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<p>In today's retail environment, there are many consumer packaged goods (CPG) in the same category with various brands and differential products under the same brand. These differential products appear in different dimension sizes, display facing areas, purchasing costs and selling prices which are competing for a limited space in retail store shelves. Product assortment and space allocation of the chosen products to a limited shelf space is becoming more and more important for retailers. In this thesis we critically review the existing literature of shelf space allocation optimization models and solution techniques. We then propose a comprehensive model for shelf space allocation for a product category. Products are allocated to a two-dimensional area of a shelf section where a shelf section consists of multilevel vertical shelves. We account for adjustable shelf heights and product and brand integrity in a shelf section. Unlike the existing optimization models in the literature, we model our demand not only as a function of the space allocated to a product, in terms of the number of display facings, but also as a function of vertical product location in a shelf section and price sensitivity. Stackability of the products is also considered and products can be stacked depending on their package. Our objective is to maximize the retailer's daily gross profit. We numerically show that incorporating price changes and adjustable shelf spaces can have major impacts on the retailers' profit. Finally, we provide directions and suggestions for future research in this growing area of research.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

The advent of the Internet has not only enabled traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to open online channels, but also provided a platform that facilitated consumer-to-consumer information exchange on retailers and/or products. As a result, the purchasing decisions of today's consumers are often affected by the purchasing decisions of other consumers. In this dissertation, we adopt an interdisciplinary approach that brings together tools and concepts from operations management, economics, systems dynamics and marketing literatures to create analytical models in order to address a dual-channel retailer's optimal demand shaping strategy, through e-commerce advertisement efforts, store service levels, and pricing, in this new environment. Our findings show that the retailer's optimal demand shaping strategy, in terms of store service levels and e-commerce advertisement effort, critically depends on the product's e-commerce adoption phase. We also show that in the presence of higher operating costs for the store channel compared to the online channels, a channel-tailored pricing policy always dominates a uniform pricing strategy. Our work sheds light on the benefits of channel integration for multi-channel retailers. We show that the retailer can leverage the online channels to provide in-store pricing and inventory availability information in order to enable a more transparent shopping experience for consumers, and this strategy results in a "win-win" situation for all parties. / Ph. D.

No / At the 2005 British Academy of Management conference several well-known economic geographers, including Neil Wrigley, Gordon Clark, and Susan Christopherson, called for management researchers to engage with economic geographers on interrelated geographical and managerial issues in the study of (retail) firms. In this commentary we reflect upon the present geography -management interface.We begin by considering the term `interdisciplinary research' and its relationship to any management - geography interface. This is followed by a context-specific discussion of international retailing and the role of research on the retail transnational corporation (TNC) in developing an interdisciplinary agenda. This commentary represents an initial more business and management focused response to the call from geography academics for more/better interdisciplinary research at the geography - management interface.

Online grocery retailing holds potentially fruitful outcomes for retailers in South Africa. However, South African retailers and consumers have been slow to adopt and participate in this form of grocery retailing. This study explores the barriers and motivators to online grocery shopping in South Africa from a supply chain perspective. Therefore, the study was done from both the customer and the retailer’s perspective. Three qualitative data collection methods were employed to collect the data. Firstly, a website analysis of four e-grocers was conducted and compared. Secondly, two focus group discussions were conducted – among consumers who use online grocery shopping, and those who do not. Thirdly, an in-depth interview was conducted with one of the online operations managers of an e-grocer in South Africa. The results revealed four different ‘sets’ of motivators or barriers to online grocery shopping in South Africa: consumer-specific, retailer-specific, website-specific and supply chain-specific. Results from this study could be used to shed some light on how to overcome the hurdles of becoming a multi-channel grocery retailer in South Africa. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

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.

Online grocery retailing holds potentially fruitful outcomes for retailers in South Africa. However, South African retailers and consumers have been slow to adopt and participate in this form of grocery retailing. This study explores the barriers and motivators to online grocery shopping in South Africa from a supply chain perspective. Therefore, the study was done from both the customer and the retailer’s perspective. Three qualitative data collection methods were employed to collect the data. Firstly, a website analysis of four e-grocers was conducted and compared. Secondly, two focus group discussions were conducted – among consumers who use online grocery shopping, and those who do not. Thirdly, an in-depth interview was conducted with one of the online operations managers of an e-grocer in South Africa. The results revealed four different ‘sets’ of motivators or barriers to online grocery shopping in South Africa: consumer-specific, retailer-specific, website-specific and supply chain-specific. Results from this study could be used to shed some light on how to overcome the hurdles of becoming a multi-channel grocery retailer in South Africa. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

The work is about development of spain retailing chain in the field of textile and clothing. The goal of work is finding development the company during timeframe and comparing position of company with competitions.

Electronic commerce is a relatively new concept compared to other Internet applications. Theconcept has grown fast to cover a wide range of products and services and practiced in severalparts of the world. The process of buying and selling Fast Moving Consumer Goods, food andother necessities online is referred to as electronic grocery. Electronic grocery today is builton different types of solutions; purchasing from a grocery store via their webpage and buyingcomplete meal plans delivered with recipes to the consumers home. By purchasing groceriesonline, consumers get the chance to pick and choose from many different solutions andbrands as a result of which they save time and increase accessibility. The dominating products sold through electronic commerce in Sweden are electronics, clothesand shoes. The online grocery business is only 1.4% (2016) of the total grocery business inSweden. This means that electronic grocery seems to have had a relative slow consumeradoption which makes it differ from e-commerce in general. The purpose of this thesis was todiscover what barriers were associated with using e-grocery for Swedish grocery consumersand how these barriers was affected by user experience. This research was conducted with amixed method approach. The purpose was to establish which barriers are the most influentialto consumers choosing to switch from the traditional way of purchasing groceries in physicalstores to purchasing their groceries online. Understanding these barriers helped investigatehuman interaction with information systems. The study was mainly conducted through thedistribution of a self-completion questionnaire with 300 respondents. Results from the questionnaire suggest that user experience may effect consumers choice tousing e-grocery. Statistics demonstrate influences of consumers using e-commerce for othergoods rather than groceries. Some of the main barriers to adopting this new way of purchasinggroceries were quality of fresh groceries, the social factor of purchasing groceries in aphysical store and consumer’s habit. This study will therefore contribute to the field ofinformatics by providing both theoretical and empirical analysis that help distinguish theinfluence e-commerce has on grocery consumers and their daily life. An interesting area forfurther research would be to investigate and compare other demographic factors to getknowledge about how to reach other consumer groups. To pay more attention to elderconsumers and users of information systems, it perhaps would be an interesting direction tosee how e-grocery could improve their everyday lives. E-grocery is an important business toresearch due to the fact that it will probably be both faster and more convenient in the future. / Elektronisk handel är ett relativt nytt koncept jämfört med andra Internet-applikationer.Konceptet har växt snabbt och erbjuder ett brett utbud av både produkter och tjänster ochfinns i flera delar av världen. Köp och försäljning av snabbrörliga konsumentvaror, mat ochandra nödvändigheter på nätet kallas för elektronisk dagligvaruhandel. E-dagligvaruhandelbygger idag på olika typer av lösningar; köp hos dagligvarubutiker via deras hemsidor ochköp av kompletta måltider i matkassar som levereras med recept till konsumentens hem.Genom att köpa dagligvaror på nätet får konsumenter en chans att välja mellan många olikalösningar och aktörer, som leder till att de sparar både tid och får en ökad tillgänglighet. De dominerande produkterna som säljs på nätet i Sverige är elektronik, kläder och skor. Edagligvaruhandelnoch dess industri stod för endast 1,4% av den totala dagligvaruindustrin iSverige 2016. Detta innebär att elektronisk dagligvaruhandel verkar ha anammatslångsammare av konsumenter än allmän e-handel, vilket får det att utmärka sig på så vis.Syftet med denna uppsats var att upptäcka vilka barriärer konsumenter förknippar med edagligvaruhandeloch hur användarupplevelsen påverkade dessa barriärer. Undersökningenutgjordes av en mixad metod. Syftet med denna studie var att fastställa vilka barriärer som ärde mest inflytelserika när konsumenter väljer att byta från det traditionella sättet att köpadagligvaror i fysiska butiker, till att köpa sina dagligvaror på nätet. Studien genomfördeshuvudsakligen genom distributionen av en kvantitativ enkät med 300 respondenter. Resultatet från undersökningen indikerar att användarupplevelsen kan ha en inverkan påkonsumenternas upplevda barriärer. Statistiken visade att konsumenter använder e-handel ihögre grad för andra varor och tjänster än dagligvaror. Några av huvudbarriärerna för attanamma detta nya sätt att köpa dagligvaror var osäkerhet kring kvalitén på färskvaror, densociala faktorn som skapas av att besöka en fysisk butik samt konsumenters vanor. Dennastudie kommer därför att bidra till ämnet informatik genom att ge både teoretisk och empiriskanalys som bidrar till att visa vilken influens e-handel har på dagligvarukonsumenter ochderas vardagsliv. Ett intressant område för vidare forskning vore förslagsvis att undersöka ochjämföra andra demografiska faktorer för att få kunskap om andra konsumentgrupper. Meruppmärksamhet kan t.ex. riktas mot äldre konsumenter och användare av informationsystemför att ta reda på hur e-dagligvaruhandel kan förbättra deras liv. E-dagligvaruhandel är ettviktigt område att undersöka då det med största sannolikhet kommer att effektiviseras och blismidigare i framtiden.

The retail industry has faced many developments over recent decades as a result of digitalisation including the E-commerce and multichannel retailing phases. Consumers have seen the progression of new and digitised channels as well as solutions such as marketplaces, social media touchpoint and augmented reality tools. During the Covid-19 pandemic more consumers engaged on digital channels as the physical bricks and mortar stores were forced into lockdowns. However, the customer experience has not been seamless even in the era of digital retailing. Retailers have also experienced emerging dilemmas as a result of digitalisation. Despite the decades of retail digitalisation, the customer experience and industry remain somewhat tumultuous. Digitalisation has produced positive developments in retail. In parallel it has been challenged to adapt to the changes. The multichannel era has created a disjointed value chain and infrastructure that is impacting the customer experience. Furthermore, consumer behaviour has also changed. The current objective in the industry is to meet the new customer demands. To make it seamless for them, but also for the industry. This concept is omnichannel retailing - the current transformation objective in the industry. It remains novel and emerging. Many have started the transformation and evident in literature. However, this research domain remains minute in comparison to the knowledge in the E-commerce and multichannel domains. Those who have entered the journey are larger organisations and are experiencing the complexity of this digital transformation. This poses the question if  omnichannel transformation of small retail businesses is plausible, which also happens to represent the majority of the industry.  This qualitative case study’s objective is to gather and contribute to the limited knowledge in omnichannel retailing, and specifically for small business retailers. The business model concept and Complex Adaptive Systems theory, both associated to digitalisation of complex change has been combined as an omnichannel theoretical framework to assess the participants of this study. This study gathered empirical findings on business model changes and adaptive capabilities through in-depth interviews. The findings demonstrated small business retailers having the capacity to execute complex changes in their business models through adaptive behaviours. The study also highlighted areas in their business models and adaptive capabilities needing more consideration and development to support the ongoing omnichannel transformation.