| Valid design guidelines are needed to aid in the creation of effective online stores. One possible source for online store design guidelines may come from principles and practices used by physical retailers. In particular, physical store merchandising, layout, and arrangement techniques would seem to provide a significant source for online store guidelines. By examining the research literature and common practices of physical retailers, online retailers may glean ideas upon which to formulate guidelines for store design.; To study the potential viability of this practice, several research activities were conducted and are presented in this dissertation. A survey of undergraduate college students was conducted to determine their preferences and practices in purchasing clothing products in both physical and online stores. The literature of both retailing and online commerce researchers and practitioners was examined to extract a set of principles that could be used as the basis for online store guidelines. A set of prototype online clothing stores were created based on these proposed guidelines. These stores were tested using undergraduate college students, and the results of the tests conducted were analyzed.; The data analysis ultimately showed that the design guidelines extracted from physical retailing principles and practices used in testing were not statistically different from a baseline store using a more typical online commerce structure. Although no statistically significant difference was found in this comparison, it is the belief of this researcher that this technique has merit and should continue to be explored in future research. |
