Modeling Consumer Adoption of the Internet as a Shopping Medium: ...

Chapter 1

Introduction

The Internet has attracted considerable attention from retailers as a potentially important marketplace in which their marketing activities can be conducted both efficiently and economically. The Internet incorporates all three types of marketing media—communication, transaction, and delivery—through which market functions are carried out (Peterson, Balasubramanian, Bronnenberg, 1997). As a medium for communication, the Internet reaches a global audience with information about the retail organization, its products, and services (Bruno, 1997). The interactive nature of the Internet allows retailers to establish an active dialogue with consumers to facilitate their decision making and build valuable one-on-one customer relationships (Bulter Peppard, 1998; Hazel, 1996).