Consumer Behaviour and Order Fulfilment in Online Retailing: A Systematic Review

This paper provides a systematic review of consumer behaviour and order fulfilment in online retailing. The objective of this review is threefold: first, to identify elements of order-fulfilment operations that are relevant to online consumer behaviour (purchase, repurchase, product return); second, to understand the relationship between order-fulfilment performance and consumer behaviour; and third, to inspire future research on developing consumer service strategies that takes account of these behavioural responses to order-fulfilment performance outcomes. The paper is based on a systematic review of literature on online consumer behaviour and order-fulfilment operations, mainly in the fields of marketing and operations, published in international peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and September 2015. This study indicates that the current literature on online consumer behaviour focuses mainly on the use of marketing tools to improve consumer service levels. Very little research has been conducted on the use of consumer service instruments to steer consumer behaviour or, consequently, to manage related order-fulfilment activities better. The study culminates in a framework that encompasses elements of order-fulfilment operations and their relationship to online consumer behaviour. This paper is the first comprehensive review of online consumer behaviour that takes aspects of order-fulfilment operations into account from both marketing and operations perspectives.