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Technology now allows e‐tailers to customize online store atmosphere at the individual level, with the customization controlled and executed by either the retailers or the customers, or both. Since in conventional retailing the manipulation of store atmosphere is controlled mainly by retailers (e.g. store layout, product display techniques, store theatrics, etc.), the potential for mass customization with consumer involvement radically changes the way research regarding online store atmosphere must be approached. Positioned in the e‐tailing research area, the purpose of this paper is to summarize the research challenges presented by virtual store atmosphere customization and control and to formulate specific research propositions.

This viewpoint paper employs an interdisciplinary “desk‐research” approach. It elaborates on the emerging research challenges of customizing store atmosphere in electronic retailing highlighting the differences that exist among the conventional and the virtual retail channels. It then justifies the interdisciplinary nature of store atmosphere studies, investigates the customization challenges available online and formulates specific research questions and direct research propositions.

E‐tailing store atmosphere customization capabilities at the individual level, revolutionizes the established relevant theory from conventional retailing. However, the control of the customization process is a quite complex issue and should be treated as that, by e‐tailers.

The paper sets the research agenda and builds avenues for further research.

The paper provides direct managerial implications for effectively placing online store atmosphere customization in the hands of the consumer‐user.

The paper clearly justifies why current online store atmosphere studies should be adapted to the mass customization challenge applicable online. Similarly, it demonstrates the promising role that consumer control could potentially play on this topic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the virtual store layout's perceived ease of use effects on consumer behaviour and the perceived differences of two layout patterns most commonly used in air travel web sites (i.e. grid and freeform layout).

Data were collected through a laboratory experiment from a total of 241 students at a business school. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate the research model and test the research

Results confirm and extend available knowledge regarding virtual store layout effects on shopper responses. However, findings imply that layout pattern affects perceived pleasure and not ease of use in the investigated sector. Additionally, the study confirms the moderating role of atmospheric responsiveness.

Managers should consider and apply the optimal level of ease of use at their web stores' virtual layout to facilitate and yet engage consumers during their online trip.

In the context of e‐tailing, past research examined store layout effects on consumer behaviour mostly through a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) approach. Elaborating on these research insights, the present research attempt employs an environmental psychology approach measuring the effects of perceived layout on consumer behaviour in the online travel industry through the S‐O‐R paradigm perspective.

The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual framework for studying the effects of online store atmosphere on consumer behaviour and a compilation of empirical studies from the time when research on web atmospherics emerged in the literature in 1999 until today.

A desk research approach is followed in order to concentrate empirical research on the effects of online store atmosphere on consumer behaviour from top academic journals and conference proceedings through an interdisciplinary research approach (i.e. marketing and information systems literature).

Extant research is concentrated and presented in a structured way. Online store atmosphere influences various aspects of consumer behaviour online. However, there are many open research issues on the effects of online store atmosphere on consumer behaviour.

The present study develops a parsimonious conceptual framework for studying the effects of online store atmosphere, summarises the knowledge on online store atmosphere in a structured and systematic manner, and identifies gaps and opportunities for advancing established knowledge. No single comprehensive collection of empirical research progress on online store atmosphere exists. The paper constitutes a valuable reference of compact information and future research suggestions for both academics and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on customer relationship management (CRM) to obtain a comprehensive framework of mutually exclusive CRM research areas and sub‐areas free of all potentially disruptive factors (plethora of CRM definitions, personal judgments, etc.).

The keywords reported in 396 CRM articles published during the period 2000‐2006 are used to uncover first a great number of detailed keyword sub‐groups and, by subject summation, the CRM‐related research areas. This classification scheme is considered unbiased, in contrast with any direct classification of articles alone among CRM research areas fixed in advance.

An up‐to‐date conceptual and functional CRM framework emerges, consisting of a total of nine distinct research areas having their own weights, importance and popularity among the research community. Newly emerging CRM research areas are self‐identified as attracting the interest of the researchers and managers.

Keywords are activated, for a first time, as an added value characteristic reflecting genuinely the authors' beliefs about the subject content fields of their articles, important enough to reveal a self‐supported and self‐weighted unbiased and exhaustive CRM framework, useful to researchers and marketing practitioners. The paper offers strong evidence that e‐CRM is too complex to be comprehensively classified by mere procedures and simple criteria alone.

This paper aims at developing profiles of consumers who have already conducted shopping through the Internet and of those who are interested to adopt Internet shopping as an innovation. Based on the theories and processes of consumer adoption decision and diffusion of innovations, the study measures demographic and behavioural characteristics, as well as perceptions and preferences of Greek consumers towards distance shopping in general and Internet retailing in particular. The survey conducted offers insightful preliminary empirical data based on which detailed profiles of Internet shoppers (“innovators”) and interested‐to‐adopt Internet shopping (“early adopters”) are developed. The empirical research findings of this study provide relevant managerial implications while setting the foundation for future research directions in this area.

The satisfaction‐trust paradigm has been recently criticized regarding its ability to deliver positive consumer behavioral outcomes. This study aims to argue that – amongst others – a reason for this unpleasant situation may be the failure of service managers to account for non‐linearities in the satisfaction‐trust paradigm.

The setting for this study was the supermarket retail channel. A total of 942 respondents were “intercepted” in supermarket stores, employing a face‐to‐face personal interviewing method. For the detection of curvilinear effects the study employed the two‐step single indicant method of Ping.

It is posited that consumer trust is an important intervening variable through which non‐linear service evaluation effects translate into word‐of‐mouth. Findings imply that investing resources in satisfaction programs do not do a good job in building positive word‐of‐mouth from a point on. Economic value evaluations and trust judgments seem to be both necessary and sufficient conditions for building consumer relationships.

Theoretically, the work extends the relationship marketing research stream suggesting that curvilinear mechanisms are likely present in the well accepted satisfaction‐trust paradigm. Limitations of the study relate to the generalization of the findings in other sectors besides grocery retailing and its cross‐sectional nature.

The findings of this study suggest that relationship marketing managers would be ill‐advised in their investment decisions should they use a linear‐only terms trust model.

This article extends the trust literature in that it investigates whether consumer trust suffers from diminishing returns. Service providers who strive to build long‐term relationships with their customers may not do a good job if they continue to invest in trust determinants that present diminishing returns to scale.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the theoretical and empirical meaningfulness of a composite model of behavioral intentions in a pure mobile internet services context.

This paper starts by investigating the influence of seven service quality determinants on overall service quality perceptions, employing a qualitative research design. Next, these determinants are embedded in a holistic nomological framework depicting the complex interrelationships between prominent service evaluation constructs and behavioral intentions. The model is tested employing partial‐least squares structural equation modeling in the context of a field experiment involving the delivery of music content over real‐world mobile networks and devices.

The study finds that content quality, contextual quality, device quality, connection quality and privacy concerns have a strong positive influence on service quality perceptions. Overall, service quality, value and satisfaction have a simultaneous direct effect on behavioral intentions.

Consumer decision making is complex, and, for gaining favorable consumer behavior, it does not suffice to manage and measure service quality, satisfaction and value in an isolated manner but rather in a collective way.

So as to adopt mobile e‐commerce services consumers require to be rewarded with high levels of outcome quality (e.g., wide selection of music songs, sonic and video quality), anytime and most importantly at any place.

Study results imply that when it comes to specifying service evaluation frameworks employing service quality, satisfaction and value‐operationalized at a cumulative level traditional exchange contexts are not different from electronic commerce exchanges.

Positioned in the e-retailing field, this study aims to investigate the effect of the retail store’s atmosphere on consumer behavior in 3D online shopping environments, focusing on store layout as a critical influential factor.

The research uses a mixed research method approach that includes two complementary studies. First, a three-round Delphi study with domain experts is used to develop a store layout classification scheme (Study 1), resulting in five distinct types of store layout. Subsequently, 3D online retail stores that use the five layouts are designed and developed. These serve as treatments of a laboratory experimental design, which is used to assess layout impact on a number of attitudinal and behavioral variables (Study 2).

Five distinct types of store layout have been identified in Study 1, and their distinctive features are presented. The findings of Study 2 indicate that online shopping enjoyment, entertainment and ease of navigation are influenced by the store layout types of 3D online environments. Specifically, the “avant-garde” layout type facilitates the ease of navigation of customers in the store and provides a superior online customer experience. The “warehouse”’ adopts long aisles for the display of products, which simplifies the comparison of products, whereas the “boutique” layout was found to be the best in terms of shopping enjoyment and entertainment. The “department” layout shares many common characteristics with traditional department stores, providing an entertaining and enjoyable store, whereas the “pragmatic” layout emphasizes low system requirements.

The paper presents characteristics that make store layouts effective for different aspects of online customers’ experience and identifies opportunities that 3D online store designers and retailers can explore for the provision of enhanced, customized services to online customers.

This paper examines recent technological developments in store design and visual merchandising. It identifies five layout types of 3D online stores, which are different from those of brick–and–mortar and 2D online stores, and investigates their impact on consumer behavior. Further, the paper examines how each layout type influences online shopping enjoyment, entertainment, ease of navigation, online customer experience and, in turn, purchase and word-of-mouth intentions. Finally, the paper examines the moderating role of telepresence. Individuals with high sense of telepresence conceive 3D environments as “real” and are more concerned about the attributes that trigger the sense of enjoyment they experience while browsing.

Elaborating on earlier research by Vrechopoulos et al., this paper aims to investigate web banking store layout effects on user‐consumer behaviour and to report on a laboratory experimental investigation into user acceptance of three different layout types.

A web banking store was developed in three versions equal to the number of the alternative layouts manipulated by the laboratory experimental design. Two layout types were transformed from conventional banking and one type was designed by incorporating users' preferences and suggestions. The relationships in technology acceptance model (TAM) in the three treatments are tested separately, and then the subjects' evaluations on TAM constructs are compared.

The findings imply that store layout affects online consumer behaviour, confirming the findings of Vrechopoulos et al. in a different sector. The study also confirms the TAM relationships in all treatments and indicates that layout has an effect on user acceptance of web banking in terms of TAM constructs.

This study confirms the available knowledge regarding a store layout's influencing role on consumer behaviour in the context of web commerce.

Direct managerial implications for web banking are provided through the design of the “improved future” layout, which is depicted in the form of an abstract interface design.

The paper adopts an innovative conclusive causal research design towards testing the research hypotheses. To that end, an experimental application was developed in the laboratory and the research hypotheses were “packed‐up” with references from different disciplines (i.e. marketing and information systems) providing through that an interdisciplinary nature on the present study.