Structural foundations for e-commerce adoption: A comparative organization of retail trade between Japan and the United States

Why do two societies, both technologically advanced, exhibit a divergent path in adopting electronic commerce (e-commerce)? This paper compares the historical development of retail trade in Japan and the United States, with a specific focus on the partnership between brick-and-mortar and nonstore retailing. The way in which a society adopts technologies is in part historically determined, and business-to-consumer (B-to-C) transactions in particular are strongly influenced by the characteristics and structure of retail trade. While the strategies adopted by U.S. retailers is to develop e-commerce to sell products that are available at brick-and-mortar stores via online, the strategy adopted by Japanese convenience stores show that Japanese retailers are selling products available online at brick-and-mortar stores. Although the speed of e-commerce diffusion is typically attributed to the cost of access, a historical analysis of the retail sector reveals variations in institutional foundations for retail business practices, and such differences can shape the development trajectory of the commercial activities of the real and virtual worlds.