Divakar Goswami and Satish Raghavendran
The purpose of this paper is to establish the potential that mobile banking offers to both banks and mobile carriers. Acknowledging the inherent difficulties of convergence…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish the potential that mobile banking offers to both banks and mobile carriers. Acknowledging the inherent difficulties of convergence between large and very different industries, it then explores the merits and shortcomings of existing partnership models and offers suggested best practices.
Design/methodology/approach
After in‐depth secondary research about the successes and failures of early mobile‐banking offerings, the report offers best‐practices based on a critical evaluation of partnership models.
Findings
Open‐federated models – involving partnerships between large numbers of banks and mobile carriers to provide a shared platform for mobile‐banking services – access the broadest customer base and minimize the costs of developing proprietary software and infrastructures. Qualcom‐owned Firethorn is an early USA‐based adopter of this model. In more mature mobile‐banking markets like New Zealand, upwards of 40 percent of an individual bank's customers use mobile‐banking offerings, resulting in heightened customer retention, increased self‐service, and mobile transactions that do not require additional investments in branches or ATM infrastructure.
Practical implications
As the banking and mobile industries collide, the inevitable complexities of cross‐industry convergence obstruct the paths to productive alliances. Even now, in the early years of mobile banking, there is a wealth of knowledge about partnership models to be gleaned from past success and failures. Forward‐looking executive eyes know that successful navigation will require a map, and an in‐depth look at the advantages and pitfalls of each existing model reveals a truer North.
Originality/value
Success in the mobile‐banking arena will require smart partnering decisions. Banks and mobile carriers have tested these waters timidly, and many of the resulting offerings were expensive to the banks and mobile carriers and less than enticing to their customers. This report weeds out ineffective partnering models that companies stumble into on their way to developing mobile‐banking and identifies the keys to successful partnerships.
Details
Keywords
This aim of the research is to explore the link between offline and online retail sales through a comprehensive analysis of 15 years of retail sales data in Great Britain. By…
Abstract
Purpose
This aim of the research is to explore the link between offline and online retail sales through a comprehensive analysis of 15 years of retail sales data in Great Britain. By quantifying the impact of online sales on offline sales and vice versa on different retail categories, the study seeks to expand upon prior research that often focused on unidirectional relationships or specific retail segments. With channel- and sector-specific dynamics, the present study aspires to shed light on the dynamics shaping the retail industry and provide valuable insights for retailers.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study draws on 15 years of retail sales data in Great Britain to examine the interplay between offline and online sales across various retail categories. By grounding the analysis in the theoretical underpinning of cross-channel synergies and dis-synergies and applying principles of substitution and complementarity in online and offline retail sales, the research aims to quantify how shifts in online retail influence offline sales and vice versa. The study follows a systematic analysis approach that includes analysis of seasonality, autocorrelation, correlation, lagged cross-correlation and time series regression to provide a holistic understanding of the strength and direction of the relationship.
Findings
Among the myriads of findings, the most noteworthy ones are these. It was found that offline sales tend to increase significantly when online sales increase and online sales also increase significantly when offline sales increase. However, the extent of influence offline sales have on online sales is lower than the extent of influence online sales have on offline sales. For instance, it was found that for every one-unit increase in online sales, on average, the offline sales of retail stores increase by 5.82 units, but for every one-unit increase in offline sales, on average, the online sales of retail stores increase only by 0.07 units. This pattern was found true for all categories for retail stores, with predominantly non-food stores showing the lowest increase (0.02) and non-store retails exhibiting the highest increase (0.23). Additionally, evidence suggested that the retail stores can expect a sizable level of offline sales when there are no online sales (β0 = 5155474.1); however, this was not true for online sales if they have no offline sales.
Research limitations/implications
The study deepens our insight into the complex interplay between offline and online sales in the retail sector by providing empirical evidence on how online sales and offline sales interact with each other in a retail setting. It also adds nuances to existing knowledge on the relationship between online and offline sales based on channel and sector-specific dynamics. Such findings, coming from the analysis of a whole retail economy, strengthen the existing body of literature and provide a solid foundation for future research in this area. However, the study would have benefited from including qualitative interviews of different categories of retailers to provide more context and depth on interpreting quantitative patterns.
Practical implications
The study provides practical guidance for retailers on how they can optimize their omnichannel strategies for maximum impact. It also provides insights into the changes in relationship in terms of channel-specific and sector-specific differences. This is particularly important for retailers who operate in those categories of retail as it provides them with an insight into how they can allocate their resources for reaping substantial benefits.
Originality/value
Despite the wealth of research exploring the link between online and offline retail sales, there remains a gap in understanding the complex relationship between these two. This study is one of the first to fill this gap by exploring the link through a comprehensive analysis of 15 years of retail sales data in Great Britain. With these channel- and sector-specific findings, this study adds to the growing body of literature that provides an understanding of the bidirectional relationships between offline and online sales. These strengths strengthen the existing body of literature and provide a solid foundation for future research in this area.