Advancement in the internet and its application has led to vast changes in all aspects of life including the marketing sector. Over the last two decades, following the first introduction of online shopping, marketing, and buying products over the internet has become popular and is taking over the retail market. It is assumed that many people prefer online shopping since it is convenient, easy and can be done from an office or the comfort of one’s home. Online shopping provides a one-stop market such that everything can be bought by only a click (Stone, 2013). Nowadays, the most popular and successful online retailers like Amazon and eBay enjoy supplying almost all types of commodities to many parts of the world (Opray, 2017; Stone, 2013). This research will be an evaluation of online shopping on retail trade with a greater focus on ‘Amazon effect.’
Problem Statement
Consumers in the 21st century have access to a myriad of choices when it comes to purchasing products and services. The options are not only on the brands of the said commodities but also on the platform in which they market. Among all the options available like malls, supermarkets, online shopping websites, department stores, speciality stores, and catalogue retailers, E-commerce is rapidly developing and taking up the market (Dixon and Marston, 2006). However, some researchers believe that the internet will embrace the bricks and mortar channels and consequently replace the traditional ones while still feeling that e-commerce is just another distribution system that is available to customers and will function hand in hand with fixed shop retails (Opray, 2017; Dixon and Marston, 2006; Khan, 2016). Regarding this, there is an uncertainty of whether online shopping has any impact on retail trade business. Since many studies focus on the effect of online shopping to consumers, there is a need for a study that investigates the negative and positive impact the e-commerce is having on retail trade.
Background Information
Amazon has taken over the retail trade such that it has become a representation or a benchmark for all retail stores and systems. Following the major development and announcement made in 2017, many economists think Amazon is working towards dominating the global retail market (Opray, 2017). Ever since it started in the mid-1990s, the company has had paramount success, and its numbers have continually increased over the years (Berg and Knights, 2019). For instance, Amazon recorded a 97% growth in sales and 60% increase in users (Khan, 2016). As the company continues to install innovation and to employ more expansion efforts, the effect it is having on the retail market is vastly increasing. The impact of the company’s activities is cracking and seeping through the retail industry (Khan, 2016). Other retailers are trying to keep up with Amazon despite its growth having no bounds.
Research Objectives
1) To evaluate the impact of e-stores on the profitability of retail business.
2) To investigate how Amazon is pushing retailers in attaining customer satisfaction.
3) To determine the benefits of Amazon’s online selling in the face of competition
Research Questions
1) How does Amazon’s e-selling, assist in attaining satisfaction of the customers?
2) Does online selling affect the profitability of retail businesses
3) Does online selling offer any competitive advantage to Amazon in the business market?
4) Does e-commerce have any positive impact in brick and mortar retail trade?
5) How does e-commerce influence developments in the retail trade?
Literature Review
Turnover
All the studies conducted on the effect of Amazon on turnover have had almost the same conclusion that the e-commerce giant has negatively affected the number of consumers who go out to shop on physical stores. For instance, Indoria (2016), established that retailers have continually experienced as a setback since the turnover has decreased continuously in the last five years. Rigby (2011), states that many retailers have reported a stagnant growth over the previous few years and are worried that it is only going to become worse as companies such as Amazon are continually expanding their online business. Similarly, Qinghe, Wenyuan, and Kaiming (2014), noted that the retail industry has improved; however, traditional retails have a challenge of securing their place in the market like Amazon and all the upcoming e-commerce companies are getting a more significant percentage of the market each day especially since people are getting more used to doing their businesses from home.
Ellis-Chadwick, Doherty, and Hart (2012) stated that as people get easy access to everything they need online through a computer or a laptop, consumers who visit the physical market are going to continue decreasing. Grewal, Roggeveen, and Nordfält (2017), in their study on the future of the retail industry, noted the same issues and recorded that consumers are nowadays avoiding going out to purchase commodities and instead prefer to order and wait for goods to be delivered at their door. Among the participants questioned by Qinghe, Wenyuan, and Kaiming (2014), in the survey on online shoppers, 73% stated that they preferred to shop over the internet since they did not have to physically attend the market and they could shop while still doing other tasks. 80% of the participants said they avoid retail shops since shopping there takes a lot of time and there is still a small chance that one could drive to the store and miss what they were looking for.
Shanthi and Desti (2015) evaluated the perception of consumers on online shopping, and they in the process asked the retailers if they noted any changes in turnover over the years. The retailers acknowledged that the turnover has been decreasing gradually since 2007. The turnover in retails shop is directly proportional to that of the population using Amazon. For instance, in 2017 the company recorded that 85 million Americans were using Amazon Prime and in the same year, retail bosses who had met in New York said the turnover had declined again that year (Opray, 2017). According to Zimmerman (2012), many traditional retails are closing down their stores for lack of customers.
Profit Margin
Amazon dominance is continually having a negative effect on the profit margin of traditional retailers (Suvarna 2016). According to Indoria (2016), the price introduced in the market by online shopping is making the traditional retailers to also cut the prices in order to survive the competition. Given their high operation cost, the retailers are forced to put up with a low-profit-margin (Indoria, 2016; Kumar, Anand, and Song, 2017). Morganosky (2007), in his review of the perception of retailers on online consumers, noted that 60% of the retailers who specialised in products that Amazon was distributing were complaining that their profit margin had either become stagnant, or the rate of growth decreased slightly. However, Opray (2017) reported that retailers were aware of the significant change in their profit margin following Amazon' prosperity and were being forced to lay off some of their employees. The author adds that many retailers are no longer able to sustain their workforce and operations of all their stores and hence are being forced to minimise their cost by closing some of the stores (Opray, 2017).
According to Simeon Gutman who is a wall street analyst, Amazon’s unique financial and business model has led to the closure of many retailers besides threatening the survival of the remaining ones (Zimmerman, 2012). Gutman projects that the cost of doing business will rise again in 2019 since Amazon is introducing new technologies and will likely cut their prices to attract more consumers (Zimmerman, 2012). Grewal, Roggeveen, and Nordfält (2017) reported that many retailers are doing ‘zero work’ as the profit is very little to expand the business and all they can do is try to sustain their open stores. Opray (2017) observed that more than nine big retail enterprises had been declared bankrupt; major retailers like RadioShac, Macy’s and Sera closed more than 100 stores each while some companies like Ralph Lauren announced they were going to lose some of their stores later in that year. Many scholars have noted that the meltdown in retail trade is not because of the economy but is due to the inability of the retailers to keep up with the electronic shopping companies.
Additionally, the need to employ technological advancement in an attempt to keep up with Amazon is further reducing the retailers’ profit margin. According to Indoria (2016), the pace of innovation that e-commerce has created is making it hard for retailers to keep up and still make a profit and hence they are preferring to reduce the profit margin to improve their capability of competing. Online retailers are continually benchmarking using Amazon’s pricing to set theirs, and hence the prices on the internet are mostly uniform and low which is negatively affecting the traditional retailers (Suvarna 2016; Gorodnichenko, Sheremirov, and Talavera, 2018). Despite the decline of retail shops’ profits, Grewal, Roggeveen, and Nordfält (2017), noted that the total retail revenue has been on the rise in the last few years. Although the physical retail shops are suffering from profit decline and bankruptcy, the retail trade, in general, is increasing (Grewal, Roggeveen, and Nordfält, 2017).
Discount
According to Morganosky (2007), offering discount is one of the main competing weapon e-commerce are using, and that is including Amazon. Discounts easily attract consumers, and although there is no loyalty, traffic increases sales. In their research, Shanthi and Desti (2015), found that nearly 70% of the consumers who shop online are attracted and motivated by discounts. Once consumers know a certain brand or company offers a discount, they will develop some ‘loyalty’ towards it (Shanthi and Desti, 2015). Almost all the e-retailers have strategised themselves to give as many discounts as possible to compete in the e-commerce and also ‘convert' or ‘educate' the consumers who are yet to join online shopping (Grewal, Roggeveen, and Nordfält, 2017). Amazon started giving discounts as customer acquisition cost. However, the rising completion has made it impossible to pull back the discount strategy (Berg and Knights, 2019). As the online businesses compete through issuing discounts, offline retails are suffering the consequences of low customer turnout (Indoria, 2016). Even though the retailers cannot compete with the e-businesses in offering discounts, they are forced to offer some for the sake of maintaining the consumer pool (Grewal, Roggeveen, and Nordfält, 2017).
Amazon has proper funding since their cost of operation is largely reduced due to e-commerce. In this regard, they will afford to play the discount card for a long time whereas the offline business cannot cope up with the trend (Dahiya 2017). This makes it more difficult for offline retailers especially the ones that are not well founded. Any startup will be forced to withdraw from the market since they cannot afford the aggressive discounting competition (Berg and Knights, 2019). Retailers are finding themselves at bay especially since customers are nowadays educated and e-commerce giants like Amazon are using discounting as a promotional gimmick that is meant to help them get a more significant fraction of consumers (Dahiya 2017). Retailers are giving the discount as a way to retain the customers which is disadvantageous since they will have to continue giving discounts as far as Amazon is doing so (Rigby, 2011). This is a significant challenge given that most of the retailers are already struggling with the decreasing profits (Worzala et al., 2012). The discounts offered by e-commerce are greatly impacting the functionality of retail trade and mostly are influencing the supply and demand curve (Berg and Knights, 2019). Opray (2017), noted that discounting is negatively affecting the perception of the consumers on retail trade. As retail store reduce their prices or offer discounts, the quality and brand name is affected and hence makes the consumer dislike the retails (Worzala et al., 2012).
Variety of Stocks
One of the major impacts of e-commerce in retail is the reduction of a variety of stock in offline retail shops (Ellis-Chadwick, Doherty, and Hart, 2012). Online store keeps a wide variety of stock to which retailers are unable to compete with (Opray, 2017). According to Dahiya (2017), retailers are worried that keeping a big stock will bring the business a lot of losses by the end of the financial year. Indoria reported the same issue and emphasized that the acceptance of ‘defeat’ by the retailers and their failure of providing varieties has affected the retail trade such that there is no physical availability of varieties for their consumers to choose (2016). In this sense, Opray (2017), observed that consumers are becoming used to the inexistence of varieties and are migrating a lot to online shopping. E-commerce has given the consumers a platform to compare the varieties and to review the response of over consumers (Doherty, Ellis-Chadwick, and Hart, 2009). This has become a challenge to traditional retails stores as consumers are comparing the experience they get in online shopping platforms with the traditional retail shops and are expecting to find all the varieties they came across on the internet (Doherty, Ellis-Chadwick, and Hart 2009).
Offline retail trade is unable to satisfy their estimated consumer segment such that they are involuntary being forced to make their decisions based on products’ description and reviews (Berg and Knights, 2017). Some e-commerce is looking to step in and seal the gap by opening some stores that are going to accommodate the physical presence of the customers who want to have a real comparison of goods (Berg and Knights, 2017). According to Rigby (2011), and Stone (2013), the most significant advantage that online customer feels they have is the opportunity to buy everything on one site. Many big shopping sites have well-structured systems such that a consumer knows the value and the affordability of all the varieties (Berg and Knights, 2017). Despite their lack of variety, retailers are ensuring that the stock they keep is of good quality to attract more sales (Zimmerman 2012). Suvarna (2016), also noted that the general retail trade is giving the consumers more freedom and choice and hence could be rated as fundamentally improving. Dahiya (2017), noted that even though retailers might be unable to store all the varieties, they are making sure the consumers have access to the best-rated products in the market.
Window Shopping
The participating retailers in the study done by Indoria in 2016 said that there were many consumers in their stores who were not there to shop but instead have a physical view of the commodities that they will order later from Amazon and other shopping platforms. 80% of the retailers said that half of the estimated customers are just window shoppers while 20% of the retails said window shoppers were real but not many (Indoria, 2016). According to Dahiya (2017), 88% of the retailers said that they were dealing with the increased rate of window shopping to which they did not know what to do. It is a greater challenge to the retailers since they are losing consumers to online stores on a daily basis. Westland (2015), stated that 48% of the consumers go to the store to get clarification of the commodities before they place the order. Similarly, Opray (2017), noted that customers who were known to carry out online shopping felt the need to confirm the appearance and the quality of goods from the retailer shops before they ordered.
According to Worzala et al. (2012), excessive advertisement on the part of e-commerce is the main reason behind the increased window shopping in the retail stores. Many customers come across advertisements that convince them; however; they are concerned about the quality and appearance of the goods. Additionally, e-commerce is constantly reducing prices and offering discounts which attract many customers. However, Westland 2015stated that 42% of the esteemed e-commerce customer doubt the prices and window shop in the retailers' stores. Additionally, Opray (2017), indicated that 30% of people who said they window shop in the stores claimed they did not trust the constant discounts e-commerce shops offered and frequently went to store to be confident that they were making the best decisions and be assured they were not being conned.
Consumer Services
The biggest advantage for business to compete for consumers is that the customers get upgraded services. Retail stores have the upper hand as far as dealing with the consumers is concerned. The expansion and advancement of Amazon are forcing the retailers to upgrade their physical relationship with their customers. According to Grewal, Roggeveen, and Nordfält (2017), more and more retailers are coming up with upgraded methods and strategy to provide better consumer services in the attempt of buying their loyalty. For instance, electronic retailers are offering better after-sale services like maintenance. According to Indoria (2016), 89% of the retailers do the installation, and a follow up to ensure the consumer is satisfied. Yang (2018), stated that more than 90% of the electronic retailers who participated in the study install the gadgets and ensure they are working as the consumer expected. Furthermore, many retailers are opening a platform where a consumer would contact them in case something goes wrong with gadgets.
According to Yang (2018), some retailers offer services like maintenance and repair even after the warranty period was over. Westland (2015), noted that retailers are taking advantage of the inability of the online shops to offer some services and are gratefully filling the gap. Rigby (2011), made similar observations where they stated that retailers are specialising in things that Amazon is not able to offer, for instance, installation services and ensuring that the commodities which need manual fixing are working properly to make their consumers more satisfied than the online ones. According to Kautish (2011), retailers are making in-person more compelling by offering the consumer an experience they will not get online. Westland (2015), noted a majority of major malls had constructed children’s area where they can play and have fun.
Additionally, other services like sports events, incorporated spas, salons, pop-up restaurants, and lounge areas have been incorporated by many malls. Rigby (2011), states that the installation of the dinosaur walk museum and an aquarium in the Mall of America in Minnesota is an attempt of dealing with the ‘Amazon effect.’ Similarly, Kautish (2011) established that retailers encourage destination shopping by providing a relaxing environment such that consumers will have an appealing experience. Furthermore, since retailers cannot afford to lose their consumers, they are ensuring the employees interact in a friendly manner with their customers (Westland, 2015).
Additionally, retailers are also offering services that Amazon offer. It is a competitive strategy that is improving consumers’ services and also improving retail trade in general. Ellis-Chadwick, Doherty, and Hart (2012) stated that more than 90% of the retailers had developed websites that are giving a detailed description of the stores and the available commodities. 56% of the retails in the United Kingdom offer home delivery services which are attracting some of the online shoppers (Ellis-Chadwick, Doherty, and Hart, 2012). According to Fiorito, Gable, and Conseur (2010), more than a third of the major retail enterprises have ‘click and collect’ system where people can order or buy online and later pick the items in the stores. Among those retail stores, most of them give delivery services such that one can purchase goods from the comfort of his or her home (Fiorito, Gable, and Conseur, 2010).
Technological Advancement
E-commerce has encouraged technological development in retail trade (Fiorito, Gable, and Gable, 2012). As retail stores try to compete, they are forced to adopt technologies like websites and shopping systems to complement their services. Beacon-based tech is a transformation in retail trade that is highly influenced by ‘Amazon effect’ (Yang 2018). It is a communication system that connects with the customer’s smartphone help to help her locate the products and services needed (Yang 2018). According to Yang (2018), technological advancement is nowadays being highly adopted in retail stores than a few years ago. Some technologies are used to lure in target consumers by sending them proximity marketing texts or automatically display discounts or update offers (Fiorito, Gable, and Conseur, 2010).
The beacon-based system enables the customers to select their goods and make contactless payment without going to the cashier queue (Westland, 2015). Retailers have a big challenge of keeping up with technological developments that are affecting consumers’ purchasing experience (Westland, 2015). Amazon is always making innovations that are motivating retailers to upgrade (Berg and Knights, 2019; Opray, 2017). For instance, recently Amazon has employed the use of artificial intelligence and machine vision technologies to give its consumer a physical purchasing experience (Yang, 2018). In reaction, retailers are employing a complete online shopping system.
Methodology
Research Approach
The study will adopt a qualitative research approach. A qualitative study is done where their parameters being studies are attributive and not quantitative. According to Creswell and Creswell (2017) qualitative approach is used where the research does not involve numerical data. This approach was chosen particularly because it enables the researcher to describe phenomenon and events without giving an analysis of extent; this is consistent with the sole objective of this study, which is to give a descriptive analysis of the impact e-commerce has on retail trade (Flick, 2018).
Research Design
The research design used is the qualitative content analysis. According to Flick (2018), this kind of design involves studying and analysis of other works of literature such as publications, scholarly articles and peer-viewed journals, books, memos, organisational reports, diaries and so forth. According to Fraenkel and Wallen (2006), content analysis is economical and also an unobtrusive method that enables the researcher to develop an interpretation of social life. In this study, the information was collected from a sample of studies done on the topic.
Exclusion and Inclusion Criteria
Qualitative data on the subject under study was collected from the selected scholarly articles and journals. The search process for the sources was subject to a particular eligibility criterion that had been laid out. The major exclusion and inclusion criterion was based on the nature of the study and the time period. First, the sources were searched through several search engines particularly Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The keywords used included Amazon, Online shopping, Online Retail, offline retail, Amazon Effect, e-stores, retail business, brick and mortar retail trade. The sources retrieved were then included and excluded based on the year of publication. Only those published between 2006 and 2019 were retained. Each article was then analysed on the basis of the themes and relevance to the study questions. Themes would occur in the form of an entire document, sentence, paragraph, phrase or even a single word and each occurrence was noted. After the criterion was followed 23 sources mainly journals and articles deemed fit for use in the study.
Results and Analysis
How Does Amazon’s E-Selling Assist in Attaining Satisfaction of the Customers?
Some Some studies stated that many customers reported that they have entirely shifted to online purchasing and only visit the stores if for window shopping only (Indoria 2016; Berg and Knights, 2017; Westland 2015;). It was also noted that a majority of the retailers were challenged by the number of window shoppers in the stores who only assess the physical commodities but only buy it online; they are not able to satisfy their customers like online retailers which forces them to make decisions on the basis of reviews and descriptions of the products (Berg and Knights, 2017). This has forced offline retailers to come with compelling strategies to enhance the customer’s experience (Kautish, 2011; Yang 2018; Westland 2015; Grewal, Roggeveen, and Nordfält, 2017)
Does Online Selling Affect the Profitability of Retail Businesses?
The profitability of retail businesses is continually decreasing as e-stores get more customers. The turnover of customers in physical stores is becoming less each day. The emergence of e-commerce and mostly the success of Amazon have attracted many customers to shop online and therefore abandoning the traditional retail shops. The decreased turnover and the big percentage of window shoppers has led to a significant decline in the number of sales done in a day in the retail shops and in turn, has resulted to a decline in profitability. Several studies have established that the competition brought about by Amazon makes the retailers cut their prices and introduce discounts (Opray, 2017; Indoria, 2016; Kumar, Anand, and Song, 2017). Amazon and other e-store have proper funding, and the cost of business is low hence they can use the discount as a competition tool. On the hand, the retail shops have a lot of staff, and their operating costs are high, and hence when they try to compete with Amazon, they are forced to use a larger position of the revenue to run the business (Suvarna 2016; Morganosky 2007).
Does Online Selling Offer any Competitive Advantage to Amazon in the Business Market?
Consequently, some of the retailers are doing little to no progress and are forced to close some of their outlets. Due to the stiff competitions and little turnover the stores are reducing the variety of stock. The comparison of online varieties and traditional ones and the high expectations of the customers pose a challenge to retailers to satisfy their esteemed customer and therefore lose most of them to Amazon (Opray, 2017; Indoria, 2016).
How Does E-Commerce Influence Developments in the Retail Trade?
Many researchers reported that online shopping had brought a positive impact in the industry and mostly to the brick and mortar stores. In their efforts to keep up with Amazon, retailers have resorted to introducing and installing systems that make shopping easier and fun to the customers (Fiorito, Gable, and Conseur, 2010; Westland, 2015; Yang 2018;). The traditional stores are taking advantage of the physical contact they have with the customers. As a result, there are many new technologies and improvements that have been adopted by retailers to ensure their customers are more satisfied.
How Does E-Commerce Influence Developments in the Retail Trade?
Competition between the online shops and the traditional stores is beneficial to the customers as each party exploits their strengths. For instance, the shopping environment in malls and other retail shops has been advanced to become consumer friendly in an effort to persuade more customers who have shifted to shopping online. Furthermore, offline retailers have enhanced their customer’s services to match that of the online retailers such as Amazon. For example, customers can buy an electronic gadget in the physical store and have it delivered to their homes in addition to any required services done at the expense of the store (Fiorito, Gable, and Gable, 2012; Yang 2018; Westland, 2015). More so, E-commerce has influenced major developments in retail trade; some technologies like Beacon-based systems are due to the ’Amazon’ effect (Fiorito, Gable, and Conseur, 2010; Westland, 2015).
Conclusion
From the research, it has been established that online shopping has an impact on retail trade business. Amazon has brought about negative and positive impacts on the brick and mortar stores. The negative impacts include poor customer turnover, avoiding a variety of stock, high discount offers, and increased number of window shoppers. All these factors lead to a decrease in profitability of retailers, and consequently, closure of some stores. The positive impact includes customer services, improved shopping experience and advancement of technology. As a result, customer satisfaction in retail trade is increased. The retailers lose some of their customers to Amazon, but through good customer care, the traditional stores can attract a big portion of the consumers. Both offline and online retailers should work together to enhance the growth of the retail trade; each kind of retail is unique and has distinctive factors that satisfy the customer even though the online retailers have the upper hand. The offline retail should adopt some of the strategies employed by online retailers such as delivery of items to the customers’ door-step, technological means that will enable the customer's window shop and also shop order items both online and physically.
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