The International Market: Designing an e-commerce experience to promote different cultures

Learning different cultures and promoting international trade can be implemented through web design and marketing. Most e-commerce websites implement design and marketing strategies in an efficient way, however none of them implement the idea of exploring international cultures through purchasing experiences. This thesis project implements a complex brand identity and determines how to effectively create an e-commerce website employing the ideas of shopping as an online trip (“out shopping”), providing several categories of products for particular user segments. A significant part of the project focuses on determining which graphic elements are applicable for a specific design situation

Next Generation of Product Search and Discovery

Online shopping has become an important part of people’s daily life with the rapid development of e-commerce. In some domains such as books, electronics, and CD/DVDs, online shopping has surpassed or even replaced the traditional shopping method. Compared with traditional retailing, e-commerce is information intensive. One of the key factors to succeed in e-business is how to facilitate the consumers’ approaches to discover a product. Conventionally a product search engine based on a keyword search or category browser is provided to help users find the product information they need. The general goal of a product search system is to enable users to quickly locate information of interest and to minimize users’ efforts in search and navigation. In this process human factors play a significant role. Finding product information could be a tricky task and may require an intelligent use of search engines, and a non-trivial navigation of multilayer categories. Searching for useful product information can be frustrating for many users, especially those inexperienced users. This dissertation focuses on developing a new visual product search system that effectively extracts the properties of unstructured products, and presents the possible items of attraction to users so that the users can quickly locate the ones they would be most likely interested in. We designed and developed a feature extraction algorithm that retains product color and local pattern features, and the experimental evaluation on the benchmark dataset demonstrated that it is robust against common geometric and photometric visual distortions. Besides, instead of ignoring product text information, we investigated and developed a ranking model learned via a unified probabilistic hypergraph that is capable of capturing correlations among product visual content and textual content. Moreover, we proposed and designed a fuzzy hierarchical co-clustering algorithm for the collaborative filtering product recommendation. Via this method, users can be automatically grouped into different interest communities based on their behaviors. Then, a customized recommendation can be performed according to these implicitly detected relations. In summary, the developed search system performs much better in a visual unstructured product search when compared with state-of-art approaches. With the comprehensive ranking scheme and the collaborative filtering recommendation module, the user’s overhead in locating the information of value is reduced, and the user’s experience of seeking for useful product information is optimized

Supply chain network considerations for e-retail of luxury goods in Canada

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-89).The Internet has changed the way people purchase goods in the 21st century: many types of goods and services have become available online. Luxury goods followed this trend after an initial delay, primarily due to the nature of these goods. At the time of the preparation of this document, there were no proven guidelines for building the most successful e-retail website for luxury goods from the brand management and profitability perspectives. Ralph Lauren (RL) is an established American brand, well known for quality and consistent style in the following categories: clothing for women, men, and children; home goods, accessories; and fragrances. RL Corporation houses many labels that constitute premium and luxury offerings. RL currently sells through the Internet in many countries, in addition to countless company owned stores, 9 flagship stores, department stores and boutiques distributed around the world. To continue growth, RL wants to launch an e-retail website for Canada. This thesis aims to provide supply chain network considerations for the successful operation of the Canadian e-retail website for RL. These considerations stem from a careful look into potential luxury website characteristics that would meet the company objective of elevating the brand towards the luxury category. It is recommended that RL secure expansion capacity that will likely be necessary for B2C operation at its Toronto distribution center (DC). In addition, material handling equipment that will process a high volume of small orders should be placed in this DC. The Vancouver cross-docking facility could be expanded in the future as prompted by sales volume and coupled with a DC to cater to the West Coast of Canada. Also, it is recommended that advanced customer tracking systems and databases be employed, especially to determine high value customers for tailored offerings in the luxury segment.by Dilek Tansoy and Yi Linn Teo.M.Eng.in Logistic

Assessing consumers’ propensity towards product-service systems in the fashion industry: a cross-national comparison between Russia and Italy

To assess the propensity of Russian and Italian fashion consumers to use Product-Service Systems (PSSs), the study identifies the drivers and barriers for their adoption to improve decision-making and targeting of consumers when launching PSSs in markets with different socio-cultural and economic characteristics. After providing a comprehensive list of the services that are currently implemented in the fashion industry, the study also compares the level of interest in PSSs for Russian and Italian consumers, as well as their willingness to recommend, actual usage of, and attitude towards PSSs. The methodology relies on an exploratory empirical study between Russian and Italian consumers, using a survey leading to a final sample of 328 participants. From the findings, it emerges that the national context plays a pivotal role in determining the propensity of fashion consumers to adopt PSSs. We find that Italian consumers are more inclined to adopt PSSs vis-a-vis their counterparts. Further, by identifying the key drivers and barriers, we also highlight potential opportunities and threats for the adoption of PSSs in the future. Given that the widespread adoption at an international level of PSSs is strictly related to their potential in terms of scalability, the findings have highly significant implications for both theory and practice.</p

Include 2011 : The role of inclusive design in making social innovation happen.

Include is the biennial conference held at the RCA and hosted by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. The event is directed by Jo-Anne Bichard and attracts an international delegation

Sustainable Fashion: Current and Future Research Directions

Purpose: The sustainable fashion (SF) literature is fragmented across the management discipline, leaving the path to a SF future unclear. As of yet, there has not been an attempt to bring these insights together or to more generally explore the question of “what is known about SF in the management literature and where could the SF field go from there?”. The purpose of this paper is to bring together the field to identify opportunities for societal impact and further research. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review was conducted from the first appearances of SF in the management literature in 2000 up to papers published in June 2019, which resulted in 465 included papers. Findings: The results illustrate that SF research is largely defined by two approaches, namely, pragmatic change and radical change. The findings reveal seven research streams that span across the discipline to explore how organisational and consumer habits can be shaped for the future. Research limitations/implications: What is known about SF is constantly evolving, therefore, the paper aims to provide a representative sample of the state of SF in management literature to date. Practical implications: This review provides decision makers with insights that have been synthesised from across the management field. Originality/value: This review identifies knowledge gaps and informs managerial decision making in the field, particularly through serving as a foundation for further research