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Estimates of online sales by product categories reveal that certain types of products fare better than others. A few conceptual papers have offered frameworks to assess the compatibility of a product to online marketing and sales. These frameworks that are based on product characteristics could help explain the differences in the asymmetrical success of online retailing. This paper reports the results of an empirical study that investigated differences between Internet shopping intentions for products categorized by cost and tangibility. Analyses of data, collected through a mail survey from over 750 respondents, show that intentions to shop using the Internet differ by tangibility of product. Reasons for this discrepancy are provided through an examination of salient and normative beliefs, along with implications for online merchants.

Purpose – This paper aims first, to identify online service attributes that facilitate efficient and effective shopping, purchasing, and delivery based on the modified E‐S‐QUAL scale and, second, to evaluate the extent to which current online retailers provide such service attributes as an objective measure of service performance. Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis of 111 women's apparel retail web sites was conducted to assess online retailers' performance in providing online service attributes. Findings – The overall extent to which current online retailers provide online service attributes appears to be low. Managerial implications are provided to help online retailers improve their service performance. Originality/value – This study provides an objective way to evaluate online retailers' service performance and thus complement existing online service quality research based on consumer perceptions and evaluation of online service quality. In addition, the coding guide developed in this study provides an easy and practical tool that can be used by online retailers for the self‐assessment of online service performance.

Consumer selection of retail patronage mode has been widely researched by marketing scholars. Several researchers have segmented consumers by shopping orientation. However, few have applied such methods to the Internet shopper. Despite the widespread belief that Internet shoppers are primarily motivated by convenience, the authors show empirically that consumers' fundamental shopping orientations have no significant impact on their proclivity to purchase products online. Factors that are more likely to influence purchase intention include product type, prior purchase, and, to a lesser extent, gender.

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.

This paper seeks to provide an illustrative review of the internet campaigns being waged against a number of large corporate retailers.

The paper begins with a short history of anti‐corporate protest and this is followed by a brief outline of the dominance of large corporations within retailing. The paper draws its empirical material from anti‐corporate retail web sites on the internet.

The findings reveal that in some cases internet campaigns target the policies and behaviours of corporate retailers and in others specific retailers are being singled out for special attention. The campaigns address a wide range of issues including the environment and planning, impacts within local economies and communities, workers’ rights and working conditions and the power of retail corporations.

The paper provides an accessible review of the anti‐corporate retailer campaigns being waged on the internet and as such it will interest retail academics, retail employees, political representatives, planning officers and community and pressure groups.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of the expansion and development strategies used by retailers based in the UK for creating sustained competitive advantage in online grocery retailing.

The objectives of this research were addressed by using a qualitative research strategy consisting of two specific methods of data collection: primary and secondary data collection.

The study suggests that retailers have tended to follow an incremental approach towards the development and expansion of their online service provision. This route to expansion involves the trialling of new ideas, keeping close watch on the competition while endeavouring to introduce innovative new services to capture consumer interest and deliver customer benefits.

The major limitation associated with this study is with respect to its heavy reliance on secondary sources. Consequently, assumptions have had to be made about the retailers' strategic thinking, as we were not able to secure any first hand accounts. However, in terms of the research implications, this study has both demonstrated the value of secondary data sources, and highlighted the benefits of adopting a resource‐based analysis.

The findings highlight the importance of viewing an organisation's web‐based IT resources, as being only one element of its e‐commerce strategy.

This study makes a major contribution in two ways. First, it has mapped out the strategic pathways followed by the UK's five leading grocery retailers, in terms of their adoption of e‐commerce during the first complete decade of online retailing. Second, the paper has demonstrated how the resource‐based theory provides a very useful lens through which these pathways can be viewed and ultimately explained.

The purpose of this paper is to study the service-profit chain (SPC) on e-service quality dimensions, online customer value (CV) dimensions, e-satisfaction, and e-loyalty in an e-commerce context.

A total of 2,813 internet customers filled in an online questionnaire after completing a specified task on one of 28 wine web sites from seven countries.

The results highlight the impact of the dimensions of e-service quality (information, aesthetics, ease of use, security/privacy, and reliability) on the dimensions of online CV (functional, economic, and social value) as they affect e-satisfaction, which in turn influences e-loyalty. The results validate the SPC in an e-commerce context and also stress the partial mediating role of the dimensions of online CV between the dimensions of e-service quality and e-satisfaction.

The sample may not exactly match the customer profile of the web sites analyzed. In order to generalize the results, future research should replicate this study with a customer sample from each web site. Future research could also take into account other variables that may have an influence on the relationships identified. Additionally it would be interesting to replicate the study in other industries and undertake longitudinal studies in one or more industries.

From a managerial point of view, online retailers, especially in the wine sector, can positively affect CV, satisfaction, and loyalty by focussing on information, aesthetics, ease of use, security/privacy, and reliability.

This paper is the first to study the SPC by examining service quality dimensions, CV dimensions, satisfaction, and loyalty in an online context. It extends the knowledge of online retailing by validating the SPC on the dimensions of traditional service concepts, such as service quality and CV. The findings can assist online retailers to better understand the dynamics of online customer relationships and the implications for customer satisfaction and ultimately loyalty.

Many traditional retailers use the internet as a complementary business channel and thus sell products through multiple channels. In contrast, “pure player” internet retailers only sell products via the internet. A proliferation of pure players over the past few years has intensified competition in the online shopping market and the question of who is better at offering physical distribution service quality (PDSQ), multi‐channel retailers or pure players, is open to debate. Despite PDSQ's importance in an electronic commerce environment there are few studies to date and most have focused on general service quality of internet shopping. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this phenomenon and posit a conceptual framework for further investigation.

This paper reviews the literature to develop variables and constructs for investigation following the first stage of Churchill's paradigm for scale development, which are presented in a framework based on the concept of order fulfilment as a key driver in electronic PDSQ, or e‐PDSQ.

The framework is presented for future investigation, thus there is no empirical study in this paper.

PDSQ has strategic importance for retailers to achieve competitive advantage and offer superior customer service, particularly for pure players as they are considered intangible services compared to their multi‐channel competitors. This importance also extends to the e‐commerce environment.

Earlier work has provided insight into how e‐PDSQ, represented by availability, timeliness and reliability, is affected by pricing, transactions and firms. This paper extends this work and presents an e‐PDSQ framework to investigate differences between multi‐channel and pure player retailers.

Can operations management impact significantly the profitability of consumer‐based businesses on the Internet (called B2C)? During the past two years, Internet retailers have not provided satisfactory financial results. Whereas, leading in‐store retailers have been profitable using traditional modes for selling and delivering goods to customers. The research underlying this paper focused on analyzing the costs of doing business which are affected by operations management decisions. We wanted to determine if the criteria for best practice normally used by operations managers applied to firms engaged in e‐tailing (Internet B2C). To do this we singled out a well‐known dot.com retail failure, Webvan. Cost data were studied from startup (1998) to bankruptcy (2001). It was found that operating costs were way out of line with (even) good practice. Under in‐store retailing circumstances, the inability to reach breakeven would not have been tolerated. While concentrating on Webvan, this paper uses information about other firms to provide additional insights.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the need for an improved understanding of consumer value for online grocery purchases and to propose the notion of “integrated service solution” packages as a strategy for growing and successfully sustaining the channel to guide both marketing strategy and policy.

This paper integrates and synthesises research from retailing, consumer behaviour and service quality literatures in order to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the value of e‐grocery shopping to aid practitioners to address the critical needs, expectations and concerns of consumers for the development of grocery shopping within the online environment.

This paper offers an alternative approach to allow e‐grocery to become a mainstream retail channel in its own right and not to compete with the in‐store offerings. The research demonstrates the need for a progressive approach that follows contemporary consumer needs and habits at the household level. The conjecture is that shopping for fast‐moving consumer goods follows a learning path that needs to be replicated in the online context. Moreover, it is suggested that consumer resistance to the adoption of the new channel should be addressed not only from a technological perspective but also from the social aspects of online shopping.

The research provides a practical framework for both retailers and policy makers on how the “next generation” of online services can be developed using a “bottom up” consumer perspective. This paper also advocates a non‐technological bias to e‐grocery retailing strategy.