flow is the key to the question of what lead to the success of these companies. In the online context, the key information disseminators can have both a large-scale network and a decisive influence on the nodes that are connected closely to them, indicating an important pattern of consumer purchase process. Here, we argue that one of the prominent advantages of social commerce is the information dissemination process, during which word of mouth (WOM) is generated to boost consumer traffic. In the present study, we conduct a cluster analysis to segment online shoppers according to their information dissemination contribution. Gatekeeping theory was used for conceptualizing consumers who tend to disseminate more commercial information and WOM in social commerce, providing us the theoretical basis for clustering consumers. Our findings suggest that a sizable proportion of consumers constituted the gatekeeper group (approximately 25%). Gatekeepers tend to be highly active in both finding the outside source of information and connecting it with inside social networks. In addition, different aspects of the potential to become gatekeepers divide the rest of the consumers into two groups. To date, the present research is the first to explore online consumer segmentations using the gatekeeping perspective. / text

The title of the study is “The use of advergames in creating online consumer engagement. A casestudy of LEGO.” In this study the concept of using advergames in creation of online consumerengagement will be explored. In order to narrow the scope of the study two research questionswere established: What are the elements of advergames that drive online consumer engagement?;How are advergames currently used by the market leading company in its marketing campaignsin order to create online consumer engagement? The outcome of the research can help deepenthe current knowledge of scholars and practitioners in their communication and brand buildingevolving advergames and the creation of customer engagement in this area.In order to gain more knowledge of online consumer engagement and advergames, numerousliterary sources were used such as: papers, articles, books, and annual reports of LEGO. Thecollected data is supported by a vary of interviews with employees of LEGO from differentdepartments.After analysis of the collected data and linking it to the theoretical framework numerousconclusions can be drawn to answer the initial research questions. First, the attributes thatstimulate advergames in creating online consumer engagement are the Unique SellingProposition (technical features such as: the technical platform, game type, dimensions, genre,prominence of advertising and congruity of brand and game) and the Emotional SellingProposition (representation elements such as audiovisual style, narration, procedural rhetoric).Currently, LEGO integrates digital games in their integrated marketing approach, linking themtightly connected to certain real life products. On the other hand, the importance of advergamesis growing as the study has identified that more and more company’s target customers (children)are moving towards digital entertainment specifically related to mobile technologies. For this, thecompany tries to create engagement and awareness by using advergames. The company tries toreach the light user group through storytelling and the middle to heavy user group throughadvanced technical elements of the games.The limitations of the study is in particular the fact that the cases were taken from one company,one product market and one target consumer group means that the results of the study should beconsidered carefully when applying for other companies, product markets and consumer groups.Secondly, the qualitative method of research means that it is heavily dependent on the individualskills of the researchers and more easily influenced by the researchers’ personal biases andpeculiarity.

This research explores the online purchase decision-making behaviour of consumers by introducing a comprehensive approach that covers two different viewpoints: a) individual-level behaviour and b) market-level behaviour. Individual-level behaviour enhances our understanding of how purchase decision-making processes unfold and whether they differ for different individuals. Drawing from decision analysis and consumer behaviour literature, four segments of online consumers are introduced based on two individual factors: decision making style and knowledge of the product. Archetypal behaviour of each segment is identified addressing variations in the process and process outcome for different groups. In addition, market-level behaviour investigates the actual behaviour of consumers in relation with different retailers in the market; it is based on the aggregated behaviour of 60,000 individuals. Not only behaviour in a particular website but also cross-visiting behaviour of consumers comparing multiple retailers is examined. For this purpose, a multi-level mixed-method approach is designed. Video recording sessions, think-aloud method, interviews and questionnaires are used to capture the dynamic decision-making process, segment consumers and measure the outcome of the process at individual level. Business process modeling approach and an adaptation of path configuration method are selected for modelling the process. Data from an Internet panel data provider, comScore, is analyzed to explore the market-behaviour of consumers visiting multiple retailers. A set of measurement frameworks, that have been developed to fully exploit the research potential of Internet panel data, are designed for this research. Two sectors of banking and mobile network providers are selected; this research methodology enables a much more detailed evaluation of online behaviour and can be applied in other consumer markets.A conceptual model of online purchase decision making is proposed synthesizing theory from three disciplines: consumer behaviour, decision analysis and Information Systems. This model is able to explain the complexities and dynamic nature of real-life decision-making processes. The results of individual-level analysis show that the synthesized model has an enhanced descriptive power. Purchase decision-making processes in the two sectors appear to be highly complex with a large number of iterations, being more unstructured in banking sector. The process is found to be influenced by the both individual characteristics and each segment exhibits a certain typology of behaviour. Behaviour in terms of the way stages are performed is identical across the two sectors; whereas it differs in relation to intensity of decision-making cycles, duration of the process and the process outcome, being a function of product/ market characteristics.The findings of market-level analysis revealed that banking websites are preliminary visited for using online banking services; despite the high portion of visitors, the intensity of research in these websites is low. On the contrary, mobile network providers attract a higher portion of consumers with purchase intentions and enjoy more intensive research. Consumers have a small consideration set in both sectors; and consider certain banks/providers rather than using the accessibility of all alterative on the Internet. It is evident that comparison sites play an important role in both markets affecting the behaviour of online consumers. Finally, the research stresses the use of the Internet as a complementary channel offering specific benefits in each sector.