Document Type

Article

Abstract

Many companies that have physical channels now also do transactions with consumers online. However, a large part of these companies do not succeed online even if they succeed offline. The literature of explaining and giving advice on such an important challenge is growing, but is still limited.This paper contributes to this field.

In this paper eight strategic opportunities are identified when traditional companies go online. These opportunities are based on personal interviews of general managers who have strategic responsibility for implementing the companies’ online channel. While most papers focus on the important role of IT to succeed, the unique findings reported in this paper show that cultural and organizational factors are of higher importance. The paper spells out in detail the content of such factors. In an empirical part at the end of the paper data indicates that the focus on cultural and organizational factors do give higher conversion rates and online sales.

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