An instrument that assesses the benefits of electronic commerce would be very useful to researchers and managers. The benefits of such an instrument for e-commerce businesses were identified by a literature review, and the extent to which the benefits are achieved by retail e-commerce sites was investigated by a Web- and e-mail-based survey producing 458 usable responses from e-commerce managers plus responses from secondary participants at 58 of the surveyed firms. A 27-item instrument was produced and reduced to five factors specific to retailing: back-end efficiency, market expansion, inventory management, cost reduction, and customer service benefits. The instrument provides B2C e-commerce researchers with a common measure of independent or dependent variables that will facilitate an understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of e-commerce. It can help B2C e-commerce managers make better choices when investing in technology.
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