In central Jönköping, on Munksjöns northern waterside a shopping centre will be built, on the block Atollen. The construction will begin in autumn of 2007 and will be finished according to plan in 2009. Atollens goal is to counteract the competition from external retailers and strengthen the retail trade in the city centre, leading to more attractive and competitive city centre.Atollen will not be a shopping centre in traditional style and design, it will be focused on shopping and experience. The shopping centre shall be a natural venue with a wide and exclusive store mix, concentrated against trend conscious customers. This will be created with the help of a futuristic design and architecture, with light, open and transparent spaces.

The purpose with this research is to examine how the green marketing in retail trade can be developed in order to promote the eco-labeled products closer to the consumer.The method for the survey includes interviews with managers of a few retailers and their customers in the industrial sector. The purpose with the interviews was to produce the retailer and the customer?s perspective of products with eco-label on.The research is limited to the region of Västra Götaland.The results from this research indicate that there is a lack of communication between the retailer and the consumer. The consumers don?t think that the product is available.

Syftet med denna studie är att mäta och analysera detaljhandlares uppfattningar om konkurrenshot utifrån fyra olika hypotetiska valsituationer, ett Choice Experiment. Urvalsgruppen bestod av cityhandlare inom ett geografiskt definierat område i Gävle stad i Sverige. Resultatet indikerar att cityhandlare uppfattar konkurrens mellan marknadsplatser i viss utsträckning. Dock indikerar resultatet att konkurrens uppfattas inom marknadsplatsen i högre utsträckning i jämförelse med konkurrens mellan marknadsplatser..

Garden center and market gardens are a growing trade, undergoing great changes with new actors and purchasing habits. The interest in gardens and plants is steadily increasing, official statistics show an increase of garden plants and flower consumption, of an annual 3 per cent. Garden centers and market gardens are in great need of development to be able to tackle the prevailing competition, and maintain a steady growth. Many companies are heading for a generation shift and are founding it difficult to find and employ younger managers. The aim of this report is to examine different strategies of garden centers and market gardens through the manager/ owner?s views and opinions about competition, growth and success.

The thesis tries to answer how a combination of financial metrics and marketing metrics can improve strategic decision making. The purpose is to develop a strategic working method for general dealers. The method is based on the two theoretical frameworks "The strategic resource model" and "The importance-performance matrix". The suggested method is being tested in a small retail store environment on the Swedish market. The result of the test shows that a better suited strategy can be developed when this strategic method, which combines financial metrics with marketing metrics, is being used.

Thesis purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the expectations of roles between supplier sales representatives and retailer store personnel in relation to in-store campaigns, this in order to enhance effectiveness of these functions creating an increase in consumer response. Methodology: The researchers believe that social phenomenon and their meanings are continually being accomplished by social actors, hence a study of individuals? expectations must have a point of departure in these people?s social reality. Store personnel and supplier sales representatives are to a certain degree affected by the structural power relationships within the organizational network, thus the researchers combine an interpretative and radical structuralist paradigm. Theoretical perspective: The researchers investigate expectations of roles through examining interaction between parties involved.

Diet and lifestyle are closely interrelated and believed to have a significant influence on four major public diseases - cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypertension and obesity, but also affects functional deficiencies like gluten- and lactose intolerance. Health added-value foods are thought to reduce health-related risks or delay the onset of these major diseases. Therefore, interest among scientists, researchers and the public in general has been growing remarkably over the last decade regarding these special foods. The Swedish market seems to be a good target for health added-values food. However, as there are many risks and cost factors involved for companies to enter the market or invest in R&D, it is important to take a step back and analyze the current market situation.

Public concern and the need of responsible way of doing business have brought forward the issue of sustainability at the forefront of discussion in the last decade. Even though, food retailers are playing an important role in the economy, they are exposed for criticism by media and consumers for any socially and environmentally irresponsible business practices because, the potential environmental and social impacts from their operations are significant. These impacts need to be recognized and properly addressed. The main objective of this study was to assess the sustainable business management of a cooperative food retail business in Sweden, known as Konsum Värmland (KV). The necessary data and information on history and status of KV, and its practical activities concerning the implementation of sustainable development programs as well as the motivation and challenges encountered by KV during the implementation were gathered via reviewing different documents, research papers and press releases; interviewing decision makers and other personnel in KV and other researchers from Swedish University of Agricultural University who have investigated KV.

Klädbranschen har fått stor uppmärksamhet gällande hållbarhet och miljökostnader. Tidigare forskning har främst täckt frågor kring hållbara material och transporter samt arbetsförhållanden för dem som producerar kläderna, medan andra aktiviteter som ingår i ett klädföretagets värdekedja inte har fått så stor uppmärksamhet, trots att de också har en stor påverkan på miljö och kostnader.Innevarande uppsats handlar om klädföretag och hur deras rutiner gällande upphängning av kläder på galgar fungerar. Syftet med arbetet har varit att undersöka var i värdekedjan kläderna galgas och hur returhanteringen av galgarna sker samt hållbarhetsperspektivet kring detta.Teorin har tagits fram från olika vetenskapliga artiklar, böcker samt hemsidor, och informationen som redan finns i ämnet och som är relevant för undersökningen presenteras. Teorin tar upp termen Supply Chain Management (SCM) och hur det ser ut i klädbranschen. En överblick av aktiviteter som ingår i ett klädföretags värdekedja ges, där "pre-retail"-aktiviteter och returflöden får stor uppmärksamhet.

The out-of-town retail establishments are part of the dramatic structural changes in the retailing of food and groceries. There are however strong indications suggesting these establishments result in negative externalities concerning areas such as pollution and urban environment. The purpose of this study is to describe and, from an economic perspective, analyse the Swedish political regulations and planning policies concerning the out-of-town supermarkets. The analysis establishes that the current regulations regarding out-of-town retailing do not, due to the occurrence of market failures, produce an optimal situation. It might therefore be necessary to change the planning policies in a more restrictive direction.

This thesis is concerning private brands on special display. ICA Gott Liv! was used as a study object and a latin square design was employed, using 2 ICA Kvantum stores. Two displays were built in order to compare which created the most awareness and interest, one with the best selling Gott Liv! product and one with four randomly chosen Gott Liv! products. The data was collected using triangulation, questionnaires, sales data and observations were conducted in the two stores. The results indicated that private brands works as well as manufacturer brands on special display and a display with four randomly chosen products creates more interest and higher sales than the display with the best selling product..

The thesis work focuses on marketing and its point of departure centers on mapping the utilization of social media as a form of marketing. The choice of this thesis subject has been deemed by the authors as one of particular interest due to the current popularity of social media in the Internet connected society and their use as marketing tools. Specifically, this thesis sets out to explore how companies exploit social media tools in marketing and how their use affects retail operations and customer relations in an effective and creative way.The report concentrates on qualitative data collection, the interview answers of four respondents, of which, two are considered experts within the field of social media. The choice of suitable respondents was strategic with the goal of covering as large a portion of the social media field as possible; one social media educator that works with companies and one who assists companies with social media applications. The remaining two respondents work in marketing and communications and employ, as part of their job, social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

Servicescape is a research area within service management which processes the effect that the environment has on the service experience. The purpose of this essay is to find out how servicescape, with focus on the ?background music?, affects customer behavior in a clothing retail store. Through manipulation of the background music?s tempo the essay aim to explore to what extent this part of the servicescape a) affect the customers approach and avoidance behavior, b) is affected by customers with a hedonic or utilitarian shopping behavior, c) affects pleasure, arousal and dominance perceptions for the customer, and d) how the servicescape is perceived.Key words: Servicescape, approach-avoidance behaviour, pleasure, arousal, dominance, hedonic-utilitarian behaviour..

The success of self-service technology in retail grocery stores cannot be ignored, and the fact is that every other grocery store in Sweden has implemented the self-scanning or self-checkout systems. The trend is that the technique is spreading into other markets with potential to increase productivity for companies and enhance the service for customers. Fast fashion is one branch that is left untouched by the development in payment processes, and despite the leading companies extensive focus on fast service, the concept of self-service technology has not yet been tested. This paper undertake a quantitative, experimental approach to the issue and examines the effect self-checkout would have on Fast fashion- customers. By presenting a scenario with and without self- checkout and afterwards asked about the respondents experience, we can provide the marketing world with new insights.

Title: How does the buying decision process really function within e-commerce? - A qualitative study of consumer behavior when they consume on Internet.Institution: School of Economics, Linnaeus University, Va?xjo?.Course code: 2FE16E.Authors: Sara Hja?rne, Mathilda Perem, Ewelina Wallin.Tutor: Dan Halvarsson.Examiner: A?sa Devine.Key words: Buying decision process, purchase decision process need recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase decision, postpurchase behavior, consumer decision making, E-commerce, E- commerce channels, online shopping, online purchase, e-retail, internet shopping, electronic shopping, consumer behavior, online appereal shopping, social media, decision making, online retailing, website design, customer satisfaction, webshopping, perceived risk, convinience, price, online consumption behavior.Background: Buying decision process is a model that marketers use to get a better understanding of their customers and their behavior when purchasing a product. This process consists of five different steps; need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and evaluation. Buying decision process has for a long time been an accepted model but scientists argue that the introduction of Internet as a channel for consumption has changed this process. The Internet has also led to a change of power in which customers today have greater influence, which greatly affects the buying decision process in e-commercePurpose: The purpose is to explore how consumers perceive their behavior when they consume through e-commerce.Research questions:How do consumers perceive the buying decision process they experience when they consume through e-commerce?How do consumers perceive different factors that are important to them when they consume through e-commerce?Methodology: Qualitative study, cross-sectional design, semi-structured interviews.Conclusion: This thesis shows that the traditional model of the buying decision process is not consistent with consumers' perception of how they are undergoing the process when applied to an e-commerce context.