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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(840)
- News (195)
- Research (536)
- Events (8)
- Multimedia (5)
- Faculty Publications (270)
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- 27 Sep 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Large-Scale Demand Estimation with Search Data
- October 2009 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture
By: Frances X. Frei, Robin J. Ely and Laura Winig
On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its board of directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies.... View Details
Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Retail Industry; Retail Industry
Frei, Frances X., Robin J. Ely, and Laura Winig. "Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture." Harvard Business School Case 610-015, October 2009. (Revised June 2011.)
- October 2000
- Case
CDNow (A)
By: Stephen P. Bradley, Christina Akers and Howard Reitz
With CDnow's acquisition of N2K's Music Boulevard web site, this case deals with capturing value in the music industry with online sales. CDnow has the advantage of being one of the exclusive music online retailers on AOL but faces fierce competition from Amazon.com.... View Details
Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Value Creation
Bradley, Stephen P., Christina Akers, and Howard Reitz. "CDNow (A)." Harvard Business School Case 701-046, October 2000.
- April 2005
- Case
Handleman Company
By: Janice H. Hammond and Kevin Dolan
Describes the organization and operations of the Handleman Co., an intermediary in the music industry that buys recorded music and resells it to mass retailers such as Wal-Mart. The company provides distribution, inventory management, retail merchandising, and category... View Details
Keywords: Business Organization; Music Entertainment; Cost Management; Growth and Development; Business or Company Management; Distribution Channels; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Online Technology; Value Creation; Music Industry
Hammond, Janice H., and Kevin Dolan. "Handleman Company." Harvard Business School Case 605-024, April 2005.
- 10 Apr 2018
- First Look
First Look at New Research, April 10, 2018
Spring 2018 MIT Sloan Management Review The Store Is Dead—Long Live the Store By: Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno Abstract—In this article, we pursue two interconnected themes: the expansion of online-first retailers... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- 2021
- Case
NiPay's Pricing Conundrum
By: Marco Bertini and Oded Koenigsberg
NiPay is a software provider competing in the Nigerian business-to-business payments market. Founded by Idaku Ibrahim nearly 20 years ago, NiPay sells two products to retailers and other merchants, which enable individual shoppers to transact either online or via a... View Details
Bertini, Marco, and Oded Koenigsberg. "NiPay's Pricing Conundrum." London Business School Case, 2021. Electronic.
- June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
- Case
Hennes & Mauritz, 2012
By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin
In 2012, Hennes & Maurtiz (H&M) was the second-largest specialty apparel retailer in the world. Sales for fiscal 2012 were $18.1 billion and operating profits were $3.3 billion. H&M operated 2,776 stores, 93% of them outside its home base of Sweden. Over the past... View Details
Keywords: Fashion; Strategic Decision Making; Strategy; Supply Chain; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Fashion Industry; Europe; Sweden
Wells, John R., and Galen Danskin. "Hennes & Mauritz, 2012." Harvard Business School Case 713-512, June 2013. (Revised March 2014.)
- February 2001
- Case
BarnesandNoble.com (C)
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dickson Louie and William A. Sahlman
At the end of 1999, Steve Riggio, the vice chairman and acting CEO of barnesandnoble.com, wonders what his company should do next against Amazon.com, the online retailer who is the leading online book seller in the United States. While barnesandnoble.com has been... View Details
Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Internet and the Web; Diversification; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry
Rayport, Jeffrey F., Dickson Louie, and William A. Sahlman. "BarnesandNoble.com (C)." Harvard Business School Case 901-024, February 2001.
- 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
Eisenmann, Thomas R., Joanna M. Jacobson, and Gillian Morris. "Staples.com." Harvard Business School Case 800-305, February 2000. (Revised December 2000.)
- 24 Apr 2018
- First Look
First Look at New Research and Ideas, April 24, 2018
April 2018 Management Science Offline Showrooms in Omni-channel Retail: Demand and Operational Benefits By: Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno Abstract—Omnichannel environments where customers shop online and offline at... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- 11 Sep 2018
- First Look
New Research and Ideas, September 11, 2018
Conference Proceedings More Amazon Effects: Online Competition and Pricing Behaviors By: Cavallo, Alberto Abstract—I study how online competition, with its shrinking margins, algorithmic pricing... View Details
Keywords: Dina Gerdeman
- May 2018
- Case
Sagacity Tea: What Direction for Growth?
By: John A. Quelch and Amy Handlin
Kate Moran, CEO and cofounder of Sagacity Tea, a small, Vermont-based ready-to-drink tea brand, is considering a consumer-product group (CPG) broker's proposal for the product's launch in several cities along the East Coast of the United States. The commitments in the... View Details
Keywords: Product Launch; Marketing; Distribution; Growth Management; Marketing Channels; Decision Choices and Conditions
Quelch, John A., and Amy Handlin. "Sagacity Tea: What Direction for Growth?" Harvard Business School Brief Case 918-527, May 2018.
- August 2018 (Revised February 2019)
- Case
Shindigz
By: Frank Cespedes
Shindigz provides party and celebratory items for various occasions and events through its branded online channel, through third-party retail and wholesale channels, and external online marketplaces. The case focuses on pricing challenges facing a venture with an... View Details
Keywords: Ecommerce; Pricing; Price; Strategy; Decision Making; Brands and Branding; Distribution Channels; E-commerce; Consumer Products Industry
Cespedes, Frank. "Shindigz." Harvard Business School Case 819-010, August 2018. (Revised February 2019.)
- December 1999 (Revised February 2001)
- Case
CVS: The Web Strategy
By: John A. Deighton and Anjali C. Shah
How should America's second-largest pharmacy chain respond to the challenge from online drugstores? What threat does the web pose to bricks and mortar distribution of prescription drugs and the other items that make up 50% of a drugstore's sales? This case describes... View Details
Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Marketing Channels; Distribution Channels; Service Operations; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Web Services Industry
Deighton, John A., and Anjali C. Shah. "CVS: The Web Strategy." Harvard Business School Case 500-008, December 1999. (Revised February 2001.) (request a courtesy copy.)
- 2007
- Working Paper
A Taste For Obscurity: An Individual-Level Examination of 'Long Tail' Consumption
By: Anita Elberse
Because online retailers are often able to provide products in a more cost-efficient manner than bricks-and-mortar stores, online channels are characterized by a vast assortment of products. Proponents of the "long tail" principle recently argued that the demand for... View Details
- 2022
- Working Paper
E-commerce During COVID: Stylized Facts from 47 Economies
By: Joel Alcedo, Alberto Cavallo, Bricklin Dwyer, Prachi Mishra and Antonio Spilimbergo
We study e-commerce across 47 economies and 26 industries during the COVID-19 pandemic using aggregated and anonymized transaction-level data from Mastercard, scaled to represent total consumer spending. The share of online transactions in total consumption increased... View Details
Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Health Pandemics; Spending; Internet and the Web; Global Range; Analysis; E-commerce
Alcedo, Joel, Alberto Cavallo, Bricklin Dwyer, Prachi Mishra, and Antonio Spilimbergo. "E-commerce During COVID: Stylized Facts from 47 Economies." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29729, February 2022.
- October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
- Case
Pilgrim Bank (A): Customer Profitability
By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell
Provides a context in which students can explore managerial decision making that is critically informed by data analysis. The setting is a retail bank and the decision making relates to the bank's policy toward online banking. The management team is evaluating whether... View Details
Frei, Frances X., and Dennis Campbell. "Pilgrim Bank (A): Customer Profitability." Harvard Business School Case 602-104, October 2001. (Revised October 2017.)
- January 2018 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Index
By: Jose Alvarez and Julia Kelley
In December 2017, Marc Freed-Finnegan and Jonathan Wall, the co-founders of retail technology company Index, had to discuss the company’s direction as they entered 2018. Five years earlier, Freed-Finnegan and Wall had founded Index after observing the technological... View Details
- June 2022
- Case
Zalando: Becoming the Starting Point for Fashion
By: Antonio Moreno, Leela Nageswaran, Emilie Billaud and Federica Gabrieli
Born in 2008 as a small startup selling flip flops, by mid-2021 Zalando had turned into an online fashion company with an assortment of more than 4,500 international brands, 45 million active customers, and a presence in 23 European markets. An essential component in... View Details
Keywords: Transition; Customer Value and Value Chain; Digital Platforms; Distribution; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Service Operations; Strategy; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Europe
Moreno, Antonio, Leela Nageswaran, Emilie Billaud, and Federica Gabrieli. "Zalando: Becoming the Starting Point for Fashion." Harvard Business School Case 622-070, June 2022.
- 2025
- Working Paper
Markups and Cost Pass-through Along the Supply Chain
By: Santiago E. Alvarez-Blaser, Alberto Cavallo, Alexander MacKay and Paolo Mengano
We study markups and pricing strategies along the supply chain. Our unique dataset combines detailed price and cost information from a large global manufacturer with matched retail prices collected online for the period July 2018 through June 2023. We show that total... View Details
Alvarez-Blaser, Santiago E., Alberto Cavallo, Alexander MacKay, and Paolo Mengano. "Markups and Cost Pass-through Along the Supply Chain." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-009, August 2024. (Revised January 2025.)