Дисертації з теми "CUSTOMER'S BUYING BEHAVIOR"

ABSTRACT

Online shopping in EU has been shown to a good potential market. The electronic equipment takes a high percent of the individuals shopping. Compared with other goods, online shopping of electronic goods adds great convenience to the life of the people. Buying electronic gadgets online gives customers an opportunity to find a great variety of product online, and customers can review a wide selection of products and find special offers and discount with the best deals online. In the coming years, the development of online retailers is improving and promises a bright future. However, the tangible and intangible problems of electronic product online shopping still exist and the online store retailers lack the customer knowledge in some extent. Therefore, our intention is to explore customer behavior when purchasing electronic products through investigating the factors that can affect online shoppers‟ attitudes, intention and actual buying behavior. Furthermore, through the findings of our research, we offered the online retailers some suggestions to improve their sales and attract more customers.

Our research was conducted at Umeå University, the participants are students who come from four different departments. We categorized the important influencing factors into customer-oriented and technology-oriented factors. We utilized quantitative method in the term of questionnaire to exam how the respondents think about these factors, and we figured out the relationship between the factors and the consumers‟ attitudes and online buying intention for electronic product.

Our final findings show that only the experienced shoppers‟ attitudes highly affect their buying intention. Transaction security and product quality as the most important elements of electronic product online shopping in the customer-oriented factors are voted by the respondents; while in the technology- oriented factors, easy to navigate and useful web content are the most important issues which drawn more customers‟ attention. In addition, we suggested that the online retailers should guarantee a safe and accurate transaction process, moreover, make more efforts to web design and enhance the return and refund after-sales service. Our study is expected to contribute the e-commerce, especially focused on the electronic product field, the further research can take our research as a basic and go deeper to investigate.

Key words: online shopping, electronic product, customer buying behavior, factors

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to knowledge of customers’ buying behaviour toward premium dog food by examining their brand associations and how these are shaped by using Bozita Robur as a case study.

Background: Market for dog food has increased heavily during the last decades what made knowledge of underlying driving forces of dog food consumption crucial for dog food producers. Quite peculiar is a phenomenon of purchasing behaviour towards a product purchased but not consumed turning it into a more complex and dynamic object of study. Lack of coherent and conclusive research that offer an understanding of primary behavioural drivers and preferences of Swedish dog food customers makes it a good opportunity to continue investigating the dog food industry.

Method: The study is conducted in the form of a single case study. A survey instrument is used to collect data on awareness and to identify behavioural beliefs and subjective norms of consumers, followed by phone interviews that uncover their attitudes towards dog food brands. Lantmännen Doggy’s brand Bozita Robur is used for this purpose. Data collected is further analyzed with the application of consumer behaviour related theories.

Findings: The study has found that Swedish customers have built a positive image associated with premium dog food brands, where superior quality is the primary association. On the brand schema level, each of the premium dog food brands investigated holds specific associations in consumer minds, whereas the strength of these associations depends much on brand recognition levels. Bozita Robur, though less familiar among respondents, was found to have a positive brand schema and is associated with Swedishness and high quality.

Customers of premium dog food brand actively search for information when making a purchasing decision towards a dog feed brand. In a product, they do value high nutrition content. Dog owners are influenced by various social groups, among which breeders and specialty store staff have the strongest influence when it comes to purchasing advice of the dog food brands.

This study has been conducted in cooperation with Fläkt Woods, an industrial supplier of ventilation systems. The study only concerned chilled beams which are an explicit group of ventilation products within Fläkt Woods’ product portfolio. The purpose of the study was to explore how Fläkt Woods’ customers perceive certain elements when choosing Fläkt Woods as a supplier of chilled beams and why they perceive them the way they do. The elements include quality, service, technical performance, technical knowledge, communication, time of delivery, installation, calculation program, flexibility, market adjustment, technical documentation, relationships and geographic distance. The study has been conducted employing a combination of both a quantitative and a qualitative approach in which a questionnaire has been sent out to Fläkt Woods’ customers in order to shed light on their opinions.

The results showed that most of Fläkt Woods’ customers are satisfied or even very satisfied with the elements that were investigated. The elements that the customers were most satisfied with concerning the chilled beams were quality, service and technical knowledge. They believe that Fläkt Woods’ products have a good finish, that they are easy to get in touch with, that they are able and willing to give quick answers and feedback and that they have great knowledge about their chilled beams. The element that the customers are least satisfied with and that Fläkt Woods need to improve is flexibility. Even if Fläkt Woods believe that their special solutions are flexible, their customers do not fully agree. The customers’ attitude towards the flexibility is that Fläkt Woods prefer to provide standard solutions of chilled beams rather than offering special solutions. The results also showed that Fläkt Woods’ competitors are one step ahead considering the design of chilled beams. Thus, design is an element of the marketing program that Fläkt Woods need to improve. Furthermore, the study showed that relationships and communication which represent the “soft” elements concerning human interaction are just as important as the rest of the elements. Thus, Fläkt Woods need to consider these elements as well as the others when outlining the marketing program.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga kundernas köpbeteenden i en inredningsbutik, Divas Boning och att diskutera hur dessa kan påverkas och bidra till ökad konsumtionsnivå hos kunderna.

Metod: Vi har valt att använda oss av både en kvalitativ metod i form av en intervju samt en kvantitativ metod i form av en enkät. Dessa presenteras var och en för sig i empirikapitlet. Analyser har sedan gjorts också uppdelat i kvantitativ- och kvalitativ data.

Resultat & slutsats: Vår studie visar att det är av stor vikt att Divas Boning tydligt positionera sig och arbetar med sina kundrelationer. Vår studie visar även att valet av sortiment i hög grad påverkar hur butiken uppfattas och att det är viktigt att som mindre inredningsbutik inte bara se liknande butiker som konkurrenter utan även större kedjor. 

Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Som fortsatt forskning skulle vi finna det intressant och lärorikt att studera branschen ur ett vidare perspektiv och göra en grundlig konkurrensanalys av Divas Bonings alla konkurrenter. I denna studie kan vi endast beröra köpbeteendet hos Divas Bonings kunder. Det skulle även vara intressant att studera skillnader mellan handel i fysisk miljö och på Internet.

Uppsatsens bidrag: Förutom kunskapen att arbeta med teoretiska modeller har vår studie framförallt bidragit med kunskap om Divas Bonings nuvarande kunder. Vi har fått en god uppfattning om kundernas köpbeteenden, vad de har för uppfattningar och behov. Denna studie kommer också att vara användbar för Divas Boning i deras marknadsplanering.

This thesis is a description of the sales process for Toolox, the newest of four products produced by SSAB Oxelösund. Toolox is a tool steel, sold using eleven external dealers throughout Europe. Each dealer carries a wide range of steel grades for different uses. To increase sales volumes SSAB want to have the right support for their dealers. In this thesis the organizations and individuals who influence in the buying decision are identified as well as their buying behavior and the information that is needed in the sales situations. The requirements on the tool steel derive not only from the toolmaker itself but also from end users of a product further down the product chain. The study indicates that communication of benefits along the chain difficult because is not well integrated. The decision of what steel to buy is often made by the tool designer and these are influenced by a number of other individuals. It is also found that risk aversion and conservatism are barriers for product introductions.

“I changed my mind” is a case study aimed at investigating returns. Returns are often negative occurrences and can be seen as the last “block” in a supply chain. However, what this study shows is that a return is a great source for customer profiling and can lead to an increase in market shares if managed correctly. Many companies go about investigating satisfied customers and what aspects these customers are satisfied with. Instead this research focuses on finding out what dissatisfied customer feel and why they decided to return a specific product. Investigations are also made concerning the internal processes to manage product returns and if they can be improved at the case company (thereby lowering costs).

This study shows how interrelated the supply chain is and illustrates how product returns can be lowered by changing the input in the supply chain. Reputation is a fragile thing and can be hurt from mismanagement related to returns and therefore I feel that it is important to study this phenomenon which is not often brought into light but nonetheless exits in almost every company (that offers returnable products).

Enjoy your reading and see how your company can prevent your customers from changing their minds.