The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive understanding of successful strategies in retail trade, overview of the Czech online grocery retail market and provide recommendations how to succeed in this market. This diploma thesis is intended to help established big grocery retailers, start-ups venturing into the online grocery retail and prospective investors into such start-ups understand the Czech online grocery market. First, we provide a summary of the major developments in the history of retail trade and e-commerce accompanied by several business strategy frameworks proposed by academics for achieving success in these two markets. Second, we define online grocery retail with its different business formats, analyse strategies used across the world and the biggest challenges of this business. Third, we provide an overview of the Czech grocery retail market, both store based and online based. Fourth, we present our findings from our customer survey and form our recommendations based on the findings of the whole thesis. The main contribution of this thesis is in providing an integrated understanding of the Czech online grocery retail market.

The era of the Internet has become increasingly important in our daily life. Internet channels are rapidly growing into sophisticated businesses. This thesis purpose is therefore to conduct an initial study on a newly approaching e-commerce business, namely the grocery basket business. As there has not yet been much research in this field the overall aim is to contribute to the research in this business area. There are many who argue that in relation to the Internet and e-commerce fields there are two other important fields: business model and supply chain. A qualitative approach is used, based on triangulation methodology including a multiple case study and a survey. The cases are two different types of e-commerce companies: brick-and-clicks and pure-players. An empirical investigation covering twenty interviews and a questionnaire with one thousand respondents has been conducted. Findings supported by the interviews and the questionnaire reveal much knowledge about the grocery basket business. This are analyzed in relation to literature of business model and supply chain and according to the two cases of companies in the business. The study concludes that there is a great deal of challenges facing the grocery basket business in both fields of business model and supply chain. In both cases it is a challenge to retain customers, flexibility for customers, competition and supply chain development. Regarding brick-and-clicks a major challenge is to make their physical channel and online channel work together. Regarding pure-players a major challenge is their dependency of wholesalers. In addition, recommendations to these acknowledged challenges are benchmarking on other successful grocery companies and/or other successful e-commerce companies. Additional recommendation for pure-players is that they should cooperate with a brick-and-mortar company. Finally, the study shows some decent potential in the business to reduce emissions. This by providing eco-friendly products with pre planned recipes to fit with the products, and having fewer products in stock.

Auch wenn Multichannel-Vertriebsstrategien Gegenstand vieler Untersuchungen sind, befassen sich nur wenige Studien mit ihren Auswirkungen auf Logistik- und Transportorganisation. Die zentralen Fragen lauten daher: Wie verändern sich die Warenströme durch die Einführung des Lebensmittelonlinehandels? Und haben verschiedene Formen von Onlineangeboten unterschiedliche Auswirkungen auf die Warenströme? Für die vorliegende kumulative Dissertation wurden Daten aus Frankreich und Deutschland analysiert. Im Mittelpunkt standen die Auswirkungen des Lebensmittelonlinehandels auf die Lieferkette, einschließlich der letzten Meile. Darüber hinaus war es das Ziel, die Strategien und den logistischen Transport der Distributoren im Hinblick auf den Kontext, in dem sie auftreten, zu verstehen. Die Arbeit bietet eine umfassende Untersuchung der beiden Märkte Deutschland und Frankreich. Die Ergebnisse einer vergleichenden Analyse zeigen, wie unterschiedlich sich die Warenflüsse über die gesamte Supply Chain durch das Angebot von Onlinewaren verändern. Neben der letzten Meile erfahren auch die vorgelagerten Strukturen in der Lieferkette eine Veränderung: I) Neue Standorte in Kundennähe für die Organisation der Onlinelebensmitteldistribution werden erschlossen. II) Eine Dezentralisierung von Distributionsstrukturen findet statt. III) Es entstehen neue Beziehungen zwischen Akteuren der Lieferkette. Die Ergebnisse der Analysen tragen zu einem besseren systematischen Verständnis von Onlinelebensmittelpraktiken bei Forschern und Praktikern bei. / Even though multichannel distribution strategies are the subject of many research studies, few have addressed their impact on logistics and transport organisations. The present research addresses this gap by investigating the central questions: ‘How do commodity flows change through the introduction of online grocery services? Can different configurations of online grocery services, and thus different commodity flows, be observed in France and Germany?’ For this cumulative dissertation, data from France and Germany were analysed. The impact of online grocery sales on supply chains was examined through a comparative analysis, and the relevance of different settings and contextual environments was established. The analyses show that the decision to offer goods online impacts the entire supply chain of the grocer, and the impact differs in France and Germany. Order processing, last-mile delivery and upstream structures in the supply chain are experiencing three fundamental areas of change: I) new locations for the organisation of online food distribution – usually close to the customers – are being developed; II) a decentralisation of distribution structures is taking place; and III) new relationships between actors in the supply chain are emerging. The thesis systematically records and describes adaptation mechanisms and reveals the differences in the supply chain structures compared to the stationary food trade. Based on the structured analysis of two neighbouring but distinct markets, further insights relevant to research and practice could be generated. The results of the analyses contribute to a better systematic understanding of online food practices among researchers and practitioners. / Bien que les stratégies de distribution multicanale fassent l'objet de nombreuses recherches, peu d'études traitent de leur impact sur l’organisation de la logistique et des transports. Par conséquent, notre problématique est la suivante : comment les flux de marchandises évoluent-ils suite à l'introduction de l'épicerie en ligne ? Et quels sont les impacts des différentes formes d'offres en ligne sur les chaines d’approvisionnement ? Pour ce mémoire de synthèse, des données provenant de France et d'Allemagne ont été analysées et comparées. L'accent est mis sur l'impact du commerce d'alimentaire en ligne sur la totalité de la chaîne d'approvisionnement. En outre, l'objectif de ce mémoire est de comprendre les stratégies logistiques et de transport des distributeurs en fonction du contexte géographique dans lequel ils interviennent. La recherche est basée sur un ensemble de méthodes, en mettant l'accent sur les méthodes de la recherche qualitative et les analyses quantitatives complémentaires. Grâce à la comparaison de la situation en France et en Allemagne, et à l'analyse approfondie des acteurs du marché (via des entretiens avec des experts), le mémoire offre une réflexion complète sur les deux marchés. Les résultats des analyses montrent que l'offre des biens alimentaire en ligne modifie le flux des marchandises toute au long de la chaine d’approvisionnement, depuis le traitement des commandes jusqu’à la livraison. En effet : 1) de nouveaux sites pour l'organisation de la distribution alimentaire en ligne sont développés, souvent situés à proximité des clients ; 2) on observe une décentralisation des structures de distribution ; 3) de nouvelles relations entre les acteurs de la chaîne d'approvisionnement apparaissent. Les résultats de ces analyses contribuent à une meilleure compréhension systématique des pratiques de la distribution alimentaire en ligne.