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The purpose of this paper is to explore how market factors (pertaining to institutions, competition and resources) shape the international strategies of an online retailer.

A single qualitative case study research design is employed to conduct in-depth analyses of a Swedish internationalising small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) in the retail business.

The findings show that online retailers can use partnerships to tackle industry dynamics and break into foreign markets. This type of “piggy-back internationalisation” can be an effective strategy of handling foreign market dynamics in the entry phase: that is to say, the short term. Reliance upon relationships, however, may paradoxically inhibit retailers’ abilities to stay competitive in the post-entry phase (i.e. the long term) since they become cut-off from the first-hand market learning.

The authors provide propositions based upon the findings to support further research in the international marketing and international retailing literature.

The findings enhance the understanding of how electronic commerce affects SME internationalisation. They also generate new insights into the use of possible international expansion strategies for managers in retail SMEs.

This study introduces a new theoretical perspective to build upon international retail research and contributes to the international retail literature with relevant insights into both advantages and disadvantages of using partnerships to overcome challenges related to international online retailing.

The primary aim of this paper is to critically review the literature that explicitly addresses the adoption and application of internet technologies, by retailers, for the promotion and sale of merchandise. In particular, this study seeks to present a holistic and critical review of what is currently known, in order to help establish the gaps that will need to be addressed in future research studies.

The study adopts both quantitative and qualitative approaches to conduct the review, in an attempt to ensure that it is well focused and systematic.

The key finding of this study is that whilst the internet retailing literature is extremely wide‐ranging, and somewhat fragmented, it can be decomposed into three broad categories: the retailer perspective; the consumer perspective; and the technological perspective. Moreover, it has been noted that whilst the strategic potential of the internet is routinely mentioned in nearly all studies of electronic retailing, there have been very few studies that have explicitly or empirically targeted its strategic management.

The major limitation of this study is that due to the sheer volume and fragmentation of the literature in the domain, the paper has been based primarily upon a review of ten key journals, rather than every paper that has been published on internet retailing. However, because the target journals have been carefully chosen and systematically reviewed, we believe that the study should have many important implications for researchers, particularly in terms of where future studies of internet retailing might best be positioned.

This research offers a synthesis of the literature, which provides significant new insights into the field of internet retailing, and in particular its strategic importance.

This study aims to investigate the moderating effects of brick-and-mortar (BM) store characteristics and customer satisfaction on the relationship between ship-to-store (STS) retailing and BM store performance in an emerging economy. The purpose is to explore how BM store characteristics and customer satisfaction influence online buying behaviour when customers visit the stores to pick up their products.

This study collected secondary longitudinal data from 615 BM stores from one of Brazil's largest retailers and performed a panel-data regression analysis using the following moderating variables: customer satisfaction with BM stores, BM store's size, convenience and inventory transparency.

Customer satisfaction with BM stores moderates the effect of STS transactions on the revenue per store. Results also show that BM store's convenience, size and inventory transparency moderate STS online customers' impact on BM store cross-sales.

The STS strategy can increase online and BM store performance. Some BM store characteristics and customer satisfaction influence online customers to buy more products when they visit BM stores to pick up their products, providing a more complex model for the relationship between STS strategy and BM store performance.

Companies in emerging economies can use the BM store more strategically in combination with the STS strategy to increase overall retailer performance. By managing some BM store characteristics, managers can improve retail sales.

This study demonstrates how new moderating factors expand the understanding of the relationship between online and physical retailing in emerging economies. Also, the panel data regression results control for extraneous variables and provide more robust evidence of the relationships observed.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the benefits delivered to traditional retailers from using shopping portals as their entry mechanism to the online trading environment. The paper also aims to highlight the possible drawbacks inherent in such an approach.

A case study approach was used with an online portal, combining documentary analysis and semi‐structured interviews, using a team‐based interviewing approach. This facilitated the development of a multi‐layered picture of the organisation.

Using a shopping portal delivers several benefits to traditional retailers in terms of marketing synergies, site traffic generation, access to web site management and fulfilment services, and the ability to offer customers a multi‐channel retailing experience. Drawbacks may include partner interdependence and turnover, restricted organisational learning and restricted delivery capabilities.

Highlighting the benefits and drawbacks of shopping portals generates guidelines that traditional retailers can consider to help them decide whether such portals are the right choice for their individual firm or not.

This paper expands the literature on the phenomenon of the online portal by demonstrating its potential as a mechanism for traditional retailers to engage in electronic retailing.

COVID-19 accelerated change within the UK retail market. It encouraged the growth of online shopping, providing the necessary demand for grocers to invest in their operations, and transformed the economics of their businesses. As innovative new business models emerged, some existing retailers collapsed leading to significant changes on the high street. Landlords were also affected. As some retail tenants struggled to pay their rents, other parts of the sector prospered and sought additional warehouse capacity to cope with rising demand. Not only does this illustrate how different parts of the retail sector faired during COVID-19, but it also demonstrates how the move online has resulted in the emergence of new opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal how mental models inherited from offline retailing have impeded both the theory and practice of online retailing, and to suggest fruitful areas of research in online retailing.

The mental models of physical retail suggest physical constraints of various sorts, and yet for the most part, the constraints acting upon the e‐tailer are instead logical, symbolic and cognitive.

Researchers in e‐tailing could benefit from pursuing a set of interesting issues including assortment, customer‐to‐customer value creation, site design and structure, and the importance of network topology.

There are many new topics in retailing that can be explored by marketers, as long as we are willing to jettison some of our cherished terminology and ways of thinking. In effect, online, the retailing mix becomes human‐centric, rather than focusing on physical components.

The skill sets needed to set up an e‐tailing presence are substantially different than those required for offline retailing.

The paper takes an unconventional view of the retailing literature, literature that goes back to the foundation of marketing as an academic discipline.

The management of electronic retail channels is not limited to virtual companies only. Also store‐based (stationary) retailers are expected to set up electronic distribution channels. This paper discusses the occurrence of such channels from a European perspective. The authors introduce a Web‐scan framework to analyze the nature of Web offerings and thelogistical elements of e‐tailing. The application of this structure showed that store‐based retailers have already invested in Web‐based activities, mainly for information and/or communication issues. The set‐up of strong electronic channels of distribution is still in an early phase.

Retail marketing is in the midst of an evolution. The paradigm is shifting from a product-centric to a consumer-centric focus, with a particular emphasis on understanding how consumers transition from harboring an interest in a product to actually purchasing that product. In response, shopper marketing, and in-store marketing (ISM) in particular, have emerged as important mechanisms to influence shopper behavior in brick & mortar and online retail environments. The academic literature is replete with work on what factors of ISM influence shopper behavior. In this chapter, we categorize prominent streams of findings on ISM into firm, customer, competitor and product characteristics of ISM and examine how the notion of a “store” is evolving from bricks to clicks – namely from physical formats to online shopping experiences. Insights from this chapter will help retailers and store managers identify what their customers respond to within a physical store, how technology is changing the way they can capture information on customers, and how shopper behavior is evolving in response to brick & mortar and online retail environments.

This research examines how hedonic shopping experiences for online music impact emotion regulation processes and how feelings regarding previous online music purchases influence repeat purchase behaviour. The paper aims to introduce a model that explains and examines the meditating role of consumers' attitudes, emotion regulation and subjective norms in the shopping experience for online music.

Structural equation analysis based on AMOS 17.0 techniques, using the maximum likelihood estimation method, was used to assess the measurement and structural model. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to determine construct and discriminant validity before testing hypotheses of the structural model.

Results indicate that shopping for music online involves an emotional and hedonic component. Specifically, consumer attitudes, emotion regulation as well as subjective norms influence repeat purchase intentions.

Emotion regulation in traditional retailing environments has been heavily studied, however, limited research exists to examine emotion regulation in the online retailing environment. With the proliferation of online retailing, this study makes important contributions to understanding online shopping behaviour for hedonic products.

Based on the findings of this research, online music retailers should consider developing applicable customer‐valued alternatives to positively influence the overall online shopping experience.

This paper models consumer emotion regulation beyond the traditional retailing environment and examines it in a virtual retailing environment. Results prove to be important as emotion regulation impacts consumer behaviour beyond previously known traditional settings.

The rapid evolution in artificial intelligence (AI) has redefined the customer experience and created huge opportunities for companies to interact with customers using chatbots. This study explores the role of AI chatbots in influencing the online customer experience and customer satisfaction in e-retailing.

A research model based on the technology acceptance model and information system success model is proposed to describe the interrelationships among chatbot adoption, online customer experience and customer satisfaction. Personality is a moderator in the model. The authors used a quantitative approach to collect 425 useable online questionnaires and Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) and SmartPLS to analyze the measurement model and proposed hypotheses.

The usability of the chatbot had a positive influence on extrinsic values of customer experience, whereas the responsiveness of the chatbot had a positive impact on intrinsic values of customer experience. Furthermore, online customer experience had a positive relationship with customer satisfaction, and personality influenced the relationship between the usability of the chatbot and extrinsic values of customer experience.

This research extends understanding of the online customer experience with chatbots in e-retailing and provides empirical evidence by showing that extrinsic and intrinsic values of online customer experience are enhanced by chatbot adoption.