Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact Omni channel has on the ware-house activities in a central warehouse for electronic retailers. In order to fulfill the purpose the following research questions are analyzed and answered; “What are the challenges in the warehouse activities in a central warehouse for an electronic retailer when Omni channel is utilized?” and “How can the challenges in the warehouse activities be managed in a central warehouse for an electronic retailer using Omni channel?” Methodology: The research method for this study is qualitative with an abductive approach. A single case study has been conducted based on interviews and observations. Furthermore, the literature review is based on scientific articles. The empirical findings from the case study have been a complement to the limited literature of warehouse activities connected to Omni channel. The analysis has required the authors to continuously match the empirical findings and literature in order to be able to fulfill the purpose. In order to analyze the answer the first research question an Ishikawa diagram is used. Furthermore, a tree diagram is used in order to analyze the answer for the second research question. Findings: There are various challenges identified in the warehouse activities in a central warehouse for electronic retailers using Omni channel. Furthermore, the authors identifies challenges that have an impact on the warehouse activities where Omni channel is the cause for creating the challenges. Lastly, the authors provide the reader with improvement factors in order to manage the challenges identified. Theoretical implications: The authors identify five theoretical implications for this study; large pallets, non-integrated WMS, a non-suitable picking equipment, a non-suitable layout, and packing. These challenges occur as an outcome of Omni channel and therefore can be seen as a theoretical contribution to the limited literature. Managerial implications: It is crucial for electronic retailers to identify the challenges in the warehouse activities and understand the underlying reason for why the challenges arise. Furthermore, improvement factors can be identified and implemented by an extended anal-ysis. However, modifications are required since there are various factors that can differ be-tween electronic retailers using Omni channel.

ABSTRACT An Explorative Analysis Evaluation of Electronic Retailing Customer Adoptions In the Context of Saudi Arabia To learn more about what people in Saudi Arabia thought about online shopping, a survey was distributed throughout public locations in three major cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, and Medina. The questionnaires investigated consumers’ intersecting views regarding online and in-store shopping, and attempted to learn more about the perceived usefulness and attractiveness of online shopping in Saudi Arabia, as well as privacy or trust issues related to online shopping that are relevant for Saudi customer. The main findings of this study revealed several important tendencies. For one, the study found that males favoured shopping online more than females. Moreover, respondents appeared to find online shopping to be relaxing due to reduced sales pressure. Also, proficiency in the English language seemed to be a determining factor in the consumer’s preference to shop online. In addition, people who seemed to dislike physical shopping favoured the idea of e-shopping. The findings above are exploratory in nature due to the limited sample size and sampling process. Additional study with expanded sample across a broader Saudi Arabian geographic base could be used to confirm the use initial exploratory findings.

[pt] O objetivo desta dissertação é estudar o e-commerce como forma de comercialização, explorando as características das empresas que fazem uso desse tipo de comercialização, levando em consideração o foco logístico do fluxo de bens e serviços comercializados via lnternet. O presente trabalho pretende identificar os desafios logísticos do comércio eletrônico, abordando quais os aspectos mais importantes no comércio eletrônico segundo a visão do cliente. Objetiva, ainda, verificar os requisitos básicos para resolver o problema da logística de distribuição e entrega de bens e serviços para o consumidor final por meio de um estudo de caso aplicado ao site da empresa CasaeVideo (www.casaevideo.com.br), que é um ambiente virtual de negócios de comércio eletrônico no mercado varejista. A partir dos estudos dos problemas com relação à Logística Urbana, procurou-se mostrar a relevância da aplicação de novas recomendações de fatores críticos de sucesso, inseridos no modelo em questão, para ambientes de negócios virtuais. / [en] The objective of this dissertation is to study e-commerce as a way of marketing, exploring the characteristics of companies that use this type of marketing, taking into account the focus of logistical flow of goods and services marketed via Internet. This study aims to identify the logistical challenges of electronic commerce, addressing what is the most important in electronic commerce through the perspective of the customer. It also aims to verify the basic requirements for solving the problem of logistic distribution and delivery of goods and services to end consumers through a case study applied to the CasaeVideo s website (www.casaevideo.com.br), which is a virtual environment for ecommerce business in the retail market. From the studies of problems related to the City Logistics, sought to demonstrate the relevance of further recommendations of critical success factors, included in the model in question, for virtual business environments.

ABSTRACT An Explorative Analysis Evaluation of Electronic Retailing Customer Adoptions In the Context of Saudi Arabia To learn more about what people in Saudi Arabia thought about online shopping, a survey was distributed throughout public locations in three major cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, and Medina. The questionnaires investigated consumers’ intersecting views regarding online and in-store shopping, and attempted to learn more about the perceived usefulness and attractiveness of online shopping in Saudi Arabia, as well as privacy or trust issues related to online shopping that are relevant for Saudi customer. The main findings of this study revealed several important tendencies. For one, the study found that males favoured shopping online more than females. Moreover, respondents appeared to find online shopping to be relaxing due to reduced sales pressure. Also, proficiency in the English language seemed to be a determining factor in the consumer’s preference to shop online. In addition, people who seemed to dislike physical shopping favoured the idea of e-shopping. The findings above are exploratory in nature due to the limited sample size and sampling process. Additional study with expanded sample across a broader Saudi Arabian geographic base could be used to confirm the use initial exploratory findings.

Adopting the view that a virtual community is an influential social entity, this study provides a theoretical framework that identifies a linkage among the individual values of virtual community members, commercial orientation of virtual communities and attitudes towards the information provided by virtual communities. The present study suggests that individual values (i.e., purposive, self-discovery, social and entertainment) influence the selection of virtual communities. The community's commercial orientation (i.e., commercial or noncommercial), in turn, influences the individual attitudes towards the information provided by the communities. Credibility, relevance and empathy are the proposed attitudes that individuals may form towards the information provided in virtual communities. The proposed model provides valuable implications for marketers and business people who want to source virtual communities as viable marketing channels.

[pt] O varejo é um dos segmentos industriais que mais tem sofrido mudanças nos últimos anos, graças ao advento das tecnologias de informação e de telecomunicações que revolucionaram o mercado. Nos últimos 50 anos os supermercados brasileiros evoluíram de sua primeira loja até as lojas eletrônicas. Por um lado, estas aparecem para suas proprietárias como soluções baratas para expansão. Por outro, alguns segmentos de consumidores têm muita resistência a fazer suas compras pela Internet. Muitas pessoas, usuárias de computador e de Internet, preferem ir à loja em vez de fazer suas compras pela web. A proposta deste trabalho foi realizar uma pesquisa exploratória sobre as razões que levam consumidores a não utilizarem o meio eletrônico no momento de fazer suas compras de supermercado. O objetivo foi atingido em etapas. Inicialmente os atributos característicos das lojas de supermercado foram levantados através de pesquisa de observação. A etapa seguinte foi a realização de uma pesquisa qualitativa com grupos de discussão, com a finalidade de estudar a interação dos consumidores com os sites de supermercados através do método da análise do conteúdo. Por último, foi realizada uma pesquisa quantitativa com uma amostra de consumidores, a fim de levantar e testar as barreiras. A análise dos dados obtidos na pesquisa comprovou que existem barreiras para que consumidores com acesso a computador e Internet façam compras de supermercado on- line, as quais podem ser trabalhadas pelo varejista através de mudanças em seu mix de marketing. / [en] Retailing is an industrial segment which has changed much in the last few years because of the development of information and telecommunication technologies that brought up a revolution in the world. In the last 50 years, Brazilian supermarkets have evolved from the first brick- and-mortar store to ecommerce. On the one hand, electronic supermarkets seem like a cheap solution for the expansion of their companies. On the other, certain consumer segments have great resistance in doing their shopping on the Internet. Many people, regular computer and Internet-users, would rather go to the physical store than do their shopping in the website. The goal of this paper is to perform an exploratory research on the reasons why consumers do not use electronic media when they do their supermarket shopping. To achieve this goal we went through certain steps. First, the attributes of brick-and-mortar supermarkets were described by observatory research. The following step was a qualitative research with focus groups, with the objective of studying the interaction of consumers with supermarket websites done through discourse analysis. The last step was a quantitative research with a sample of consumers, to raise and test the barriers. The analysis of the data obtained showed the existence of barriers to online supermarket shopping for consumers with access to computers and the Internet. These barriers can be overcome by the retailer through a change in the marketing mix.