This research was done by Polar Electro Oy, who is the commissioner of this thesis. The subject of this thesis was also based on the request of the commissioner.

This thesis was conducted to research Polar’s customer experience in retailers’ online stores. This research was conducted to see how Polar can help the retailers to provide positive customer experiences for customers purchasing Polar offerings. The objective of this thesis was to map out the current customer experience in three Nordic retailers’ online stores and to discover possible improvement opportunities for developing a more customer-centric experience. The research outcomes of this thesis would contribute to a project were the improvements of the online retail store touchpoint will be designed and implemented.

The knowledge base was gathered through published books and electronic indices. The research methods of data collection were qualitative service design research methods. The online stores of the three pre-selected Nordic dealers were studied by collecting qualitative material from both the dealers and the end customers. The qualitative research methods were a semi-structed expert interview and mystery shopping. The interviews were conducted with three Polar Nordic retailer representatives. The mystery shopping research was done to the interviewed retailers’ online stores which was conducted by 10 research customers.

Interviews with Polar’s retailer representatives’ and the mystery shopping result revealed that the current customer experience in the retailers’ online store is not consistent. Inconsistency was found in the amount and versatility of the product information. The development of customer encounters is based on practices and goals that have been developed by the company stakeholders of this touchpoint.

For further research, information of customer behavior could be expanded to better understand Polar's overall customer experience. In addition, the impact of this thesis’ development solution on the retailer online store customer experience can only be verified after the changes have been made to the retailer online stores.