International Internet Retail Marketing: Do Product Characteristics Really Matter?

Many practitioners and academic researchers are engaged in the evaluation and study of the impact of the Internet on global retail marketing. Findings have generally focused on the unique attributes of the Internet marketplace and many have discussed product attributes or characteristics which seem important to market success. However, a 2003 Irish retail study claims there are no correlations between the types of product purchased on the Internet and challenges the validity of product characteristics as an important consideration for Internet marketing (Golden, Hughes and Gallagher, 2003). This article reviews the development of product characteristic marketing theory and discusses the findings of recent studies which investigate product characteristics and their importance to Internet based international retail marketing plans.