Implementing e‐value strategies in UK retailing

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the current strategic landscape of UK “bricks and clicks” retailers. The main focus of this work is to consider how e‐commerce may provide competitive advantage via an insight into the current strategies employed by UK retailers. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses both secondary and primary data analysis to explore its research questions. The paper begins with an overview of the e‐strategy literature and then goes on to examine the key areas of e‐value creation for bricks and clicks companies. Next an analysis of the results of a survey of the UK's top 500 retailers tests the existing literature and provides new evidence of emerging e‐strategies. Findings – The data analysis in this research reveals significant gaps between theory and practice and leads to the development of a new model of business “e‐value‐added”. Research limitations/implications – It is difficult to generalise the findings from this survey, given the small number of respondents. Further in‐depth qualitative research is needed to enable us to understand better the organisational issues around e‐commerce development and implementation. Practical implications – It is suggested that, in order to exploit the internet to its full potential, legacy retailers need to analyse a variety of situational antecedents in order to identify e‐value creation opportunities. In addition, they must consider whether integration or separation with bricks and clicks operations will deliver the best solution in each value‐adding interface. Originality/value – This research offers a new insight into current e‐tail strategies for bricks and clicks businesses, and as such is likely to be of interest to academics and practitioners alike.