Strategy within E-commerce : The formation process

Abstract: Today the e-commerce market has become a bigger part of both organizations’ and consumers’ everyday-life. Earlier established strategies within retail can't be relied upon. The online-based organizations don’t act on the same conditions as traditional shops in terms of location, customer service and personal interaction to name a few. These are factors generally important to the traditional strategy formation within retail. E-commerce is an emerging market and to survive a well-formulated strategy formation is crucial in order to endure the environment. The aim of this research is to create an understanding of how strategy is formed in e-commerce organizations. In order to answer the research questions, a qualitative research, including a case study, have been performed. Empirical material has been conducted mainly through semi-structured interviews, with one of Sweden’s largest internet retailers, regarding their ink- and beauty supply segment. Whittington’s (2001) two perspectives; evolutionary and classical, have been used to get different viewpoints on the organization studied. We came to the conclusion that the key factors in strategy formation within e-commerce are experience in combination with available information about the environment they act within. When making recommendations for future studies, a suggestion has been made to examine the whole strategic process and review successful strategies as a consequence of well-analyzed formation. Finally, to examine the impact of maturity of organizations in relation to their strategic processes, would create an understanding of how the relationship between experience within the organization and the data accessible is constructed.