Editorial

Citation

Fernie, J. (2009), "Editorial", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 37 No. 10. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijrdm.2009.08937Jaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Volume 37, Issue 10

This issue of the journal has a strong e-commerce flavour with three papers dealing with varying aspects of web site interactivity and usage. All papers are written by US-based authors.

Our first paper is by Ruby Roy Dholakia and Miao Zhao and it discusses web site interactivity and impact on online shoppers' attitudes and behaviours. Telepresence, which refers to the online experience becoming more “real”, is considered to be the key mediating variable. The authors used an experimental design with fictional web sites with the same name but different levels of interactivity on each feature. After participating in the experiment subjects were asked to complete an online questionnaire. The results show a distinction between objective and subjective interactivity and both impact positively on shoppers' satisfaction and behavioural intentions but they differ in telepresence.

The second paper is by Heejin Lim, Richard Widdows and Neal H. Hooker. They have undertaken a web content analysis of US grocery retailers between 2003 and 2005 in order to assess their e-fulfilment strategies to satisfy customer needs. The results show the transitional nature of grocery retailers' strategies at that time with several traditional retailers exiting the market. In relation to the three dimensions measured – product information, customer service quality and e-business quality, web sites do not appear to be effective in delivering quality information and they offer a low level of customer support. It is possible, however, that these matters have been addressed since the research was carried out.

Our third e-commerce paper is by Kee-Sook Lim, John H. Heinrichs and Jeen-Su Lim. The purpose of this paper was to empirically evaluate the relative influence of multiple e-shopping success factors in B2C e-commerce sites. Specifically, the authors assessed the relative effects of four success factors, namely e-shopping web sites content quality, transaction quality, playfulness and security. From a student survey, security was identified as the most important factor in e-shopping web site success. The study also shows that web sites should not include extensive entertaining components at the expense of responsiveness and useful contents.

Our final paper is by Hyunjoo Oh and Kyoung-Nan Kwon and it explores how consumers respond to price promotions both online and in stores during the holiday seasons. Using a telephone survey during the holiday season (December 2006) in Florida, 501 responses were collected to examine holidaymakers' sensitivity to price promotion in each channel. Results indicate that price promotions stimulate spending in both channels and that promotion sensitivity increases as promotion proneness, promotion knowledge and shopping enjoyment increase.

John Fernie