The evolutionary nature of b2c e-commerce in inner cities in The Netherlands
R.A. Boschma & J.W.J. Weltevreden
Urban and Regional Research Centre Utrecht (URU), Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands (e-mail: j.weltevreden@geog.uu.nl)
Abstract
Internet makes it possible for consumers to shop without visiting a physical store. As online shopping is becoming more popular, this could have significant impact on in-store shopping. The extent to which consumers, producers and retailers make use of the Internet as a complementary channel or as a substitute for in-store shopping is fundamental for the way traditional in-store retailing will be affected.
It is only recently that geographers are becoming interested in the spatial consequences of this new form of commerce. From a traditional, geographical perspective one could expect that business-to-consumer (b2c) e-commerce could make physical shopping redundant, leading to a “death of distance”. However, there are several factors that may limit this new form of commerce: logistical constraints (e.g., personal delivery of goods to the consumer may be quite expensive), habits of people (embodied in routines that are quite durable), the need for social contact, and etcetera.
Our research concentrates on inner cities as attractive and important retailing and consumption places. One may expect that especially in these localities, both stimulating and limiting factors of b2c e-commerce adoption are predominant, depending also on the quality or the attractiveness of the inner cities concerned. Using new insights based on evolutionary economics, hypotheses will be developed concerning the impact of b2c e-commerce on consumers’ shopping behaviour, retailers store strategy, and the inner city retailing environment as a whole. For example, habits act as a constraint to change consumers’ shopping behaviour. In addition, routines can explain why retailers may be rather reluctant in exploiting this new channel of commerce. We make an attempt to show that localities (in this case inner cities) matter, because they are likely to affect the way actors deal with this new form of commerce.
The goal of the paper is twofold: (1) to draw some expectations concerning the relationship between b2c e-commerce and inner city retailing based on evolutionary economic theory; and (2) to present the design of a research project that will be carried out in the Netherlands.