The Centre for Retail Research at Lund University is an interdisciplinary research center with a focus on the retail sector. The Centre was founded with financial support from the Swedish Retail and Wholesale Development Council in March 2014. When our inital five-year funding (of 5 million Swedish crowns per year) expired, the Centre transitioned to a new finance model of around 1 million Swedish crowns per year (from Lund University). This has partly changed the way that the centre works. We no longer run our own research projects. Instead, we operate as a platform organisation supporting research networks and retail research applications from researchers at Lund University. 

Now in its eighth year the center has around 60 affiliated researchers, including international guest researchers, and numerous affiliated projects. Seminars and workshops are arranged regularly for both researchers and practitioners with an interest in retail and the Centre's researchers are regularly featured in news stories about the growth and development of the retail sector in Sweden and internationally.

The retail sector is one of Sweden’s largest employers and is an important part of the economy as a whole and people’s everyday lives. A large portion of consumer income is spent in the retail sector. At the same time the international retail environment is ever changing and this poses new challenges for the retail sector, including its companies, employees and consumers. The question of sustainability and other future-focused issues are extremely salient and the Centre works actively with these on many fronts.

The Centre for Retail Resarch is dedicated to providing retail professionals with access to excellent, cutting edge retail resarch. We do this via newsletters, think pieces published on our website under the title Centrum kommenterar, and by organising regular workshops both online and face-to-face.

 

Our Overarching Mission Statement and Organizational Goals

• Develop a sustainable platform for researchers and practitioners with a particular interest in retail research that will nationally strengthen and encourage retail research.
• Develop a interdisciplinary research environment of international excellence with a focus on retail
• Develop a stable platform for knowledge exchange between academia and practice
• Promote cooperation of planned and established retail research and retail education at Lund University

You can view publications by researchers at the Centre (page in Swedish), or read our annual report (in English) for deeper information about the work we do.

Contact the Cente Director, Ulf Johansson, for more information.