A Typology of Internet Retailing

Abstract

Dissimilar to non-electronic retailing, Internet retailing does not have well-developed typologies that identify underlying factors for differentiating on-line participants. Development of a typology for Internet retailers allows researchers to more fully understand channel dimensions and provide researchers with a tool for tracking and predicting the structure of Internet retailing. This study fulfills this need by combining both existing retailing attributes and unique features of eretailing to appraise a representative sample of Internet retailers. Examining 152 Internet retailing sites utilizing 32 attributes, seven underlying differentiating factors were found to identify three significant clusters of Internet retailers. These three primary types of Internet retailers are: (1) Developed Intermediaries, (2) Product Focused, and (3) Micro-Segment Focused. The strongest differentiator of sites was the size and scope of the product assortment just as with non-electronic retailing. However specific Internet retailing attributes of site service level