On-line Commerce and Town Centre Retailers’ Experience

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to develop a new way to sell products or services for retailers within town centres. An analysis of the literature revealed that the use of the Internet and digital commerce strategies are rarely used as tools to revitalize urban retail and develop a multidimensional experience of place. Thus, this paper aims to highlight which new modes of online commerce-e-commerce, s-commerce and m-commerce-are more suitable than others to help town centre retailers revitalize the place where they work. The research questions are as follows: 1) What are the origins of the growth and development of new forms of selling? and 2) How might town centre retailers integrate new forms of selling with traditional retailing? In answering the previously stated questions, this paper provides a proposed model that, by combining physical and virtual means to sell products and services, can provide specific strengths in revitalizing town centres.

Digitalization influence on shopping centers strategic management

“…S-commerce is for retailers a system of autogenerated services that allow retailers to create (or destroy) the positioning of individual stores (Caboni & Bruni, 2015) and / or the entire shopping centre.…”

“…Clients today are increasingly interested in emotional involvement with retailers by sharing their own experiences and opinions on the products or services they have purchased or have the aim to purchase. Thus s-commerce merits broad consideration in conjunction with the more technical tools of e-commerce and m-commerce (Caboni & Bruni, 2015).…”

“…According to Caboni & Bruni (2015), currently we already have several interconnected concepts: e-commerce (Electronic commerce), s-commerce (Social commerce) and m-commerce (Mobile commerce).…”

“…Millions of people worldwide use the Internet to search for information about products, and many consequently purchase these products online (Caboni & Bruni, 2015).…”

Social Technology Enhancing the Town Centre Management Attractiveness

“…In that context, the Internet is a fundamental source of relationships and connections and could contribute to improving the quality of life in a city. Coca-Stefaniak (2014) and (Caboni and Bruni 2015) suggest to concentrate efforts on the study of relationships between TCM, new technologies, and social networks. Also, new research activities could contribute to increase the efforts in public-private activities, which merge different contributions between place stakeholders and the meaning behind the multiplicity of an organizational model.…”