E-commerce Sales Research Articles

Browsing for food: Will COVID‐induced online grocery delivery persist?

The COVID‐19 pandemic altered daily activities. Many consumers reverted to online grocery shopping and home delivery. We analyze factors associated with the decision to grocery shop online and whether this will persist post‐COVID using data collected via a representative online Qualtrics panel in the State of New Jersey (N = 1,419). Around half of respondents either decreased in‐person shopping, increased online shopping, or pursued a combination of both. We used factor analysis to decompose attitudes towards the pandemic, finding that attitudinal responses broke down into ‘fearful’, ‘believers’, and ‘deniers’. Binomial regressions were used to analyze patterns of frequency of grocery shopping during the pandemic and changes in behavior during the pandemic. Results suggest that age, gender, ethnicity, educational attainment, having children at home, and attitudes towards COVID‐19 are likely to influence frequency of online and in‐person grocery shopping. Specifically, being 50 years or older is negatively associated with online grocery shopping. Those who deny COVID‐19 were less likely to decrease in‐person grocery shopping. People who had children at home, who had advanced degrees, or who were of Hispanic origin were more likely to increase online shopping and decrease in‐person shopping during the pandemic. While our results suggest that in‐person grocery shopping will return to prepandemic levels, we found that respondents report some increased persistence in online grocery shopping post‐COVID.

Community logistics: a dynamic strategy for facilitating immediate parcel delivery to smart lockers

The COVID Pandemic since early 2019 has imposed significant effects on our life. In the retail and logistics sector, the large-scale national lockdown has drastically driven e-commerce sales because the e-marketplace has become the only sales channel. Whilst the pandemic has accelerated the shift towards a more digital world and led to an irreversible dependence on e-commerce retailing, the pressure is on retailers and logistics service providers to respond to the growing demand for immediate delivery in the e-commerce era. Given the integration of smart lockers into developing a more favourable environment which potentially makes immediate delivery more feasible, this paper introduces a novel, dynamic delivery strategy, namely Community Logistics Strategy (CLS), for formulating and updating the new delivery plan in real time as new delivery requests to smart lockers arrive. To shed light on the effect of dynamic order arrival towards delivery planning, the CLS attempts to update the delivery plan by taking new requests into account in real time. Simulation results reveal the superiority of the proposed strategy in managing e-commerce delivery requests, especially within megacities where consumers are highly dense in a compact geographical area.

A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process Model to Evaluate Logistics Service Expectations and Delivery Methods in Last-Mile Delivery in Brazil

Nowadays, postal services and third-party logistics services (3PL) have been pressured by the increasing demand for delivery services. Therefore, they need to improve their last-mile delivery strategies to meet customers’ expectations. This paper aims to investigate how logistics service expectations affect the delivery process in urban areas using a multiple-criteria decision support system based on the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP). We developed a decision-making model employing six criteria and five delivery methods indicated in the literature and collected information from 27 experts working in academia and local and multinational third-party logistics providers in Brazil to validate this model. The results indicate that cost (21.4%) and tracking and tracing (19.3%) are the most important two criteria in the decision model, and the best delivery methods are smart lockers (21.8%) followed by small trucks (21.3%). Our results suggest that service expectations regarding last-mile delivery are aligned with extensive use of road transport and the increase in e-commerce sales can raise greenhouse gas emissions and compromise the environment in urban areas.

Digital analytics approach to understanding short video advertising in digital marketing

ABSTRACT This study relied on datasets from global B2C and C2C to investigate the relationship between short video advertising (SV), customer satisfaction, price, quality signals, and sales in digital marketing. Using the web-scraping mining technique, the results from over twenty-three thousand online shops indicate that logistics service quality overrides the relevance of location in digital marketing. SV directly impacts sales and increases the shops’ dynamic scores, including quality of service and customer satisfaction. We identified actual online data to justify why SV adoption is essential in digital marketing and recommend logistic service quality and price fairness to improve sales in e-commerce.

Evaluasi Strategi E-Commerce sebagai Upaya Penguatan Ekonomi pada Himpunan Pengusaha Pribumi Indonesia

Digitalization is an important need, during the pandemic there is an increase in consumer demand for e-commerce, digital literacy, and delivery requests. This is felt in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of food and beverages through the increasing demand for take away, delivery, and e-commerce sales. The understanding of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises actors on technology, limited online marketing, production processes, and online market access are still considered not optimal enough. On the other hand, consumers feel insecure in conducting digital transactions. The production sector must foster awareness and build a framework of thinking on business strategies in e-commerce, namely producing competitive products, targeted promotions and creativity in product delivery, while management must provide knowledge of e-commerce law. , regarding trademark protection, electronic payments, obligations and responsibilities of e-commerce actors. The conclusion that the authors get is that the evaluation of the strategy of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of the Indonesian Indigenous Entrepreneurs Association in e-commerce is that there is no proper e-commerce business strategy for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises which results in problems or obstacles in supporting business digitization. Micro, Small, and Medium.

Digital Business and Economic Complexity

ABSTRACT This paper empirically analyzes the digital transformation process in the business sector on the economic complexity among European countries from 2011 to 2019. The digital businesses are reflected by e-Commerce, including values of selling online, e-commerce sales, and e-commerce web sales, and e-Business, including customer relationship management usage and cloud usage. Our estimation results show that digitalization in the business sector positively influences economic complexity. There is evidence on the long-term cointegration between digital business and economic complexity. Furthermore, we provide some evidence that an improvement in economic growth, financial development as well a reduction in the pervasiveness of corruption are transmission channels through which digitalization in the business sector positively impacts the performance of economic complexity. On the other hand, economic complexity also plays a critical role in accelerating the process of digitalization in the business sector. Furthermore, these effects are only evident in the long term.

DIGITAL INNOVATION IN THE NORWEGIAN ECONOMY WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF NEW FORMS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the need for further development of the digital transformation of the Norwegian economy and to provide scientific and practical recommendations for improving its digital policy and concentration of high-tech information and communication technologies. Methodology. The research is based on modern methods of scientific research, in particular, general and special methods of analysis of economic phenomena and processes: historical-logical method; structural-comparative and graphical analysis (to analyze the digital level of Norway in terms of the Network Readiness Index, the Digital Economy and Society Index, the ICT Index and the Global Digital Competitiveness Index); structural-factor analysis; correlation and regression analysis; scenario approach (to justify the priorities of digital development of the Norwegian economy); methods of logical analysis, abstract and cognitive modeling. The results of the survey showed that along with the existing problems, there is significant potential for futher digital development of the Norwegian economy. In order to assess the readiness of the Norwegian economy to implement new forms of ICT (5G and new IoT), the development of ISPs and digital services provided in cyberspace and blockchain systems, the factors characterizing the level of the Norwegian economy digitalization are identified. The study identified the shortcomings, risks, opportunities and advantages of using the latest information and Internet technologies. Based on the results of the analysis, scientific and practical recommendations for the further development of the digital economy in Norway and the prospects for their practical implementation were developed. A set of measures to enhance the potential of the Internet of Things, active subscription to mobile broadband, medium and high-tech industries and digital infrastructure were proposed. Opportunities are proposed as development points to accelerate the transition of businesses to digitalization, encouraging the use of digital technology, creating new business models that include new jobs; employee functionality that encompasses Internet skills, and good computer proficiency. Practical implications. Analysis of the features of the development processes of digital transformation of the Norwegian economy allows us to identify priorities for the introduction of innovative forms of information and communication technologies. It is concluded that the small number of concentrated large databases, low turnover of e-commerce and cross-border online sales of high-tech does not yet allow Norway to begin full coverage of its territory and water area, where industrial innovation fish farms are located, with 5G Internet. To improve its digital policy and concentration of high-tech information and communication technologies, measures are proposed that will incorporate and promote digital development. Value/originality. The presented scientific and practical recommendations take into account current trends and conditions of digitalization of the economies of developed and developing countries, and can be used by governments to improve digital policy and form a sustainable management system of the digitalization process.

How Demographic Factors Impact Consumers’ Product Choice During Online Shopping : An Empirical Study of Tier-III Markets

E-commerce is proliferating in India, and not just the tier-I cities but the tier-II and III cities are also contributing significantly to the total e-commerce sales in India. Hence, to study this upcoming market, this study tried to fill the gap in the area of the tier-III markets and product category analysis during online shopping. For this study, six tier-III cities from Maharashtra were selected, and 537 sample responses were collected from these cities in the year 2019. A questionnaire was used for data collection, and stratified random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS.16.0, and various statistical tests such as Cochran’s Q and crosstabulation analysis were used to conduct the analysis. The results suggested that consumers from this upcoming market engaged in online shopping, and mobile phones and related accessories and apparel and accessories were the most preferred segments for online shopping. The results also revealed that various demographic factors such as gender, age, marital status, profession, and income impacted consumers’ product choice during online shopping as for these factors p, Phi (Φ), and Cramer’s V(φc) values were reported to be significant. This research contributes to the existing literature related to online consumer buying behavior and can also help the marketers to select the right segment to design their marketing and distribution strategies specifically for the tier-III market.

ASPEK PERLINDUNGAN HUKUM TERHADAP PEMBELI DALAM MELAKUKAN TRANSAKSI JUAL BELI MELALUI ELECTRONIC COMMERCE (Studi Kasus Putusan Pengadilan Nomor 183/Pdt.G/2018/PN.Mdn)

The development of technological advances, especially in the development of the internet in Indonesia, apparently also affects business development and the way of transacting in buying and selling transactions through electronic commerce. The use of the internet through e-commerce provides convenience, time efficiency, convenience and so on. Buying and selling transactions through e-commerce are basically the same as conventional buying and selling transactions, but what makes the difference is the media where buyers and sellers meet in buying and selling transactions, namely through the use of the internet in cyberspace. The e-commerce sale and purchase transaction, in the agreement is also the same as the conventional sale and purchase transaction, on the condition that the agreement written in Article 1320 of the Civil Code and the agreed agreement is made in the form of an electronic contract. Often in buying and selling transactions through e-commerce, the party who is harmed is the consumer as the buyer with the contents of the previously agreed agreement not being implemented properly by the seller. These violations range from defaults to consumer disputes. By studying and analyzing case studies in the results of court decisions number 183/Pdt.G/2018/PN.Mdn, it aims to find out the judge's considerations and the legal relationship between the buyer as the Plaintiff and the Defendant and to know aspects of legal protection for the buyer in making a sale transaction. buy through e-commerce.

COVID-19 and E-Commerce Operations: Evidence from Alibaba

Problem definition: This paper investigates the impact of COVID-19 on e-commerce sales and the underlying operational driver. Academic/practical relevance: As COVID-19 continues to disrupt offline retail, anecdotal evidence suggests a rapid growth of e-commerce. However, the pandemic may also significantly decrease offline logistics capacity, which in turn decreases e-commerce sales. Then, how does e-commerce respond to COVID-19, and what are the corresponding opportunities and challenges? Methodology: We leverage e-commerce sales data from Alibaba and construct a city-day panel across three years, representing sales for all buyers and sellers on the platform across 339 cities in mainland China. We develop three identification strategies to estimate the overall impact of COVID-19 (based on a year-on-year comparison), the impact of COVID-19 intensity (based on the different number of cases across cities), and the impact of corresponding containment measures (leveraging policy changes of checkpoint, partial shutdown, and complete shutdown measures across cities). Results: We provide two key findings. First, across different identification strategies, we observe a common drop and recovery pattern, which illustrates the digital resilience of e-commerce during the pandemic. For example, we estimate an overall decrease of 22% in e-commerce sales during the period of the Wuhan shutdown (January 23–April 7, 2020). However, it recovers in most cities within five weeks. Second, we identify a key operational driver—logistics capacity—that significantly explains the decline and recovery of e-commerce sales during and after the outbreak. Managerial implications: We provide important evidence on how e-commerce responds to and recovers from COVID-19, contrary to the common perception. The evidence in the recovery phase can also inform platforms and policymakers to design digital strategies and invest in logistics infrastructure.

Fuzzy association rule mining approach to identify e-commerce product association considering sales amount

Online stores assist customers in buying the desired products online. Great competition in the e-commerce sector necessitates technology development. Many e-commerce systems not only present products but also offer similar products to increase online customer interest. Due to high product variety, analyzing products sold together similar to a recommendation system is a must. This study methodologically improves the traditional association rule mining (ARM) method by adding fuzzy set theory. Besides, it extends the ARM by considering not only items sold but also sales amounts. Fuzzy association rule mining (FARM) with the Apriori algorithm can catch the customers’ choice from historical transaction data. It discovers fuzzy association rules from an e-commerce company to display similar products to customers according to their needs in amount. The experimental result shows that the proposed FARM approach produces much information about e-commerce sales for decision-makers. Furthermore, the FARM method eliminates some traditional rules considering their sales amount and can produce some rules different from ARM.

Are digital business and digital public services a driver for better energy security? Evidence from a European sample.

This paper empirically analyses the impacts of the digital transformation process in the business and public sectors on energy security (ES). We employ 8 indicators to represent four aspects of energy security, including availability, acceptability, develop-ability, and sustainability. Digital businesses development is captured by e-Commerce (including e-Commerce sales, e-Commerce turnover, e-Commerce web sales) and e-Business (including customer relation management (CRM) usage and cloud usage). Digital public services development is reflected by business mobility and key enablers. Different econometric techniques are utilized in a database of 24 European Union countries from 2011 to 2019. Our estimation results demonstrate that digital businesses play a critical role in improving the acceptability and develop-ability of energy security, while digitalization in public services supports achieving energy sustainability goals. The use of modern digital technology such as big data, cloud computing is extremely important to ensure the security of the energy system, especially the availability of energy. For further discussion on the role of digital public services, we reveal a nonlinear association between digitalization in the public sector and energy intensity and energy consumption, suggesting the acceptability and develop-ability of energy security can be enhanced if the digital transformation process achieves a certain level.

Features of the behavior of consumers of different generations when making e-commerce purchases

Currently, e-commerce is playing an increasing role in the modern world, developing and increasing its pace faster than traditional trade. The number of consumers choosing digital technologies when making purchases is also growing, which determines the importance of segmenting shoppers in the activities of online stores. One of the factors determining consumer choice is the attribution of buyers to one generation or another. This article examines the impact of generations of consumers on e-commerce sales.

РИНОК E-COMMERCE: МАРКЕТИНГОВИЙ АНАЛІЗ ЗДОБУТКІВ ТА НАПРЯМІВ РОЗВИТКУ

The article studies the situation and the determination of current trends in the e-commerce market in the world and in Ukraine. Empirical data on the global e-commerce market are taken as a basis and are analysed in terms of size, structure, regional distribution, concentration in market segments. Authors conducted the international ranking of achievements of leading countries in terms of retail e-commerce sales, by type of e-commerce (B2B, B2C) and the ranking of global companies in the e-commerce segment by gross value of goods (GMV). The global retail trade has undergone significant changes due to the constant digitalization of modern business and public life and according to global forecasts for 2025, the total share of e-commerce in retail sales will reach 25%. Significant increase in e-commerce has occurred in both the B2C segment and the B2B segment. Authors revealed that the introduction of social distancing, quarantine and other restrictive measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to fundamental changes in the structure of global demand and online shopping. Authors have analysed the dynamics of the distribution of sales in the retail segment of e-commerce in the ten leading countries. The United States and China together account for more than 40 percent of all e-commerce sales to both consumers and businesses worldwide, and three of the five largest e-commerce markets are in Asia. Authors determined that the leading e-commerce companies in the B2C segment are mainly based in China and the United States. Online shopping websites have the largest share of online shopping in the world, with Amazon being the undisputed leader in the global ranking of online retail stores in terms of traffic. Authors also note that one of the global trends in e-commerce is the use of mobile devices (m-commerce). The main factors of perspective growth of mobile commerce are determined. The variation of consumer costs by e-commerce by product categories is studied. Authors concluded that the changes in the e-commerce environment are likely to be long-term, given the new waves of the pandemic, the convenience of new consumer shopping habits, saving time, training costs and incentives for companies to gain competitive advantage from investing in new sales channels.

A Cluster Analysis Concerning the Behavior of Enterprises with E-Commerce Activity in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The planning of activities of e-commerce enterprises and their behavior has been influenced by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The behavior of e-commerce enterprises has been highlighted at the level of EU countries through an analysis elaborated on four variables: the value of e-commerce sales, cloud computing services, enterprises that have provided training to develop/upgrade the ICT skills of their personnel, e-commerce, customer relationship management (CRM) and secure transactions. Using the hierarchical clustering method, analysis was carried out on these variables to identify certain economic and behavioral patterns of e-commerce activity from 2018 and 2020. The study of the relationships involved in the e-commerce activity of these enterprises is reflected in models of the economic behavior of 31 European states in relation to the targeted variables. The results show that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are strongly manifested in the direction of the evolution of each indicator but differ from one country to another. The trends depend on the level of development and the particularities of each country’s economy in adapting to the repercussions reported in relation to the level of impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is highlighted by the significant regrouping of countries in 2020 compared with 2018 in relation to the average values of the indicators. The results show that, in 2020, the most significant percentages of the value of e-commerce sales were recorded in Belgium, Ireland and Czechia, as in 2018. In e-commerce, customer relationship management and secure transactions, Denmark and Sweden were superior in 2020 to the countries mentioned above, which were dominant in 2018. For the other two indicators, Finland and Norway were the top countries included in the analysis in both years. The conclusion supports the continuous model of e-commerce enterprise behavior in order to meet the requirements of online customers.

A Districting Application with a Quality of Service Objective

E-commerce sales have led to a considerable increase in the demand for last-mile delivery companies, revealing several problems in their logistics processes. Among these problems, are not meeting delivery deadlines. For example, in Chile, the national consumer service (SERNAC) indicated that in 2018, late deliveries represented 23% of complaints in retail online sales and were the second most common reason for complaints. Some of the causes are incorrectly designed delivery zones because in many cases, these delivery zones do not account for the demographic growth of cities. The result is an imbalanced workload between different zones, which leads to some resources being idle while others fail to meet their workload in satisfactory conditions. The present work proposes a hybrid method for designing delivery zones with an objective based on improving the quality of express delivery services. The proposed method combines a preprocess based on the grouping of demand in areas according to the structure of the territory, a heuristic that generates multiple candidates for the distribution zones, and a mathematical model that combines the different distribution zones generated to obtain a final territorial design. To verify the applicability of the proposed method, a case study is considered based on the real situation of a Chilean courier company with low service fulfillment in its express deliveries. The results obtained from the computational experiments show the applicability of the method, highlighting the validity of the aggregation procedure and improvements in the results obtained using the hybrid method compared to the initial heuristic. The final solution improves the ability to meet the conditions associated with express deliveries, compared with the current situation, by 12 percentage points. The results also allow an indicative sample of the critical service factors of a company to be obtained, identifying the effects of possible changes in demand or service conditions.

The Impact of Customer Behavior on E-business during of the COVID-19 Crisis in Jordan

Aims: This study was conducted to study the impact of customer behavior on e-business in Jordan in light of the increasing spread of the virus.
 Study Design: A quantitative research.
 Place and Duration of Study: Jordan, between January - September 2020.
 Methodology: The Statistical Analysis Software (SPSS) software is used by the researcher. The survey questionnaires framed by the researcher are helping the researcher in representing the data appropriately
 Results: The results showed that online purchase was acceptable and high during the Corona pandemic period despite the complete paralysis of movement Before the customer so that there is an alternative in emergency and necessary cases such as the Corona pandemic and the need to take into account the terms and behavior of the consumer when advertising, selling or promoting the commodity on electronic sales platforms.
 Conclusion: Through the foregoing according to the data analysis carried out above shows the negative impact on e-business in Jordan due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) the negative impact created affects sales as well as the purchasing behavior of customers. The business environment in Jordan is seen as weak due to COVID-19. The challenges that retailers in the e-commerce business face is declining customer buying behavior. Also, lower buying behavior reduces bids and shipping as per the surveys carried out this will lead to the deterioration of the e-business as well as huge losses that the e-business will incur. Research questions as well as research objectives set by the researcher a greater impact has been made on the current e-business in the Jordanian market. Buy food products from food stock for this reason. And the hypothesis of the research papers he developed lies a change in food contamination. For this reason, human-to-human contact is restricted which leads to the deterioration of e-commerce sales. Thus the presented analysis supports for this reason a greater impact has been created on the existing e-business in the Jordanian market since there is a concern of the buyer that with Delivery of food products through the electronic company.

The Impact of E-Commerce Sales on Capacity Utilization

This study aims to examine the relationship between e-commerce sales and capacity utilization in China, with process innovation being the mediator and product focus being the moderator. A mediated moderation model was developed and tested using data from 804 Chinese manufacturing firms as well as two-stage least squares regression analysis. The results reveal that the relationship between e-commerce sales and capacity utilization is negative; while process innovation mediates this relationship. Furthermore, product focus not only moderates the relationship between e-commerce sales and capacity utilization, but also moderates the relationship between process innovation and capacity utilization. These findings are useful for decision-makers when formulating e-commerce sales strategies and focusing on process innovation that will help them achieve higher capacity utilization. This paper contributes to existing research by validating process innovation as mediator and product focus as moderator between e-commerce sales and capacity utilization.

Impact of Covid-19 on e-Commerce in the European Union

The advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution has made it inevitable for firms worldwide to modify their business models to integrate ICTs into their operations. The lockdown measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have accelerated this process as many businesses, particularly in the hospitality industry, had to shut down their operations. Others also had to resort to conducting their businesses solely online. Thus, it has been argued that e-commerce has thrived during the lockdown period. Concentrating on the current 27 European Union (EU) member countries, this paper seeks to answer the following question: To what extent the COVID-19 impacted e-commerce has? Trend analyses and a paired samples t-test are used to compare the mean percentage of enterprises with e-commerce sales before the pandemic and the first year. The study finds a significant increase in the percentage of enterprises that made e-commerce sales during the first year of the pandemic compared to the previous year (t=-2.06; df=25). Except for the western EU member countries, all other regions increased the percentage of enterprises that made e-commerce sales, with the southern EU countries witnessing the highest increase.
 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The lipstick effect during COVID-19 lockdown

Although consumer spending typically declines during times of crisis, some observers have noted the tendency of consumers to spend more on less costly luxury goods instead, calling it the “lipstick effect.” E-commerce sales in beauty and personal care categories, compared to pre–COVID-19, saw an increase. The mass lockdowns across many states in the United States resulted in hospitals and cosmetic clinics suspending many services. We present several patients who developed complications following home-administered cosmetic procedures and presented via telemedicine clinic at the Department of Dermatology at Boston Medical Center in May 2020. The first case follows a patient who had platelet-rich plasma concentrate injected into her face by an unauthorized, presumed aesthetician in training. The second and third cases follow patients purchasing products from unregulated e-commerce retailers to self-administer injectable fillers and perform trichloroacetic acid chemical peels, respectively. We discuss the impact of social media in conjunction with extensive misinformation along with easily accessible products available on the Internet, and how this combination has encouraged self-injurious behavior and its consequences while lacking any means of accountability. This paper aims to encourage the spread of patient education and limit personal harm from self-administration of potentially injurious procedures.