Premium Essay

Internet Retail : Technology Management

In: Computers and Technology

Submitted By janinedavid
Words 3397
Pages 14
April 1, 2013
Janine Lyn A. David Internet Retailing TM – CHAPTER 1
1. Introduction

It has been predicted by scholars and experts over the past decade that there will be a steady migration from a brick and mortar retailing model to internet/online shopping stores (Levy & Weitz 2001; Chiang and Dholakia, 2003) (Solorzano, 2011; Ferguson, 2011). With this trend, many traditional retailers have developed their own online stores. There were also the “pure plays”, companies that are mainly start-up e-commerce businesses, which are competing alongside traditional retailers in the marketplace.
According to the Internet World Stats 2011, there are currently over two billion Internet users daily at the growth of 480 percent in the past 10 years. This has certainly led to tougher competition for many internet retailers that want to stay competitive and profitable. These businesses want to differentiate themselves, become visible, and stand out above their competitors – gain a competitive advantage. According to Forrester, CIOs have a vital role to play in developing business strategy and framing business technology strategy. Through this approach, IT is viewed as a business enabler for value creation and with this thinking they believe it has a great opportunity to influence business agenda through technology innovation.
Even though the effect of a high IT investment on the business’s performance has not been proved (Bharadwaj, 2000), these businesses, both the online-only stores and the “bricks and clicks”, are heavily investing in information technology (IT) infrastructures to conduct digital transactions and to capture more market segments.
This leaves us with the following question – why is technological innovation perceived by these internet retailers as a value creator in the perspective of both the consumer and the organization?
Evidences to help answer

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