Peter Schnedlitz & Dirk Morschett 
European Retail Research [PDF ebook] 
2010 I Volume 24 Issue I

The discussion about Multi-Channel-Systems in retail business might not be new – but it has gained momentum against the background of consolidations and mergers, the devel- ment of information and communication technologies (ICT) and experiences of disillusi- ment with pure e-commerce players (Dohmann et al. 2002; Barth et al. 2007). This is additionally evidenced by the increasing number of academic publications and the gain in importance of multi-channel distribution in retail-practice – where many pure e-players have augmented their structure of distribution with alternative channels (Tang/Xing 2001; Schögel et al. 2004). Despite the lively discussions on the part of academic researchers and the growth of experience in practice, there is still an unsatisfactorily low level of knowledge – which might be the reason why companies often fail in the realization or achieve only suboptimal levels of channel in- gration – even though the domination of multi-channel companies in the B2C e-commerce s- tor (with the exception of a few companies, e. g. e Bay or Amazon) implies a great potential for success (Hudetz/Baal 2005; Emrich 2008). For this reason most authors seem to agree upon the potential as well as the relevance of multi-channel distributors. Hudetz/Baal identify mul- channel companies “a good starting base to get even more dominant in the future” (Hudetz/Baal 2005, p. 136). Emrich agrees that multi-channel strategies might become “crucial to survive” (Emrich 2008, p. 1), and Ahlert/Hesse (2003) substantiate with empirical studies the preference that customers have for multi-channel distributors.

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