Consumer benefits from combining traditionaland electronic commerce

Abstract

Commerce is the primary mechanism supporting economic activity. According to the Business Dic-tionary, “Commerce is the entire system of an economy that creates the environment for business. It includes the legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that operate in each country.” Businesses help the economic system function by producing and distributing goods and services that consumers desire. Consumers have many desires. The economic system, however, operates based on economic desires for material goods and services. An important characteristic of business is that it is dynamic, or constantly changing. Fundamentally, the shift in retailing in the past has been promoted by the interaction of consumers, retailers, and government. After the 1990s, the very important role of technology is added to these factors. (Fernie, 1997) Technology is a process that states must actively and consciously promote. (James, 1999) It is now widely accepted that infor-mation and communication technology (ICT) and e-commerce are at the heart of the economic and social transformation affecting all states. (OECD, 2003) Today, the combination of in-store and online retailing brings dual benefits, both for the consumer and the retailer. New technologies have been applied throughout the supply chain to ensure that prod-ucts are designed, tested, produced, and distributed through faster and lower-cost supply channels than ever before. (Butterworth/Heinemann, 2003) To achieve research objectives, a mixed research model has been used, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research. For this purpose, an online questionnaire was organized to collect information on demographics, internet and e-commerce usage, types of purchases, payment methods, customer experience during transactions, whether they have purchased a product or benefited from a service, customer perception after purchase, etc. This ques-tionnaire was distributed to approximately 500 internet users via email, LinkedIn, blogs, and social media pages. The research concludes that consumer behavior expresses clear tendencies towards a change in ap-proach to the physical presence of the consumer in the retail unit, the time spent there, the shift to-wards online purchases, the change in family spending patterns, etc.