Online retailing: open all hours?

Globally, online retailing has become increasingly important to retailers and consumers. In the UK, the online shopping spend has increased from 0.07% to 7% of the annual retail sales and the consumers' appetite for buying online continues to grow as the internet becomes increasingly accessible, convenient and secure. However, does the internet provide a truly comprehensive shopping experience or are there limitations? A visit to eBay can enable bargain hunters to find almost any product, but many goods are secondhand, which does not suit the needs of all consumers and promps the question of how comprehensive the product ranges offered for sale online by mainstream retailers are. The web is developing into an important shopping environment, but the current flobal internet penetration is under 19% of the world population, suggesting that there are major limitations on who can shop online. On one hand, in certain segments, there is an increasing demand for online shopping but, on the other hand, personal constraints and restrictions in service provision are limiting access to online retailing. This paper focuses on the future of online retailing, the factors which influence consumers' intentions to shop online and the extent of the online shopping services provided by retailers

Importance-performance analysis of retail website service quality

This study intends to empirically explore the customer’s perceived ranking of the importance of a range of on-line services, and their perceptions of the retailers’ performance in delivering these services. An online questionnaire survey has been conducted to gather the data from respondents. The data was analysed using Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). The findings suggest areas of e-service quality where retailers could improve, based on the customers’ perceptions of the retailers’ performance against the importance of some e-service quality features and/or services on offer. Consequently, this study highlights that retailers should take active steps to understand their customers’ requirements, before developing an online customer services strategy. From a practical perspective, retailers could also apply the questionnaire developed for this study to canvas the opinions of customers, to help identify areas in which their performance needs to be improved

The application of performance measures in the UK retail sector: an exploratory analysis

Abstract: An empirical investigation of the use of performance measurement by small and medium sized online retailers in the UK. The purpose of the study is to investigate type and range of performance measures applied and extent to which measures are likely to affect business performance and strategy development. The key findings are that whilst a good range of measures are applied, the measures are more likely to be used for checking strategy implementation rather than strategy formulation or for informing corrective action to ensure longer term strategic success. Further work is required to explore relationships between strategy and business performance

E-strategy in the UK retail grocery sector

After a decade of Internet trading, retailers in the UK have experienced mixed fortunes with their Internet-based ventures. Online shopping success stories include; Tesco’s, which has positioned itself as a world leader in online grocery retailing by providing an Internet-based home delivery of over 40,000 products and making the service available to almost 95 per cent of UK residents. Similarly, Sainsbury’s offers 71% per cent of UK residents the opportunity to shop online however the company does not have the same international recognition. Waitrose too has expanded its Internet-based shopping services, aided by its acquisitions in OCADO. By contrast, Somerfield, and more recently Iceland have stopped their Internet shopping operations due to poor trading results and economic difficulties, despite the fact that Iceland was the first grocery retailer to offer online shopping to the majority of the UK mainland. The key aims of this paper are to explore how major grocery retailers coming to the one line market; to consider why some are more successful than others and to develop an understanding of the role of strategic thinking in online retailing. More specifically, the paper will initially, investigate the strategic options open to retailers developing activities online and finally, discuss the extent to which e-strategies represent a long-term approach to planning. The paper presents a literature review, which provides the conceptual foundations for investigation of the significance of e-strategy development within retailing. This model is then compared with evidence from secondary data sources and business results from leading UK grocery retailers in order to debate and analyse the likely importance of e-strategies in the success of online grocery retailing in the UK

Exploring the adoption of interactive digital television services as a retail shopping platform

The aim of this research is to consider the possible effect of an emerging technology platform on the uptake of online shopping: interactive (digital) Television (iTV), which enables viewers to select a variety of viewing options, publicity materials, games, entertainment and more recently shopping. An augmented version of the original TAM is applied to this study. Two new constructs are considered namely access and awareness together with perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and security. The results show that indeed the augmented TAM can be used as a predictive model for the adoption of iTV as an online shopping platform. It is concluded that access, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness are significant factors to determine the consumers’behavioural intentions towards the use of digital TV as a new shopping platform. However, awareness and security are considered to be insignificant with no effect on consumers’ behavioural intentions towards the new shopping medium

THE ROLE OF PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED INTERNET RETAILERS BASED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND INDONESIAN

This study investigates the application of performance measurement and considers how its use might affect the business performance of small and medium-sized retail businesses in the United Kingdom and Indonesia, which are using the Internet a as channel to market. In both countries, retailers were surveyed and the study has produced some interesting results, which have theoretical, practical and managerial implications. At the outset of the study, little was known about the extent of Internet adoption by retail businesses in Indonesia and it was not surprising to find that in the United Kingdom, Internet retailing is well established but in Indonesia, it is in the early stages of development. Nevertheless, there was sufficient Internet activity by Indonesian retailers to enable comparison of the use of performance measures by retailers in a mature economy and its use in a developing economy. The findings revealed similarities and differences in the number and type of performance measures used by retailers but more interestingly found evidence of different strategic orientations, which suggested that certain types of organizational behavior could be used to predict the type of performance measures that might be applied by a retailer. More specifically, in both countries, retailers adopting a conservativeness-oriented strategy were more likely to make greater use of performance measurement than those classified as applying an aggressiveness-oriented strategy but level of aggressiveness, was found to be an indicator of financial performance. In the United Kingdom low aggressiveness was an indicator of better financial performance whereas in Indonesia high aggressiveness was an indicator of better financial performance. This study has explored complex issues, by investigating strategic orientation and performance measurement and made suggestions as to how these constructs might affect business performance in Internet retailing within developed and less-developed countries. The findings have important managerial implications for Internet retailers about how performance measures might be used effectively to enhance business performance

Internet retailing: the past, the present and the future

The primary aim of this paper is to critically review the literature that explicitly addresses the adoption, application and impact of internet technologies, by retailers, for the promotion and sale of merchanidise. In particular, this paper seeks to present a holistic and critical review of the early predictions, with regard to the uptake and impact of internet retailing; critically reappraise these claims in light of current trends in internet retailing; and explore where e-tailing may be heading in the coming years. The study adopts an extensive and critical review of the literature, with regard to the adoption, uptake and impact of Internet retailing, as published in the academic literature over the past twenty years. In hindsight it can be seen that many of the original predictions, made at the dawn of the Internet era, have not become a reality: retailers aren’t cannibalising their own custom, virtual merchants aren’t dominating the market-place, and the high-street hasn’t, as yet, been put out of business. By contrast other predications have come to pass: electronic intermediaries are playing an increasingly important role, ‘one-to-one’ marketing has become a reality, prices are more competitive, and perhaps most importantly the consumer has become more powerful. Providing a brief review of the past, present and future of online retailing is an extremely ambitious undertaking, especially given the vast amount of literature that has been published in this area. In attempting to provide an overall impression of the broad themes, and most important findings, to emerge from this important body of literature, it is inevitable that we will have either missed or underplayed many important pieces of work. Consequently, there is a need for follow-up studies that aim to provide deeper and richer reviews of more narrowly defined elements of this vast landscape. This study presents one of the first and most thorough reappraisals of the initial literature with regard to the likely development, implications and impact of Internet retailing. Moreover the paper seeks to break new ground by attempting to use the current literature to help predict future directions and trends for on-line shopping

Winners and losers in the race to deliver on-line shopping: a longitudinal analysis

Winners and losers in the race to deliver on-line shopping: a longitudinal analysi

Town centre experiences in digitally enhanced places

Town centre experiences in digitally enhanced place

Institutional responses to electronic procurement in the public sector

Purpose: The primary aim of the research presented in this paper is to address the gap in the literature with regard to the factors that affect the uptake and application of e-procurement within the public sector. Design/methodology/approach: This analysis was achieved through five in-depth case studies – based upon extensive interviews, observation and documentation reviews - conducted within central and local government organisations. Findings: The study shows that despite being very different in terms of their form and function, each of our five case study organisations had achieved similar levels of progress in terms of their adoption of e-procurement technologies. In short every organisation had already adopted BACS, all five were also actively planning to implement: e-tendering; e-award; e-contract and e-catalogue systems, but none had any intention of adopting e-marketplaces or e-auctions. Research limitation/implications: The results of this study will help individual organisations to better understand their current situations and the barriers that will need to be overcome before they can significantly expand their adoption of e-procurement technologies. Originality/value: In addition to presenting one of the first detailed studies of the adoption of e-procurement technologies, this study also breaks new ground through its use of the lens of "Institutional theory" to help interpret the findings