– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association of e-channel resources with market coverage of small local retailers.
– This survey-based study collects data from 147 North American florists who use web sites as e-channels. The data are analysed through a set of multi-nomial logistic regressions, and multiple analysis of covariance. Measurement validation is conducted before data analysis.
– Considering two resources, e-IT competence and e-service agility − both critical for providing e-services − this study finds that e-service agility is significantly associated with market coverage. This paper also verifies that small local retailers who have wider market coverage than their competitors achieve higher performance from an e-channel. However, the retailers with wider market coverage do not have higher total retail sales.
– Practitioners should carefully consider the imbalance between the cost of resource development to enable market extension and the eventual performance return. Market extension requires a high level of e-service agility, but the corresponding performance return may be inadequate. This finding advises the owners or managers of small local retailers to have a complete resource plan for the effective use of an e-channel.
– This is the first survey-based study on the relationship between resources and market coverage for small internet retailing. The study uses cross-disciplinary perspectives to examine the practices of internet retailing and the resources required, based on insights on marketing, operations management, and management information systems.
