 The geography of e-shopping in China: On the role of physical and virtual accessibilityRui Shao, Ben Derudder and Frank Witlox Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2022, vol. 64, issue C Abstract: Although e-shopping is increasingly adopted, it remains unclear (1) how e-shopping varies geographically, and (2) how this relates to physical and virtual accessibility. This paper presents a combined study of both issues focusing on the case of China, arguably one of the emerging e-shopping hotspots. Drawing on Alibaba's Online Shopping Index, we use a general spatial model (SAC) to explore the role of virtual and physical accessibility in the spatial distribution of e-shopping across 276 prefecture-level cities in China. The results suggest that both physical accessibility (proxy-ed by the relative number of shopping malls and the relative number of buses) and virtual accessibility (proxy-ed by the percentage of broadband subscribers and the relative number of delivery points) increase e-shopping, with both effects complementing each other. We discuss how findings contribute to our understanding of the geography of e-shopping, and outline implications for policymakers and e-retailers alike. Keywords: Online shopping; Physical accessibility; Virtual accessibility; China (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:64:y:2022:i:c:s0969698921003192 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102753 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services is currently edited by Harry Timmermans More articles in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services from Elsevier |
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