E-Commerce
E-shopping commonly known as Electronic Commerce refers to the buying and selling of information, products and services via computer networks. (Kalakota and Whinston 1997) The global market for online grocery retailing remains at a relatively early stage of development in many parts of the world. To date, sales of food and drinks over the internet have yet to make the same impact observed in other parts of the consumer goods industry, most notably books, clothing and electronic items such as computer equipment. (www.companiesandmarkets.com) It has become clear that most of the existing retailers use the online service as an extension of the service that they provide in house. This allows them to provide another convenient element for the customer that might not be able to visit a store for the products that they require. Evidently retailers see their presence on the internet as an opportunity to further meet the needs of their customers employing the motto of ‘If you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you’. With most major supermarkets now competing online as well as offline, competition in the UK is intensifying to offer added value services to online customers, above and beyond the mere delivery of groceries (Robinson et al 2007). There is clear evidence to show that a lot of companies have tried to venture into this peculiar part of this industry and have subsequently failed. It remains clear that very little has been done to date to understand the evolution of consumers’ motivations, likes and dislikes when purchasing groceries online, as they become more experienced with this mode of shopping. (Robinson et al 2007). Meanwhile the sector remains dominated by store-based grocers such as the likes of Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose that have remained resilient in an ever changing and adapting industry and have enjoyed…
The concept of e-commerce relates to the practice of buying and selling products over the internet (Lee, 2008) and it has a significant impact on consumer consumer behaviour. Pozzi (2009) divides online retailers in two following categories: First, retailers that sell online, as well as, maintaining traditional physical offline stores. Retailers belonging to this category have commenced their businesses in traditional offline stores and they adopted online sales channel as well during the last decade in order not to miss convenient opportunity of increasing their revenues. Major retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Next, Debenhams and many others belong to this category. Retailers employing both, online and offline sales channels have wide range of marketing tools available for them to be used in affecting consumer behaviour (Callen, 2009). Online customers of these businesses usually represent individuals and organisations that have formed their brand loyalty prior to the adoption of online sales channel by the retailer. Second, retailers that rely only on online sales channel and do not have any offline stores. Global retailers such as Amazon, EBuyer, very.co.uk do not trade through offline physical stores and they rely only on online sales channel in order to conduct their business operations. While adopting such a strategy may offer substantial benefits in terms of cost savings, because no stores need to be maintained and accordingly, fewer numbers of employees are sufficient to be employed, nevertheless this strategy limits the opportunities for retailers in terms of impacting consumer behaviour. Specifically, online-only retailers are in a disadvantaged position compared to their offline competitors in terms of affecting consumer behaviour through enhancing the quality of store atmosphere and effective positioning of products within the stores. Moreover, unlike offline retailers, online-only retailers lack the opportunities of impacting consumer behaviour through providing ‘warm’ customer service experiences…
By John Dudovskiy
Category: E-Commerce
“E-commerce, short for electronic commerce, is a business transaction that occurs over an electronic network such as the Internet” (Shelly and Vermaat, 2008, p.91). E-commerce has many forms and variations and online food and grocery retailing is one of them. A brief history of e-commerce and online shopping has to be mentioned briefly in order to explore the research topic more effectively. Using relevant information from the works of Liu (2007), Botha et al (2008), and Shelly and Vermaat (2008) the evolution of internet and e-commerce until the point when it became possible to buy food and grocery products online can be summarised into the following stages: Time and Period Evolutional Stage 1969 The creation of ARPAnet and the evolution of TCP/IP Beginning of 1980s Popularity of personal computers with decreasing costs and increasing processing power; WANs and LANs becoming necessity requirements. Mid 1980s Size of the internet becoming significant 1990 Introduction of WWW with HTTP and HTML Beginning of 1990s The creation of general browser technology and search engines Mid 1990s Business integration problems are solved through the introduction of intranets and extranets 1995 Dramatic popularity of online shopping with the introduction of amazon.com End of 1990s Online payment made easier with the introduction of PayPal and Google is introduced Beginning of 2000s Security measures of paying through credit cards are increased. Mid 2000s Introduction of YouTube and Google Checkout End of 2000s The amount mobile shopping is increased dramatically with the introduction of IPhone Zapalla and Gray (2006) mention the concept of “E-Business Adaptation Ladder” proposed by Nachira (2002) that divides the process of evolution of e-business to its current stage into the following six stages: Stage 1 – introduction of e-mail as one of the most efficient business communication methods Stage 2 – with the introduction of…
By John Dudovskiy
Category: E-Commerce
The role of Internet in personal and professional lives of people has increased dramatically during the last decade and today people use Internet for many different purposes including education, shopping, communication, working, entertainment etc. Social Networking Sites have emerged as a platform for displaying individual profiles, sharing information, photos, videos, experiences among Internet users as well as forming friendships and sending messages to each-other. Having started as a display for personal achievements for members only several years ago Social Networking Sites have quickly developed and have taken new roles such as being an effective advertising tool and even a platform for political propaganda. For instance according to Esfandiari (online, 2010) political unrest in Iran following 2009 elections was partially fuelled by Facebook which resulted in government announcing Social Networking Sites as ‘hidden enemies’ of the country. Social Networking Sites have mushroomed during the last few years and today there are many global Social Networking Sites as well as sites targeting specific countries, members of specific groups and people of specific professions. However, not all Social Networking Sites are equally successful and the numbers of their members vary between several hundred and several hundred millions. The number of Social Networking Sites members depend on many factors including financing and member attraction and retention strategies each Social Networking Sites employ. The definition of Social Networking Sites are given by Hutchinson (2008) as taken by Boyd and Ellison (2007) as “web sites that allow members to construct a public or semi-public profile and formally articulate their relationship to other users in a way that is visible to anyone who can access their file” (Hutchinson, 2008, p.201). As Fellow (2010) informs initial Social Networking Sites have began appearing towards the end of 1990s with Classmates.com and SixDegrees.com where Classmates.com was assisting people with finding their former classmates, whereas the aim of SixDegrees.com was…
By John Dudovskiy
Category: E-Commerce