In recent years, the concept of sustainability has increased of importance and customers today are more aware of the implications of not being sustainable. As of the increased awareness, customers are demanding more sustainable practices from retailers, which leads to them communicating this further down the supply chain. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis has been to examine and understand how retailers together with their suppliers in the furniture and interior retail industry co-create a more sustainable supply chain through the Corporate Social Responsibility framework, and to identify what kind of facilitators and barriers that appear in co-creation of CSR between buyers and suppliers. The empirical findings were obtained using a qualitative multiple case study of seven furniture and interior retailers originated from Sweden through semi-structured interviews. The findings were then analyzed and discussed with the presented literature to identify how they were similar or different. The conclusion of this thesis shows that buyers somewhat are engaged in co-creation with their suppliers, although there is no unified answer for how, as the level of involvement, why involved and in which function they are involved are highly different among the cases. A common theme throughout the findings indicated that the more responsible the company is, the more developed they are in their buyer-supplier relationships. Although, the co-creation level of a relationship was found to be ambiguous due to its unexplored nature of the B2B market. Furthermore, the thesis identified both some general and more specific facilitators and barriers that could be used as a guide for future co-creating activities for the implemewntation of CSR in the retail supply chain.

In the last few decades, new vertically integrated players have appeared in the fashion industry providing their customers with lower prices and an increased number of seasons per year. In this context, the need for high efficiency levels among the fast fashion retailers appears as a necessity to survive. Since the area of Store Operations (SO) is directly dealing with processes at the end of the supply chain, boosting revenues through the increased efficiency and incorporation of new technologies in this area becomes critical. In order to accomplish that in a long-term perspective, this must be done while improving staff working conditions, customer experience in the stores and with more cost effective practices. Therefore, this study investigated how established fast fashion retailers can improve their Store Operations in pursuance of coping with growing efficiency requirements and rapidly changing technology in their stores. This has been done by conducting a case study at one of the biggest fast fashion retailers in the world. The research involved 42 different interviews with the case company’s employees and industry experts in the store solutions field, which allowed collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. Moreover, in order to analyze empirical findings obtained during the research process, outsourcing theories, including transactional cost theory (TCT) and resource-based view theory (RBV) as well as innovation theories, including diffusion of innovation and radio frequency identification (RFID) adoption theories, were used. The results indicate that in order to improve their Store Operations, the case company should first work on five areas, which include: (1) stockroom processes, (2) technology and innovation, (3) alarm systems, (4) employee morale, and (5) customer service. At the same time, it was discovered that the solutions that can improve all of these areas are: RFID that act as a security device and the outsourcing of stockroom process, known as Golden Delivery. In order to make the implementation of these two solutions successful, separate implementation guidelines must be created, both of which are presented in this document. The findings of this study have implications on both sustainability and research. This investigation contributes to the literature by giving a better understanding of the operational activities performed in the store environment of fast fashion retailers as well as the link between them and the rest of the supply chain. Moreover, the efficiency solutions presented in this document give fashion retailers a sustainable economic advantage achieved through cost savings and increased business performance, as well as, the motivation to focus on social and environmental aspects related to these practices.

Dans le contexte économique actuel, les entreprises cherchent à développer de nouvelles stratégies de distribution pour leurs performances logistique. Dans cette quête de performances, les entreprises doivent adapter les stratégies de distribution misent en place avec les typologies de leurs produits. Plusieurs stratégies de distribution existent dans la chaîne logistique de grande distribution. Ces stratégies sont choisies sur la base des caractéristiques des produits, et /ou l'impact sur les performances logistiques. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions l'impact de trois stratégies de distribution, à savoir: stockage traditionnel, cross-docking pick by line et le cross-docking pick by store, sur trois performances de la logistiques, à savoir: le niveau de service, les coûts et le bullwhip effect. En outre, nous analysons l'impact des caractéristiques des produits sur les performances des stratégies de distribution et enfin proposer un cadre pour le choix de la stratégie la plus adaptée pour chaque produit. La chaîne logistique étudiée est composée de trois échelons: Centre de distribution du fournisseur, Centre de distribution du distributeur et les magasins. Basé sur un cas réel, nous effectuons une modélisation des processus, qui nous permet de développer un modèle déterministe de coût Macro et un modèle de simulation. Le modèle de coût macro permet d'évaluer l'impact des stratégies de distribution sur des coûts de la chaîne logistique. Après l'analyse macro des coûts, nous développons un modèle de simulation où nous intégrons les données relatives aux produits (la demande, le volume, etc.). Ce modèle permet une simulation dynamique du système la stratégie la plus adaptée pour chaque produit en fonction de ses caractéristiques et de l'impact sur les performances. A la fin de cette recherche, nous présentons une matrice de choix pour la segmentation des produits et choix de la stratégie de distribution. / Nowadays companies must look to develop new distribution strategies in order to achieve the required performance from their supply chain. In this quest, companies wonder about the consistency of their distribution strategies with the products they are selling. Several types of distribution strategies exist in the retail supply chain. These strategies are chosen based on the products characteristics, and/or the impact on the supply chain performances. In this research, we study the impact of three distribution strategies, namely: traditional warehousing, cross-docking pick by line and cross-docking pick by store, on three supply chain performances, namely: service level, cost and bullwhip effect. In addition, we analyse the impact of the products characteristics on the performances of the distribution strategies and propose a framework for choosing the right strategy for each product. The supply chain studied is composed of three echelons: Supplier Distribution Centre, Retailer Distribution Centre and Stores. Based a real business case, we perform a process modelling, that allows us to develop a deterministic Macro cost model and a simulation model. The macro cost model allows to evaluate the impact of the distribution strategies on the supply chain cost performance. After the macro cost analysis, we develop a simulation model where we integrate the data related to the products (demand, volume, ordering quantities etc.) in the model. This model allows a more dynamic simulation of the system in a large time period and determines the right strategy to select for each product depending on its characteristics and the impact on the performances. At the end of this research, we present a framework for product segmentation and distribution strategy selection.