Publications

16 Apr 2019
News

How Best Buy's outgoing CEO, Hubert Joly, rescued the company

15 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

In the Virtual Dressing Room Returns Are A Real Problem

product categories on the Internet. An analysis by Harris Interactive ecommercePulse computed the ratio of dollars consumers spent offline as a result of online shopping to dollars spent online. The greater... View Details

Keywords: by Jan Hammond & Kristin Kohler; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Consumer Products; Manufacturing; Retail

September 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Pinduoduo

By: Feng Zhu, Krishna G. Palepu, Bonnie Yining Cao and Dawn H. Lau

Founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneur, Colin Huang, Pinduoduo Inc. (PDD) had become China’s fastest-growing e-commerce platform in history. PDD pioneered a new approach to online shopping that allowed shoppers to share products, invite friends to form shopping teams,... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Strategy; E-commerce

16 Apr 2020
Video

Darza is Runner-up in 2020 New Venture Competition Student Business Track

May 2021 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery

THE YES, a multi-brand shopping app launched in May 2020 offered a new type of buying experience for women’s fashion, driven by a sophisticated algorithm that used data science and machine learning to create and deliver a personalized store for every shopper, based on... View Details

Keywords: Data; Data Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; AI; AI Algorithms; AI Creativity; Fashion; Retail; Retail Analytics; E-Commerce Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Big Data; Preference Elicitation; Predictive Analytics; App Development; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising; Mobile App; Mobile Marketing; Apparel; Online Advertising; Referral Rewards; Referrals; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Creativity; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; AI and Machine Learning; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

20 Dec 2018
News

Consumer Rating Algorithms Score Big with Businesses, Governments

November 1999 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Webvan: Groceries on the Internet

By: John A. Deighton and Kayla Bakshi

What are the prospects for grocery shopping on the Web? This case invites a comparison of seven business models, with particular emphasis on Webvan. Why does the investment community value Webvan at $7.8 billion after less than six months of operating experience, and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Experience and Expertise; Investment; Information; Marketing; Distribution Channels; Service Delivery; Cognition and Thinking; Internet and the Web; Retail Industry; Service Industry

27 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Buy big, sell small

distribution model by providing a digital platform where shop owners can order fast-moving consumer goods online or by phone from local wholesalers who combine their orders with others from nearby kiranas.... View Details

05 Mar 2020
News

What one game show reveals about the American economy

September 2020
Article

Customer Supercharging in Experience-Centric Channels

By: David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno

We conjecture that for online retailers, experience-centric offline store formats do not simply expand market coverage, but rather, serve to significantly amplify future positive customer behaviors, both online and offline. We term this phenomenon “supercharging” and... View Details

Keywords: Retail Operations; Marketing-operations Interface; Omnichannel Retailing; Experience Attributes; Quasi-experimental Methods; Operations; Internet and the Web; Marketing Channels; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

We conjecture that for online retailers, experience-centric offline store formats do not simply expand market coverage, but rather, serve to significantly amplify future positive customer behaviors, both online and offline. We term this phenomenon “supercharging”... View Details

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

2011. In the early 2000s, e-commerce was seen as a threat to entire store formats such as grocery, music, and toy stores. But as consumer behavior evolved over the last decade and as supply chains improved, it became apparent that the danger to retail stores from View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

11 Dec 2017
News

As the Fed Deliberates, Amazon Is Making Its Job More Difficult

17 Mar 2022
News

Pandemic’s E-Commerce Surge Proves Less Persistent, More Varied

February 2000 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Staples.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Joanna M. Jacobson and Gillian Morris

Staples.com, the online unit of the U.S. office supplies retailing chain Staples, faces a range of strategic and organizational issues as it accelerates its growth. Should it pursue only existing Staples customers or consumers who do not shop in Staples stores? How... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Business Units; Business Model; Growth and Development; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Business Strategy; Service Industry; United States

25 Feb 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

Keywords: by Ryan Raffaelli; Publishing

June 2020
Case

What IKEA Do We Want?

By: Juan Alcácer, Cynthia A. Montgomery, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2018, Swedish furniture maker IKEA was undergoing a significant transformation. Challenged by the rise of online shopping and changing consumer behavior, and mourning the death of its founder, the Company's top executives knew they had to step out of their comfort... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Transformation; Leading Change; Mission and Purpose; Business Model; Emerging Markets; Customer Focus and Relationships; Organizational Culture; Disruption; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; Europe; Netherlands; Sweden; China; India; United States

March 2017 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Ant Financial (A)

By: Feng Zhu, Ying Zhang, Krishna G. Palepu, Anthony K. Woo and Nancy Hua Dai

Headquartered in Hangzhou (China), Ant Financial has grown into a fintech “Unicorn.” The fintech empire that the company established spanned verticals such as mobile and online payment (Alipay), money market fund (Yu’e Bao), wealth management (Ant Fortune),... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Finance; Opportunities; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry