Get real! Managing the next stage of Internet retail

European Management Journal Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 519–528, 2000 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.Pergamon

Printed in Great Britain0263-2373/00 $20.00PII: S0263-2373(00)00041-4

Get Real! Managing theNext Stage of InternetRetailSTEPHEN CHEN, University of Manchester Business School, UKFIONA LETENEY, Aonix Limited, Manchester, UK

As Internet retailers move into mainstream marketsand traditional retailers venture onto the Internet,an increasingly important management question ishow to successfully combine ‘real’ and ‘virtual’operations. This paper aims to highlight some ofthe key management issues and critical success fac-tors in ‘real–virtual retailing’.

Three case studies are compared to illustrate thedifferent issues facing Internet start-ups, estab-lished retailers and suppliers. Two issues in parti-cular are highlighted as being critical — (1) manage-ment of supply and distribution (2) integration ofreal and virtual systems — and we suggest a practi-cal framework that can be used to analyse these

European Management Journal Vol 18 No 5 October 2000 519

issues in ‘real–virtual retailers’. 2000 Publishedby Elsevier Science Ltd.

Keywords: Internet, Retail, e-Tailers, Real–VirtualInterface

Introduction

Much has been written and debated about the threatposed to traditional retailers by new Internet-basedretailers such as Amazon and E-Bay (e.g. Kotha, 1998;Maruca, 1999; Vandermerwe, 1999). Early predictionswere that the new web-based retailers would wipe

GET REAL! MANAGING THE NEXT STAGE OF INTERNET RETAIL

out many existing retailers since they had lower pro-perty and stock-keeping costs than bricks-and-mortarbusinesses, and also lower printing and postageexpenses than catalogue retailers. Today much of thatthinking has changed and the viability of a pure web-based model is being questioned by many businesses.Firstly, Internet retailers are being forced to recognisethe importance of having a physical presence. Fiercecompetition in the on-line market has forced theprices of many products to fall so many firms areswitching to a strategy of providing better servicethrough faster delivery and more customer support.Notable examples are E-bay, the pioneering on-lineauction site which has acquired Butterfield, a tra-ditional bricks-and-mortar auction house, and Ama-zon, the pioneering Internet book retailer, which hasfound it necessary to set up its own distributioncentres in the UK in order to better serve the Euro-pean market.

At the same time, competition in the on-line marketis increasing as more and more traditional retailersare venturing onto the web. Many traditionalretailers were initially hesitant to enter the on-linemarket, partly owing to unfamiliarity with the tech-nology and uncertainty about the new market, andpartly owing to fears of cannibalising existing chan-nels (KPMG, 1999). However, as some so-called‘clicks and mortar’ retailers, such as Gap have shown,stores and websites can work well together, increas-ing sales at both (Lee, 1999). Now more and moretraditional retailers are venturing on-line and accord-ing to a recent report from the Boston ConsultingGroup (2000), multi-channel retailers now accountfor two-thirds of on-line sales revenues.

This trend supports the prediction of Schultz (1996)and others, who have suggested that the 21st centurymarketplace will be multimedia and multi-channel,with customers having a wide range of media andchannel options to obtain goods and services. In thisnext stage of market development, as Evans andWurstner (1999) have suggested, the opportunisticland-grab approach of early entrepreneurs will notwork and firms will need to adopt a more strategicapproach, focusing on strategic issues such as sourcesof competitive advantage and core competences.

This paper examines the comparative advantagesand disadvantages faced by new versus traditionalretailers venturing onto the Internet. We begin byoutlining the differences between traditional storeand direct mail retail business models and the newInternet retail model, highlighting the critical successfactors in each case. We then compare the experiencesof three firms venturing into Internet retail — a start-up Internet retailer, a supplier venturing into Internetretail and an existing multi-channel retailer adding anew Internet channel for sales. Finally, we summarisethe critical success factors required for Internet retailand the management issues that are likely to facefirms attempting to combine real and virtual retail.

European Management Journal Vol 18 No 5 October 2000520

How Internet Retail is Different

In order to understand the potential impact of theInternet on retail, it is necessary first to understandhow Internet retailing differs from conventionalforms of retailing. Unfortunately as Brown (1986) hasnoted there is no generally accepted classification ofdifferent types of retailing in the literature. However,one common distinction is between retailing wherecustomers come to stores to buy goods and otherretailing methods, such as direct mail, telephone andtelevision sales, which in effect bring stores to cus-tomers (e.g. Davies, 1995). Therefore, we suggest auseful way to begin to understand how Internetretailing is different from other forms of retail is tocompare Internet retailing with the conventionalstores and direct mail formats. In the next section wediscuss the distinctive characteristics of each of thethree different retailing formats.

Traditional Retail Models

Two models commonly found in traditional retailbusinesses are the store-based or direct mail retailmodels.

The retail store business model (Figure 1) is one thathas been well tried and proven over millennia, poss-ibly since the beginnings of commerce. In this modelthe retailer provides a service to customers by

1. displaying the products2. providing information and advice on the product3. most importantly, having the item in stock

Usually with small purchases, the goods areexchanged at the same time as payment is received,although with larger value items or customisedgoods, the item is delivered at a later date, directlyfrom the manufacturer or warehouse.

Critical success factors for this type of business havebeen identified and are well understood by studentsand practitioners of retail marketing (e.g. Conant etal., 1993). These include:

Figure 1 Store Retail Model


❖ store location❖ store atmosphere❖ store layout and merchandise presentation❖ knowledgeable, helpful salesperson

Other critical success factors, which apply to all retailbusinesses, include:

❖ high inventory levels❖ wide product range

The second type of retail business model, which hasbecome increasingly popular with the developmentof mail services, is the direct marketing model(Figure 2). In this model, a printed catalogue or anadvertisement in a magazine or on television replacesthe product display and information provision func-tions of a shop, while a mail or a telephone call centrereplaces the sales order-taking function. In the telem-arketing variation of this model, the telephone isextended from order-taking to sales. In both directmail and telemarketing, the goods are usually deliv-ered some time after the customer places the orderso there is a necessity to ensure a speedy andreliable delivery.

In this type of business, critical success factorsinclude:

❖ catalogue/advertisement layout and presentation❖ quick delivery❖ quick and efficient handling of returns

The Internet Retail Model

What is commonly termed Internet retailing or ‘e-tail-ing’ actually covers retailing using a variety of differ-ent technologies or media (Figure 3) and a particularInternet retailer may use one or more of the avail-able technologies.

In some cases an Internet retailer may combine thesetechnologies with elements of traditional store and

Figure 2 Direct Mail Model


Figure 3 Characteristics of Traditional and Internet-Based Media (adapted from Hoffman and Novak, 1996)

direct mail models. In other cases the new techno-logies are used to replace elements of store or directmail retail (Figure 4).

Some of the parallels between an Internet retail siteand a ‘real’ store are shown in Table 1.

Internet retail also has some elements in commonwith direct mail retailing (Table 2). For example, e-mail messages can replace mail messages and thetelephone, that are used in the direct mail model asmeans of providing information, communication andtransactions while on-line catalogues can replaceprinted catalogues. As with direct mail businesses,critical success factors include:

❖ use of customer databases❖ easy ordering❖ quick delivery

Operational elements that the Internet retail modelshares with both the retail store and direct mail mod-els include:

❖ billing of customers❖ relationships with suppliers

Figure 4 Internet Retail Model


Table 1 Retail Store Activities and Internet Retail Equivalents (Adapted from Lohse and Spiller, 1999)

‘Real’ store activity Internet retail equivalent

Salesclerk service Product descriptions, information pages, gift services, search function, sales clerk on thephone / email

Store promotion Special offers, on-line games and lotteries, links to other sites of interest, appetiserinformation

Store window displays Home pageStore atmosphere Interface consistency, store organisation, interface and graphics qualityAisle products Featured products on hierarchical levels of the storeStore layout Screen depth, browse and search functions, indices, image mapsStore location Website linksCheckout cashier On-line shopping basket and/or order formLook and touch of the merchandise Limited to image quality and description, potential for sound and video applications

Table 2 Direct Mail Activities and Internet SiteEquivalents

Direct mail activity Internet retail equivalent

Product catalogue Website catalogueMailing Email

There are, therefore, many elements that Internetretail and more traditional retail models have in com-mon. Indeed many of the most successful Internetretailers have been those that have been able to suc-cessfully transfer critical elements from traditionalretailing to the Internet, such as customer service andproduct displays.

Examples

Boo.com1

The Internet retailer boo.com has successfully trans-ferred many of the features of high street shoppingto the Internet. For example, on entering the site thevisitor is welcomed by Miss Boo, a cartoon character.The customer is also able to see how a particular itemof clothing will look when worn or how well certainitems match by placing them on a cartoon image.

NextThe retail store ‘Next’ produced the ‘Next directory’to expand into this area of the market. The catalogueis able to list and make available all the colours andsizes, which the stores are not necessarily able to holdin stock. This gives the company the best of bothworlds — a customer can look at the whole range inthe catalogue in the comfort of their own home, thenvisit the store. They can then feel the fabric, see thequality, see the true colours and try the garment on.If the garment of the right size or colour is not avail-able they can order it from the catalogue and have itdelivered to their own home.

New Competition

However, traditional retailers are facing increasingcompetition from two new sources (Figure 5) — dis-


Figure 5 New Entrants in Retail

intermediation by suppliers and new intermediariesin the form of Internet-only retailers (Sarkar et al.,1997). Possible advantages and disadvantages of eachof these groups are shown in Table 3.

Case Studies of Internet Retailers

In order to illustrate the problems in creating a single,new Internet channel and in operating multiple chan-nels, examples from each of the three groups werecompared:

1. An internet start-up retailer2. An existing supplier3. An existing store and direct mail retailer

First, examples of each group were identified by con-ducting a search of the web, followed by a generalexamination of the website and market. One examplefrom each group was then selected for more detailedstudy and interviews were arranged with the man-agers or owners in order to gain an understandingof the issues encountered in setting up the business.

One of our first aims was to identify which issueswere most significant for Internet retailers. Initiallywe classified the issues under each of four headingstaken from Angehrn’s virtual marketspace model(Angehrn, 1997):


Table 3 Advantages and Disadvantages of Retailers, e-Tailers and Suppliers

Possible advantages Possible disadvantages

Established retailers Channel conflictExisting brand name Cultural conflictExisting customer baseExisting supplier contactsExisting distribution systemExisting storeStart-upsKnowledge of Internet technology and market Lack well-known brand nameLess constrained by existing systems and culture Lack customer base

Lack supplier contactsLack distribution system

SuppliersExisting brand name Channel conflictExisting customer base Cultural conflictExisting distribution system

❖ how to attract customers (information)❖ how to establish a relationship with the cus-

tomer (communication)❖ how to take customer orders (transaction)❖ how to deliver the goods or services to the cus-

tomer (distribution)

However, after some initial interviews it becameclear that it was necessary to add a fifth issue:

❖ how to ensure speedy and reliable supply

This is less significant where purely virtual, elec-tronic products are being traded but proved to be akey issue for our firms which deal with physical pro-ducts.

Small Island Traders

Small Island Traders is a small Internet start-up offer-ing traditional English china products through theWeb and was set up by James and Alex Murray, ahusband and wife team. James developed the webs-ite, which went live on 1 October 1997 selling silver,china and crystal but after 8 months they decided tofocus on china having not sold a single piece of silver.

Currently they get about a thousand people visitingthe site a day and probably average two or three salesa day. The value of each sale can range from £20 to£1600. Small Island Traders has national accountswith Wedgwood and Spode, which put them on apar with some department stores (Figure 6).

Cooksons

The second company we examined was Cooksons, atool supplier based in the North West of England.


Figure 6 Order and Distribution in Small Island Trad-ers

James Cookson started the business 43 years ago. Hisson Stuart Armstrong has worked for the companyfor 20 years and has been running it for the last14 years. They have a shop and trade counter inStockport Cheshire supplying the construction indus-try and the DIY enthusiast with tools. When Stuarttook over, the turnover was £200,000 and one of hisfirst actions was to computerise the business at a costof £70,000. The following year the turnover was upby 65 per cent and margins had increased by 4 percent. ‘We were the only supplier who could, over thephone, give stock levels without having to checkthe warehouse’.

Cookson’s website went live in January 1999although ‘we didn’t really start telling people about ituntil February’. Sales in March ’99 were £900 against£82,000 through their traditional business. In April’99 sales via the Internet increased to £3.5k. Twelvemonths on they are selling approximately £1500 aday over the Internet. This has not been at the detri-ment of their traditional business, in fact their tra-ditional business is growing faster now than it wasbefore they were trading over the web. The extra TVand Radio publicity they have received due to beingan e-commerce success story has had a good effect onthe existing bricks and mortal business. The Internetbusiness is likely to overtake the traditional in thenext year or two. It is anticipated that this will be


Figure 7 Order and Distribution in Cooksons

without any loss to the traditional business, quite thereverse, because they have complemented each other(Figure 7).

The BBC Shop — Internet Retail Sitewith Outsourced Distribution

Our third case study was the BBC Shop, part of BBCWorldwide Ltd. The BBC is best known as the UK’sleading public service television and radio networkand has been one of the leaders in the provision ofInternet services in the UK, with a large comprehen-sive site allowing on-line access to news and infor-mation.

What is less well-known is that it has a commercialarm BBC Worldwide Ltd that produces magazines,programme licensing, books, videos, spoken wordcassettes and character merchandising. In recentyears BBC Worldwide has developed, with a rangeof key partners, new business ventures covering tele-vision channels in the UK and overseas, an Internetservice and CD-ROMS. In 1997 BBC Worldwideopened an on-line shop in partnership with computercompany ICL to sell all the BBC merchandise men-tioned above. One of the initial problems encoun-tered was that ICL were only able to hold stock of 200different products and the venture failed to generatemuch interest and revenue.

Following this initial setback, a new manager wasrecruited and changes made in how the site operated.One of the first changes introduced was to increasethe range of products offered on the site to 3000 andoutsource some activities. Control of the product dat-abase, transaction processing and distribution tothree specialist companies — US Web, Galleon and

Table 4 Key Issues Facing Internet Retailers

Information What Information to provide? How much? (What product range to offer?)Communication How to personalise communication?Transaction How to speed up processing of orders? How to exchange information with suppliers and

distributorsSupply How to ensure prompt and reliable supply?Distribution How to handle large volumes quickly and reliably?


Gardners respectively. Meanwhile responsibility formaintenance and updating of information wasreturned in-house and control of product informationwas passed to the relevant product area within theBBC (Figure 8).

Lessons from Case Studies

The key issues faced by the three firms are shown inTable 4.

Information

One of the benefits provided by the Internet in allthree firms was the easy access to information, forexample, about the company and the products. How-ever, the wide availability of information also raisedone of the main issues in all the cases — how much ofthe product range to make available and how muchinformation to provide. For example, in the case ofSmall Island Traders the wide product range (theyhave some 50,000 products listed) and an extensivesearch facility were the main reasons why people vis-ited their site. Typically people only buy one chinadinner service in a lifetime and are willing to spendconsiderable time researching in order to find theright one. The Small Island Traders website madeavailable a much wider range than could be foundin a department store. Similarly, in the case of Cook-sons, the website offered a much wider productrange than in their shop (50,000 compared with 8000products). In the case of the BBC a mistake on theinitial site was to offer only a limited range of pro-ducts. Since increasing the range of items on the sitethe sales have improved significantly.

Figure 8 Order and Distribution in the BBC Shop


Communication

Another benefit offered by the Internet is ease ofcommunication. However, this benefit too was dou-ble-edged. As with all retail businesses, customer ser-vice is a key success factor and one of the difficultieswith Internet retail is that the experience can appearremote and impersonal. Small Island Traders havetried to counter this by personalising the deliveries.They point out similar products the customer is likelyto appreciate and will even phone customers to checkon satisfaction with the service.

Transaction Processing

Transaction processing is perhaps the area that bene-fits most from using the Internet. For example, atSmall Island Traders orders received are downloadedin a bookkeeping software program, credit cards arechecked with an EPOS terminal and inventory isautomatically updated. In the case of the Cooksonsand the BBC, the transaction processing is also linkedin directly to suppliers’ systems. When an ordercomes in it is automatically emailed to the relevantmanufacturer who deals with the order and the ship-ping details. The information on the shipping is avail-able to the customer so that they know exactly whenit is going to arrive. Simplification and speeding upof transaction processing is particularly significant asthe business develops and the volume of trans-actions increases.

A related and significant issue in transaction pro-cessing is ensuring security of the transactions.Although customer fears over the security ofordering on the Internet has been most frequentlyhighlighted as an important issue in electronic com-merce, security is equally important for Internetretailers. For example, one of the issues encounteredby Small Island Traders was the need to have asound audit trail in order to trace orders that arereported as missing or not received. Since mostorders received by Internet retailers are paid for bycredit card, retailers do not receive payment until theorders have been confirmed by the credit card com-pany so the retailer carries the risk of lost shipmentsand fraudulent claims.

Criticality of Supply, Distribution andSystems Integration

Issues of Information, Communication and Trans-action processing were expected to be crucial in theinitial stages of setting up an Internet site as theseare likely to be the areas in which an existing busi-ness lacks experience. For example, one of the bene-fits of Internet retail generally is the much widerrange of products available compared with conven-


tional stores but selection and purchase is facilitatedby the use of computer search facilities, e-mail andon-line purchasing. As expected, all three companiesstudied found that they had to develop systems andskills in each of these areas.

However, what was initially surprising in the caseswe examined was that the greatest problem areasreported were not in the areas listed above where thefirms lacked technical skills and experience. The gre-atest problems were in the more routine areas — andwhere in the case of Cooksons and the BBC, they hadexisting skills and experience — supply, distributionand integration with existing systems.

Supply

A major hurdle for Small Island Traders in setting upthe business was obtaining contracts for supply ofchina products while Cooksons initially had a hardjob because the tool suppliers did not understand thenew channel. BBC Worldwide as a manufacturer–licenser did not face this problem although it hasfaced some problems in co-ordinating its supplieswith its on-line operations.

In the beginning Small Island Traders were dealingthrough a third party for all the products, silver, crys-tal, as well as china. They took down everythingexcept china and began to trade directly with themanufacturers. Establishing a relationship with theirsuppliers was difficult initially because potterymanufacturers like Wedgwood and Spode jealouslyprotect their corporate images and brand names. Thepower of the suppliers is such that the retailer isexpected to conform to rules dictated by Wedgwoodor Spode in terms of presentation, shelf space, pos-itioning and inventory levels. According to SmallIsland Traders one of their critical success factors insetting up the business was the reassurance theywere able to provide to the suppliers that they hadno intentions of discounting on price. The turningpoint in their business was building a relationship oftrust with the suppliers and following their successwith china they have now gone back to crystal, build-ing similar relationships with the crystal manufac-turers, and have more recently extended the site toinclude a shop selling cookware. Their intention is togo back to silver in the future, now that they have‘learnt a thing or two’. As they say ‘We are at thefrontier and have the arrows in our backs to proveit!’

At Cooksons, the manufacturers were behind theidea from the beginning but they are not up to speedin this new technology. For example Stanley Toolscontributed to the cost of the CD production, theywere happy to do so as they did not have an elec-tronic version of their catalogue themselves and asthe hard copy was 4 years out of date anyway! As inthe case of Small Island Traders although there is a


threat of the suppliers cutting out Cooksons, by tak-ing the initiative Cooksons have established an on-line presence and make it more profitable for sup-pliers to use them than to set up a competing site.Furthermore, as in the case of Small Island Traders,Cooksons offer something to customers the supplierscannot, access to goods from a wide variety of sup-pliers.

Distribution

The other major area that has been of major concernhas been distribution. All of the firms noted that asignificant challenge has been ensuring that their dis-tribution systems are able to cope with the rapidlyincreasing volumes of trade as well the rapidresponse demanded by Internet customers.

Small Island Traders started by setting up their pack-ing department in the garage at the back of their cot-tage in a picturesque part of Staffordshire. However,they have had to move the distribution to largerpremises as the business has grown. There has beenan increase both in shipping volume and frequency.Six months ago they were shipping 2 or 3 times aweek and there could be seven or eight destinationseach time. Now they are shipping 3 or 4 times a weekto every continent across the world. Interestingly oneof the biggest changes has been the increasing num-ber of sales from the UK, which probably reflects theincreasing number of people shopping on-line. Sixmonths ago about 80 per cent of the sales were to theUS. Now the UK accounts for 50 per cent of sales.With this larger turnover they could probably getmore ‘leverage’ with the manufacturer and couldpossible get them to ship the goods directly. How-ever, the advantage of the current system is that theyknow exactly what is in the box and can ship bro-chures in the box. With drop-shipping from themanufacturer they would lose this control and theopportunity to improve relationships with cus-tomers.

Control over distribution has also proved to be criti-cal in the case of Cooksons who promote ‘fast andfriendly customer service’. If a product has beenordered but the manufacturer has not dealt with itby 4:00 p.m. on the same day, an assistant in theCookson’s office will contact the manufacturers tofind out why so that goods are usually dispatchedthe same day. As in the case of Small Island Traders,the most notable change in distribution has been theincreased area that needs to be served. The tra-ditional business has a delivery radius of 7 miles,whereas the Internet business will deliver anywherein the UK if the order is over £45.

In the BBC Shop, the failure of the initial website wasattributed partly to the inability of the distributionsystem to handle a large product range and a new


distribution system has had to be set up, with aspecialist distribution company.

Integration of Activities

Over and above these issues, the most difficult prob-lem facing all the businesses has been integration ofthe new systems with existing systems. Acquiringnew skills and competences was not a problem inany of the cases but integrating with existing systemswas, not only integration of systems within the firm,but also integration of systems with those of sup-pliers and distributors.

Critical Success Factors for InternetRetail

To sum up, from the cases we studied the followingfactors stood out as being critical for successful Inter-net retailing:

❖ Information — easy access to information on awide range of products

❖ Communication — personalise service❖ Transaction processing — ensure simplicity and

security❖ Supply — winning confidence of suppliers❖ Distribution — ability to deliver worldwide and

on time❖ Integration of old and new systems

Some of these clearly also apply to traditional retailbusinesses but what is different and, perhaps, thegreatest challenge for Internet retailers is that thetechnology enables significant improvements acrossthe board. Furthermore, these improvements arebecoming the norm that is commonly expected in theindustry. It is becoming a requirement not just tohave a service that offers a wide product range or apersonalised service but all of the above — a wideproduct range, personalised service, simple andsecure transaction processing, reliable supply,reliable worldwide distribution and efficient inte-gration of systems.

What the cases also seem to indicate is that it is notmerely the familiarity or unfamiliarity with the tech-nology that is a major problem for Internet retailers,it is also a question of the complexity of the oper-ations and the ability to link old and new systems.Even where the Internet operations have been set upas a separate business as in the case of the BBC, thereis still a need to integrate the retail website to systemsfor managing the traditional ‘back-office’ activities ofretail businesses, such as supply, inventory anddelivery. It is how all the activities work together as a


Table 5 Retail Marketing Options

Supply Information Communication Distribution Transaction

Real Direct from supplier, Brochures, Salesperson, In-house/external Verbal, mail orderdistributor television, shop telephone, mail delivery service

displayVirtual Digital supply (of Webpage Email, chatrooms Digital distribution, Web form

information) drop-ship (goodsdelivered direct fromsupplier)

Figure 9 The Real-Virtual SICTD Model

whole that is critical for success, rather than technicalexcellence in any one area.

A Model for Clicks-and-Mortar Retail

Our experience would suggest that in order to assessthe impact of the Internet on retailers it is not suf-ficient to make sweeping generalisations about thesector and a more fine-grained analysis of the impacton operations is required. We found Rayport and Svi-olka’s idea of a virtual value chain that runs parallelto a real value chain (Rayport and Sviolka, 1995) use-ful in this context and we suggest a revised frame-work that incorporates each of the five factors ident-ified in our interviews (Figure 9).

Implications for Internet Retailers

Some of the options for the real–virtual retail sug-gested by the framework are shown in Table 5.

As demonstrated in the cases we examined, differentelements in each category can be mixed together suc-cessfully (e.g. brochures, web order, on-line distri-bution or webpage, shop order, direct shipment fromsupplier). Traditional retailers may find many areaswhere their traditional competences give them acompetitive advantage. Indeed in some cases tra-


ditional retail competences may be critical factorsfor success.

However, what the experience of the firms we stud-ied would suggest is that the most significant prob-lems are likely to occur at the real–virtual interface —the linking of the old and the new methods — andthis is where managers will need to focus as Internetretail enters the mainstream.

Note

1. Since this paper was written, Boo.com has declared bank-rupt, widely blamed on poor financial management.Although the site was considered one of the most techni-cally advanced at this time, the two founders, an ex-modeland a poet, lacked any business experience and have beenreported as overspending on advertising and PR. Thisserves as a salutary reminder of a point we have made else-where in the paper that technical excellence is not enoughand that to succeed in Internet retail the firm needs excel-lence in all areas of activities, including offline activities.

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STEPHEN CHEN, FIONA LETENEY, AonixManchester Business Limited, Adamson House,School, Booth Street, Towers Business Park,Manchester M15 6PB, UK. Wilmslow Road, Didsbury,E-mail: [email protected]. Manchester M20 2YY, UK.ac.uk E-mail: fiona.leteney@

aonixlimited.comDr Stephen Chen is Lecturerin Strategy at Manchester Fiona Leteney is a consult-Business School. He has an ant for Aonix Limited and isMBA from Cranfield School responsible for establishingof Management, a PhD from the ‘Implementation, Edu-

Imperial College on strategies in the multimedia indus- cation and Change Management’ business in the UK.try and commercial experience in IT, marketing and She has an MBA with distinction from Manchesterstrategy. His teaching and research interests are in the Business School, is a Chartered Engineer and a membergeneral areas of competitive strategy and strategic of the Institution and Electrical Engineers. Fiona’schange, and his current research focuses on the stra- recent focus has been on various applications of elec-tegies employed in electronic commerce and the stra- tronic commerce and has particular interest in its usetegic changes brought about by electronic commerce in with managed learning and student tracking for bothindustries and firms. Industry and Education.


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Get real! Managing the next stage of Internet retail

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