Background: E-commerce for groceries is growing and growing in Sweden and pure ecommerce companies are constantly entering the market. This study is based on Ica, which for a long time has been successful in the physical market through decentralization and the Ica-idea with individual retailers incollaboration and physical stores. To meet the new type of consumer behavior and competition Ica has developed a number of e-commerce solutions. Including the phenomenon of dark stores that indicates a new type of centralization within the group.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the experienced opportunities and limitations of a retailer-owned franchise organization in the Swedish grocery trade in its development work of e-commerce. A further purpose is to shed light on the interviewees reasoning about whether dark stores are a sustainable solution from a competitive and relational perspective.

Method: In this study, a qualitative research strategy is applied in a case study design. The empirical data is generated through semi-structured interviews with managers and retailers from Ica stores in the Stockholm region and the ecommerce manager for Ica Sweden. The empirical data has then been codedand divided into four themes with associated subcategories.

Literaturestudy: For the essay a literature study presenting theories and previous research on centralization and decentralization, vertical and horizontal integration, click-and-mortar, omni channels and competition was made. Afterwards it´s used as a basis for the theoretical comparison in the analysis part.

Conclusion: Due to the ownership structure, the case organization is facing some unique conditions. Example, the decentralized power promotes quickness and opportunities for local adaptations, but also that a pure e-commerce modelwould be problematic. One solution the head office has developed is a dark stores service that the stores can use, which gives them access to a larger geographic market and leads to higher internal competition between thestores.