The Impact of Trading Digital Products on Retail Information Systems

Current research activities in the area of trading intangible content usually focus on specific legal or technical problems, neglecting the underlying business models and their implications on retail information systems. There is a need for a framework to structure the diverse research efforts. In this paper trading of digital products is positioned within the wider field of electronic commerce. Then business models for procurement and distribution of digital products are established. The Retail-H-Model, a framework for retail information systems originally developed for traditional retailing, is introduced as a structural framework for dealing with digital product trading issues. Some of the underlying functional models are examined and adapted in order to fulfil the requirements for trading digital products. The paper concludes with an outlook on future research activities.