Electronic retailing

Abstract

Perspectives on electronic retailing have changed dramatically over the past seven years. In 1998, most analysts predicted that a new breed of high-tech, web-savvy entrepreneurs would dominate the retail industry. Everyone would shop over the Internet, stores would close owing to lack of traffic, and paper catalogs would become obsolete. The prospects for electronic retailing were so bright that companies invested, and lost, billions of dollars in Internet retail entrepreneurial ventures such as Webvan, eToys, and Garden.com - companies that are no longer on the retail landscape.