<p>The furniture retail industry in Sweden has gone trough large changes during the last decades. Today the industry is tough and in the maturity stage where few new companies enter, especially if they do not have a unique offer. The furniture companies have become larger and fewer, the changes have lead to difficulties for smaller and medium sized companies to grow and be profitable.</p><p>Our purpose is to analyse, evaluate and compare three smaller companies in Stockholm with the intention to find what kind of marketing strategies they are using to survive on the Swedish market. First we interviewed the three companies to see what they do to survive on the market, then we asked 100 persons to fill in a questionnaire to see if they had the same opinion as the companies described.</p><p>With help from theories we prepared questions which laid the foundation to the empirical part of the essay.</p><p>The result from this study shows that the three companies differ from each other when it comes to using relationship marketing and placing the customer in the centre. All of them are aware of the importance of doing so, but because of different limits and possibilities they can not fully adjust everything to the customer. None of those three have clear formulated marketing strategies, but they all tend to focus on service in the stores and good quality products.</p><p>A conclusion is that small companies have to focus on a start position in the market which the larger competitors have not notice, or have chosen to ignore. If they do not have a unique offering, it may not be worth entering this competitive and mature market. The most important competitive factors are quality and service, since the small companies can not compete with the larger competitors on the price.</p>

Problem: Möbelbranschen präglas av en allt hårdare konkurrens såväl mellan enskilda producenter som mellan hela försörjningskedjor. Dessutom tenderar kundernas krav att bli allt högre när det gäller leveransservice. Hur kan inhemska aktörer stärka sin position gentemot sina utländska konkurrenter som har lägre kostnadsnivåer. För att bli en starkare aktör gäller det att förbättra de faktorer som går att påverka. Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka hur ledtider och leveransprecision kan förändras så att Svenska Möbels konkurrenskraft stärks. Vi avser att undersöka företagets relationer med kunder och leverantörer i försörjningskedjans närmsta led samt Svenska Möbels interna material- och informationsflöden för att identifiera faktorer som påverkar ledtid och leveransprecision. Metod: För att identifiera förbättringsområden i Svenska Möbels försörjningskedja tillämpades en kvalitativ studie baserad på intervjuer, observationer och kartläggningar. Detta har legat tillgrund för det em-piriska materialet som tillsammans med teoriavsnittet utgör resultatet i analysen. Avslutningsvis formulerar vi några slutsatser med ana-lysen som grund. Slutsatser: Det verkar finnas förbättringspotential i relationerna mellan försörjningskedjans aktörer. Genom närmare samarbeten och förståelse för varandras situationer borde konkurrenskraften kunna stärkas gällande faktorer som ledtider och leveransprecision. En annan slutsats är att företaget bör använda sig av sitt affärssystem i högre utsträckning vid såväl planering av produktion som vid återrapportering och kontroll av orderstatus. Ledtider kan reduceras genom ett förändrat transportupplägg från vissa leverantörer och branschen verkar ha en inbyggd flexibilitet när det gäller ledtider. / Abstract Problem: The furniture industry is characterized by an increasing competition between the companies as well as whole supply chains. The customers are also more demanding and hard to satisfy, especially according to delivery reliability and delivery lead-time. How can the domestic companies meet the competition from foreign competitors and become a stronger player in the market. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to find the possible improvement areas in the company as well as in the supply chain with focus on delivery leadtime and delivery reliability. With this knowledge in our mind we will state some suggestions to improve the actual situation. Method: To identify the improvement areas we have used a qualitative study. The study is based on interviews, observations and mapping. Focus is on the focal company and their most important customers and suppliers. This material is later used as a starting point in our analysis where we compare it with our theoretical framework. Finally the analysis ends up in our conclusions. Conclusions: There seems to be some potential improvements that can be made in the supply chain and in the relations between the actors. For example can this be done through closer relationships and understanding of each others needs and situations. This will probably result in a more competitive supply chain and hopefully more satisfied end customers. Another conclusion is that the focal company should use their information system in a much extended way than today. This is most relevant in the planning of the production and delivering the status of a proceeding order. Leadtime reduction can be made with another logistical approach, especially in the relations with some suppliers. The market as a whole seems to have an embedded flexibility according to the lead-times.

<p>Problem: Möbelbranschen präglas av en allt hårdare konkurrens såväl mellan enskilda producenter som mellan hela försörjningskedjor. Dessutom tenderar kundernas krav att bli allt högre när det gäller leveransservice. Hur kan inhemska aktörer stärka sin position gentemot sina utländska konkurrenter som har lägre kostnadsnivåer. För att bli en starkare aktör gäller det att förbättra de faktorer som går att påverka.</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka hur ledtider och leveransprecision kan förändras så att Svenska Möbels konkurrenskraft stärks. Vi avser att undersöka företagets relationer med kunder och leverantörer i försörjningskedjans närmsta led samt Svenska Möbels interna material- och informationsflöden för att identifiera faktorer som påverkar ledtid och leveransprecision.</p><p>Metod: För att identifiera förbättringsområden i Svenska Möbels försörjningskedja tillämpades en kvalitativ studie baserad på intervjuer, observationer och kartläggningar. Detta har legat tillgrund för det em-piriska materialet som tillsammans med teoriavsnittet utgör resultatet i analysen. Avslutningsvis formulerar vi några slutsatser med ana-lysen som grund.</p><p>Slutsatser: Det verkar finnas förbättringspotential i relationerna mellan försörjningskedjans aktörer. Genom närmare samarbeten och förståelse för varandras situationer borde konkurrenskraften kunna stärkas gällande faktorer som ledtider och leveransprecision. En annan slutsats är att företaget bör använda sig av sitt affärssystem i högre utsträckning vid såväl planering av produktion som vid återrapportering och kontroll av orderstatus. Ledtider kan reduceras genom ett förändrat transportupplägg från vissa leverantörer och branschen verkar ha en inbyggd flexibilitet när det gäller ledtider.</p> / <p>Abstract</p><p>Problem: The furniture industry is characterized by an increasing competition between the companies as well as whole supply chains. The customers are also more demanding and hard to satisfy, especially according to delivery reliability and delivery lead-time. How can the domestic companies meet the competition from foreign competitors and become a stronger player in the market.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to find the possible improvement areas in the company as well as in the supply chain with focus on delivery leadtime and delivery reliability. With this knowledge in our mind we will state some suggestions to improve the actual situation.</p><p>Method: To identify the improvement areas we have used a qualitative study. The study is based on interviews, observations and mapping. Focus is on the focal company and their most important customers and suppliers. This material is later used as a starting point in our analysis where we compare it with our theoretical framework. Finally the analysis ends up in our conclusions.</p><p>Conclusions: There seems to be some potential improvements that can be made in the supply chain and in the relations between the actors. For example can this be done through closer relationships and understanding of each others needs and situations. This will probably result in a more competitive supply chain and hopefully more satisfied end customers. Another conclusion is that the focal company should use their information system in a much extended way than today. This is most relevant in the planning of the production and delivering the status of a proceeding order. Leadtime reduction can be made with another logistical approach, especially in the relations with some suppliers. The market as a whole seems to have an embedded flexibility according to the lead-times.</p>

The furniture retail industry in Sweden has gone trough large changes during the last decades. Today the industry is tough and in the maturity stage where few new companies enter, especially if they do not have a unique offer. The furniture companies have become larger and fewer, the changes have lead to difficulties for smaller and medium sized companies to grow and be profitable. Our purpose is to analyse, evaluate and compare three smaller companies in Stockholm with the intention to find what kind of marketing strategies they are using to survive on the Swedish market. First we interviewed the three companies to see what they do to survive on the market, then we asked 100 persons to fill in a questionnaire to see if they had the same opinion as the companies described. With help from theories we prepared questions which laid the foundation to the empirical part of the essay. The result from this study shows that the three companies differ from each other when it comes to using relationship marketing and placing the customer in the centre. All of them are aware of the importance of doing so, but because of different limits and possibilities they can not fully adjust everything to the customer. None of those three have clear formulated marketing strategies, but they all tend to focus on service in the stores and good quality products. A conclusion is that small companies have to focus on a start position in the market which the larger competitors have not notice, or have chosen to ignore. If they do not have a unique offering, it may not be worth entering this competitive and mature market. The most important competitive factors are quality and service, since the small companies can not compete with the larger competitors on the price.

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Abstract Datum: 2023-01-12 Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i Företagsekonomi, 15 högskolepoäng Institution: Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik, Mälardalens Universitet. Författare: Sonja Blomstermo, Wilma Boberg, Lisa Henriksson  Titel: Hur kan Möbelföretag Arbeta för att Utvecklas med Digitaliseringen? Handledare: Sara Melén Hånell Nyckelord: Detaljhandeln, möbelbranschen, digitalisering, e-handel, showrooms, Augmented Reality (AR), köpintentioner.  Teoretisk Utgångspunkt: The Theory of Planned Behaviour, köpintentioner.  Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka effekten av digitaliseringen av möbelföretag kopplat till e-handel, AR och showrooms. Studien ämnar att bidra med en ökad kunskap kring hur företag inom möbelbranschen kan arbeta för att anpassa sig till digitaliseringen och uppnå fördelar med hjälp av e-handel, showrooms och AR. Metod: En kvalitativ metod har tillämpats till studien som uppsatsen behandlar. För att göra djupgående analyser av hur två svenska små- och medelstora företag (SME:s) i möbelbranschen har anpassat sig till digitalisering har en kvalitativ fallstudie utförts. Vidare har intervjuer samt observationer inkluderats för att djupare undersöka hur företag inom möbelbranschen kan arbeta med e-handel med tilläggen showrooms och AR för att uppnå fördelar. Empirisk Grund: En observation av ett showroom tillhörande ett möbelföretag, tre observationer av AR-funktionen som ett möbelföretag tillämpat, två intervjuer med anställda på ett möbelföretag, elva intervjuer med konsumenter och sekundärdata.   Slutsats: Denna uppsats har påvisat att showrooms och Augmented Reality som komplement till e-handel inom möbelbranschen kan leda till köpintentioner. Slutsatsen dras att företag i möbelbranschen som enbart bedriver försäljning från e-handel skulle kunna uppnå ytterligare fördelar genom att kombinera AR och showrooms. / Abstract Date: 2023-01-12 Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Sonja Blomstermo, Wilma Boberg, Lisa Henriksson Title: How can Furniture Companies Work to Develop with Digitalization?  Supervisor: Sara Melén Hånell Keywords: Retail, the furniture industry, digitalization, e-commerce, showrooms, Augmented Reality (AR), purchase intentions. Theoretical Starting Point: The Theory of Planned Behaviour, purchase intentions. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to examine the effect of digitalization on furniture companies from the application of e-commerce, AR and showrooms. The essay intends to contribute with an increased knowledge about how companies in the furniture industry can work to adjust to the digitalization and achieve benefits with the help of e-commerce, showrooms and AR.  Method: A qualitative approach has been applied to the study of this essay. In order to conduct in-depth analyses of how two Swedish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME:s), in the furniture industry have adapted to digitalization, a qualitative case-study research design has been applied. Interviews and observations have also been included to further investigate how companies in the furniture industry can work with e-commerce together with showrooms and AR to obtain advantages.  Empirical Foundation: One observation of a furniture company’s showroom, three observations of a furniture company’s AR feature, two interviews with employees at a furniture company, eleven interviews with consumers as well as secondary data.  Conclusion: This essay has proven that showrooms and Augmented Reality as a complement to e-commerce in the furniture industry can lead to purchase intentions. Companies in the furniture business that solely conducts sales from e-commerce could obtain additional advantages from a combination of AR and showrooms.