Abstract
A literature review of existing assessment frameworks for B2C websites over more than ten years reveals that they are all built bottom-up through an essentially empirical approach of recording functionalities/features without any theoretical construct to guide the design of the framework. In an attempt to develop a theoretically consistent framework, this paper first identifies all relevant assessment categories and sub-categories for B2C websites in the luxury fashion industry. In total, eight categories and 29 sub-categories (actual assessment criteria) are identified. This framework is then applied to 15 luxury fashion brands in a longitudinal study in the years of 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012. These four surveys document the substantial changes in website functionalities/features over the period, especially relating to how Web 2.0 and social media are diffused and adopted in the luxury fashion industry. A careful analysis of the eight categories and sub-categories reveals that the B2C website design can be characterized (and indeed defined) by virtue of three strategic choices regarding website design. The three strategic choices together with the eight categories form the basis for a theory for website design, which we name the CUBE model. We believe this model to be relevant beyond the luxury/fashion industry.
Highlights
Since the appearance of Internet websites in the mid 90’s, this channel has become a major outlet for e-commerce as well as branding/marketing to consumers
Summing up the deliberations far, we need a robust well researched framework, which will be useful for the assessment of B2C websites within the luxury fashion industry, and we believe that the Rayport and Jaworski’s [42] 7C framework is the best starting point
None of the reported studies presents a theoretical background for the identification/selection of the categories, nor has any explicitly discussed the strategic purposes for the website design evaluated. It is the ambition of this paper to contribute to the development of a theoretically based framework evaluation of commercial B2C websites, which explicitly builds on strategic choices in website design
Summary
Since the appearance of Internet websites in the mid 90’s, this channel has become a major outlet for e-commerce as well as branding/marketing to consumers. What are the relevant categories and sub-categories for an assessment of luxury fashion websites relevant for characterizing the adoption and diffusion of website functionalities/features, especially taking into account the most recent phenomenon of Web 2.0 and social media?. We are matching the top-down approach starting with the three strategic choices with the bottom-up empirically approach coming from the 8C list This cube framework is empirically tested through a longitudinal study over four surveys of 15 luxury band websites carried out in the autumn of the years 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012. The sixth section takes its starting point in the three strategic choices for design of B2C websites, and continues to provide the theoretical contribution in the form of our CUBE assessment framework. The paper ends with conclusions, implications and future research opportunities
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