The adjustment of a product assortment when entering a new market : How international grocery retailers create customer loyalty on a domestic market.

Abstract: This research comprises a qualitative study with a deductive approach where two semi- structured interviews and one focus group were held to provide a better understanding of how international grocery retailers adjust their product lines of the product assortment to generate customer loyalty a the domestic market. In this study it regards the Swedish market on a local level. The focus group included ages in a range between 22-53 with two males and three females. Age in this study has an important signification since the demands, perceptions, experiences, expectations and values reflects the loyalty and varies depending of age. It emerges that the international grocery retailers need to have a fully adjusted product assortment to gain customer loyalty on the domestic market. However, there is a lack of knowledge of the international grocery stores product assortment that does not provide the customers with any trust or credibility which affect the loyalty. Also, the domestic grocery stores have already gained the loyalty from the customers that creates an unwillingness of trying new grocery stores, this because the knowledge of the product quality is more prioritized than the unknown quality of international brands.