Ecommerce Innovation and disruption in retail - EU perspective

Abstract

This thesis studied the impact of e-commerce innovation and its disruption in retail in the European Union, concentrating particularly upon how technical change influences companies’ models of doing business and consumer behavior shifts. Driven by the growing importance of digital commerce to the EU economy and the pace of technology adoption hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic, research on digital retail was conducted. The overall thrust was to probe how technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital platforms, novel payment systems, and omnichannel strategies influence consumer preferences and operating conditions. The research design used a mixed-methods approach, involving secondary analysis of the reports of the European Commission, Eurostat, McKinsey & Company, DHL and Ecommerce Europe, using a quantitative survey of 46 respondents, who were young EU residents. Survey respondents responded in different ways to various online shopping habits, preferred platforms, delivery attitudes, preference for personalization and interest in emerging technologies, such as augmented reality, chatbots and automated delivery systems.