Physical Space in Retail Digitalisation: An Investigation into How Experiential Consumption and Spatial Organisation is Reconfiguring the Retail Value Chain

Over the past three decades, e-commerce has fundamentally transformed how, when and where consumers shop and what they buy, and its impact is considered a significant public issue concerning the survival of town centres and high streets. However, the reduced concept of e-commerce in retailing as digitised retail channels or matchmakers, appears to ignore the roles played by physical space, such as amenity value for experience, communication and product/service delivery in the wider context of retail value chain. We know less about why some retailers can take advantage of physical stores and why some shopping areas work better in the trend of online shopping. To gain a better understanding of this, my research has further developed Jackson and Thrift’s theoretical framework for geographies of consumption, together with Castells’ theory of space of flows. Based on this framework, the research investigates the organisational change of consumption sites with the digitalised retail value chain. This study draws on a critical realist approach on organisational change, to identify emergent and potential mechanisms for retail digitalisation in e-commerce discourses. It further undertakes a retroductive analysis oscillating between retailers’ digital and physical strategies, with a particular focus on Amazon, and by examining the aggregate quantitative data of retail performance of different retail categories and of shopping area rents. The findings show that Amazon has evolved beyond being a digitised retail channel or matchmaker/platform, to a platform-centric, digital-physical blended retail system, in order to reach various shopping situations and locations for physical amenity. Due to its hegemonic position in the retail industry, traditional, physical-first retailers have responded in four main directions: transforming search goods into experience goods, developing comprehensive omnichannel networks or platforms, focusing on efficient physical store logistics without expensive online offerings, and developing a seamless, theatrical and spectacular omnichannel experience. The quantitative analysis demonstrates that different retail categories, such as search good, experience goods and perishable goods, have a different penetration of online transactions. In addition, the quantitative evidence also shows the positive relationship between amenity value and the performance of shopping areas. The research concludes by highlighting that the polarisation of retail performance between shopping areas may be explained by the three different roles of physical stores in the digitalisation of the retail value chain, and suggests that future work could examine the potential role of the public sector in retail organisation and planning.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Chiang, Wen-Te

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Oner, Ozge
• Barrett, Michael

• Digitalisation
• Retail Value Chain
• Consumerism
• Experiential Consumption
• Spatial Organisation
• Critical Realism
• Analytical Dualism
• Critical Discourse Analysis
• Retroductive Analysis
• Omnichannel
• Digital Platform
• Network Effect
• Urban Amenity
• Place-making
• Experience Economy
• Planning Paradigm
• Digital Innovation
• Spatial Transformation
• Space of Flows
• Space of Places
• Town Centres
• Consumption Sites

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/88aa0769-a3a7-4359-8b28-d06f6d424e61/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

Author Identifier

0009-0007-8289-9724

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/379822