As the consumer market grows vigorously in recent years, the warehouse clubs and hypermarkets that were at the end of channel have replaced wholesalers to become the leaders of the retailing market. Under this circumstance, competition among all retailers is more and more fierce. The retailers must not only emphasize on ¡§quantity¡¨ to control the prices, but also place the importance on ¡§quality¡¨ to attract all consumers. According to the statistical data of The Ministry of Economic Affairs, it could be concluded that whether retailing business or hypermarkets still grows positively in recent years. Therefore, there are more and more competitors entering the retailing business. How retailers maintain their own competitive advantages and avoid not eliminating through competition would be the greatest and most vital challenge for all retailers. This research regards hypermarket retailers as the main research object, probing into the correlation among customer perceived quality, customer satisfaction and store performance. By sending out questionnaires, this research did a survey to analyze the customer perceived product and service quality. Moreover, this research also made a study of the relationship between customer perceived quality and customer satisfaction, and the relationship between customer satisfaction and store performance. Through the real analysis, it could be concluded that product perceived quality has a positive influence on product satisfaction in the retailing business. If the retailers of hypermarket could promote the evaluation of product perceived quality, it would become a key factor to improve customer satisfaction. Also, Service perceived quality would influence service satisfaction positively. Workers in the retailing business should offer customers pleasing service and correct shopping information. These are the key factors to progress service satisfaction. As for the relationship between customer satisfaction and store performance, it might be affected by different characteristics and structure of customers. In other words, the relationship might be non-linear.

Ever since introduced and rolled out on the market during the 1950's and 1960's the supermarket format of grocery retail stores has played an important role in the grocery retail sector in Sweden, as well as in other countries. Although the sector in Sweden has evolved into a sector harbouring various store formats, the supermarket remains the major one - about half of the total volume of sales currently goes through supermarkets. Issues referring to the economic performance of supermarkets, and its antecedents, are thus of interest not only to retailers, but also to consumers as well as to society, overall. This study contributes to previous research by explicitly addressing bottom-line performance of supermarkets, and by bridging different fields of research. With the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm as theoretical underpinning, a cross-sectional design is developed for the study, comprising the economic performance of 168 supermarkets. By pooling data from various sources a unique database is developed, providing prerequisites for a comprehensive investigation into the effects of scale of operation, local market conditions, and supermarket conduct on various aspects of supermarket performance, all the way to bottom-line profitability performance.   The results show that profitability performance of supermarkets is a consequence of a complex network of relationships between various aspects of economic performance, scale of operation, local market conditions and supermarket conduct. The profit margin, i.e. the span between gross margin and operating costs%, turns out as the major determinant of profitability performance. The profit margin, in turn, is found related to productivity, which in turn is found related to the volume of sales. Scale of operation and local market conditions are found working themselves into profitability performance, via conduct and various aspects of economic performance. However, neither scale nor favorable local market conditions turns out as the determinant of high rather than low profitability performance. Among the most as well as among least profitable, there are small and large supermarkets, facing local markets of favorable as well as unfavorable conditions. Rather, the dividing line between the low vs. highly profitable lies in the interplay between market conditions and conduct. Results from analyses of internal and external characteristics of the least and most profitable show important dissimilarities referring to their interplay with local market conditions. As such, the study provides important implications for retailers, from a strategical, tactical, as well as operational perspective. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009

This dissertation is focused on copywriting or writing advertising content for online stores. Its main objective is to create instructions for writing successful text for online stores based on synthesis. Simultaneously, another aim of my dissertation is to use these findings in copywriting for selected e-shops. Both theoretical and practical parts are based on professional resources and my own experiences with copywriting beginning in 2006. This document is structured in three main parts. In the first part, I focus on theoretical recommendations for writing advertising content. In addition to creating product descriptions, this chapter deals with the preparation of texts for categories, home pages, shipping and payment sections, about us pages, articles and microcopy. In the next chapter, I describe measuring and evaluating the performance of advertising texts for online stores. The third part is devoted to the application of theoretical knowledge and to writing texts for selected eshops, including an evaluation of their success. Thanks to the selected structure, this dissertation covers almost all issues of copywriting for eshops. Chapters are structured in the same way as my usual copywriting process. I believe that my dissertation will become a useful knowledge resource for beginners and advanced copywriters, Internet marketing experts and online store owners. Selected parts of my dissertation are enhanced by my own experience, knowledge and demonstration examples. Most of them can be found on real company websites and online stores. Also, I continually refer to related resources that may be useful for every reader with deeper interest in this issue.

Aujourd’hui, un nombre croissant de formats de distribution (i.e. magasins amiraux, centres commerciaux,points de vente éphémères, corners, etc.) à travers le monde adoptent la stratégie d'artification de l'expérience de magasinage, reposant sur l'introduction d'éléments artistiques dans la surface marchande. Toutefois l'utilisation de cette variable d'atmosphère s’avère pour le moment très intuitive. D’un point de vue académique, la revue de la littérature amène à qualifier ce champ de recherche d’embryonnaire. Par conséquent cette thèse se propose de mesurer l'impact de l'artification de l'expérience de magasinage sur la performance du point de vente, ainsi que sur les réactions du consommateur. Dans cette optique, une expérimentation a été réalisée à partir d’un plan factoriel manipulant la dimension artistique de l’atmosphère du point de vente. La collecte de données a été effectuée pendant deux mois dans des magasins réels, selon une méthode quantitative. Les résultats indiquent que la stratégie d'artification de l'expérience de magasinage, lorsque adoptée au seul niveau du point de vente et en tant que proposition éphémère, a pour impact positif d’améliorer la performance marketing du point de vente,ceci au niveau de la différenciation perçue du point de vente, du caractère créatif de l’image (du point de vente et des produits), de la valeur perçue de l'offre (rapport qualité/prix et désensibilisation au prix), et de la satisfaction du consommateur. En revanche l'artification de l'expérience de magasinage n'agit pas sur la performance commerciale du point de vente (ventes, taux de transformation, fidélité attitudinale), suggérant un effet de muséification avec la perte de la finalité transactionnelle du point de vente et sa reclassification fonctionnelle en musée/galerie d'art. En conclusion, l'adoption de cette stratégie expérientielle nécessite une réflexion en amont relative aux objectifs de l’entreprise (stratégie d’image vs. rentabilité directe du point de vente) puisqu’elle implique des arbitrages en termes de coûts directs et indirects concernant l'allocation de la surface marchande. / Today a growing number of retail formats (i.e. flagship stores, shopping malls, pop-up stores, corners, etc.)worldwide are adopting the shopping experience artification strategy, consisting of introducing artistic elements in the sales surface. However using this atmospherics’ variable remains for now very intuitive. From an academic perspective, this research field can be qualified as seminal. Thus this dissertation’s aim is to measure the impact of the shopping experience artification on store performance, as well as on customer reactions. In that regard, an experimentation was carried out with a factorial design manipulating the artistic dimension of store atmospherics. The data collection was conducted during two months in real retail stores, using a quantitative method. The results indicate that the shopping experience artification strategy, when adopted only at the store level and as an ephemeral proposition, positively impacts store marketing performance, namely regarding store perceived differentiation, the creative dimension of image (store’s and products’), store offering’s perceived value (price/quality ratio and price desensitization), and customer satisfaction. However the shopping experience artification does not impact store commercial performance (sales, conversion rate, attitudinal loyalty), which suggests a museumification effect with the store possibly losing its transactional purpose and being functionally reclassified as a museum/art gallery. As a conclusion, adopting this experiential strategy calls for an upstream reflection upon the company’s objectives (branding strategy vs. direct store profitability) since it implies tradeoffs regarding direct and indirect costs concerning sales surface allocation.