Tag Archives: retail

  • Mobile Marketing in the Retailing Environment: Current Insights and Future Research Avenues

    Shankar Venkatesh Hofacker Naik JIM 2010

    by Venkatesh Shankar, Alladi Venkatesh, Charles Hofacker, and Prasad Naik

    This article was published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24 (2010), 111-120.

    Mobile marketing, which involves two- or multi-way communication and promotion of an offer between a firm and its customers using the mobile, a term that refers to the mobile medium, device, channel, or technology, is growing in importance in the retailing environment. It has the potential to change the paradigm of retailing from one based on consumers entering the retailing environment to retailers entering the consumer’s environment through anytime, anywhere mobile devices. We propose a conceptual framework that comprises three key entities, the consumer, the mobile, and the retailer. The framework addresses key related issues such as mobile consumer activities, mobile consumer segments, mobile adoption enablers and inhibitors, key mobile properties, key retailer mobile marketing activities and competition. We also address successful retailer mobile marketing strategies, identify the customer-related and organizational challenges on this topic, and outline future research scenarios and avenues related to these issues.

  • Mobile Marketing: A Synthesis and Prognosis

    Shankar Balasubramanian JIM 2009

    by Venkatesh Shankar and Sridhar Balasubramanian

    This article was published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23 (2009), 118-129.

    Mobile marketing refers to the two- or multi-way communication and promotion of an offer between a firm and its customers using a mobile medium, device, or technology.  We present the conceptual underpinnings of mobile marketing and a synthesis of the relevant literature. We identify and discuss four key issues: drivers of mobile device/service adoption, the influence of mobile marketing on customer decision-making, formulation of a mobile marketing strategy, and mobile marketing in the global context.  We outline research directions related to these issues and conclude by delineating the managerial implications of mobile marketing insights.

  • Price Dispersion on the Internet: A Review and Directions for Future Research

    Pan_Ratchford_Shankar_JIM_2004

    by Xing Pan, Brian T. Ratchford, and Venkatesh Shankar

    This aricle was published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18 (Autumn 2004), 116-135.

    The explosive growth in Internet retailing has sparked a stream of research on online price dispersion, defined as the distribution of prices (such as range and standard deviation) of an item with the same measured characteristics across sellers of the item at a given point in time.  In this paper, we review the empirical and analytical literatures on online price dispersion and outline the future directions in this research stream.  We address the issue of whether price dispersion is greater or smaller online than offline, examine whether price dispersion on the Internet has changed over time, discuss multi-channel retailing and measurement of price dispersion, explore why Internet price dispersion exists, and investigate the drivers of online price dispersion.

     

  • Can Price Dispersion in Online Markets be Explained by Differences in E-Tailer Service Quality?

    Pan_Ratchford_Shankar_JAMS_2002

    by Xing Pan, Brian T. Ratchford, and Venkaesh Shankar

    This article was published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30 (Fall 2002), 433-445.

    It has been hypothesized that the online medium and the Internet lower search costs and that electronic markets are more competitive than conventional markets.  This suggests that price dispersion–the distribution of prices of an item indicated by measures such as range and standard deviation—of an item with the same measured characteristics across sellers of the item at a given point in time for identical products sold by e-tailers online (on the Internet) should be smaller than it is offline, but some recent empirical evidence reveals the opposite.  A study by Smith et al. (2000) speculates that this is due to heterogeneity among e-tailers in such factors as shopping convenience and consumer awareness.  Based on an empirical analysis of 105 e-tailers comprising 6739 price observations for 581 items in eight product categories, we show that online price dispersion is persistent, even after controlling for e-tailer heterogeneity.  Our general conclusion is that the proportion of the price dispersion explained by e-tailer characteristics is small. This evidence is contrary to the hypothesis that search costs in online markets are low, or that online markets are highly competitive.  The results also show that after controlling for differences in e-tailer service quality, prices at pure play e-tailers are equal to or lower than those at bricks-and-clicks e-tailers for all categories except books and computer software.

     

  • The Roles of Channel-Category Associations and Geodemographics in Channel Patronage

    Inman_Shankar_Ferraro_JM_2004

    by J. Jeffrey Inman, Venkatesh Shankar, and Rosellina Ferraro

    This article was published in the Journal of Marketing, 68 (April 2004),  51-71.

    Consumers purchase goods from a variety of channels or retail formats such as grocery stores, drug stores, mass merchandisers, club stores and convenience stores. To identify the most appropriate channels and to efficiently allocate the distribution of products among channels, managers need a better understanding of consumer behavior with respect to these channels. We examine the moderating role of  “channel-category associations” in consumer channel patronage by extending the literature on brand associations to the context of channels and estimate a model linking channel-category associations with consumer geodemographics and channel share of volume. We identify the product categories associated with particular channels through a correspondence analysis of a field intercept survey. We then use these channel-category associations, along with geodemographic factors to estimate their direct and interactive effects on channel share of volume. These channel-category associations have significant main effects and interaction effects with channel type and geodemographic factors on channel share of volume and account for the majority of the explained variance (72%) in channel share of volume. Overall, the findings provide several conceptual and managerial insights into consumer channel perceptions and patronage behavior.

  • Communication and Promotion Decisions in Retailing: A Review and Directions for Future Research

    Ailawadi…Shankar JR 2009

    by Kusum Ailawadi, J. P. Beauchamp, Naveen Donthu, Dinesh Gauri, and Venkatesh Shankar

    Communication and promotion decisions are a fundamental part of retailer customer experience management strategy. In this review paper, we address two key questions from a retailer’s perspective: (1) what have we learned from prior research about promotion, advertising, and other forms of communication and (2) what major issues should future research in this area address. In addressing these questions, we propose and follow a framework that captures the interrelationships among manufacturer and retailer communication and promotion decisions and retailer performance. We examine these questions under four major topics: determination and allocation of promotion budget, trade promotions, consumer promotions and communication and promotion through the new media. Our review offers several useful insights and identifies many fruitful topics and questions for future research.

    Keywords: Communication; Promotion; Advertising; New media: Resource allocation; Trade promotion; Consumer promotion; Accounting; Legal issues.