Product location data gathering processes in retail business : Case study

Abstract

This thesis is conducted as an assignment for a Finnish company specializing in retail business. The company has multiple department stores in Finland. The employees of the case company use a tablet tool that collects and saves product locations in the department store in real time. Currently the location-based data that is collected is not used in any manner. The primary goal of the thesis is to find out if the processes of the employees are sufficient as such to generate reliable product location information. The secondary goal is to define which factors are critical and should be considered if the collected data will be utilized in developing a product indoor location system. The third goal is to evaluate whether the product indoor location would add value for the customers of the case company. This thesis aims to answer the research questions by utilizing the collected interview material. The research data was collected through interviews. The interviews were executed by interviewing 15 employees of the case company. The interview results were analyzed with thematic analysis. Even though this study is qualitative, quantitative methods are used to support the thematic analysis. The approach to this study is phenomenology as this study investigates the experiences and behavior of the employees in different departments of the case company's department stores. The outcome of this thesis aims to support the case company to decide whether to develop a new innovation, indoor product location information, to improve the existing processes and customer service quality. Additionally the goal of this thesis is to add new knowledge to existing research literature. The new knowledge perspective is to find out if indoor location information with a certain set up would create reliable indoor location data and if that could create customer value add.