• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.169-189
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• 2006

The product categories that can be sold on-line are expanding. It is interesting to see which product categories have more sales possibilities on internet. Small-sized firms' products have low distribution coverage, low brand recognition, bigger dispersion in the perception on the values which consist of quality vs. price, and higher possibilities of perceived purchase risks. Since on-line shopping is supposed to provide opportunities to small-sized firms that have low distribution and brand power, it is quite necessary to evaluate the fitness of on-line sales for small-sized firms' product categories. There are virtually no research studies on the on-line sales for small-sized firms' product categories. In this study, based on the integration of SEC, FCB, and related concepts, we develop new theoretical framework and test the fitness of on-line sales for small-sized firms' product categories by conducting empirical analysis. The empirical results on 17 product categories show that SEC, FCB, purchase risks, brand factors are somewhat related. Unlike previous studies, since the fitness of SEC and on-line sales are not clearly shown, we need to consider those problems within inter-related multiple frameworks. That is, it is necessary to evaluate the fitness of on-line sales after defining the product categories within the integrated multiple frameworks rather than within the single framework.