Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur företag samlar in och utnyttjar kundinformation mellan försäljningskanalerna. Men även att utreda motiven bakom att bli en multikanalåterförsäljare samt produkttypens roll i beslutet. En kvalitativ fallstudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer har tillämpats, där fyra företag och en expert deltagit. Studien har visat att information om kunden har varit värdefull och har använts emellan handelskanaler för att anpassa butikens sortimentsmix, skapa välgrundade kampanjer och styra kunder till butik. De mindre företagen, sett till omsättning, har haft mer användning av kundinformation vid beslutet att öppna fysiska butiker än de större. Motivationen bakom att bli multikanalhandlare har varit potentialen att nå fler kunder men även bättre kundfokus. Andra faktorer än produkttyp har varit av intresse för företagen vid öppnandet av de fysiska butikerna men arbetet med returer har visat att produkttyp kan spela roll. / The study investigates how companies gather and use customer information between sales channels. But it will also investigate the motive behind expanding to multichannel retailing and the role of the product type in that decision. A qualitative case study with semi structured interviews has been applied, were four companies and one expert has participated. The study has shown that data about the customer has been valuable and has been used between sales channels to adjust the stores product mix, create well-founded campaigns as well as directing customers to the stores. The smaller companies, in terms of turnover, used a greater amount of customer information in the decision of adding stores than the larger ones. The motivation behind going multichannel has been the potential of reaching more customers but also getting better customer focus. Other factors than product type has been of interest to the companies when the stores were added, but the work around product returns has shown that the product type can matter.

This cumulative dissertation consists of four papers that investigate retailer switching and identify potential and threat of cross-channel retail services (CCRS) for retail businesses. The first, conceptual paper compares different theories and models of retail quality. It derives the concept of retailer aspects as a framework to measure retailer quality and further discusses how CCRS can serve as a tool to enhance those retailer aspects. The second paper discusses results from a consumer panel survey and quantifies the influence of satisfaction with retailer aspects on retailer switching during webrooming behavior. The findings of this second paper present the two retailer aspects assurance of delivery and competitive product pricing as key determinants for retailer switching. The third paper defines CCRS and outlines a conceptual classification scheme for CCRS assessments – the CCRS Pentagon. The fourth paper quantifies the impact of CCRS adoption and retailer aspect preferences on CCRS-induced retailer switching based on a second consumer panel survey. Results from this second study affirm the existence of CCRS-induced retailer switching. The paper concludes that CCRS can serve as a retailer’s lock-in mechanism, but that the availability of CCRS in retail environments also threatens retail businesses. In sum, the dissertation provides academic contributions and suggestions for further academic research as well as practical implications and management tools for application in retail businesses.:I. Introduction II. Enhancing Multi-Channel Retail Quality through Cross-Channel Services III. What Drives Competitive Webrooming? The Roles of Channel and Retailer Aspects IV. Cross-Channel Retail Services: A Service Classification Along The Retail Function V. Service-induced Retailer Switching – Power of Cross-Channel Retail Services VI. Conclusion Appendix A: Estimated parameters in baseline-category logit model Appendix B: Conditional marginal effects and conditional probability Appendix C: T-Tests for retailer aspects per service example

Cette thèse a pour l’objectif principal d’identifier et de comprendre les facteurs clés qui contribuent à fidéliser le consommateur à un Drive dans un contexte de distribution cross-canal. Elle se compose de deux parties. Dans la première partie, nous avons d’abord mené une revue de littérature tournant autour de quatre champs de recherche : l’innovation commerciale, la stratégie de distribution cross-canal, le comportement cross-canal et la fidélité du consommateur. Elle a été combinée à une étude qualitative exploratoire. Ces deux étapes nous ont permis de proposer un modèle conceptuel de la qualité de service perçue du Drive et de ses effets sur les représentations mentales du consommateur ainsi que sur sa fidélité au Drive évalué. La deuxième partie est consacrée au teste les hypothèses, le modèle de recherche et à l’analyse des résultats. Pour cela, une enquête quantitative a été réalisée auprès de 500 utilisateurs du Drive. Les répondants ont été subdivisés en deux sous-échantillons (N1 = 150 et N2 = 350) pour réaliser les analyses factorielles exploratoires et confirmatoires. Le test du modèle général ainsi que des hypothèses de recherche a été conduit en recourant à la méthode des équations structurelles, plus précisément à la modélisation PLS-PM au moyen du logiciel XLSTAT 2017. Nos résultats confirment que dans un contexte de distribution cross-canal, l’évaluation globale du consommateur ne dépend pas d’un canal mais de l’intégration des canaux utilisés qui permet au consommateur de vivre une expérience à la fois originale, plaisants et intéressante. Cette dernière contribue à la création de la fidélité du consommateur à un Drive. / The main objective of this thesis is to identify and understand the key factors that contribute to consumer loyalty to a Drive-in in a cross-channel distribution context. It consists of two parts.In the first part, we present a literature review around four fields of research: commercial innovation, cross-channel distribution strategy, cross-channel behavior and consumer loyalty. We complete this part with an exploratory qualitative study (in-depth interviews with consumers). These two steps allowed us to propose a conceptual model of the perceived quality of service of the Drive-in and its effects on the mental representations of the consumer (perceived overall value and satisfaction) as well as on its fidelity to the evaluated Drive-in.The second part is devoted to testing the hypotheses, the research model, and the analysis of the results. For this, a quantitative survey was conducted among 500 consumers of Drive-in. Respondents were divided into two sub-samples (N1 = 150 and N2 = 350) to perform exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes. The general model test and research hypotheses were conducted using the structural equations method. In detail, to run the PLS-PM (Partial least squares) modeling, we employed XLSTAT 2017 software. Our results confirm that in a context of cross-channel distribution, the overall evaluation of a consumer does not depend on a channel, but it is related to the integration of the used channels which creates an original, pleasant and interesting experience for consumers. With the integration of channels, Drive-in consumers have an original, pleasant and interesting experience which contributes to the creation of consumer loyalty.

This dissertation examines the innovations in electronic commerce and their managerial impacts. In the first essay, we investigate the importance of product and retailer uncertainty in a customer's online purchase decision as well as the uncertainty-reduction effects of retailer characteristics. In the second essay, we examine online pricing strategies of B2C retailers, with an aim to understand whether and how the driving factors of price dispersion evolve over time. Based on the theories of resource-based view (RBV), IT business value, and competitive dynamics, the third essay examines the factors that affect cross-channel capabilities and competitive actions in the apparel industry in the U.S.

Many mathematical models have been designed to remove noise from images. Most of them focus on grey value images with additive artificial noise. Only very few specifically target natural color photos taken by a digital camera with real noise. Noise in natural color photos have special characteristics that are substantially different from those that have been added artificially. In this thesis previous denoising models are reviewed. We analyze the strengths and weakness of existing denoising models by showing where they perform well and where they don't. We put special focus on two models: The steering kernel regression model and the non-local model. For Kernel Regression model, an adaptive bilateral filter is introduced as complementary to enhance it. Also a non-local bilateral filter is proposed as an application of the idea of non-local means filter. Then the idea of cross-channel denoising is proposed in this thesis. It is effective in denoising monochromatic images by understanding the characteristics of digital noise in natural color images. A non-traditional color space is also introduced specifically for this purpose. The cross-channel paradigm can be applied to most of the exisiting models to greatly improve their performance for denoising natural color images.

Problemställning: Konsumentbeteendet showrooming är ett hot mot den fysiska butikens kundlojalitet. För att företag med fysiska butiker ska kunna bemöta detta beteende i deras lojalitetsarbete behöver de veta vad som får konsumenter att engagera sig i detta beteende och varför. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att bidra till förståelsen för showrooming genom att undersöka hur olika kanalattribut och produkttyper driver ett urval svenska konsumenter till att engagera sig i showrooming. Forskningsfråga: Vilka olika kanalattribut och produkttyper leder till att urvalet av konsumenterengagerar sig i showrooming? Vilka kanalattribut respektive produkttyper har störst påverkan på deras engagemang i showrooming? Resultat: Urvalet engagerade sig i showrooming och deras beteende påverkades av kanalattribut och produktkategorier men på olika sätt. Vidare visade det sig att vissa av attributen och produktkategorierna inte alls ledde till att urvalet engagerade sig i showrooming. Kunskapsbidrag: Denna studie har bidragit med kunskap om friåkningsbeteendet showrooming genom att bidra med kunskap om vilka kanalattribut och produktkategorier som får konsumenter att engagera sig i detta shoppingbeteende och varför / Problems: The consumer behaviour called showrooming is a threat towards the customer loyalty of the physical store. In order for these companies to great this behaviour in their loyalty work they need to know what leads to consumers engaging in this behaviour and why Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of showrooming through an investigation about how different channel attributes and product types leads a selection of Swedish consumers to engage in showrooming. Research question: Which different channel attributes and product types leads to the selection of Swedish consumers engaging in showrooming? Which channel attributes and product types have the biggest impact on the consumers engagement in showrooming? Result: The selection engaged in showrooming and their behaviour was affected by channel attributes and product categories, however, differently. Furthermore, it became visible that some channel attributes and product categories did not lead towards consumers engaging in showrooming. Knowledge contribution: This study has contributed with knowledge about the phenomena showrooming through contribution of what channel attributes and product categories leads towards consumers engaging in this consumer behaviour.

La personnalisation peut améliorer la pertinence et l'utilité des communications marketing B2C. Cependant, ce n'est pas la panacée pour tous les défis marketing B2C. Dans le but de renforcer la pertinence et l'utilité des contenus de marketing personnalisés, nous proposons une approche de personnalisation marketing contextuelle qui permet d'analyser les comportements d’achat cross-canaux, d'interpréter les intentions du consommateur, de détecter l'état cognitif des consommateurs et d'utiliser la stratégie de personnalisation appropriée pour générer et afficher des contenus marketing personnalisés. Notre approche prend en compte le volume, la variété et la variabilité des données de consommateurs dans un scénario de shopping cross-canaux. En utilisant un mécanisme d'apprentissage, notre approche permet à un système de personnalisation marketing d'apprendre de la préférence des consommateurs pour le moment et le moyen de contact afin qu'il puisse ajuster sa stratégie de personnalisation dynamiquement. Le test A / B indique que notre approche peut améliorer la pertinence et l'utilité des contenus de marketing personnalisés et la connaissance des voyages d'achat cross-canaux peuvent remodeler la façon dont les entreprises planifient, exécutent et évaluent leurs événements marketing. / Personalization can enhance the relevance and usefulness of B2C marketing communications. However, it is not the panacea for all the B2C marketing challenges. With an aim to further enhance the relevance and usefulness of personalized marketing contents, we propose a context-aware marketing personalization approach that can analyze cross-channel shopping behaviors, interpret consumer intentions, detect consumers cognitive state, and use the appropriate personalization strategy to generate and deliver personalized marketing contents to them. Our approach takes into account the volume, variety, and variability of consumer data in a cross-channel shopping scenario. Using a learning mechanism, our approach allows a marketing personalization system to learn from consumers’ preference for the moment and medium of contact so that it can adjust its personalization strategy dynamically. A/B test indicates that our approach can significantly enhance the relevance and usefulness of personalized marketing contents and the knowledge of cross-channel shopping journeys may reshape the way firms plan, execute, and evaluate marketing events.

Cette thèse doctorale présente les principaux aspects des pratiques funéraires d’un vaste territoire « transmanche » dit « province médio-atlantique ». Ce travail s’intéresse au second âge du Fer continental ou période de La Tène (milieu du Ve – dernier quart du Ier siècle avant J.-C.) et au Iron Age britannique (fin Ve avant – milieu du Ier siècle après J.-C.). Les analyses des données relatives aux traitements des corps, à l’architecture des sépultures et au mobilier funéraire, mettent en évidence six groupes funéraires « médioatlantiques» et révèlent leurs évolutions spatio-temporelles. Cette étude permet d’appréhender les territoires « transmanches » via leurs particularités du domaine funéraire, mais aussi de visualiser celles des régions voisines de ses marges orientales. / This doctoral thesis presents the funerary practices of a large cross-Channel area, called “Medio-Atlantic province”. This work focuses on the second Iron Age or La Tène period (mid-5th century – last quarter of the 1st century BC) and the British Iron Age (late 5th century BC – mid-1st century AD). The analyses of the data on the treatments of the bodies, the funerary architecture and the grave-goods highlight six “Medio-Atlantic” funerary groups and expose their spatial and temporal evolution. This study allows to understand the main funerary features of Cross-Channel areas, as well as other funerary groups in theirs eastern margins.

Le management de l’expérience client est un terrain d’étude trop peu exploré en marketing (Lars Grønholdt et al., 2015; Lemon et Verhoef, 2017) et de nombreux professionnels décrivent les enjeux stratégiques, plus spécifiquement, de la conception de parcours client ainsi que la complexité managériale à les concevoir en situation de cross-canal.Notre but, dans une visée prescriptive et normative de la recherche, est d’améliorer, à travers la création d’un outil de gestion, les capacités marketing des managers de parcours client. Nous limitions notre travail doctoral au secteur de la distribution française en cross-canal. La thèse suit la méthodologie de Design Science (Romme, 2003) visant à concevoir un artefact, c’est-à-dire un outil de gestion dont les professionnels peuvent s’emparer pour réduire la complexité du management de l’expérience client. Trois études empiriques qualitatives sont conduites : deux séries d’entretiens individuels et une étude de cas pour tester l’outil conçu.L’artefact développé dans cette thèse comprend un ensemble de concepts, une méthode de travail ainsi que sa réalisation effective appelée instanciation, fondée sur les résultats des deux premiers terrains. Nous montrons que le choix théorique de considérer le parcours client comme une coproduction de ressources et de fonder la conception de parcours sur une structure modulaire permet d’améliorer les capacités marketing et d’en développer de nouvelles, contribuant ainsi au savoir managérial mais aussi académique car notre recherche explore, d’un point de vue théorique, les ressources engagées par le client et l’entreprise, ainsi que les capacités marketing nécessaires pour le manager et leurs dynamiques. / Customer experience management is less explored in marketing (Lars Grønholdt et al., 2015; Lemon and Verhoef, 2017) and many practitioners describe strategic issues, and specifically, the managerial complexity to design of customer journey in cross-channel location.Our goal in our prescriptive and normative research, is aiming to improve, through the creation of a management tool, managers’ marketing capabilities. We restrict our doctoral work to French cross-channel retail. The thesis follows the Design Science Methodology (Romme, 2003) aimed at designing an artifact, which is a management tool that professionals can take to reduce the complexity of customer experience management. Three qualitative empirical studies are conducted: two series of interviews and a case study to test the artifact.The artifact developed in this thesis includes a set of concepts, a method and its effective realization called instantiation, based on the results of the first two interviews. We show that the theoretical choice to consider the customer journey as a co-production of resources and the design of customer journey as a modular structure allows to improve actual marketing capabilities and develop new ones, thus contributing to managerial knowledge but also academic because our research explores, from a theoretical point of view, the resources committed by the customer and the company, as well as marketing capabilities for the manager and their dynamics.

The modern retail landscape is experiencing a continuous change due to digitalization. With the growing number of available channels, consumers' consequent behavior within the fashion retail environment are becoming ever more complex. Which thus poses a challenge for fashion retailers in trying to not only understand them, but how to serve them best. Along this evolution of retail due to digitalization, physical retail stores have closed down due to the increasing competition from e-commerce, although it remains the biggest distribution channel. The role of the physical store is thus experiencing elements of an existential crisis. In this, Generation Z remains an ambiguous consumer segment whose importance will only increase as the generation comes into its purchasing prime. But, Generation Z is not yet well understood as limited research exists on the subject. And as they’re the digital native generation, where retail omnichannel strategies are commonplace, seeking to understand their attitudes, preferences and perceptions of omnichannel retailing, but also the physical store, is thus essential moving into the future. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to distinguish and explore the value of the physical store in the eyes of Generation Z in an omnichannel strategy, within the context of fashion retailing. RQ: What is the role of physical fashion stores within omnichannel strategy, in regard to Generation Z? In order to answer the research question, the method of choice was a qualitative one. The consequent empirical findings were gathered from seven semi-structured interviews, six from Generation Z respondents and one from the CCO of Gina Tricot, yielding a managerial perspective. Thus, allowing for triangulation opportunities. Moreover, besides the empirical findings, we present a proposed framework which illustrates how and why Generation Z’s behavior, preferences and perceptions have ultimately altered the role of physical stores to be one of increasing complementarity within the context of an omnichannel strategy. In describing this evolution, multiple characteristics of Generation Z are distinguished. Finally, this thesis provides a deepened knowledge on how retailers may use their physical store within an omnichannel strategy to better serve Generation Z consumers in order to enhance customer experience and satisfaction. The empirical findings exhibit the physical store as an essential part for consumers within the context of other available channels online. Where multiple aspects otherwise not satisfied through online channels, serve an important purpose for Generation Z consumers. This thesis may thus offer value for retailers in how to balance various appreciated aspects of the physical store, whilst incorporating some of the desired elements of online, to increase the customer experience of physical stores.