مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد خرده فروشی آنلاین از طریق کانال های الکترونیکی – الزویر 2020

This research contributes to broadening understanding of online retailing across electronic channels (e-channels, e.g., mobile devices) and e-channel touchpoints (e.g., mobile shopping apps) from a consumer perspective. Based on the multichannel retailing approach and theoretical considerations, the authors suggest an enhanced perspective on the online retailing environment and validate this multichannel e-commerce perspective by conducting both an online survey (N = 502) and an experimental study (N = 126). The results indicate that online retailing can be classified into four e-commerce categories that entail individual e-channel touchpoints, emphasizing the need for a more differentiated consideration of “the online channel.” This work advances marketing research and practice by illustrating that both technology-related quality and context-related situational benefit affect consumers’ utilization of e-channels. Further findings show that retailers can enhance consumers’ shopping experiences by providing alternative e-channel touchpoints (i.e., specific digital shopping formats) that contribute differently to the online customer journey.

Introduction

Researchers recognize that the range of Internet-enabled devices that shoppers use to search for product information or to purchase products online has expanded (Grewal et al., 2017; Maity et al., 2018). With every device that allows individuals to access online retail offerings, such as computers, smartphones, tablets, and Internet-enabled TV, online shopping is becoming not only more versatile but also more complex. In the context of consumers’ channel choices, multichannel researchers have emphasized the need to understand the benefits that individuals derive from each retail channel to determine effective and efficient individual channel strategies and to employ customer-centric multichannel retailing strategies (e.g., Payne & Frow, 2005). Therefore, in this paper, we adopt the multichannel perspective for online retailing itself; that is, we investigate a multichannel e-commerce environment in which consumers conduct their online customer journeys across multiple e-channels (categories of Internet-enabled devices, e.g., mobile devices) and e-channel touchpoints (specific digital shopping formats, e.g., mobile shopping apps). The distinction between an e-channel and an e-channel touchpoint is necessary because an e-channel represents the hardware alternatives that consumers can use to shop online, while an e-channel touchpoint represents the software alternatives that retailers can provide for e-channels. Because of the various combinations of hardware and software, it can be expected that the same online retail offering will shape online customer experiences differently depending on the fit of the e-channel and the e-channel touchpoint.