• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.185-203
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• 2009

The literature reveals that service quality is critical determinants affecting customer satisfaction in the retail industry. Recent online B2C studies also show that service quality significantly influences online customer satisfaction. However, research on analyzing antecedents to determine the service quality level of online shopping has not been sufficiently reported. Moreover, the offline synergy effect on the Internet shopping mall has been presented mostly at a conceptual level. The purpose of this study is to investigate key managerial variables exploiting offline synergy, including pure online attributes, that impact on service quality of the click and mortar Internet shopping mall. A survey was conducted for empirical validation of the hypotheses. The results indicate that core offline synergy factors significantly enhance the perceived service quality level of the Internet shopping mall. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are also discussed.

• The Journal of Information Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.69-86
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• 2004

In this paper, a conceptual framework describing the dynamics of click and mortar businesses is provided. It directs our attention to the many potential sources of synergy that are available to firms that choose to integrate e-commerce with their existing traditional forms of business. It further emphasizes the many actions that firms can take to minimize channel conflicts and help achieve the benefits of synergy. Finally, it describes four categories of synergy-related benefits from the integration of e-commerce with traditional businesses, including potential cost saving, gains due to enhanced differentiation, improved trust, and potential extensions into new markets. The utility of the framework was demonstrated using the case of an electronics retailer that has chosen to tightly integrate its large chain of retail stores with its Web-based electronic store. The framework was also used to develop a series of propositions that can guide future empirical research. The discussion points to the need to develop new types of metrics to better judge the contributions of e-commerce channels, and provides some guidance for future empirical research that can test whether, and under what conditions, integrated click and mortar business models work well. Thus, the purpose of this study is to present the combining physical and virtual presence in e-commerce.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.730-744
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• 2014

With advances in QR code, mobile is becoming one of important channels in the fashion retail industries. This study attempts to understand the importance of QR code utilization in creating multi-channel business model. Study objectives are to classify types of multi-channel retailing by QR code utilization and to explore the role of QR code technology in strategic marketing elements for types of multichannel retailer. As an exploratory approach, a total of 78 news articles regarding QR code issues were reviewed and analyzed by focusing on 48retailers seleted in this study. The results found seven dimensions of QR code marketing strategies: abundant product information, additional information contents, transaction accessibility, connectedness to channels, location based service, loyalty program and multimedia advertising. Based a combination of channels and level of mobile apps' activation, multichannel retailers utilizing QR code technology were classified into four types; bricks-click-active mobile model, bricks-click-inactive mobile model, bricks-click model, and click-active mobile model. There were differences of using QR code marketing strategies among multichannel models. According to results, for bricks-and-mortar retailers, QR code was critical to integrate shopping experience with merchandise or sales promotions across channels. In addition, for non-store retailers, the QR code utilization was successful in expanding mobile channels, which can promote retail sales by a two-way interaction with customers via the mobile apps.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.183-200
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• 2007

This study examines the relationships between typical anticipated benefit factors of introducing online business activities by traditional brick-and-mortar shipping and port logistics companies and their performance in marketing mix and global competitiveness. Three major benefit factors were derived including improved trust, information acquiring and limitation of offline business activities. The three empirically derived critical synergy factors were then used to examine how they improve the firms performance in marketing mix and global competitiveness. The results of structural equation modeling method show that the anticipated benefit factors significantly influence the firms' performance in marketing mix. Subsequently, marketing mix significantly influence the firms' global competitiveness. The results provide useful guidelines for the shipping and port logistics firms to develop appropriate marketing mix strategies to improve their global competitiveness.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.29-47
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• 2007

Owing to the rapid growth of using the Internet, not only click-and-mortar companies but also brick-and-mortar ones have been expanding their distribution channels into online, Moreover, since online channels are more attractive than offline ones in control and maintenance, switching customers into online ones is emerged as one of very important managerial issues in a view of reduction of cost as well as expansion of services. However, the switched customers should be faced by uncertainties which could not have been experienced in offline. Specifically, in online channels, buyers and sellers are separated temporally and spacially and there are always so many kinds of threat for security as well as not enough systems and conventions for them yet. Therefore, trust has been considered as one of the most critical mechanisms for resolution of such uncertainties in online transactions. However, it is not easy to build and maintain the relationships in online since most of them are virtual and indirect generally. Therefore, in order to switch offline customers into online ones, it is very important to make strategies based on identification of the relationship between online transaction and offline trust which has been built in offline business. Generally offline trust, which has been built independent of online, could not include trust for online-dependent activities such as payment security during or after transactions, while most of online trust include it. Therefore, a customer with high offline trust does not always perceive high security and assure safe transactions. Accordingly, while online trust, where technical capabilities for online security is one of main bases, includes control trust implicitly or explicitly, offline trust does not. However. in spite of such clear discrimination and independence between offline trust and perceived security, there can be the significant dependency between these two beliefs. The customers with high offline trust believe that the company would do some activities for online security for customers' safe transactions since it has been believed of doing well for customers' trust. Theoretically, users' perception of security is interpreted as a kind of control trus, which is trust for company's technical control capacities in order to resolve technical uncertainties in online. Therefore, the relationship between two beliefs can be considered as transference from offline trust to another type trust. that is, control trust. The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of offline trust on online transaction uses mediated by perceived security. For this purpose, we suggest a research model based on technology acceptance model (TAM). Reuse intention is adopted as a dependent variable and TAM is modified by adding perceived risk (PR) as well as two beliefs of using Internet banking, perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU). Moreover, perceive security (PS) is adopted as an external variable for PR and PU, while offline trust (OT) is an antecedent of PS. For an empirical test, sampling from 108 visitors to the banks in Daegu, Korea, we analyze our model by partial least square (PLS) approach. In result, our model is shown to explain 51.4% of the variance in reuse intention and all hypothesis are supported statistically. A theoretical implication of this study is to identify a role of PS between offline trust and reuse intention of using online transaction services. According to our result, PS can be considered as a mediation variable for bridging between two different concepts: trust that explains social aspects of customers and companies, and TAM that explains customers' reuse intention.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.133-153
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• 2002

Internet lowers the search cost to acquire information about products and sellers price information. Because consumers can easily compare prices among different Internet retailers, the price competition among merchants in Internet has been intensified. For online retailers, it is important to differentiate their sites from competitors based upon services rather than prices. This study investigates which factors influence on consumers price sensitivity in Internet book markets and examines whether consumers price sensitivity has any effect on the type of preferred Internet bookstore (hybrid or pure online book stores). Survey is conducted to empirically investigate the relationship among the various consumer attitudes and price sensitivity. The result shows that price search and price importance have effect on the choice of Internet bookstore. Consumers with higher price sensitivity preferred to purchase books from pure Internet bookstores rather than hybrid (click-and-mortar) bookstores. This study provides an exploratory framework that tries to understand consumer behavior about price sensitivity that might provide some marketing implications to lessen the price competition of Internet retailers.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-49
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty and examine the differences and similarities between specialized and general merchandise internet shopping malls concerning the relationships of these key success factors. The structural model is tested with each of the sub-samples(i.e., specialized and general merchandise shopping customers taken separately) and the data from entire data samples(i.e., specialized and general merchandise shopping customers pooled together). The same research model was used in analysing general merchandise, specialized, and integrated internet shopping mall to reveal and compare the casual path constructs. In the analysis of path coefficients composed of separated taken sample, all research hypothesis is accepted and the model's goodness of fit also shows all high. In the basis of the previous empirical test, multiple sample method was used. Properties of the causal paths, including standardized path coefficients, the significance of difference, latent correlations and variance explained for satisfaction, trust and loyalty in the hypothesized model, have similarities in general. This means that the proper structural management concerned with customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty is very crucial for the success of all kinds of internet shopping malls. Following the model test, I conduct a test of integrated model's path coefficients. Statistical results show that all the hypothesis concerned with internet shopping malls were accepted like the separated sample test. Click and mortar companies should clearly understand and articulate the key requirements of shopping mall satisfaction, trust and loyalty and encourage to establish linkage and interactive relationship among the research variables. In addition, internet marketers are required to customize the interaction considering and adapting the patterns of internet shopping malls. Other interesting results concerning the strategies in internet shopping malls strategy are also presented.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.101-123
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• 2006

The main purpose of this study is to conceptualize and investigate the relationship between customer satisfaction and the linking variables of customer loyalty in internet shopping mall including general merchandise and specialized online mall. To achieve this objective, the study tries to validate the structural equation model and causal relationships among the model's elements involving customer satisfaction, customer trust, customer attitude, relationship involvement, and customer loyalty. The same research model was used in analysing general merchandise and specialized internet shopping mall to reveal and compare the casual path constructs. Empirical findings are as follows: First, all the hypothesis concerned with internet merchandise shopping mall were accepted but the direct effects between satisfaction $\Rightarrow$ loyalty and satisfaction $\Rightarrow$ attitude rejected in case of specialized internet shopping mall. Second, I found out that there were direct or indirect relationships between the mediating variables(satisfaction, attitude, involvement) and site trust and customer loyalty irrespective of internet shopping site patterns. In Particular, the direct effects of on customer loyalty showed the difference each other, but the indirect effects through satisfaction, attitude, or relationship involvement were all accepted. This means that the proper management concerned with indirect path is probably more important for the success of all kinds of internet shopping mall. The implications of this research may be summarized as follows. First, click and mortar companies should clearly understand and articulate the key requirements of shopping mall trust and satisfaction. Second, online companies are encouraged to establish linkage including trust, positive attitude, relationship involvement in order to foster customer loyalty. Third, companies are not only required to differentiate the internet marketing strategy adapting to the patterns of internet shopping mall but also to customize the interaction strategy in the formation process of customer loyalty.