Samenvatting

This report gives the answer to the question: “In what way can Riverdale motivate shop owners to participate in the omnichannel strategy?” It is important to know what drives the shop owners and what will persuade them to be willing to be a part of this change. The implementation of an omnichannel strategy is a must since the use of the internet in the consumer market has grown enormously the last view years. Customers do not only buy in the store anymore, they use different touch points to find information and to decide what, how and where they will make a purchase. In an omnichannel strategy a company combines all the possibilities for the customer to get information and buy in offline and online channels. The customer gets the same information and experience through all different touch points. These touch points are e.g. stores, websites, web shops,
smart phones and tablets. The customer does not notice any difference between the various channels. This is a condition that customers nowadays set. All these touch points make it possible to learn more about the customer and so to get a complete image of the customers. In order to be able to use all this information an omnichannel strategy is necessary. For the implementation of omnichannel at Riverdale the full participation of the retailers is a must. Therefore, it was necessary to find out what drives the retailers. To find the answer to this question how Riverdale can motivate shop owners to participate in the omnicannel strategy, different types of research have been done. After extensive literature studies qualitative and quantitative research has been done among the most important retailers. These 121 retailers have a Riverdale Inspiration Floors (RIF) shop or Riverdale Inspiration Shops (RIS). The purpose of these interviews was to find out what changes they have observed in the buying behavior of their customers, what motivates them, what they know about omnichannel and if they are willing to participate in an omnichannel strategy. Research has shown that the retailers are highly motivated, both intrinsic as well as extrinsic. They own the shops, so revenues are important to them (extrinsic motivation), but most of all they love their jobs! (intrinsic motivation). The Expectancy Theory of motivaction of Victor Vroom was also discussed. The retailers know that investing in omnichannel is a must. However, they first want to know what benefits omnichannel will bring, before they are willing to invest time and money. They are looking for a win-win situation. The most important conclusion from the survey is that the retailers are not only motivated by extrinsic motivation (money or other performance rewards), but also by intrinsic motivation. Involvement and continue to learn are two aspects that are very important for their intrinsic motivation. The results of the research give valuable input for the implementation. The retailers insist that Riverdale will make, implement and execute the omnichannel strategy and will give the retailers full support. 94% of the retailers want to know in advance what their benefits will be for their efforts, so this has to be
communicated in an early stage. The retailers are afraid that the implementation of omnichannel strategy will result in a lot of extra systems, which will take a lot of time and work, so this is an important item in finding the best omnichannel strategy. The retailers do not want to put in more effort, energy and money in omnichannel if it does not financially pay off. Riverdale needs to present a omnichannel report to the retailers with details about the cost and extra income. Moreover, Riverdale has to point out all the benefits that omnichannel brings to enlarge the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.Riverdale can motivate shop owners to participate in the omnichannel strategy by raising the intrinsic motivation by keeping the retailers informed about progress in the development of the omnichannel strategy and other developments, giving work shops and trainings about omnichannel and other developments and keeping them involved.Since the motivation of the retailers is both intrinsic and extrinsic, it is only a matter of getting them involved and the omnichannel strategy will be a success!