Retailing in computer‐mediated environments: electronic commerce across Europe

Argues that global networked environments, such as the Internet and those of online service providers such as AOL and CompuServe, provide not only challenging philosophical dilemmas ‐ where nowhere is anywhere ‐ but more practical economic and operational difficulties for retailers and marketers, used to conventional distribution networks in physical space; notes that retailers’ reach can potentially and very easily outweigh their grasp. Reports that a number of western European and North American retailers have been wrestling with the need to establish a presence on the various internetworking services, where the cultural rules of the game are very different, in the context of the threat to established channels. Based on research undertaken among European retailers within the Oxford Institute of Retail Management, develops some thinking on the implications of a virtual geography of demand and supply; in particular, reviews the attraction of new channels to market, seeks to understand current European practice and provides a series of frameworks for evaluating opportunities for electronic commerce.