CRM systems management and use : From retail stores perspective

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how stores in the retail sector and in business to consumers´ relations, are engaged in the CRM systems use and management. The purpose is also to see if the information that is gathered by the headquarters is transferred down to the stores.   The research follows a realistic philosophy combined with an abductive approach and a qualitative method. The choice of design to this research was an exploratory research combined with a case study strategy over a cross-sectional time horizon. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with managers in the six different retail stores.      The findings from this thesis showed various results when it came to the use of the CRM system and the amount of information that the stores got access to from the headquarter/partner. None of the stores managed their CRM systems themselves, it was only managed by the headquarters or partners of the retail chains. The amount of information that was transferred down from the headquarters or partners, affected how much the stores used the CRM system. The stores that got much information had more knowledge about the CRM system and used it a lot more than stores that got less information.   The limitations that can be found in this thesis is that it is only a small amount of stores within the retail market that has been examined, this might give a misleading result for the rest of the retail market and the global market as whole.