One big issue for the mail order business is how to avoid and manage returns. Oneapproach being taken is that consumer insight can result in better customer satisfaction andfewer returns. The fashion industry delivers more than just a function within the clothes;fashion, excitement, and customer service for example.It is believed that a part of demand chain management, consumer insight, can help toreduce the amount of returns. This thesis approaches this issue from a company point ofview. It is investigated how mail order businesses utilizes opportunities given byeCommerce, how the companies perceives their customers, and how well they are able totailor their services to different consumer groups.Online sales channels were reviewed in order to investigate how the company is perceivedand what kinds of efforts the companies go through in order to add value to the customers.These results were combined with interviews of three companies in the mail order businessand one company selling clothes in retail stores.The complexity of the customer and the silo mentality in many companies was the firsthurdle to emerge. It was hard to get in contact with the right person. The interviewsshowed both focus on products and focus of really understanding the customer. Thisshowed both in the rigid layout of the homepages and the lack of understanding thatcustomers might have different needs when it comes to value adding services. However,the interviewed companies had varying ways of defining their customer’s needs.It is evident after this thesis that a lot of work can be done in order to better understand thecustomers, for example investigating causes to returns and how differentiated servicesmight improve how the customers perceive the service. In order to succeed in a holisticapproach, cooperation between mail order companies might be required.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-19681 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Eriksson, David, Omrani, Amin H |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Ingenjörshögskolan, Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Ingenjörshögskolan, University of Borås/School of Engineering |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Magisteruppsats, |
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