Consumer acceptance of the Internet as a channel of distribution

In this empirical study, the viability of the Would Wide Web (WWW) as a channel of distribution is investigated. Two research questions are studied: (1) comparison of two non-store retailing channels with two store channels and the importance of risk relievers for each stove type, and (2) consumer reaction when channel functions ave transferred to the Internet. Respondents were ashed to ignore security considerations in their evaluations of the Internet offers. An electronic mail questionnaire was used for data collection. Results indicate that WWW offers with a mix of risk relievers are evaluated favorably and can even challenge specialty stove alternatives. Current Internet users do not seem to consider buying on the WWW to be equivalent to buying through mail order. Hence, the WWW medium may well represent the breakthrough of non-store retailing. Furthermore, the results confirm earlier findings that money-back guarantee is the most important risk reliever followed by offering a well-known brand and a price reduction. As part of the second research question, different levels of channel functions performed by the Internet are evaluated, and the findings of this study reveal that the Internet as a reservation medium is already highly accepted. Its acceptance as a physical delivery channel is considerably lower. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.