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Online retail of agricultural products is an emerging form of online shopping that has enormous value for researching sustainable agricultural product logistics and the sustainability of e-commerce. By reviewing these practices in China, this paper summarizes three models of online retail of agricultural products: community group buying, prepositioned warehousing, and a mixed model in which the former two are carried out simultaneously. This paper considers the uncertainty of demand and applies the newsboy model to obtain the expected profit function of the three models. The paper proves that the objective functions of the optimization models are all convex functions of the supply capacity. The optimal supply strategy and the expression for each business model are then derived. Next, the intervals for enterprises to choose the profit-optimal business model are given and visually demonstrated through graphs. These findings lead to managerial insights: in economically underdeveloped regions, it is appropriate for enterprises to conduct community group buying businesses; in economically developed regions, it is appropriate for enterprises to conduct prepositioned warehouse businesses; and in regions with average economic development, it is appropriate for enterprises to conduct both businesses. Finally, this paper verifies the optimal supply strategy for the online retail model for agricultural products through numerical experiments and sensitivity analyses for different cost parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online retailers are increasingly focused on maintaining a long-term relationship with customers, encouraging repeat visits rather than single-time purchases to increase customer lifetime value. To help retailers maximize the probabilities of customers' revisiting and purchasing, we develop a two-stage model to better characterize and predict these two fundamental customer activities. In the first stage, we characterize the propensity of a customer revisiting the retailer's website. In the second stage, we develop a stochastic model that predicts revisits while also incorporating individual customer heterogeneity in exerted search effort during repeated visits. This heterogeneity is based on individual customer preferences in the choice of consideration sets, product information, pricing, and the search environment. Using customer level clickstream data, we show that our approach is not only better at predicting repeat customer visits, compared to existing methods, but also explainable and managerially interpretable. Most importantly, using computationally efficient simulation-based prescriptive analytics, we leverage our modeling approach to propose practical intervention strategies that maximize the joint likelihoods of customers revisiting and purchasing at the individual customer level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article serves both theoretical and practical purposes contributing to the body of knowledge, expanding our understanding of online retail development, particularly in challenging contexts, like wartime, suggesting further avenues for future studies, as well as providing practical guidance for Ukrainian online retailers, helping them improve their strategies, performance and financial capabilities, by stimulation of the innovation over emerging trends and opportunities. It explores the development and financial capabilities of online retail in Ukraine amidst the ongoing war, conducting a comparative analysis with global trends in consumer sentiments and retail business development. Retail is a fundamental pillar of any economy. It serves as a crucial intermediary between producers and consumers, ensuring the provision of essential goods for daily life. It is the main link in providing the population with everything necessary for everyday life and forming stable financial flows to replenish the country's budget. Consequently, the functionality and growth of retail are contingent upon its ability to swiftly adapt to evolving consumer behaviour, constantly finance investments in innovation, and actively seek new opportunities. The war against Ukraine is characterized by severe combat operations, including massive shelling and constant missile attacks. It has presented unprecedented challenges for retailers, including a significant shift in consumer priorities towards consumption, leisure, and future planning, resulting in a serious decline in purchasing power, disruptions to logistical routes, loss of personnel, fuel shortages, and blackouts. Despite these formidable adversities, over the 28 months of the war, retail, and particularly online retail, has demonstrated remarkable resilience, sustainable development and rapid recovery of financial capabilities. The conducted research is the outcome of a set of comprehensive analyses (trends, performance metrics, clustering) of the financial results of retail, primary challenges faced by Ukrainian retailers and the identification of effective adaptation strategies to ensure financial stability. Meta and content analysis with further synthesis of findings, could help to examine the implementation of service-oriented business models, such as marketplaces, which offer a vast array of products and competitive pricing, as a key adaptation strategy. The study also delves into the popularization of online retail and the trends in the transition to hybrid online sales like omnichannel, enabling a "seamless" customer experience through the synchronization of product, pricing, and order information across all sales channels. Additionally, retailers are actively working to enhance logistics and delivery speed through partnerships with logistics companies, establishing their own courier delivery services, and expanding their physical presence through retail outlets. A comparative analysis with international experience reveals the similarities and differences in the challenges faced by Ukrainian retailers, the factors contributing to success and the methods of transformation. It further explores the adoption of digital technologies and innovative approaches to maintain competitiveness and financial stability even under the challenging conditions of war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new model of gradual consumer search based on simulated beliefs in which consumers are selective about the product attributes they inspect. The search literature has relied on parsimonious models to recover consumer fundamentals and characterize market outcomes. We investigate simple online search patterns that suggest that the dualistic view of fixed sample versus sequential search modes is the likely result of coarse data combined with methodological convenience. In contrast with these paradigms, we find that consumers are selective about the product attributes they inspect, that they revisit items to acquire additional information, and that they often convert without collecting all available data about the selected alternatives. Our substantive motivation is the problem of providing information to consumers in a market with differentiated products. We propose a new model of gradual consumer search based on simulated beliefs and "in-tandem" decision tree and likelihood computation that allows us to characterize the full search problem in contexts with moderate numbers of alternatives. We find that the seller's incentives to engage in search design activities tend to match the consumers' incentives. History: Tat Chan served as the senior editor. Funding: This work was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [Grants UIDB/00124/2020, UIDP/00124/2020 and Social Sciences DataLab - PINFRA/22209/2016], POR Lisboa and POR Norte [Social Sciences DataLab, PINFRA/22209/2016]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2022.0177. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2018 US Farm Bill's definition of hemp resulted in the proliferation of derived psychoactive cannabis products (DPCPs), which appeal to some youth. Despite the importance of restricting youth access, few studies have systematically examined the DPCP retail environment, particularly their online accessibility. In May 2023, Google incognito mode was used to search "buy delta thc." Among the first 100 results, data were collected from the 20 most trafficked websites that sold and delivered DPCPs. For each site, we documented the following policy-relevant information: 1) age verification measures for site entry and purchase attempts, 2) adult signature reportedly required upon delivery, and 3) shipping restrictions. Overall, 14 websites (70%) required individuals to indicate their age. Most websites (n = 13, 65%) did not verify age at attempted purchase, nor indicated that an adult signature was required upon delivery (n = 15, 75%). Only three websites (15%) had rigorous age verification procedures during checkout that included contact information as well as an image of their photo ID, which would then be validated through a third-party software. None required age verification upon both purchase and delivery. Thirteen websites (65%) mentioned state shipping restrictions; four of these provided conflicting information across different sections of the website. As the e-commerce landscape continues to evolve, clearer regulations regarding DPCP online retail sales and related enforcement are needed. In particular, measures are needed to enforce shipping restrictions and prevent youth access, including increasing the rigor of age verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: As people increasingly migrate to online shopping platforms, hard‐won improvements in requirements for consumer information provision at the point of sale are being eroded. An example is the alcohol pregnancy warning label for packaged alcoholic beverages that has been recently introduced in Australia and New Zealand. The aim of the present study was to assess the extent to which the pregnancy warning was visible at the online point of sale when the requirement became mandatory in August 2023. Methods: Data for alcohol products sold on the websites of the two largest alcohol retailers in Australia were web‐scraped from 1 to 3 August 2023. The captured data for 8343 alcoholic beverages were inspected to determine whether the pregnancy warning was visible. Results: Virtually no products (0.1%) had the mandatory warning visible on the main sales page, and only 7% enabled visibility of the warning via optional product image rotation functionality. Discussion and Conclusions: The almost complete absence of the mandatory pregnancy warnings on the main product pages of major alcohol retailers' websites highlights the regulatory problems posed by the emerging shift to online shopping. The very low prevalence of visible pregnancy warnings is likely to be an overestimate of the extent to which consumers would be exposed to warnings due to images being counted as being present regardless of their quality or readability. New regulation is needed to ensure that mandatory information requirements for harmful products are applied to online shopping contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The online-to-offline (O2O) business mode has on-demand features to offer consumers instant fulfillment from a local store upon their online order. The O2O mode has attracted many more consumers recently. Using empirical evidence from a leading O2O platform in China, our study focuses on the market entry issue in the O2O context. Upon the new entrant entering the market, existing listed sellers implement a higher overall promotion to their consumers by enlarging the direct promotion extent but reducing the other types of promotions, including coupon, bundle, quantity, and gift promotions. However, the O2O platforms reduce the promotions level to the consumer orders from the existing listed sellers. The platform's and existing listed sellers' promotions increase consumers' purchase frequency but lower their purchase amount per order. The extent of these impacts depends on the geographic location of the new entrant. Our findings provide guidelines for the O2O platforms and listed providers to implement appropriate promotion strategies to attract consumers when considering the impact of certain new providers entering the O2O market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research paper aims to examine two hybrid models of logistics service quality (LSQ) and its influence on satisfaction, loyalty and future purchase intention in a business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce context. This study extends the literature for LSQ by incorporating the second-order assurance quality construct, which comprises personnel contact quality, order discrepancy handling and order returns, into one of the hybrid models. Design/methodology/approach: A survey-based approach is used to collect data. Participant responses to questions concerning multiple LSQ dimensions and behavioral perceptions from their most recent online shopping experience are measured using structural equation modeling. Findings: Findings highlight the importance of including a second-order construct assurance quality as a more explanatory model. Results illustrate that online ordering procedures and assurance quality impact customer satisfaction more than other prominent LSQ dimensions. Furthermore, the findings revealed a customer loyalty is a partial mediator between customer satisfaction and future purchase intention. This underscores the significance of improved logistics services as a competitive edge for e-commerce retailers. Research limitations/implications: Implications are limited to the e-commerce B2C domain. Practical implications: The findings of this study underscore critical LSQ dimensions that garner greater satisfaction and retention in the online shopping experience. The results indicate that the effective and efficient handling of the initial order and any order problem significantly influences customer satisfaction and reaps the long-term benefits of customer retention. Originality/value: The authors present and empirically test a hybrid model of LSQ in a B2C e-commerce domain that captures many of the important elements of the customer experience as espoused in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article serves both theoretical and practical purposes contributing to the body of knowledge, expanding our understanding of online retail development, particularly in challenging contexts, like wartime, suggesting further avenues for future studies, as well as providing practical guidance for Ukrainian online retailers, helping them improve their strategies, performance and financial capabilities, by stimulation of the innovation over emerging trends and opportunities. It explores the development and financial capabilities of online retail in Ukraine amidst the ongoing war, conducting a comparative analysis with global trends in consumer sentiments and retail business development. Retail is a fundamental pillar of any economy. It serves as a crucial intermediary between producers and consumers, ensuring the provision of essential goods for daily life. It is the main link in providing the population with everything necessary for everyday life and forming stable financial flows to replenish the country's budget. Consequently, the functionality and growth of retail are contingent upon its ability to swiftly adapt to evolving consumer behaviour, constantly finance investments in innovation, and actively seek new opportunities. The war against Ukraine is characterized by severe combat operations, including massive shelling and constant missile attacks. It has presented unprecedented challenges for retailers, including a significant shift in consumer priorities towards consumption, leisure, and future planning, resulting in a serious decline in purchasing power, disruptions to logistical routes, loss of personnel, fuel shortages, and blackouts. Despite these formidable adversities, over the 28 months of the war, retail, and particularly online retail, has demonstrated remarkable resilience, sustainable development and rapid recovery of financial capabilities. The conducted research is the outcome of a set of comprehensive analyses (trends, performance metrics, clustering) of the financial results of retail, primary challenges faced by Ukrainian retailers and the identification of effective adaptation strategies to ensure financial stability. Meta and content analysis with further synthesis of findings, could help to examine the implementation of service-oriented business models, such as marketplaces, which offer a vast array of products and competitive pricing, as a key adaptation strategy. The study also delves into the popularization of online retail and the trends in the transition to hybrid online sales like omnichannel, enabling a "seamless" customer experience through the synchronization of product, pricing, and order information across all sales channels. Additionally, retailers are actively working to enhance logistics and delivery speed through partnerships with logistics companies, establishing their own courier delivery services, and expanding their physical presence through retail outlets. A comparative analysis with international experience reveals the similarities and differences in the challenges faced by Ukrainian retailers, the factors contributing to success and the methods of transformation. It further explores the adoption of digital technologies and innovative approaches to maintain competitiveness and financial stability even under the challenging conditions of war.

Success in online retailing depends on effective and efficient last mile delivery. Although online retailing in Kenya has considerable potential to ensure sustainable trade and economic growth, progress in this subsector has been inhibited by several problems. Furthermore, existing literature failed to determine the elements of last mile delivery most valued by online customers and how last mile delivery is implemented by Kenya’s online retail market. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the elements of last mile delivery in Kenya’s online retail subsector from the perspective of customers and retailers. A convergent mixed methods research design was used to ensure a comprehensive study of the research problem. A total of 407 online customers and seven online retailers in Nairobi participated in providing the required quantitative and qualitative data. The findings indicated that attended home delivery points, same-day delivery lead time, and phone call tracking options are most valued by customers and most offered by retailers. There is, however, a discrepancy in the delivery fee options, delivery timeslots, delivery carriers, and return options most valued by customers, and those most offered by retailers. It is recommended that retailers should review alternative delivery fee options, understand the problem with the outsourced delivery carriers, and the returns process to improve their service offerings.

E-shopping has shown exponential growth mainly owing to advancements in internet technology and lockdown measures implemented to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. It is evident from the literature that many researchers have attempted to identify the factors influencing e-shopping experience and e-consumer satisfaction; however, no consensus has been reached. Thus, this study aims to identify the e-shopping experience variables and establish which of these influence e-consumer satisfaction in South Africa. The study identified five e-shopping experience factors that may influence e-consumer satisfaction in the country. The study is quantitative in nature and adopted the descriptive research design. Non-probability sampling was used, and a total of 314 respondents completed the questionnaire. The study utilised an online survey and the measuring instrument was tested for validity and reliability by conducting an exploratory factor analysis and calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses formulated for the study. The results revealed that customer service, website usability, online security and product review influence e-consumer satisfaction. In addition, the results indicated that South African consumers are still unsure regarding their preference between online shopping and traditional brick-and-mortar stores. The results are, therefore, of significant importance to the management of online shops in improving the overall shopping experience for e-shoppers, increasing the level of consumer satisfaction, and ensuring future growth in this sector.

This article delves into Brazil’s rapidly expanding e-commerce sector, emphasizing its significant growth and evolving dynamics. Employing a meta-narrative review and a convergence-coding matrix, this research systematically analyzes and integrates findings from the existing literature to reveal critical industry patterns. The analysis identifies four pivotal clusters: consumer behavior, e-commerce structure, product distribution, and environmental sustainability. These elements collectively offer a comprehensive view of Brazil’s present and future e-commerce directions. This study underscores the imperative for strategies responsive to changing consumer behaviors, technological advancements, and environmental concerns. It also furnishes practical insights for enhancing online retail consumer engagement, logistical efficiency, and sustainability. Furthermore, this research advocates for e-commerce as a vehicle for digital inclusion, calling for policies that promote equitable access to online markets. This underscores its broader socio-economic importance, suggesting a path forward for stakeholders in shaping a more inclusive and sustainable e-commerce ecosystem.

The rapid increase in business-to-consumer online retail has challenged the existing distribution models. Seamlessly integrated, more sustainable and digitalized last-mile distribution processes are vital to meeting the requirements posed by future online retail. Investments to new and more advanced technological solutions are needed to improve the operational performance and to meet all the external requirements. The variety of available technological solutions creates a significant, multi-layered challenge to individual organizations’ ability to select the most fit-for-purpose technology for their own and their customers’ needs. This is a well-recognized issue at the front end of the innovation process and it calls for deep insight before proceeding to actual product development. This paper describes how domain-specific benchmarking can be a valid tool for increasing strategic knowledge and supporting technology investment decisions. In this research, 16 technologies and technology topics applied to distribution logistics were evaluated in terms of the technologies’ perceived feasibility. The feasibility comprised three technology dimensions – applicability, tangibility and maturity - as benchmarking indicators, chosen on the basis of literature. The demonstrated application of domain-specific benchmarking supports managerial evaluations of individual technologies, as well as enables further customizing the benchmarking indicators to be used in the proposed model.

This article delves into Brazil's rapidly expanding e-commerce sector, emphasizing its significant growth and evolving dynamics. Employing a meta-narrative review and a convergence-coding matrix, this research systematically analyzes and integrates findings from the existing literature to reveal critical industry patterns. The analysis identifies four pivotal clusters: consumer behavior, e-commerce structure, product distribution, and environmental sustainability. These elements collectively offer a comprehensive view of Brazil's present and future e-commerce directions. This study underscores the imperative for strategies responsive to changing consumer behaviors, technological advancements, and environmental concerns. It also furnishes practical insights for enhancing online retail consumer engagement, logistical efficiency, and sustainability. Furthermore, this research advocates for e-commerce as a vehicle for digital inclusion, calling for policies that promote equitable access to online markets. This underscores its broader socio-economic importance, suggesting a path forward for stakeholders in shaping a more inclusive and sustainable e-commerce ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sellers on online marketplaces such as Amazon.com use a variety of retail and retail media advertising services to improve their brand performance, including awareness, consideration, and revenue. But how can they measure their progress and drive these metrics? For 122,000 brands, we measure Amazon shoppers' brand awareness, consideration, and purchases and test how they change with ad and retail actions. Furthermore, we compare these brands' past media mix with the recommended allocation based on the model's coefficients. We find that new product launches and upper-funnel retail media advertising are particularly effective for small brands. Medium-sized and large brands benefit most from lower-funnel advertising. For the funnel stages, all three metrics benefit from the number of new reviews, % discount, negative keywords, and geo-reach campaigns. These results are robust across different product categories, but we find notable differences in how upper- and middle-funnel ad products succeed in driving sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to test the impact of avatars on consumer psychological states, engagement, and purchase intention in the online retail environment with reference to the Regulatory Engagement Theory. Design/methodology/approach: One-factor between-subject experimental design was used to test research hypotheses. Two versions of an experimental merchant website have been designed for the purpose of the study: with and without the avatar. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental conditions and responded to an online questionnaire displayed during the visit. SEM analyses with AMOS 24 and SPSS Macro Conditional Process Analysis for bootstrapping were used to test the hypotheses. Findings: The results confirm the avatar's positive impact on perceived enjoyment and immersion, both positively affect consumer engagement and purchase intention. The mediating role of psychological states in the impact of avatars on consumer engagement is also confirmed. Originality/value: This study advances the interactive marketing literature by focusing on avatars as an emerging interactive technology in the virtual retail context. Unlike previous studies on virtual agents, which primarily focused on their utilitarian role in online customer support, this study investigates how avatars influence consumers' psychological states, engagement, and purchase intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic threatened people's lives and livelihoods, which induced an existential hapax, changing their consumption choices. The unexpected disruption in physical retail due to the measures to control the pandemic, and changes in consumer preferences have forced organized retailers to leverage technology and adopt omnichannel strategies. However, small, unorganized retailers, popular in emerging markets like India, do not have state-of-the- art digital technologies to compete with online and organized retail. Thus, they need consumer insights to devise effective marketing strategies for sustaining. This research uncovers post-pandemic consumer values that drive preference for fragmented unorganized retailers, based on qualitative data collected from 32 respondents using in-depth interviews. The findings highlight that the altered consumer values of spiritualism, minimalism, self-transcendence, altruism, reciprocity, and hedonic shopping orientation guide preference for unorganized retailers. Small retailers' can leverage these consumer values by providingpersonalized products and services, communicating relevant store values, and adapting their operations to harness the opportunities in the new normal to revive and grow their businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the development of retail e-commerce under the influence of global digitalization processes. The authors prove that current trends in the global economy reflect key aspects of the development of the digital economy and, accordingly, retail e-commerce. Under their influence, significant changes are taking place in the living conditions of society, market conditions and in the scientific sphere, and there is an increasing demand for highly qualified workers. The paper emphasizes that under the influence of profound and extensive changes brought about by digital technologies, conceptual models of business development and social communication are transforming, and the role of the state in the new digitalized environment is being reconsidered. These transformations require participants to be highly adaptable, develop new skills and competencies, and be ready to take advantage of digital transformation. The paper emphasizes that there are potential risks of negative impact of digital transformation, which are manifested primarily in the need to adapt to new conditions, such as the inevitability of displacement of outdated professions by new technologies or artificial intelligence systems, the disappearance of traditional markets, as well as the threats of personal data leakage and the need to protect copyrights and other aspects. The authors prove that e-commerce encompasses more than just online advertising or launching a virtual retail store. Successful enterprises in this area are based on reliable technologies of interaction with consumers, which arise from the experience gained in the early stages, sound business schemes and a carefully developed infrastructure for servicing business processes. The main advantage of using digital technologies in the field of online retail is the ability to predict demand and thoroughly study consumer needs.

Retail is rapidly evolving to construct virtual environments for consumers. Online product images, videos, and virtual reality (VR) interfaces enliven consumer experiences and are a source of product information. Because consumers are unable to physically touch products in these digital environments, this research examines vicarious touch, or the observation of a hand in physical contact with a product in a digital environment. Across eight studies, the authors use images, GIFs, and VR to show that vicarious touch affects consumers' psychological ownership and product valuation due to the active nature of product touch, which results in a felt sense of body ownership of the virtual hand. This is termed the "vicarious haptic effect." Results demonstrate that it is not enough to show a hand in an advertisement; the hand must be touching a product. The vicarious haptic effect is strongest for people who become highly stimulated by an immersive VR experience (i.e., measured via the elevation in heart rate). The vicarious haptic effect is attenuated if the viewed interaction does not represent a diagnostic hand movement. The authors discuss theoretical and managerial implications for digital product presentation to encourage feelings of product ownership and valuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of augmented reality (AR) technology presents marketers with promising opportunities to engage customers and transform their brand experience. Although firms are keen to invest in AR, research documenting its tangible impact in real-world contexts is sparse. In this article, the authors outline four broad uses of the technology in retail settings. They then focus specifically on the use of AR to facilitate product evaluation prior to purchase and empirically investigate its impact on sales in online retail. Using data obtained from an international cosmetics retailer, they find that AR usage on the retailer's mobile app is associated with higher sales for brands that are less popular, products with narrower appeal, and products that are more expensive. In addition, the effect of AR is stronger for customers who are new to the online channel or product category, suggesting that the sales increase is coming from online channel adoption and category expansion. These findings provide converging evidence that AR is most effective when product-related uncertainty is high, demonstrating the technology's potential to increase sales by reducing uncertainty and instilling purchase confidence. To encourage more impactful research in this area, the authors conclude with a research agenda for AR in marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe highly anticipated global Metaverse market presents a burgeoning arena, particularly in shopping and retail. While physical retail environments have long emphasized the details of exterior and interior servicescape design, the shift to online shopping raises questions about applying these traditional retail principles to the Metaverse setting. This research adopts conjoint analysis to delve into the potential of localized Metaverse retail design by merging consumer emotions, market segmentation, and innovative retail technologies. Using the Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance (PAD) model, we examine Metaverse servicescape attributes, based on real-world counterparts, application in segmenting store design based on consumer preferences. Like in physical retailing cases, music, crowding, and noise are the most influential Metaverse attributes affecting consumer emotion. However, three different clusters emerged according to their emotional responses. Our experiment reveals that Metaverse servicescape attributes may evoke emotional responses akin to their physical counterparts while offering a valuable opportunity for customization that better satisfies market segments. Insights are offered for retailers navigating the dynamic Metaverse landscape, where personalization and localization are now more affordable and where multiple store designs can coexist in digital form—reaching larger markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In several online retail contexts, such as grocery retailing, customers have to be present at the moment of delivery, that is, an attended home delivery service is in place. This requirement adds new challenges to this channel, often leading to narrow profitability. From an operations perspective, this service is performed with the retailer offering multiple time slots for the customer to choose from. Retailers target a cost‐efficient delivery process that also accounts for customers' preferences by properly managing the options to show to customers, that is, time slot management. This study analyzes a dynamic slotting problem, that is, choosing the best slots to show for each customer, which is close to many practical cases pursuing a customer service orientation. We study two new strategies to improve customer service while satisfying cost‐efficiency goals: (i) enforcing a constraint on the minimum number or percentage of slots to show to customers and (ii) integrating multiple days when tackling this challenging problem. Our results show under which conditions these proposed strategies can lead to win‐win situations for both customer service and profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid increase in business-to-consumer online retail has challenged the existing distribution models. Seamlessly integrated, more sustainable and digitalized last-mile distribution processes are vital to meeting the requirements posed by future online retail. Investments to new and more advanced technological solutions are needed to improve the operational performance and to meet all the external requirements. The variety of available technological solutions creates a significant, multi-layered challenge to individual organizations’ ability to select the most fit-for-purpose technology for their own and their customers’ needs. This is a well-recognized issue at the front end of the innovation process and it calls for deep insight before proceeding to actual product development. This paper describes how domain-specific benchmarking can be a valid tool for increasing strategic knowledge and supporting technology investment decisions. In this research, 16 technologies and technology topics applied to distribution logistics were evaluated in terms of the technologies’ perceived feasibility. The feasibility comprised three technology dimensions – applicability, tangibility and maturity - as benchmarking indicators, chosen on the basis of literature. The demonstrated application of domain-specific benchmarking supports managerial evaluations of individual technologies, as well as enables further customizing the benchmarking indicators to be used in the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of online retail increases the demand for packaging. Although packaging is necessary to fulfill logistic and marketing functions, it fosters the depletion of resources, is often used carelessly, and thus negatively impacts the environment. Eco‐friendly packaging variants could provide a solution to this problem. Since many stakeholders must be involved to promote their use, this study develops a conceptual framework that reconciles their different perspectives and combines these with an environmental assessment to facilitate the transition to more sustainable online retail. We apply a multi‐method research approach to investigate the different views. We use qualitative interviews and website analyses to capture the perspective of online retailers, conduct an online survey (n = 1491) to investigate consumers' perceptions of various product and transport packaging alternatives, and perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) of these options. The findings reveal that online retailers lack knowledge regarding consumer preferences and the environmental impact of packaging. The consumer survey shows a strong preference for packaging made from recycled paper and general avoidance of plastic packaging. The LCA results reveal that recycled and reusable variants are environmentally beneficial. The findings are interpreted in light of the relationships assumed in the conceptual framework. From a theoretical perspective, our results indicate that online retailers are concerned about the signaling role of packaging and that consumers refer to heuristic cues when deciding between packaging variants. We reconcile the different perspectives to propose strategies that contribute to a broader distribution of eco‐friendly packaging in online retail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of Internet retail platforms (e.g., Shopify and Wix) and marketplaces (e.g., Amazon, eBay, and Etsy) has given rise to a new wave of entrepreneurship. These are platform entrepreneurs—individuals who establish micro‐retail businesses on third‐party platforms. While there are now millions of such entrepreneurs worldwide, there has been limited scholarly investigation regarding the role of Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LSCM) policies that they can adapt to benefit their small businesses. Because the success of such businesses is intricately driven by the reviews they receive, we deem it essential to investigate how such reviews may be related to their LSCM policies. We conduct an observational field study at one such small platform seller. By investigating items sold under varying merchandise return policies (MRPs), we seek to isolate the relationship between MRP, and the likelihood, positivity, and depth of the reviews left by shoppers. Based on the concept of contractuality, rooted in Sociometer Theory, our results reveal that a more lenient MRP may serve as a perk that may positively impact the customer's review writing. However, the relationship is not monotonic. Instead, there is evidence that the effect of extended MRP leniency on reviews tapers off beyond a certain point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. Problem definition: Online retailers have to provide customers with an estimate of how fast an order can be delivered before they decide to make the purchase. Retailers can strategically adjust this delivery speed promise online without changing offline infrastructure, and doing so may fundamentally impact business outcomes. It can influence consumers' purchasing decisions and postpurchase experiences, often in the opposite direction. On one hand, an aggressive (i.e., faster) delivery estimate could ensure that more customers meet their deadlines and thus, may increase their purchases ex ante. On the other hand, an aggressive estimate tends to overpromise, potentially leading to a longer than expected wait time, which can lower customer satisfaction and increase product returns ex post. In this research, we estimate the causal effect of retailers' delivery speed promise on customer behaviors and business performance. Methodology/results: Collaborating with Collage.com, an online retailer that sells customized photo products across the United States, we exogenously varied the disclosed delivery speed estimates online while keeping the physical delivery speed unchanged. Using the difference-in-differences identification strategy, we find that a faster promise increases sales and profits, but it also increases product returns and reduces customer retention. In addition, we propose a data-driven model that uses the estimated parameters to optimize delivery promises to maximize customer lifetime value. Managerial implications: Our findings provide managerial insights and a data-driven policy that retailers can leverage to optimize and customize their delivery promises. Funding: T. Sun acknowledges research support from CKGSB Research Institute. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0174. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on 55 interviews with executives across five online fashion retailers, this paper explores the challenges of price setting and management. We develop a descriptive model of 'locked-in' pricing practice to explain organisational routines focused on cost-plus pricing, alignment with competitor prices and historical pricing. Drivers include the complex and uncertain outcomes of pricing, and lack of investment in leading-edge pricing methodologies, together with inadequate training and pricing ownership. Outcomes comprise an aversion to price risk-taking, sees decisions guided by heuristics and a lack of openness to alternative pricing methods. We offer implications for pricing practice to overcome these locked-in behaviours and suggest that research addresses challenges encountered in the implementation of new pricing techniques in organisational settings to narrow the gap between theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth in the online retail sector and improvements in card-present authorisation measures have led to substantial increases in card-not-present (CNP) fraud, particularly in the online retail sector. This article uses crime script analysis to understand the commission process of CNP fraud in online retail settings. Drawing upon previous crime script articles and industry reports we outline the steps involved in the three stages of CNP fraud: preparation; doing it; and getting away. From this script, points of disruption are identified and we discuss prevention measures that stakeholders such as businesses and financial institutions could implement to reduce bad actors opportunities for CNP fraud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial shows how the digital economy continuously reshapes work and employment. Based on a literature review, it illustrates that digitalization frequently implies job loss, de-skilling and measures to restrict co-determination and participation of labor. However, digitalization also offers opportunities for managers, employees and unions to create new work tasks and conditions for skilled work. After showing major trends of digitalization in the last decades, the editorial illustrates recent research fields in economic geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online retail is currently profoundly restructuring the working conditions in the retail sector. Existing studies generally describe the working conditions in the large warehouses of online retail as 'digital Taylorism'. This article broadens this perspective and draws on the theoretical concept of the local labour control regime. It explores how managements' technological and social labour control strategies vary spatially between online retail warehouses located in inner and outer metropolitan areas of the four largest German cities. The study uses qualitative methods and is mainly based on expert interviews with executives, representatives of trade unions and works councils, representatives of associations, and further experts. This study gains insights on the spatial variety of labour control and thus is relevant for international research on labour control and for practitioners' ability to create decent and humane work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of social media platforms has empowered social media influencers to trigger impulsive buying behavior among consumers. The effectiveness of social media influencers relies on their ability to establish parasocial relationships with their followers. By leveraging both heterophily and homophily, influencers can cultivate dual parasocial relationships that cater to their followers' needs for information seeking or affection exchange, thereby influencing impulsive buying. However, little is known about the contribution of dual parasocial relationships to impulsive buying behavior and the competing roles of heterophily (vs. homophily) in fostering different types of parasocial relationships. In line with the two fundamental dimensions of social ties, this study distinguishes between instrumental and expressive parasocial relationships to investigate and compare their effects on impulsive buying behavior. Additionally, we dissect heterophily (vs. homophily) into visible, informational, and value dimensions to investigate their impacts on dual parasocial relationships. The findings reveal that dual parasocial relationships have varying effects on impulsive buying behavior. Furthermore, the three types of heterophily (vs. homophily) exhibit complex and nonlinear impacts on dual parasocial relationships. These insights advance our theoretical understanding of heterophily, homophily, and parasocial relationships in the context of impulsive buying. They also offer practical guidance for social media influencer marketers to develop effective strategies for maintaining relationships with followers, while harnessing the power of both heterophily and homophily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The internet is the main channel for electronic nicotine delivery systems sales that the media uses to publicize electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). Once e-cigarettes entered the market, they quickly became widely available online and in retail stores in many countries and regions around the world. This systematic review aims to explore the online marketing strategies for e-cigarette retail websites including the design of e-cigarette retail websites and how the information of retail websites was exposed to the public. Method: Studies were searched in five databases: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, EMBASE, Web of Science, Communication & Mass Media Complete, and PubMed. Included studies were published between 2007 and 2019. Results: Eight studies were included in this review. Topics covered included smoking cessation claims, nicotine content claims, health or harmful substance exposure claims, age restriction/verification, membership and discounts, and media and celebrity effect. Most of the claims included information about the benefits of e-cigarettes, such as helping to quit smoking, being more environmentally friendly than traditional paper cigarettes, and not containing nicotine. Commonmarketing techniques included celebrity endorsements, showing discounts or membership offers, or getting a link to buy from the media. Conclusions: The marketing of e-cigarettes is complex, and the authenticity of the information presented on the websites needs to be thoroughly understood. Such information will undoubtedly increase the interest and desire of potential buyers for e-cigarettes. Therefore, it is critical to establish necessary regulations regarding e-cigarette product information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to present the practice of price differentiation in multichannel sales conditions. The study reviews the literature on channel pricing policy. The authors set a goal to study the practices of retailers operating in online and offline channels in Poland in terms of price differentiation between channels. Using the example of the EMPIK and SMYK chains, price differences between online and offline channels were analysed for several 100 products in key categories for these retailers. The prices were obtained by scraping the data from the websites of both retailers in November 2022. Statistical analysis was designed to examine differences in pricing by product category, position on the “most frequently purchased” list and price range. This research confirmed previous results that online vs. offline price differentiation was not widely used by leading multichannel retailers in the most popular categories bought online: only two out of 12 retailers elicited for the study were found to perform it. It also confirmed previous findings that if price differentiation was applied, the items were cheaper online more often. However, the average depth of discount was considerably higher. Apart from these general findings, our research delivered detailed insights at the category level as the depth of discount and the share of products sold at a discount online considerably differed between categories with comparable and non-comparable offers. Additionally, this study provided a unique analysis of the multichannel price differentiation strategy in relation to popularity or the absolute price of the product. While in the case of the popularity of the product, the offer uniqueness seemed to play a role, the relation to the absolute price of the product showed a mixed picture and would need further investigation.

Customer experience is a key component in increasing sales numbers. Customers are important assets that must be kept up for a corporation or firm. Prioritizing customer service is one way to protect client loyalty. To ensure that service priority is right on target, this research was conducted on groups of consumers who are anticipated to have high business prospects. The 2011 retail online shop sales dataset with 379,980 records and eight char-acteristics was used. The length, recency, frequency, and monetary (LRFM) feature selection approach was used in the study process to select features for further segmentation using the K-Means data mining method to define consumer types. Following the completion of the research, clients were divided into four categories: Premium Loyalty, Inertia Loyalty, Latent Loyalty, and No Loyalty. The correct clustering results are displayed in the vali-dation test using the Silhouette Score Index technique, which yielded a score value of 0.943898. Based on the outcomes of this segmentation, business actors may prioritize providing clients with the proper service.