Adam P. Vrechopoulos^1,3, Georgios P. Papamichail^2,3 and Georgios I. Doukidis^{1,2,3
     1}Department of Information Systems & Computing
     Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlessex UB8 3PH, UK
 
     ²Department of Technology and Management
     Athens University of Economics and Business
     Patission 76, 10434 Athens, Greece
 
     ³eLTRUN (Hellenic ELectronic Trading Reseach UNit)
     Athens University of Economics & Business
     Euelpidwn 47A & Leukados 33, 113-62, Athens, Greece
 
     avrehop@aueb.gr, pmichael@aueb.gr, gjd@aueb.gr (respectively)
 
During the last years, retail stores over the Internet have considerably evolved to satisfy the increasing consumer needs while serving varying customer behaviours. However, little empirical evidence has been provided regarding the effects that the virtual ôstore atmosphereö has on the consumer buying behaviour. Relevant literature from conventional retailing emphasizes the role of ôstore atmosphereö as a major influencing factor on the consumer buying behaviour. More specifically, store layout, as one of the basic elements of the store atmosphere in conventional retailing, composes undoubtedly a corresponding critical success factor for business effectiveness over the Net.

The aim of this paper is to present the current status of the Internet retailing business-to-consumer interfaces and navigational capabilities through the development and use of a corresponding attribute selection framework, by producing meaningful layout-based categories of virtual retail stores. To that end, conventional types of store layouts along with their corresponding alternatives for virtual retailing, served as a guide. Firstly, this research contributes to the provision of a best business practice guide for e-commerce practitioners as far as the interface design issues of virtual retail stores are concerned, since it identifies usage patterns in the Internet retail store layouts as these are implemented by a large number of companies. To that end, 551 retail web sites from the Ernst & Young 2000 Global Online Retailing Report (2000), were examined through their Uniform Resource Locations (URL's). On the other hand, a two-fold research objective is achieved with the creation of a sound basis for the realisation of empirical research in respect to the effects different interfaces have on the consumers, taking into account not only technology but also cultural issues.
The fact is that architecture and interface design have an important goal in common: to create livable, workable, and attractive environments (Mountford, 1995). According to Dix et al. (1998), the appropriate interface layout is important in all applications and the issue of presentation has been around for many years, long before computers, interactive systems or Human Computer Interaction (HCI).
According to Haeckel (1998), the Internet, as a new shopping medium, may eventually change human cognitive processes and even reshape marketing through the resulting interactivity (Webster, 1998). Now more than ever, the promise of electronic shopping will depend to a great extent upon the interface and how people interact with the computer while virtual retail stores' convenience features (store layout, organizational features, ease of use) proved to manage customer expectations (Lohse and Spiller, 1999). Currently, there does not exist a set of guidelines for designing hypertext systems and most hypertext designs are still based on the designerÆs intuitions and past experience (Vora and Helander, 1997). As far as conventional retailing is concerned, retailers design their stores in ways that produce specific emotional effects to buyers, which influence their behaviour (Kotler, 1973-4). Furthermore, consumers interested in adopting Internet shopping (future Internet shoppers) were found to evaluate of high importance factors such as merchandise, service, promotion, convenience, checkout and store navigation (Spiller and Lohse, 1998). All the above constitute the so-called ôsense of being in a storeö, where the customer expects to shop in a familiar way while taking advantage of the technological amenities offered to him/her both by the physical layout of the virtual store and by the integration of the whole transaction cycle (Elliot and Fowell, 2000).
The objective of this research is, by integrating three individual research efforts in electronic shopping, (Sieber, 1999; Lohse and Spiller, 1998; Reynolds, 1997) identify usage patterns in virtual retail store layouts. To that end, an attribute selection framework was developed and constituted the data collection instrument of the research. In addition, the corresponding store layout alternatives for the virtual retailing framework (Vrechopoulos et al., 2000; Westland and Au, 1998) served as a guide towards the classification of the virtual retail stores examined. It should be noted that conventional retailing literature regarding store layout effects on consumer buying behaviour, served as the basic research idea ôgeneration mechanismö in the sense that it emphasizes the critical role of store layout for business effectiveness. The implications of this study refer both to a benchmark for virtual retailing initiatives and to the formation of the necessary research material background for future academic research.

Keywords: virtual retailing, consumer behaviour, store atmosphere, layout design