E-commerce distribution channel experiences a dramatic development nowadays. France witnessed a rapid growth rate of online sales in recent years and now ranks as the second largest market in Europe in terms of turnover. On E-commerce websites, customer review system is considered as an efficient tool of E-Word of Mouth, enabling users to write recommendations which will influence potential purchasers. This paper discusses the crucial factors of customer review system. Also, a tool to evaluate review system is elaborated with five criteria such as accessibility, quality, design, interaction and control. Ten case studies of French E-commerce firms are presented according to those criteria in qualitative study. Opinions from French customers are collected through online questionnaires in quantitative study. Researches made from supply (firms) and demand (customers) sides show that accessibility and quality are the main concerns for users and often weaknesses in current review systems. Also, the credibility of reviews is questioned by customers. Focusing on these aspects, the paper aims to give suggestions for designing an ideal customer review system to firms in French e-commerce industry.

This dissertation is an attempt to understand shopping leakage from Maseru to Bloemfontein and Ladybrand. It investigates the patterns of shopping leakage and factors that contribute to the leakage. Theories were understood to prove the on going shopping leakage from Maseru. The rentral plare theory was explored to show how a hierarchy of plares influenres retail and shopping activities. Other location theories such as theory of tertiary activities was utilised to explore the impact of income, types of employment and buying power on retail location and shopping activities. Rationality theory was employed to verify the rational in the shopping movement from Maseru to Bloemfontein and Ladybrand. The study was based on focus groups, interviews and observation. The patterns of shopping from Maseru to Bloemfontein and Ladybrand are mainly for higher order goods and specialised goods such as quality clothes, shoes, jewelleries, and furniture. However some people who have cars buy groreries from Ladybrand that is closer to Maseru than Bloemfontein. The shopping trips were multi purpose activities. A shopper combines shopping with two or more activities such as banking recreation, hospital checkups, salon and tourism. Maseru does not have enough thresholds for some high order goods and services, and this leads to the shopping leakage. Although the employment rate in Maseru is high, income is generally lower. Shopping leakage was trared to rertain aspects of consumer behaviour, the characteristics of the shopping trip, retail facilities and types of shops available. Socio-economic factors also influenre shopping pattern, as do entertainment activities. Government and corporate bodies such as banks, through their regulations and laws created an impact on the shopping leakage from Maseru to Ladybrand and Bloemfontein. It is assumed that topography and burning of retail buildings in Maseru in September 1998 also limits the retail facilities in the town. Finally, the growth of Maseru is slow and steady, therefore it can be implied that retail trading in Maseru is following the same sequenre as the growth of the town. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

Many transportation and other social problems would be eased or solved if the automobile dependency which is now so pervasive in North American cities were reduced. Many planners, transportation engineers, and other professionals and activists are advocating walking, among other things, as a viable transportation alternative. Various measures and programs are being applied in an attempt to get people out of their cars and onto their feet. This thesis discusses an addition to the pro-pedestrian tool kit: community-based social marketing. Adapted from marketing concepts which have been remarkably successful in influencing the consumption of goods and services, social marketing is a bundle of techniques intended to influence the adoption of socially desirable behaviours. A demonstration of community-based social marketing in the community of West Point Grey in Vancouver, British Columbia shows how social marketing can be used to encourage walking within neighbourhoods. The demonstration shows social marketing to be a promising new tool in the hand of those eager to promote walking, although more work needs to be done to verify this conclusion.

Good neighbourhood shopping streets have long been significant in their ability to provide goods and services within walking distance of neighbourhood residents, to create a rich public realm, and to foster a sense of community. Far removed from their past as streetcar strips, the neighbourhood shopping street is once again being looked at as an important element of the urban environment. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the characteristics of good neighbourhood shopping streets and to examine these characteristics in the context of two Vancouver case studies—Commercial Drive and West 41st Avenue. Based on a review of planning, urban design, and landscape architecture literature, the fundamental principles of good neighbourhood shopping streets are revealed. Specifically, a good neighbourhood shopping street is accessible, comfortable, sociable, a place, adaptable, beautiful, and diverse. Flowing from these principles, and the means to them, are the characteristics of good neighbourhood shopping streets—buildings that relate to the street, good walking facilities, pedestrian amenities, traffic management, street activity, neighbourhood goods and services, maintenance, supportive neighbourhood context, and supportive government. The research suggests that real-life neighbourhood shopping streets rarely have all the characteristics that the literature holds as ideal. Rather, some characteristics— buildings that relate to the street, street activity, neighbourhood goods and services, a supportive neighbourhood context, and supportive government—appear as fundamental to good neighbourhood shopping streets but are exhibited to varying degrees. More specifically, the case studies help illustrate what particular elements are either essential or helpful, creating a checklist that other streets can benefit from.

The invasion and succession in cities is a phenomenon that affects the functions of thebazaar. Heavy traffic in downtown areas, air pollution in cities, the transformation of thestructure of economic activities, the flow of immigrants on the market, the transfer of certainfunctions of the bazaar to commercial companies and etc all this has created problems forthe bazaar. In the present decades, "Bazaar" has faced a new and distinguishable rival in Iran.Every day "Shopping Centers" are spreading all over regions in Iranian cities. They are as asymbol of the extension of consumerism and the occurrence of a consumer society andglobalization. These places represent youth subcultures and cultural challenges against thehegemony at national level. Will the bazaar tolerate and survive these changes, or has italready been eliminated from the urban cycle? Will it coexist with this urban monument orwill it be eliminated?

Bakalauro baigiamajame darbe nagrinėjama Lietuvos interneto vartotojų naudojimasis elektronine prekyba (toliau – e. prekyba). Pagrindinis tyrimo tikslas, aptarus e. prekybą teoriniu požiūriu ir atlikus anketinę apklausą, ištirti naudojimosi e. prekyba mąstą, respondentų nuomonę apie e. prekybą, bei priežastis, kodėl neperkama elektroninėje erdvėje. Anketinis tyrimas atliktas internetu, kuriame dalyvavo 300 respondentų. Gauti tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad trečdalis apklaustųjų yra išbandę e. prekybą. Beveik pusė pirkėjų perka užsienio e. parduotuvėse, kuriose respondentai teigia, didesnis prekių pasirinkimas, bei žemesnės kainos. Svariausias e. prekybos privalumas, yra galimybė nusipirkti prekių žemesnėmis kainomis. Pabaigoje pateikiamos rekomendacijos elektroninių parduotuvių paslaugas norinčioms teikti ar jau teikiančioms įmonėms, padėsiančios pritraukti daugiau klientų. / In this Bachelor‘s degree work Lithuanian electronic tailing situation is researched. The main objective is after researching theoretical background of the subject to conduct a survey to find out about e-tailing usage, opinion and main reason, why some users don‘t use it. Conducted survey on the internet, in which participated 300 persons. Research results showed, that three parts of persons surveys have tried buying products online. Half of them are buying products abroad, instead of domestic purchases. As of reason that there is more products and the prices are lower. The main advantage of e-tailing is that products are cheaper on the internet. In the end of the research there are recommendations for e-tailing companies, which might help to attract more customers.

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Consumer concerns in food purchasing contain a number of elements, including food safety, environment, animal welfare, and other socially related issues. The purpose of this study was to examine consumer perceptions of the potential benefits of products that are produced using an environmental management system (EMS) in agriculture, and identify those factors that influence choice. The choice modeling technique uses consumer preferences to estimate Montrealers' willingness to pay (WTP) for production practices that decrease the impacts on the environment, as well as for other potential benefits of EMS production. Results indicate that consumers are willing to pay a price premium for these environmental benefits. This could provide a justification for government to support certification and labeling programs.

Social endorsements are user-generated endorsements of products or services, such as “likes” and personal collections, in an online social platform. We examine the effect of prior social endorsements on subsequent users’ tendency to endorse or examine a product in a social shopping context, where a social platform connect consumers and enable a collaborative shopping experience. This research consists of two parts. In part I, we identify two ways prior social endorsements can affect subsequent user behavior: as a crowd endorsement, which is an aggregate number of endorsements a product receives for anyone who comes across the product, and as a friend endorsement, which is an endorsement with the endorser’s identity delivered only to the endorser’s friends or followers. Using a panel data of 1656 products on a leading social shopping platform, we quantify the relationship between crowd and friend endorsements and subsequent examination (“click”) and endorsement (“like”) of the products, noting that examination is a private behavior while endorsement is a public behavior. Our results are consistent with the identity signaling theory where identity-conscious consumers converge with the aspiration group (the followers) in their public behavior (e.g. endorsement) and diverge from the avoidance groups (the crowd). We also find differences between public and private behaviors. Moreover, the symbolic nature of social shopping platform trumps the traditional dichotomy of symbolic/functional product attributes. Part II of this study seeks to clarify the underlying mechanism through lab experiments. We hypothesize that consumers’ evaluative attitude, specifically the value-expressive type, moderates the relationship between crowd and friend endorsements and a focal user’s product choice. Our initial results of the second study show support for this idea in the cases when the product choice is not obvious.

The following have been rectified in response to previous evaluation by examiner Olof Bruninge. -We have solely chosen qualitative methods in data collection and analysis by making use of data gathered from focus group workshop. The findings have been coded and analysed descriptively. -We have reformulated research questions and replaced the hypothesis with open questions. Allowing us to explore the participants’ behaviour rather than testing hypothesis. -All quantitative measures have been replaced with qualitative analysis and descriptions. -We have provided tables with results from focus group findings to increase transparency in our data