Web Sales Research Articles

Information systems and technology sourcing strategies of e-Retailers for value chain enablement

In the e-Retail industry, a well-designed IT infrastructure is essential in creating a tightly integrated value chain and delivering high quality service. With intense competition for market share and profits, information systems and technology (IST) sourcing decisions are becoming increasingly important to e-Retail firms to support continued growth and market responsiveness. Drawing on the contingency theory, we examine organizational and environmental factors that influence an e-Retailer's IST sourcing strategy of make versus buy in enabling its value chain activities, and we also look at firm-level performance impacts of IST sourcing decisions that involve bundling across value chain activities. We test the proposed model and hypotheses using a panel data set of 307 firms over the period of 2006–2010. The results show that firms that make transformative IT investments tend to source a smaller portion of IST for their e-Retail value chain activities than firms that pursue automate or informate as their strategic role for IT investment. Capabilities are positively associated with IST sourcing. Firms experienced in e-Retail are more likely to build rather than buy their IST. In addition, we find mimicking behavior for IST sourcing among firms in the same merchandizer category. We find that IT strategic role is strongly associated with growth metric, whereas sourcing decisions predominantly impact operational performance measures. There is partial evidence that alignment between IT strategic role and IST sourcing decisions results in better performance effects. Moreover, complementary IST sourcing of synergistic marketing and sales activities positively impacts Web sales and conversion rate, but the sourcing combination of logistics, operations, and sales activities is associated with lower Web sales and conversion rate.

Cues on apparel web sites that trigger impulse purchases

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the external cues on apparel web sites that encourage impulse buying.Design/methodology/approach – Focus group interviews were first conducted to identify potential external cues on apparel web sites. The findings from the focus group interviews were then used to create an appropriate coding guide. A content analysis of 60 apparel web sites was then conducted to assess the extent to which external trigger cues of impulse buying are available on apparel web sites.Findings – From the focus group interviews, four mutually exclusive thematic categories, consisting of 20 external trigger cues of impulse buying, were identified; sales, promotions, ideas, and suggestions. A content analysis of these external impulse buying cues was presented. A correlation analysis indicated a positive relationship between retailers' web sales and the amount of external cues present on their web sites.Research limitations/implications – The findings from the study suggest tha...

Selling to the U.S. Government: A Primer for Small-to-Medium-Size Enterprises

Until recently, business- to-government (B2G) marketing has received relatively little attention in academic journals and proceedings (Reid and Plank, 2000). Times are changing, however, and businesses of all sizes today are encouraged to pay renewed attention to the government market as they develop their marketing strategies (Dickover, 2006; Kennedy and Cannon, 2004). Government investment in information systems is leading the way by creating efficiencies in both the procurement and marketing processes. The major economic powers, such as the G7, as well as rapidly developing economies, such as India, are in the forefront of developing e-government programs that are impacting the buyer-seller interface. The model for them all, however, is the United States Federal Government. With spending for goods and services exceeding $341.4 billion per year (2004), the United States Federal Government is easily the world's largest consumer. Web sales of $3.6 billion, principally in bonds and treasury notes, also makes the federal government the country's largest electronic retailer, surpassing even Amazon (Stone, 2000). And, with the growth of e-commerce, it is has been reported that 15 percent of all federal procurement is now electronic and rapidly expanding (Frook, 2003). The aim of this article, together with the references provided, is to assist marketing executives, especially in small or minority-owned businesses, to become more fully informed in order to develop successful strategies to compete in the government market.

Internet Adoption by Australian Wineries: Perceived Benefits and Direct Marketing Practices

This article reports on research that examined internet adoption by 225 Australian wineries. Findings indicate that this new technology has been widely embraced by the industry and that numerous perceived benefits, especially associated with e‐mail marketing, are being achieved. The study found that many wineries collected e‐mail addresses for marketing purposes, whilst many engage in a high degree of direct marketing using the e‐mail medium to distribute newsletters. Smaller wineries appear to be the main proponents in using the Internet, the study concluding that this group achieved the highest proportion of Web sales. A link was established between small wineries that had a high use of e‐mail permission marketing and increased web sales.

Designing a channel mix

In their quest to develop an optimal channel mix, organisations face significant challenges. Despite ubiquitous discussions concerning click and mortar strategies, there is little empirical work that compares the strengths and weaknesses of emerging and existing technologies, or addressed channel mix design in relation to the opportunities provides by information and communication technologies (ICT). In this paper, we introduce a multi-channel design support method, based on a discussion of existing literature and a number of case studies. Based on existing theory and current literature and research approaches to internet servicing, we develop a multi-channel design support method. We start from and extend the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method by explicitly distinguishing requirements and solutions. The main extension to traditional QFD is that in addition to customer requirements we also take supplier requirements as our starting point. We focus on a combined use of the web, call centres, retail stores and personal sales. Our main case finding is that there are a number of significant differences with regard to the sales cycle support that these channels can provide.

Trust Promoting Seals in Electronic Markets

In order to promote web sales, companies conducting electronic commerce are constantly seeking viable and efficient ways to increase web traffic. One approach is to build consumers' trust, and ultimately to increase web sales. Many business-to-consumer online merchants follow this approach and display trust-promoting seals on their websites. However, whether these seals really fulfill the tasks they have promised has remained unexplored. This study empirically examines the influence of trust-promoting seals on consumers' online purchasing decisions. The results show that the trust-promoting seals are generally effective in promoting web sales, and some seals enhance promotion better than others.