Toward a Concierge Model of Retailing: Impact of Web Technologies on Sales and Returns
COM2 Level 4
Executive Classroom, COM2-04-02
ABSTRACT:
In a world where consumers have access to a vast amount of information through widespread technologies such as smartphones and tablets, a key mantra for success in omnichannel retailing is the concierge model - to be able to serve the consumer by being an advisor. These hyper-connected consumers are leaving digital traces everywhere. Through technological advances, e.g., apps, geo-fencing, facial recognition, clickstream analysis, etc., retailers can capture these traces to be an effective concierge, capable of delivering superior personalized experiences to consumers. Whether it is a smartphone app or a sales associate, the concierge must be equipped with valuable data-driven insights to serve the consumer properly. It is, therefore, ever more important to understand how different types of information that consumers collect affect their behavior, e.g., purchase and return patterns. Toward this end, retailers have been making significant investments in web technologies. Broadly speaking, there are two types of web technologies - navigational and product oriented. Navigational technologies, namely, search and recommendation, are meant to steer a consumer to an appropriate product page. Once the consumer is on that page, product-oriented technologies, e.g., alternative photos, zoom, and color swatch, are meant to assist her in gathering specific information about this product. Consequently, it is critical for retailers to evaluate the impact of these technologies on sales and returns. We are among the first to empirically examine these issues in an extensive manner and provide important managerial insights.
BIODATA:
Prabuddha De is Accenture Professor of Information Technology at the Krannert School of Management, Purdue University. He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Industrial Administration (currently, Tepper School of Business) of Carnegie-Mellon University. He has published over 70 papers in a wide spectrum of journals, including Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Journal of MIS, Operations Research, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Review of Financial Studies, and various IEEE Transactions. His current research interests include e-business, social networks, and software engineering. Previously, he also published in various other areas such as database systems, computer networks, and machine scheduling. His research contributions have extended beyond the IS field. A 1996 survey in Journal of Operations Management identified him as one of the best contributors in the world - in terms of both quality and quantity - to the research literature in production and operations management over the five-year period, 1989-1993.
Prabuddha has served on the editorial boards many journals, including Management Science, Information Systems Research, Journal of MIS, Decision Sciences, and Decision Support Systems. He has also served on the advisory boards of Information Systems Research and several other journals. He has held key positions at various professional organizations, including the following: program chair, doctoral consortium co-chair, and dissertation competition co-chair of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS); workshop co-chair, president, and advisor of the Workshop of Information Technologies & Systems (WITS); and chair of the INFORMS Information Systems Society. He is a fellow of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and a distinguished fellow of the INFORMS Information Systems Society.