Online retailing and relationship marketing: evolution and theoretical insights into online retailing and relationship marketing

Over the past two decades, increasing customer demands and disruptive technologies has forced retailers to expand their online retail offerings. This chapter reviews empirical studies from top marketing and management journals to provide insights into online retailing and relationship marketing. The major topics in empirical online retailing are identified as (a) management and strategy including strategic alliances, service quality management, distribution, product offering, pricing policy and promotion strategy, (b) platform and technological features such as website characteristics, online store design and displays, product assortment, the use of search engines and information quality and (c) consumer behaviour across different stages of the purchase decision-making process namely need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase intention and post-purchase behaviour. The chapter also establishes the synergy between the three areas (i.e. consumers, retail management and online platform), which plays an important role in strengthening customer relationship management processes and outcomes. Accordingly, this study presents a holistic framework of research directions in online retail marketing and presents a series of managerial recommendations for facilitating efficient, effective buyer–seller interactions while maximising sales performance.