Abstract
Non-store retailing is dominated by the Internet and is a potential strategy for manufacturers, brand owners, and retailers entering emerging markets. Consumers in developed markets shop online for a variety of retail goods, and motives for choosing e-commerce are often referred to as convenience reason. Convenience is essential for understanding why consumers prefer one channel to another. By revisiting the concept of convenience as a significant variable in e-commerce and exploring its complexity and the multiple meanings of the concept with regard to emerging markets, the paper considers a business opportunity in terms of new ways of reaching emerging markets and proposes potential lines for future research with regard to this concept.
Highlights
Non brick-and-mortar store retailing in the business-to-consumer market (B2C) has a long history; the non-store-based formats are dominated by the mail order industry, but they include direct selling, home-party, TV-shopping, telemarketing etc. (Sundström, 2008)
Elaborating on convenience to understand the consumer channel adoption is important in light of the Internet no longer being a novelty, this meaning that traditional theories on adoption such as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the eory of Reasoned Action (T ) may no longer be su cient or even adequate
Such theories focus on technological adoption and acceptance, on how people behave when confronted with new technology, and their intentions to act (e. g., Dabholkar, 1996; Locke & Li ler, 1997; Howcra, Hamilton & Hewer, 2002; Lee, Lee & Schumann, 2002; Lee, Lee & Eastwood, 2003; Venkatesh, Morris, Davis & Davis, 2003; and Schepers & Wetzels, 2007). e recourse to such theories was logical with the advent of the Internet, but with the rapid progression of digitalization there is a reason to revisit basic assumptions and theories used to explain e-commerce and the adoption of channels and focus speci cally on the notion of convenience in order to be er assess the opportunities and potential for e-commerce in emerging markets
Summary
Non brick-and-mortar store retailing in the business-to-consumer market (B2C) has a long history; the non-store-based formats are dominated by the mail order industry, but they include direct selling, home-party, TV-shopping, telemarketing etc. (Sundström, 2008). Our suggestion is that emerging markets might entail business opportunity for retailers who have the digital readiness in providing e-commerce, but in order to be successful, they need to know how convenience drives consumer behavior. Is suggests a need for increased research into the theoretical framework of online shopping, in order to be er understand why customers adopt non-store retail formats. We suggest an alternative way to build a theoretical framework by revisiting the concept of convenience, transforming the ndings into the context of e-commerce and emerging markets. What consumers mean by convenience in the context of online shopping has been researched to some extent (Kaufman-Scarborough & Lindqvist, 2002; Sundström, 2007), but remains yet to be fully explored in the western world, and is needed to be explored in emerging markets. For this research strong focus lies on the understanding of the customer in di erent markets and innovating around
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