Publications

28 Nov 2015
News

All I Want for Christmas Is Chocolate Brussels Sprouts

Keywords: online retail; England; entrepreneurship; artisans; Retail Trade

17 Nov 2020
In Practice

How Retailers Can Thrive in a Shopping Season Like No Other

stay-at-home orders will likely make brick-and-mortar stores and shopping malls less appealing to consumers, and will likely fuel online shopping. On a more positive side, consumers are likely to continue to indulge in little luxuries... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Retail

March 2022
Teaching Note

Farfetch: Digital Transformation for Luxury Brands

By: Jill Avery and Sunil Gupta

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 522-051. Farfetch, a global luxury technology platform and digital marketplace had been surfing the wave of digital transformation in the luxury fashion industry since 2008. While the company’s stock price and market valuation had... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Retailing; Two Sided Markets; SaaS; Online Marketing; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Digital Transformation; E-commerce; Digital Marketing; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; London; United Kingdom; Portugal

29 Dec 2021
News

Should Retailers Split E-Commerce From Stores? A High-Level Debate

Article

Channel Integration, Sales Dispersion, and Inventory Management

By: Santiago Gallino, Antonio Moreno and Ioannis Stamatopoulos

We study the effects of the introduction of cross-channel functionalities on the overall sales dispersion of retailers and the implications of these effects for inventory management. To do that, we analyze data from a leading U.S. retailer who introduced a... View Details

Keywords: Retail Operations; Online Retail; Channel Integration; Sales Dispersion; Long Tail; Empirical Operations; Inventory Management; Omnichannel Retail; Marketing Channels; Integration; Sales; Logistics; Operations; Management; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

27 Jun 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Effect of Payment Choices on Online Retail: Evidence from the 2016 Indian Demonetization

Keywords: by Chaithanya Bandi, Toni Moreno, Donald Ngwe, and Zhiji Xu; Retail

26 Nov 2012
News

Cyber Monday Likely to Be Biggest Online Shopping Day in U.S. History

27 Jun 2019
News

Low online prices are great for shoppers. But they're killing small businesses

29 Jul 2013

HBS Retail & Luxury Goods Sector Webinar

This online information session will highlight the resources available to students coming from or who are interested in pursuing a career in the Retail & Luxury Goods sector. There will be a brief... View Details

December 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Case

Ocado

By: José Alvarez, David E. Bell and Damien McLoughlin

In 2015, U.K.-based Ocado was the world's largest pure player in the online home-delivery grocery business and was gaining a growing share of the highly competitive U.K. grocery market. Ocado had made heavy investments in technology, including a highly automated... View Details

July 2022
Teaching Note

Arçelik (A), (B): From a Dealer Network to an Omnichannel Experience

By: Ayelet Israeli, Fares Khrais and Menna Hassan

Arçelik Turkey, the country’s market leader in household appliances, was at an omnichannel crossroads in January 2020. Arçelik was a B2B player utilizing a dealership network with an umbrella of brands and had one of the largest brick-and-mortar store networks in... View Details

November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Purple Innovation, Inc.: The Online to Offline Marketing Challenge

By: Elie Ofek and Nakisha Williams

This case focuses on Purple Innovation Inc. (Purple), a company that started out in the Direct to Consumer (DTC) mattress space. In late 2018, after a successful launch and IPO with sales predominantly originating from its website, Purple was looking to sustain its... View Details

Keywords: Offline Sales; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

01 Jun 2020
What Do You Think?

Will Challenged Amazon Tweak Its Retail Model Post-Pandemic?

ablokhin SUMMING UP Is the Amazon Organization Losing Its Ability to Learn? There was little sympathy for Amazon’s loss of online retail market share at the outset of the current global pandemic among... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

26 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

Burgers with Bugs? What Happens When Restaurants Ignore Online Reviews

There’s a saying in hospitality: The customer is always right. In fact, customers might be more influential than ever, according to a study of online restaurant reviews. Yelp, the website where consumers share their service experiences,... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Retail; Retail; Retail

22 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Online Banks Fill Funding Needs for Small Business

which other online upstarts such as Amazon.com changed retail and Square changed the small business payments business. A few factors account for the rapid growth of the entrants. First, institutional debt... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking; Financial Services

24 Apr 2014
News

Using storytelling to transform the retail experience

Stories make sales. That’s the philosophy of Jennifer Lee Koss (AB 2001, MBA 2008), cofounder of BRIKA, an online shop for modern and elevated craft. BRIKA (from fabricá, the Spanish word for factory) enhances the appeal of its... View Details

20 Jul 2016
News

How Amazon Adapted Its Business Model to India

Keywords: Amazon; online retail; market entry; innovation; Retail Trade

January 2015 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Nasty Gals Do It Better

By: David Collis, Diane Chang, Matthew Shaffer and Ashley Hartman

In 2006, Sophia Amoruso started Nasty Gal, an eBay boutique selling vintage clothes. With a strong sense of style and personality, Amoruso poured herself into building the brand and developing relationships with her customers—typically the slightly edgy 18–24 year old.... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth; Brand Management; Online Retail; Clothing; Apparel; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Management; Marketing Strategy; Strategic Planning; Social Media; E-commerce; Digital Marketing; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States