Online stores in the public sector: case: City of Imatra

Abstract

The increase of e-commerce and digital sales is creating new types of opportunities for the public sector. The thesis focuses on two objectives. The first objective is to find differences between solutions made by Finnish municipalities and cities. The second objective is to find suitable services or products for the case city, Imatra, to sell in their online store or to promote in their online portal.

The theoretical framework was built using the literature review method, explaining concepts related to online stores and electronical commerce. Secondary data was collected for this section by scientific articles, e-books, credible Internet sources and relevant studies. The empirical part of the thesis was done using a quantitative research method, where 30 different Finnish cities were compared to find out the differences in solutions, population, geographical location and financial information.

The result of the study indicated which municipalities had developed their digital infrastructure and which services and products were the most popular.

The findings indicate a difference in strategy between municipalities, and suggested services and products for the city of Imatra.