ABSTRACT
Electronic commerce appeared as a new way of managing businesses in the digital era. However, it has also been accelerated by the recent pandemic situation. Retailers had to find new strategies of reaching customers in the online environment. Thus, concepts such as multi-channel and omni-channel retailing have gained the attention of both retailers and researchers in this field. This paper aims at using a text-mining approach in order to reveal the researchers focus on this theme in a period that also precedes and covers the COVID-19 pandemic. The research methodology follows five steps that are necessary in order to obtain a relevant collection of documents that will further provide the content to be analyzed. These steps refer to: (1) Creating the database of documents for analysis purposes;(2) identifying geographic areas for separating the collection's documents;(3) framing a thematic dictionary of descriptors;(4) exploring the text using text mining approach;and (5) correspondence analysis. The discussion of the main findings is constructed starting with the geographic and the temporal distribution of documents and the design of a thematic dictionary of descriptors. Then, exploring the content of the documents provides information on the frequency of descriptors and reveals clusters of descriptors along with a link analysis. All of them are presented separately on geographic regions. Finally, the correspondence analysis of descriptors versus years provides the proximity maps and reveals the preferred topics and less approached themes. Among the main findings, one can highlight: (1) The greatest contributor in terms of documents related to the theme of interest is the United States;(2) a higher number of connections (and stronger) among descriptors for America as compared to the other two regions;(3) some categories of descriptors are specific to a particular year, which means that there are different themes under the researchers lens depending on the period;(4) the most frequently used descriptors are included in the following categories from the dictionary: Online retail environment and Consumer behavior, regardless of the region. In the end of this paper, research limitations and guidelines for future research are elaborated. © 2022 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
Online-to-offline (O2O) commerce is a specific form of omnichannel retailing, wherein consumers search and purchase online and then consume offline. There are many different O2O models, and new O2O businesses are emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic;they can be cate-gorized into two types of O2O services: to-shop and to-home. However, few studies have focused on consumer behavior in a comprehensive O2O scenario, and no study has attempted to compare the differences between to-shop and to-home consumers. Therefore, this study aimed to propose a universal model to predict consumers' continued intention to use O2O services and to compare the differences between to-shop and to-home O2O in terms of factors influencing consumer behavior. A cross-sectional survey was conducted, and the PLS-SEM was used for data analysis. The basic SEM results indicated that habit, performance expectancy, confirmation, and offline facilitating conditions are the main predictors. The multigroup analysis showed differences between to-shop and to-home consumers regarding hedonic motivation, price value, and perceived risk. The study suggests that marketers and designers in various O2O scenarios can use the framework to build their business plans and develop different marketing strategies or sub-platforms for to-shop and to-home consumers. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
The omni-channel (OC) approach improves efficiency under normal conditions and fosters resilience when a crisis hits, e.g. COVID-19. We adopt the sequential mixed methods research to conduct a two-stage investigation to explore how OC retailers achieve supply chain resilience (SCR). In stage 1, three key capabilities of OC retailers to foster SCR are identified qualitatively, i.e. collaboration, flexibility, and redundancy, as well as the conceptual model is developed based on the dynamic capabilities view. In stage 2, the roles of key capabilities in fostering SCR in three phases, i.e. preparedness, responsiveness, and recovery, is quantitatively examined, by using partial least squares structural equation modelling to test the hypotheses based on a sample of 225 Chinese OC retailers. The findings indicate that flexibility and redundancy are more significant for responsiveness, whilst collaboration is more crucial for recovery, offering valuable insights for supporting retailers in OC transformation and in setting a capabilities portfolio to withstand supply chain disruptions.
ABSTRACT
Digital technologies are reconfiguring and reshaping the retail value chain fundamentally, affecting the modes of customer engagement with retailers, the fulfillment and delivery options offered, as well as back-end operations and manufacturing. These developments have accelerated strongly with the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift from traditional to online retail channels worldwide. The retail sector continues to undergo a major digital transformation. We examine the current state of digital retail and highlight the key trends and capabilities shaping today's retail business models. We discuss the evolution of delivery and fulfillment formats over three decades from traditional e-commerce to today's Quick commerce, which offers multiple modes of engagement and interaction for customers who are increasingly channel-agnostic and seek convenience and a personalized retail experience. Our narrative is illustrated through two brief case examples from innovative pioneers in platform-based retailing in Western and Asian markets - Alibaba and Amazon. We describe how these platforms are powerful mediators in ever more complex retailing ecosystems that combine digital and physical assets. We discuss the implications of digital disruption for retail strategy, front-end retailing operations, and back-end logistics and manufacturing. The discussion helps scholars and practitioners to understand the changing digital retail landscape that is emerging worldwide. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.