Blockchain Technology Application Domains along the E-Commerce Value Chain—A Qualitative Content Analysis of News Articles

Abstract

Blockchain Technology (BCT) offers several possible applications in the field of electronic commerce (e-commerce), such as decentralised marketplaces or payments in cryptocurrencies. Even though these applications of BCT have already been explored in the academic literature, a comprehensive collection along the whole e-commerce value chain is still missing. Furthermore, the existing comprehensive reviews are based on the academic literature whilst the evolution and further development of BCT is highly driven by practitioners. Therefore, we aim to understand how and why BCT is used in e-commerce based on a qualitative content analysis of news articles, i.e., we apply scientific methods to content which reports the latest developments in the field. As a result, we describe the multiple application domains of BCT along the e-commerce value chain. Subsequently, we discuss the main underlying principles of BCT usage across all the value chain steps.

1. Introduction

Business models are constantly challenged by new technologies and exponentially developing technological advances, which suggest potential innovations [1]. One recent technology, foretold to fundamentally change how business is conducted, is Blockchain Technology (BCT) [2]. BCT refers to a type of distributed system storing time-stamped, peer-validated transactions in an immutable, replicated ledger in a distributed network [3]. The first Blockchain (BC), introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto [4] as the first peer-to-peer electronic cash system, is the Bitcoin Blockchain with its native cryptocurrency bitcoin.

Apart from the financial sector, the innovation potential of cryptocurrencies (cf. payment method) for electronic commerce (e-commerce) business models has been discussed since the first purchase of a pizza with bitcoin as the means of payment in May 2010. Meanwhile, researchers have evaluated several applications for BCT in the field of e-commerce. Most of those papers are focused on single and often well-known aspects of e-commerce which refer to the unique characteristics of BCT, such as trust building [5] or the security of online transactions [6], e.g., by proving the authenticity/origin of products [7,8].

These contributions are important for researchers to understand a phenomenon in further detail; they are important for practitioners when facing a certain business problem or when determining details for the implementation of a certain BCT project in e-commerce. However, developing an idea for a certain BCT project requires a broader view for practitioners who aim to develop a new business model. A focus on the complete value chain (VC) is of particular importance for assessing potential BCT-related innovations for the e-commerce business model, cf. [1]. Nevertheless, the literature currently lacks a summary of the application potential of BCT along the whole e-commerce VC as will be shown in the background section. Therefore, our research goal is to understand how and why BCT is and might be used in e-commerce from a holistic point of view.

Only very few literature reviews summarise the state-of-the-art of BCT in e-commerce, e.g., [9,10,11]. Whilst such literature reviews provide a good overview of the topic and name specific research gaps, they do not consider the particularities of BCT. BCT has been introduced in the practitioner community and its further development in practice proceeds much faster than research can be conducted and published. Thus, there have been calls for future studies that evaluate the real effects of BCT [11]. Even though the practitioner perspective is reflected in case studies (e.g., proposing a secure BC e-auction system [12], or proposing a BC-based e-commerce reputation system [13]), only a few of those studies analyse a case according to its complete business model or value chain, e.g., [14,15]. Thus, the literature currently lacks the perspective of practitioners (i.e., not considered in a literature review) for the various application domains of BCT in e-commerce (i.e., not focused in a single case study) from a holistic point of view (i.e., not provided in the discussions of a single aspect in detail). Our research addresses this research gap.

Understanding how value is created (e.g., by using BCT) is a fundamental part of a business model and can be described based on the value chain [1], i.e., of a “series of activities required to produce and deliver a product or service—that enables a company to offer unique value” [16] (p. 11). Hence, the research aims of the paper are as follows:

• To examine the applications of Blockchain Technology along the e-commerce value chain according to news articles and to categorise them into application domains;
• To discuss why Blockchain Technology is utilised in these applications domains.

For our analysis, we decided to take the perspective of practitioners by gathering data in the form of news articles. Thus, we use a scientific method established in social science research and apply it to content which reports the latest developments in the usage of BCT in e-commerce. In social science research, news analyses have been used, for example, to study the attitudes of different social groups towards the climate crisis [17], social narratives such as the public understanding of childhood obesity [18], or the impact of a sudden alcohol prohibition on public health and the population’s response to it [19]. This approach fits our research context for various reasons. Firstly, the communication of technological advancements and projects of BCT deviates from other technologies. With the technology-push evolution of BCT, technological experts first started to share their knowledge on blogs and personal websites. Later, various online news resources came up that exclusively reported on news regarding BCT, cryptocurrencies, and related topics (such as Cointelegraph). Thus, the communication of the further development of BCT and related projects within the Blockchain community is a unique characteristic compared to the development of other emerging technologies, such as generative AI. Thus, a literature review cannot cover the latest trends in such a fast-paced and practitioner-driven field as BCT. Secondly, only a qualitative approach to content analysis fits the richness and depth of insights we aim to gather. However, case analyses or interviews are highly limited regarding the amount of accounts, i.e., conducting interviews might not reflect the wide range of application potentials. Thirdly, we aim to cover all the stages of projects to identify BCT applications in e-commerce, i.e., capture different phases, such as proposing ideas of BCT usage in white papers, implementing prototypes, and trying them on testnets, as well as market-ready solutions. To capture various projects as well as various development stages, we gather data by making use of the high amount of BCT news articles from well-established online news sites focused on BCT (such as Cointelegraph) as well as high-quality newspapers (such as The New York Times). All the articles referring to the usage of BCT in e-commerce are the basis for a qualitative content analysis.

Our research thus contributes to the current state-of-the-art in two ways. (1) Our study is the first that applies the social science method of news article analysis in BCT research to the best of our knowledge. Thus, our research has a methodological contribution. (2) Our study contributes to the state-of-the-art of the application of BCT in e-commerce. On the one hand, our study assigns well-researched BCT use cases to the e-commerce VC. Thus, we show where these use cases contribute to the e-commerce value proposition. On the other hand, our methodological approach enables us to identify recent, less-researched BCT use cases in e-commerce. Thus, we enrich the findings of previous review articles with a rich description of BCT application domains in e-commerce.

The following two chapters will provide the conceptual foundations and a state-of-the-art in the field, as well as our methodological approach. Afterwards, we present our findings, i.e., we propose data-driven BCT applications domains, link them to the material by presenting anchoring examples, and interpret them based on the literature. Subsequently, we discuss BCT usage in e-commerce across all the value chain steps and summarise why BCT is used. The paper concludes with a recap and insights on shortcomings and future research.

2. Background

We will now introduce and define the two main domains considered in this research, namely (1) Blockchain Technology with the related concepts of smart contracts and tokens, and (2) the e-commerce VC which serves as the basis for our analysis. Furthermore, we will present the state-of-the-art concerning BCT usage in e-commerce in the literature.

2.1. Blockchain Technology, Smart Contracts, and Tokens

In 2008, bitcoin was introduced in a whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto [4] as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system with bitcoin as a cryptocurrency. In the following years, the underlying technology of bitcoin, i.e., Blockchain Technology was researched and further developed. Today, most papers agree on the following characteristics when defining Blockchain Technology [20,21,22]: Blockchain Technology refers to a type of distributed system which stores data in a distributed network of nodes that fully replicate the data, i.e., ensuring a high redundancy and availability. On the data level, a Blockchain is a ledger of transactions. Thus, data changes are stored in the form of transactions that are linked to a chain of blocks. Each transaction is time-stamped and cryptographically signed (i.e., authenticated) by the sender using public-key cryptography that enables pseudonymity. Even though users are identified by their public key instead of their name, this is a weak form of anonymity and requires additional privacy properties to protect users from revealing any identity information, such as unlinkability [23]. Transactions are added to a Blockchain according to the consensus mechanism (e.g., proof-of-work and proof-of-stake). It is captured in the Blockchain-specific protocol and defines how transactions are distributed across the network, peer-validated, and cryptographically linked to the existing ledger (e.g., by a 256-bit hash value pointing out the previous block [24]). Therefore, an immutable history of transactions is created and protected against manipulation, making a Blockchain tamper-proof and ensuring the integrity of the data. However, the level of certain features, such as integrity, depends on the consensus mechanism and the implementation of the Blockchain-specific protocol. Systematic reviews on Blockchain consensus mechanisms further differentiate them and outline their strengths and weaknesses, e.g., [24,25]. Other studies address the vulnerabilities of BCT e.g., by applying machine learning techniques to identify anomalous behaviours and detect security threats in Blockchain networks [26,27].

With the advent of Blockchains other than bitcoin (such as Ethereum), new optional features were implemented, such as the concept of smart contracts and various kinds of tokens (apart from cryptocurrencies). As both concepts are part of many application domains in e-commerce, we will introduce smart contracts first, and describe the concept of tokens and introduce two commonly used token standards in a second step.

In the context of BCT, smart contracts are “small code snippets that are published in the blockchain system by a participant and can subsequently be used by other participants or contracts” [20] (p. 123). Smart contracts are written in a Turing-complete programming language (e.g., Solidity, Vyper) and executed by an internal, replicated virtual machine (e.g., Ethereum Virtual Machine), cf. [28]. Hence, the code is compiled into bytecode, deployed at every node, and triggered through a transaction. While this technical realisation yields benefits, such as immutability and automation, it comes with different shortcomings. Smart contracts are vulnerable to, e.g., transaction-ordering dependence, timestamp dependence, reentrancy vulnerability, and privacy issues as the transaction history is publicly available for all the nodes [29].

In the context of BCT, a token serves as a representation of value that can be owned and transferred electronically. Instead of being controlled by a central or public authority, it is accepted by two or more parties that exchange them [30,31]. Tokens can represent any asset, such as a currency, copyright, or voting right, and they can be used as a tool, for example for incentivising or governing [31,32]. The Ethereum foundation has developed various token standards aiming for interoperable tokens that are independent of a particular Blockchain [33]. The most popular token standards are ERC-20 for fungible (interchangeable) tokens used for cryptocurrencies, and ERC-721 for non-fungible (non-interchangeable) tokens (NFTs) used to represent the ownership of unique assets. NFTs appear to be a key element of the metaverse and Web3.0 and revolutionise the marketing and monetarisation of digital assets [34] by introducing digital scarcity. Their popularity has rapidly increased since 2020, and even made them the most popular Fintech application in 2021, gaining widespread attention from enthusiasts and investors [35].

2.2. State-of-the-Art on Blockchain Technology Use Cases along the E-Commerce Value Chain

With the appearance and commercialisation of the Word Wide Web, e-commerce was gaining popularity. The early academic literature on e-commerce in the 1990s is summarised and classified into different categories, i.e., application areas, technical issues, and support and implementation [36]. In the context of our research, e-commerce: “[…] refers to using the Internet and intranets to purchase, sell, transport, or trade data, goods, or services” [37] (p. 7).

To describe how e-commerce is conducted, we refer to the concept of the value chain, cf. [1]. This is especially appropriate to understand e-commerce activities, as the VC is a tool to understand the influence of information technology (IT), as every VC activity involves information creation, processing, or communication [16]. Other concepts to investigate the impact of the technology on an organisational level are the business model (more high level than the VC) or the business process (more detailed than the VC). However, we decided not to use them for various reasons [3]. The studies using the business model perspective mainly focus on organisations that offer BCT solutions instead of applying them, and are rather high-level, e.g., [14,38,39]. In contrast, the studies using the concept of business processes often describe a solution that addresses a rather specific process, e.g., [40,41]. However, many papers also use the term process when referring to a rather high-level sequence of activities, e.g., [42], which is similar to a value chain.

Whilst the e-commerce VC represents how e-commerce is conducted today [43,44], new technologies and trends have affected this evolution. For example, the expansion of online/mobile payment and payment providers affects payment handling, e.g., [45,46]. The broad utilisation of social media empowers consumers to take part in marketing communication by becoming creators, reviewers, and collaborators [47]. Merchants have gained an important interactive marketing channel which enables a real-time response to customers’ issues [48]. Furthermore, the mentality to be always online (facilitated by the popularity of smartphones) leads to a combination of different forms of digital businesses such as e-commerce, e-education, and e-entertainment [43].

Blockchain Technology is one of the latest technological trends affecting e-commerce. Even though the long-term effect of BCT on e-commerce is not yet predictable, various academic papers evaluate how BCT can affect particular aspects of e-commerce. Potential BCT use cases are thus mainly inspired by the native characteristics of BCT and the ability to transparently store data tamper-proof, enable pseudonymous accounts based on public addresses, and automate the fulfilment of contracts.

As the original value chain concept suggested by Porter [49] is manufacturing-oriented, our study uses the adapted version suggested by Wirtz [43,44] which fits the e-commerce business model. Figure 1 illustrates the individual VC steps and activities. We will now briefly describe the activities, cf. [43,44], and outline the state-of-the-art of BCT applications that support these activities.

The first VC step, offer design, covers decisions on what is being offered (i.e., products and services) and who the recipients of these offers are. Regarding BC-based products, the discourse is mainly focused on tokens, especially on NFTs representing digital/physical goods. NFTs cover, e.g., digital art such as paintings and images, fashion, certifications, or collectibles [50], enabling specific services covered by the second VC step.

The second VC step, offer presentation, comprises how products and services are offered and covers, e.g., a shop’s technical infrastructure, the appearance of products in the shop, as well as the services and experiences during a purchase. A highly researched type of BC-based shop is peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces. The state-of-the-art in this field is dominated by BC-based marketplaces for data in general, e.g., [51,52] and IoT data in particular, e.g., [53,54], as well as BC-based marketplaces for energy trading, e.g., [55,56,57,58]. Some articles refer to BC-based e-commerce marketplaces, such as a case study analysing the P2P marketplace OpenBazaar [15]. Other studies propose particular marketplaces, e.g., specialised in art [59], digital content [60], or vintage [61]. Apart from the shop design, other BC-based services can affect the offer presentation. Information stored on a Blockchain enhances reputation systems by ensuring the authenticity and immutability of reviews and thus preventing fraudulent reviews and privacy leakages (cf. privacy due to pseudonymity), e.g., [62,63,64]. Furthermore, BC-based reputation systems can integrate a reward system that encourages users to contribute [65]. However, a remaining challenge is to prevent false or biased data from being stored in BC-based reviews [66]. Another service is the ability to trace product information and the product history due to the transparent and secure storage of information on a Blockchain. This allows one to prove the ownership and the provenance of a product, which enables authenticating it, e.g., [7,67]. This is of particular importance for agricultural products [68] or luxury goods [69].

The third VC step comprises marketing and transaction initiation activities, i.e., how to get customers into a shop, including customer communication, brand promotion, and individual offers. A bibliometric analysis of the literature on the usage of BCT in marketing revealed that this research field has increased since 2018 [70]. According to an analysis of 800 companies, a common application domain is advertising, covering, e.g., token payments for performance or attention, enabled by transparency [71]; this finding is supported by other studies [72,73]. Another popular application of BCT in marketing refers to customer data and the ownership of data and identity [71,72,74]. According to the value chain presented in Figure 1, this aspect refers to VC step 5 and is thus explained in further detail in the following paragraphs. An interesting finding is that many studies refer to e-commerce as only one application of BCT in marketing [70,71]. For example, P2P online commerce is referred to as one option for the marketing mix element place [73]. In contrast, the e-commerce VC lists marketing as one VC step.

The fourth VC step, completion and price-setting, comprises the negotiation of the final contract including the price determination. Afterwards, the contract is fulfilled by payment handling and the distribution of the product. A highly discussed research field is the usage of smart contracts as legal contracts. Whilst smart contracts are computer programs from a technical perspective, they are often referred to as legal contracts (legalities) [75] from an economic perspective, i.e., code snippets covering the legally binding commitment of two or more parties to fulfil the agreement [76]. Articles in law journals characterise the application of smart contracts for legal contracts and discuss their challenges, e.g., [77,78]. The determination of the price and contract details through negotiations is barely mentioned in any state-of-the-art literature; for example, the different aspects of price setting for NFTs and mechanisms to distribute them are outlined [79]. After finalising the contract, BCT is used in the settlement. On the one hand, several papers discuss the role of BCT and cryptocurrencies in international payment processes eliminating intermediaries, e.g., [80,81,82] and offering the ability of micropayments, e.g., [83,84]. In a literature review of BCT applications, different use cases of BCT in the context of payments such as cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and community tokens (e.g., festival coins) are outlined [85]. On the other hand, BCT is used in the distribution. For example, BCT enables an autonomous transaction management for IoT-based e-commerce, ensuring efficiency and data integrity [86]. Furthermore, BCT use cases enable traceability in cross-border supply chains [87] and logistic financing [88]. In combination with artificial intelligence models, BC-based smart contracts yield further potential such as a recall of expired products, stock-based purchases on predefined events, or the selection of an environmentally friendly shipping option [89].

The fifth and last VC step, after-sale services and customer relationship management (CRM), is focused on customer loyalty and covers the storage and usage of customer data and the relationship with customers which influences their resale behaviour. As pointed out by some studies on BCT in marketing, BCT bears the potential for consumers to control their data and keep their identity private due to identity ownership [72,74]. The aspect of customer loyalty can also be addressed by BCT through the tokenisation of loyalty points aiming for higher customer trust [90].

As the review of the literature shows, current research already affects all the e-commerce VC activities. However, not all subdimensions of the VC steps are addressed. For example, the target group, experience design, or brand development are not as well understood as the settlement. Furthermore, the outlined literature does not necessarily refer to these BCT applications in the context of e-commerce. Nevertheless, from the perspective of marketing, future research questions should focus further on e-commerce, e.g., “What is the role of blockchain in electronic commerce?” [70] (p. 10). This is what our study addresses.

Apart from the state-of-the-art referring to single e-commerce VC steps, various papers propose so-called e-commerce platforms/systems. However, most of them mainly focus on the contract, financing/payment, transaction making, and settlement, e.g., [91,92,93,94]. Some platforms integrate related services such as transaction tracking [93], proof-of-ownership, and the protection of customer information [92]. Thus, most papers focusing on e-commerce systems mainly refer to the fourth VC step completion/price-setting and do not take the complete VC into account. One article proposes an e-commerce model that considers activities starting from product search to shipping. While this is a holistic approach comparable to the VC perspective, it remains conceptual, and thus the paper calls for applied research analysing a real scenario [95].

Finally, the findings of the literature reviews on the BCT applications in e-commerce support our conclusions after providing a state-of-the-art. An early and extensive literature review in this field results in a collection of future research questions in four categories, i.e., technological, legal, organisational/quality-related, and consumer issues [9]. One research question this paper raises is how BCT impacts e-commerce business models, which we indirectly address as the value chain perspective is an integral part of the e-commerce business model [1]. Other literature reviews present a collection of the application domains of BCT in e-commerce. As to be expected by analysing the literature, their findings capture a few highly researched topics, such as payments, cost-optimised supply chain management, reputation systems, and data security and data governance [10,96]. Another comprehensive literature review discusses five domains (i.e., environment and sustainability, reputation systems, logistics and supply chain, agriculture, and financial uses) but also challenges BCT presents for e-commerce [11].

In contrast to the existing literature reviews on application domains, we do not focus on an introduction of the prevalent domains in the scientific literature but aim to cover the practitioner-driven potential of BCT for e-commerce along the e-commerce VC. Thus, we do not review the scientific literature, but rather review news articles as they also cover fast-paced technological developments and applied use cases. Furthermore, we do not apply a completely inductive approach for our analysis, but use the e-commerce VC as a framework and assign a rich collection of examples to the subdimensions of each VC step. Thus, the unique contribution of our paper is a rich description of 41 application domains naming examples of how they have been or are planned to be applied.

3. Materials and Methods

Our research goal (i.e., to understand how and why BCT is and might be used in e-commerce) is addressed from a holistic perspective, applying scientific methods to content about the latest developments in the field of BCT and e-commerce, i.e., news articles. The following sections describe the selection of our material (i.e., news articles) and their analysis through a qualitative content analysis.

3.1. News Article Selection

When analysing content from news articles, it is important to be aware of the socio-political agenda of the authors and the news outlets, e.g., calling attention to some aspects [97]. Therefore, we decided to gather data from different news outlets, focused on general news as well as BCT and cryptocurrencies (crypto). Firstly, we include two Blockchain-/crypto-specific online news sites, i.e., CoinDesk (https://www.coindesk.com/) (CD) and Cointelegraph (https://cointelegraph.com/) (CT). Both were chosen as they were founded in 2013 and are, thus, well established. Furthermore, they are among the leading crypto news outlets, and have a high publishing frequency, a huge number of followers on their social media accounts, and a high amount of traffic on their websites, e.g., [98,99,100,101]. Secondly, we gather news articles from two high-quality general-purpose newspapers, i.e., The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/) (NYT) and The Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/) (WSJ).

To gather the news articles, we used the internal search engine of the outlets with the search strings “e-commerce” (for the BC-specific news outlets CD and CT) and “blockchain e-commerce” (for NYT and WSJ). Subsequently, we read through the articles to identify which of them are relevant for our analysis, inspired by the selection process of other news analyses, e.g., [18]. Figure 2 provides information on the number of search results and relevant/irrelevant articles for the following content analysis.

We decided to use a broad search string to get a rich result set covering projects from all the development stages. However, as a consequence, the result set covered predominantly irrelevant articles that had to be excluded from the content analysis. Relevant articles had to meet the following criteria: (1) be written in English; (2) focus on BCT and e-commerce in the same context; (3) describe a concrete application of BCT in e-commerce; and (4) cover what BCT is used for in the described application. We will now provide examples of why articles have been excluded—the articles that do not meet criterion (2), e.g., name e-commerce to describe the business area of a company such as Amazon or Alibaba. These articles are about these companies naming BCT in a different context, such as mining equipment. Criteria (3) and (4) ensure that sufficient information is provided for a thorough analysis. Articles do not meet criterion (3) when, e.g., just naming that BCT can be used in e-commerce. Criterion (4) sorts out the articles that just name a use case, e.g., BC-based marketing in e-commerce, without providing information on how the technology is used. Furthermore, many articles published early only declare that a particular merchant or platform is now accepting bitcoin as a means of payment, which does not provide valuable insights. The exclusion of these articles explains the high difference between relevant and irrelevant articles, especially till 2015.

3.2. Qualitative Content Analysis

To ensure a rigorous examination of the analysis and interpretation of the material, we applied the well-established method of qualitative content analysis according to Mayring [102] and Schreier [103,104]. Another approach would have been to gain insights from news articles by applying the method of discourse analysis. This fits studies from social science, as such studies are often interested in the social aspect of language and the function of a discourse [17]. However, we aim to gather certain aspects from the material (i.e., how BTC is used in e-commerce) and structure them along the pre-defined e-commerce value chain steps. Thus, we performed a structural qualitative content analysis, cf. [102], which is another established methodology to study news articles [97]. Aiming for a structuring effect, we used a twofold approach of qualitative content analysis [104]. Firstly, we developed concept-driven main categories and subcategories (cf. deductive approach) based on the e-commerce VC we have introduced in the previous chapter. Secondly, we added a further level of subcategories in a data-driven way (cf. inductive approach). A detailed description of how we apply these concepts in our research process is provided in

Table 1. Content analysis process, adapted from Mayring [102] and Schreier [103,104].

Content Analysis Process Steps	Analysis According to Our Research Approach
Building a deductive coding frame	The main (structuring) categories of the coding frame are derived from our research aim, i.e., the e-commerce value chain steps. These concept-driven categories are based on the e-commerce value chain of Wirtz [43] and comprises two hierarchical levels, i.e., primary value chain steps as the main categories and their subdimensions as subcategories. The value chain focuses on the question of how e-commerce is conducted [1]. The value chain is a tool to understand the influence of IT on organisations [16]. It is, therefore, suitable to examine which parts of conducting commerce electronically might be affected by BCT usage. Furthermore, we base our concept-driven categories on the e-commerce value chain of Wirtz [43] for two reasons. First, the originally introduced value chain concept by Porter [49] tailored to manufacturing companies has been adapted to e-commerce already. Second, academic papers (e.g., [15,105,106]) have used single or multiple of the adapted business models including their value chains (cf. 4C-Net model) by Wirtz (e.g., [43,44]) already as a theoretical basis for further analyses. We use the e-commerce value chain as presented in Figure 1 apart from the value chain step “completion/price-setting”. As all the main categories, i.e., first-level categories, should only cover one aspect, we split this step into “completion” comprising contract finalisation and price determination, and “settlement” comprising payment handling and distribution. Furthermore, we have added category definitions, anchoring examples, and coding rules in the final coding frame.
Building inductive categories during trial coding	The categories on the third and final level of the coding frame are developed based on data. Therefore, we selected half of the material reflecting the full diversity of our data, i.e., material from all four news outlets over the whole time period, dealing with various topics according to the headlines. Based on this material, we conducted a trial coding, built categories, and determined anchoring examples for these newly derived categories. The coding process followed a sequential approach until saturation was reached as introduced by Schreier [104]: (1) read material until a relevant passage is found; (2) check whether it fits an existing data-drive subcategory; (3) either subsume it under the existing subcategory or create a new subcategory. All the steps were conducted manually using the qualitative data analysis software MAXQDA (https://www.maxqda.com/, accessed on 20 June 2024).
Revising the coding frame	The saturation of the coding frame was determined by the fact that no new categories were created after analysing new articles. In our trial coding, we already reached saturation after approximately 60% of the trial coding material. Some categories were stabilised at an early stage while the distinction of others was more challenging. To ensure validity (i.e., ensure the categories describe the material in an adequate way), in the next step we revised the coding frame and its assigned codes in a team of two researchers. Thereby, we determined category definitions, anchoring examples, and coding rules for the data-driven categories as well. Afterwards, the complete data set used for the trial coding was coded another time based on the final third-level categories to ensure intra-coder reliability.
Main analysis	During the main analysis, the remaining material is coded based on the finalised coding frame.
Presenting and interpreting the findings	Finally, we present the findings by proposing 41 BCT application domains in the e-commerce VC (according to the data-driven categories), which are described and illustrated through quotes.

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In addition to the common steps of a content analysis as suggested by Mayring [102] and Schreier [103,104], we will conclude the analysis with an overall interpretation weaving theory into account and referring to the academic literature. This is an important step when analysing news media not only to describe but also to interpret the findings [97]. We thus refer to the second research aim and discuss why BCT is utilised in these applications domains. Hence, the following chapter includes the presentation of our findings by introducing 41 data-driven BCT application domains in e-commerce, and the concurrent interpretation of our findings referring to the academic literature.

4. Results

This section summarises the results of the qualitative content analysis for each value chain step in a separate figure.

The example in Figure 3 illustrates that the deductive main categories are shown in the header; the subcategories (as defined and described by Wirtz [43,44]) and the data-driven categories of the third layer of the coding frame, i.e., the application domains, are shown on the left-hand side. Each application domain contains a short description as well as various anchoring examples to describe the full extent of each category. Some examples also argue why BCT is used in this context, i.e., they refer to the underlying BCT characteristics. Thus, we present our main findings in Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7, Figure 8 and Figure 9. In the subsequent text, we interpret what is presented in each figure by referring to the academic literature and further discuss why BCT is used.

4.1. Offer Design

The BCT application domains in the e-commerce value chain step offer design are described in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step offer design [107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120,121,122].

Figure 4. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step offer design [107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120,121,122].

The assortment design includes decisions on products or services (i.e., services as the main offering), which are being offered [43]. In this subdimension, BCT is used by means of tokenisation. An example of NTF-represented art explains how exactly BCT is utilised: “This painting was created as a collage made of 5000 different digital works of art in desktop software and then bound to a non-fungible token created by Beeple on the Ethereum blockchain. That means while the token, i.e., the bytes on Ethereum, are blockchain-native, the underlying work of art is not.” [123]. Applying the token classification of Oliveira et al. [32], the BC token assortment design in e-commerce includes asset-backed tokens to represent physical/digital/virtual asset ownership, and usage tokens to represent rights. Apart from their classification, we identified that asset-backed tokens are not only used to verify ownership but also to verify the authenticity of an asset. This ability of BCT is often researched, e.g., when being applied in education for the authentication of diplomas, e.g., [124,125].

Digi-physical BC-based products can be easily adopted by existing organisations when representing a product by an NFT. BCT allows them to offer the service of product authentication. Furthermore, the NFT-based product representation does not require a 3D model of the product (cf. metaverse clothing), i.e., the effort is rather low. Nevertheless, the customer may receive substantial benefits when reselling the product as fraudulent behaviour in P2P sales which is a major issue [126] and a BC-based record of transactions enables an immutable, tamper-proof history of them. Furthermore, tokenising physical products enables one to democratise ownership, i.e., split physical assets into BC-based tokens and thus, enables the partial ownership of an inseparable physical good, such as real estate [127]. Hence, this may enable the future e-commerce assortment design to expand even more on partially owned physical goods.

The target group, i.e., the group the products or services are offered to, results from the strategy regarding the assortment design [43]. Considering the target group, we focus on the circumstance of target group changes or emergence due to BCT (cf. first research aim) instead of the target group determined for BC-based products which may not be related to BCT (cf. mass consumers). Hence, we identified one target group which emerged with the evolution of BCT, namely Blockchain/crypto enthusiasts. The characterisation of this target group fits the early evolution phase of the BC industry over the life cycle as products in this stage are mainly demanded by early adopters with a high income [128].

4.2. Offer Presentation

The BCT application domains in the e-commerce value chain step offer presentation are described in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step offer presentation [108,109,113,116,120,121,122,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146].

Figure 5. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step offer presentation [108,109,113,116,120,121,122,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146].

The shop design includes the management of the technical infrastructure for the shop (cf. hardware and software), error-free usage and adequate bandwidth for a quick response time, and an appealing and intuitively structured user interface of the shop [43]. As described in Figure 5, BC-based shops can have various designs. Again, the circumstance of having many different Blockchains fits the early evolution phase of the BC industry over the life cycle. The technology in this stage is characterised by competing technologies (cf. the existence of many BC protocols) which are rapidly developing [128], such as the development of different token standards which ensure interoperability between different BCs [33]. Meanwhile, the interoperability of Blockchains is addressed by solutions such as Polkadot and Cosmos, and emerged as a new research field, summarised by review articles [147,148].

For P2P marketplaces, we only considered those based on BCT, while the extent of its usage highly varies. Some marketplaces use BCT for their whole infrastructure, others implement only single features based on BCT. For example, a case study analysed such a decentralised marketplace known as a BC-based marketplace, which was built on a fully decentralised infrastructure, but used BCT only for payments and an escrow service [15]. Furthermore, our analysis of news articles revealed scenarios where NFTs are sold on P2P marketplaces which are not BC-based and have, therefore, been excluded from our application domain. For example, “EBay initially enabled NFT listings around mid-2021 but hasn’t integrated blockchain tech to support the sales on its marketplace. In terms of this official drop, users are sent a redemption link via in-platform messaging or email to receive their NFT outside of the Platform.” [149]. Overall, all three shop designs utilise BCT because it enables various incentives, such as validation incentives for nodes in BC networks, or usage incentives which promote a shop’s usage, cf. [32].

The product presentation step is focused on the presentation of price and product details [43]. As introduced in the background on the e-commerce value chain, BC-based product and reputation reviews are an application domain as BCT faces their manipulation which has been reflected in various research papers, e.g., [62,63,64]. Apart from this, we did not find any BCT applications directly related to the product presentation in the news article analyses. However, BCT can help to trace back product information due to its immutable history of transactions, which allows potential customers to verify the product details for their trustworthiness, even if this does not affect the presentation itself. In contrast, the clarity of the price presentation might be affected in case the price is determined based on a fixed fiat currency price which is dynamically converted to cryptocurrencies cf. [9] that are highly volatile.

The service design is the sum of all the services that help the customers along the whole value chain to purchase products. Thus, it is relevant in all the VC steps [43]. Recording the ownership in the form of NFTs is especially relevant when purchasing as well as selling goods. Furthermore, the management of data ownership (cf. Figure 9) is applied, e.g., when proving personal identity whilst purchasing goods, or when providing preference data for marketing (cf. Figure 6). NFT-based ownership is thus used to shift the power from platforms to consumers (e.g., when purchasing in-game assets which are used by the buyer but owned by the platform) and has the effect to motivate creators since “[r]ather than creating content for other platforms or ads for brands, their work is instantly and indefinitely monetizable” [150].

Intellectual property is an important, often undervalued intangible resource of an organisation and thus needs to be protected [128]. Even though BCT aids in recording intellectual property such as copyrights, “the technology itself does not prevent unauthorised copying” [113]. Hence, the copyright can be proven but still has to be claimed. Whilst some news articles state that BCT enables “rights management throughout the entire lifecycle of the collectible” [151], others criticise that “[m]any NFTs on display do not articulate what rights are afforded to purchasers, with one NFT even appearing to depict unlicensed Star Wars fan art.” [113]. These examples support the interpretation that BCT is able to proof the ownership of intellectual property, but does not necessarily protect it.

The traceability of information on product details and the product history (cf. supply chain) based on BCT has been discussed with regard to the academic literature; the accessibility and traceability of data are outlined as major e-commerce success factors [9]. Nevertheless, they point out the varying accessibility to traced information, restricted by the BC protocol [152]. However, an accessible record of product-related data decreases information asymmetries in purchasing decisions (e.g., regarding the quality/authenticity of a product) and thus prevents an adverse selection, cf. [153]. Based on the traceability of information, the authentication of goods is enabled. Consequently, BCT is used as all the transactions are authenticated by a sender’s signature and provide a tamper-proof record of the history of a good. The BC-based authentication of goods further enables the detection of counterfeits which cannot be authenticated [117].

The experience design refers to a special experience during shopping for which the customer will revisit the shop (cf. unique selling points), which provokes repeated sales [43]. Hence, the experience design describes why the customer (re)visits the shop, i.e., when applying BCT to implement the experience, the experience design refers to why BCT is used from a customer perspective (cf. instead of a technical level such as immutability of transactions). Thereby, BCT can enhance experiences which are known from different domains or non-BC-based e-commerce. The experience of exclusiveness is created by the early stage in Blockchain industry life cycles, as only a few have adopted the technology yet, and by the scarcity of NFTs, which is even more relevant as scarce items can be authenticated. Nevertheless, the hype around scarce items is a phenomenon used by scarcity marketing which is a well-understood approach in research, e.g., [154,155]. Even though the analysed news articles refer to the hype as a special experience, they also highlight the downside and uncertainty of the future extent of NFT usage in e-commerce: “Warnings of a possible bubble for NFTs are also beginning to make the rounds, with critics saying the current hype is unsustainable. On the other side of the argument, proponents say NFTs could be to Web 3.0 what social media and e-commerce have been for Web 2.0.” [156].

The creation of a digital self is a concept applied in social media today, also referred to as self-branding, e.g., [157,158]. This can be extended by BCT in the sense of enabling the ownership of items and data referring to the digital self. Implementing this concept in the metaverse, BCT is required to enable interoperability: “The Metaverse means that your avatar can function across a myriad of virtual worlds, with the same identity. This is only possible through blockchain technology, which puts the users in control of their identity, data and currency.” [135]. This finding is especially interesting as the interoperability between different Blockchain protocols is often referred to as a main challenge in the adoption, e.g., [159]. Hence, the further development of the technology, e.g., by introducing token standards [33] and communication protocols [148], faces current challenges and may dispel them in the future. A contrary trend to the creation of a digital self is “photo-realistic representational avatars [..] used in industries where it is crucial to present oneself as they are in real life. ‘These fields are typically those of medicine, business, education and travel’” [122]. Gamification as an experience is enhanced by BCT mainly in the form of fungible/non-fungible token rewards. These can also be authenticated and can be part of the digital self in various virtual words instead of existing on a single platform (cf. interoperability).

4.3. Marketing/Transaction Initiation

The BCT application domains in the e-commerce value chain step marketing/transaction initiation are described in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step marketing/transaction initiation [110,116,129,134,135,136,139,144,160,161,162,163,164,165,166,167,168].

Figure 6. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step marketing/transaction initiation [110,116,129,134,135,136,139,144,160,161,162,163,164,165,166,167,168].

Interconnectedness describes close contact with and among customers, and the public communication of customer feedback and customer opinions [43]. BCT offers several ways to increase the interconnectedness with and among customers (cf. Figure 6). Firstly, more direct communication without middlemen [169] is enabled by the decentralised nature of BCT as well as interactive NFTs, which also enables direct P2P purchases as sales activities. Secondly, tokens can grant access to exclusive events or communities, which is also part of a special user experience. Events can include the presentation of NFT-based assets (cf. clothes on the Decentraland fashion week; arts in a gallery), “[h]owever, not all brands in the space are selling their items as NFTs; some are simply showcasing digital versions of their designs.” [136]. Thirdly, tokens can be used as rewards (cf. gamification as an experience), for example when attending an event, i.e., users are rewarded when acting in a community. This act-to-earn principle can be applied to several actions in a community (cf. wear-to-ear, play-to-earn, and contribute-to-earn) and creates the opportunity for new business models or to change the business model of social media influencer marketing [170] and thereby ensures additional transparency. Thus, “[t]he emergence of a fully immersive Metaverse will elevate this capability [of NFTs] to a new level, providing endless ways to monetize and engage with fans.” [145].

Brand development includes the constant promotion of the brand, referring to own and marketed brands [43]. Apart from newly arising brands, several existing brands expand their image through BCT. They can reach out to the target group of Blockchain enthusiasts (cf. Figure 4) and establish a credible image in the rising market, which is a key success factor in the early stage of the industry life cycle [128] in which the Blockchain industry currently is. Whilst some brands expand their image through their own BCT projects, others buy innovation by acquiring a BC-native brand. This strategy especially fits the BC industry, as “small, technology-intensive start-ups have advantages over large corporations in the early stages of the innovation process. Hence, the major source of innovation for many large companies is to buy it.” [128] (p. 241). Concurrently, “some critics have been quick to label these activations as simply a ‘PR stunt.’” [171].

The customer acquisition step aims to get customers into a shop and includes practices such as referral marketing (cf. public customer feedback is required), or suggesting related products based on customers’ preference data (cf. social media data and data mining) [43]. Tokens are also of importance in customer acquisitions to reward customers for referrals as well as their attention to advertisements; if advertisements are tailored, rewards also refer to customer preferences. In this context, BCT is applied as it facilitates the usage of fungible platform tokens as rewards, e.g., [134,172]. Moreover, ad rewards are mainly enabled when decentralising search engines and paid ad listings in the search results. An example of a decentralised, community-powered search engine that uses BCT is Presearch [15]. Likewise, our analysis of news articles shows that BCT usage in this application domain is beneficial for all the stakeholders as “decentralized search technology will be market driven. This means ‘businesses can optimize marketing investment with real results, consumers are incentivized to participate, and anonymity and data privacy are in the hands of each individual party’” [173].

4.4. Completion

The BCT application domains in the e-commerce value chain step completion are described in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step completion [109,110,116,120,131,168,174,175,176].

Figure 7. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step completion [109,110,116,120,131,168,174,175,176].

During the contract finalisation, supplier and buyer are brought together to negotiate and fix the legally binding contract, while the price determination for a single product/service includes mechanisms such as online auctions or the bundling of prices (cf. product bundling) [43]. The contract finalisation (cf. Figure 7) benefits from BCT mainly by the automation through smart contracts. Legal contracts which are implemented as smart contracts can, e.g., automatically transfer a royalty fee to the creator for each resale and thus enable a new form of revenue stream. Apart from royalty fees, other BC-specific fees accrue (e.g., Ethereum gas fees), but they highly vary according to the BC protocol and can thus affect the shop design, e.g., “transaction fees have been eliminated by use of the EOS platform” [177]. According to our news article analyses, contracts and sales transactions stored on a BC can also enable automatically generated electronic invoices. However, other articles highlight the usage of BCT to ensure the pseudonymity of customers and prevent procedures for anti-money laundering and know your customer (cf. Figure 9). Apart from fees, our analysis revealed that the price determination of NFTs is often determined by auctions; different auction mechanisms are used in this context [178]. Furthermore, prices can be influenced by strategically stimulating fluctuations in the value of cryptocurrencies, e.g., through the announcements of famous investors such as Elon Musk to invest in or withdraw from projects/cryptocurrencies [179]. Including these application domains, the automation of contracts bears further potential for what [180] calls the second economy, i.e., a global digital economy of automatically executed business processes, triggering actions alongside the physical economy, enabling tracking sales, and executing trades and payments.

4.5. Settlement

The BCT application domains in the e-commerce value chain step settlement are described in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step settlement [109,135,139,168,181,182,183,184,185,186,187,188,189,190,191,192].

Figure 8. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step settlement [109,135,139,168,181,182,183,184,185,186,187,188,189,190,191,192].

Once the contract and price are finalised, the handling of the online payment can be done, e.g., by utilising third-party providers such as PayPal, or services offered by credit card providers [43]. The usage of BCT in the settlement (cf. Figure 8) has been discussed early in the academic literature. As bitcoin was introduced as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system [4]; it is not surprising that the application domain cryptocurrency as a means of payment has been discussed early, e.g., [193]. Eliminating the middlemen of the payment system and saving their fees is a major benefit of cryptocurrency payments for merchants. A main challenge is the rather low ease of use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment [194], e.g., regarding their integration into a shop’s existing infrastructure, or their high volatility. The hesitance of shops to offer this payment method and the aspiration of customers to pay with cryptocurrencies led several third parties to offer payment processing services. These services include, e.g., APIs that enable merchants to include crypto payments easily (receiving payments in cryptocurrencies or exchanged in fiat), browser add-ons for merchants to pay with cryptocurrencies in any shop, and crypto-based credit/debit cards. Whilst these third parties charge a fee, many of the analysed news articles nevertheless argue that costs can be saved as fees are lower than the regular fees of credit card providers, e.g., “Coinremitter says the 0.23% it charges on withdrawals is among the lowest in the industry.” [195].

Apart from cryptocurrency payments and their processing, BCT enables additional services such as the fraud prevention of unjustified chargebacks due to the immutability of BC transactions, escrow services (i.e., holding funds in a multi-signature smart contract until defined obligations are fulfilled [22]), and micropayments. Especially, micropayments are told to change the human behaviour and thus enable new business modes, e.g., [83,84], but not without criticism. Even though this enables a fairer distribution of payments, especially to creators, ref. [151] questions whether this is more valuable for customers than a subscription-based model. “The payments will be so small that you won’t really pay attention to them, until you login to your dashboard to see what you spent. You’ll get a warning that it’s running low and that your ability to watch YouTube or play that new gem collection game is at risk. The ultimate question is whether we’ll really love this or hate it? Are we building a better tomorrow, or will we long for a return to the era where everything on the internet was free and we paid for it with some annoying ads that most of us ignored anyway?” [151]. From the point of feasibility, ref. [9] outline that those Blockchains using a cost-intensive and unsustainable proof-of-work consensus mechanism are unsuitable to be used for micropayments.

The distribution concerns information-based products and physical products [43]. BCT can support the distribution of all types of goods, i.e., the shipment of physical goods, the access to digital goods, and the transfer of BC-based tokens. While the transfer of NTFs is natively recorded as a transaction in a BC, NFTs also enable one to grant access to digital goods (cf. tokens representing rights). The BC-supported shipment of physical goods in most cases uses the tamper-proof storage of tracking information, which is a highly researched application domain in the field of BCT (cf. background on the e-commerce value chain). Other approaches to the BC-based shipments of physical goods rely on smart contracts, e.g., for delivery route planning.

4.6. After-Sale Services

The BCT application domains in the e-commerce value chain step after-sale services are described in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step after-sale services [109,119,169,196,197,198,199,200,201,202].

Figure 9. Blockchain application domains in the e-commerce value chain step after-sale services [109,119,169,196,197,198,199,200,201,202].

The customer data management step includes the storage of customer data, which is a core asset due to its potential usage for customer data mining and analysis (cf. for personalisation and individual need assessment) [43]. Analysing the BC-based customer data management (cf. Figure 9), the different approaches vary significantly. Apart from eliminating third parties in the process of electronic payments (i.e., financial institutions), the privacy of parties (cf. authentication by their public address) is a key element of the original idea of the peer-to-peer electronic cash system bitcoin [4]. Even though online purchases are subject to anti-money-laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations in many countries, our analysis revealed that merchants use BCT to circumvent these (e.g., Hodl Hodl [196]). While BCT is often referred to for the reduction in fraud (e.g., through immutable data storage and the authentication of transactions), ref. [203] criticises that pseudonymous payments enable fraud: “Being able to spend BTC without going through KYC enables users to dump BTC and avoid taxes”.

A different approach to customer data management based on BCT is self-sovereign identity (SSI). SSI is a new concept of digital identity as the trustless, decentralised nature of a BC network and the ability to represent data ownership can replace classical identity management providers [204]. Even though identity management is the opposite of pseudonymity, it still ensures privacy as users are in full control of their identity and can determine access rights (i.e., manage permissions). A comprehensive list of the properties of SSI is provided by Zyskind et al. [205]; a comprehensive academic model of SSI is provided by Stokkink and Pouwelse [206]. Even though BCT enables the ownership and control of private data, SSI requires the willingness of users to do so, especially to take responsibility for data loss if users can no longer access their wallets [9]. Hence, on BC-based platforms various business models of third-party identity providers exist that, e.g., enable BC-based single sign-on services with the aim that customers take part in the KYC process only once.

SSI also enables users to sell their data, but the main issue in offering such a single data stream is how to determine a reasonable price. Therefore, Amazon already patented a marketplace where organisations can put data streams (e.g., clock-streams, financial information, and social media data) for sale combined with correlated data to sell a combined data stream [199]. In contrast, ref. [207] introduce a model to sell individual data streams by utilising tokenisation and smart contracts. While the storage of large data volumes on a BC is often considered a shortcoming of BCT, solutions for large-scale data services have already been proposed, e.g., [208].

CRM aims to strengthen customer relationships and positively influence resale behaviour, e.g., by individual discounts on products or services, based on data mining and analysis [43]. In contrast to tokens as the main products (i.e., mainly NFTs), BC-based cashback tokens for rewarding loyal customers are fungible tokens, which can often be used as a means of payment when purchasing new products. Such loyalty programs can offer BC-based token rewards when paying in cryptocurrencies or in fiat currencies or when paying online or in stores. Therefore, this application domain can be easily adopted by various merchants with the aim to, e.g., “attract and engage customers, and use the growing interest in cryptocurrencies to recruit new loyalty members on a global scale” [209].

To make the purchase of BC-based digital assets as NFTs even more attractive and improve the customer relationship, many merchants offer free perks, such as other fungible or non-fungible tokens, real-word merchandise, or services. Furthermore, some merchants offer the manufacturing of a physical product when purchasing an NFT-based collectible, either as an on-demand manufacturing (cf. digi-physical product) or as a special offer to all the customers of an NFT series (cf. NFT-based exclusive offers).

5. Discussion

The presented and interpreted 41 BCT application domains classify how BCT can be used in each step of the e-commerce value chain. The interpretation of the application domains shows two aspects. Firstly, the BCT utilisation is identical for many of the value chain steps. Secondly, the value chain steps refer to the same reasons why BCT is used (cf. the discussion of underlying principles). Hence, the following discussion aims to generalise the proposed application domains by outlining the underlying principles of BCT usage in the value proposition of e-commerce. Thus, we argue why BCT is used for these application domains from an economic perspective as well as from a technical perspective.

From an economic perspective, the underlying principles of using BCT according to the identified BCT application domains in e-commerce rely on the tokenisation of ownership and the associated property rights. These rights include using an asset and deciding on its usage by others, earning income from an asset, and transferring an asset (cf. new institutional economics [210]). Our analysis reveals that BCT is used to record the ownership of digital goods, digi-physical products, and data. This ability is a major strength, particularly in Web3 [211]. The ownership can be proven through digital collectible management or self-sovereign identity, for example when creating a digital self or when aiming to exercise property rights.

First, the property right to use a good is aided by BCT through tokenisation. Token owners can either use tokenised goods themselves (e.g., wearing NFT-based clothes to create a digital self and using personal data for identification through SSI) or grant access to tokenised goods as they can prove ownership (e.g., access to customer preferences for ads and access to data controlled by SSI). Furthermore, tokens (especially NFTs) can grant the owner certain rights (e.g., tokenised licenses to copyrights, NFT-based access to events, exclusive offers, or digital products). This principle of BCT usage is referred to as permission management, e.g., [212,213].

Second, BCT also aids in earning income from the ownership of goods as the permission to use a good can be automatically rewarded (e.g., users providing data on marketing preferences and creators earning royalties on resales). Furthermore, BCT-based rewards are paid for customer activities, i.e., when customers generate certain tangible or intangible assets. Examples include providing resources such as computing power and storage for marketplaces, acting in communities such as content creation (cf. act-to-earn), attracting customers through referral marketing, or spending time and attention to view ads. Payments for customer activities are enabled as BCT tracks customer activity in the form of transactions and can, thus, record the ownership of generated assets which are otherwise assets owned by the platform (cf. content generated for a social media platform that integrates e-commerce). This principle of BCT usage is referred to as contribution management or reward management [211,214].

Third, the transfer of tokenised goods (i.e., sending existing tokens to another wallet address as well as minting new NFTs) and their ownership is natively supported as a BC records all the transactions in its tamper-proof ledger, which can even be automated by smart contracts (cf. legal contracts as smart contracts). Additionally, BCT enables the transfer of digi-physical goods as the physical goods can be authenticated before the purchase. Furthermore, the distribution (i.e., physical transfer) can be indirectly supported by BCT through the possibility to enable tracking during shipment.

From a technical perspective, the native characteristics of BCT are an important reason to utilise BCT in e-commerce. Due to its decentralised nature, platforms based on a BC network can replace/remove or decrease middlemen, enabling a direct interaction along the whole value chain (cf. direct creator/brand-consumer communication, direct P2P sales, direct payment processing). The immutable, tamper-proof, and transparent storage of information allows one to track and trace information (cf. tracking during shipment and the tracing of supply chain information such as goods provenance). Additionally, transactions are cryptographically authenticated, which enables the authentication of data (cf. authenticating product reviews and authenticating the provenance of goods). These characteristics are essential in e-commerce to detect counterfeit products and prevent fraudulent behaviour, e.g., “[t]he combination of the astronomical costs facing our eCommerce businesses, from fraudulent chargebacks to failed deliveries and fake user reviews, big savings can be delivered by having Nuggets integrated, said Johnson.” [191]. This is particularly important as the shift towards peer-to-peer concepts introduces the need to protect the peers from potential fraudulent agents, arising from the uncertain, vague, and ambiguous characteristics of the interaction between unknown entities [126]. This is faced by BCT due to its trustless environment, as immutability, integrity, and transparency ensured by the BC protocol make trust in network participants obsolete when trust in the underlying BCT is given [21]. Furthermore, the feature of smart contracts enables the automation of several actions along the e-commerce value chain such as the automated payments of rewards, automatically executed transactions (e.g., of token payments) if contract conditions are met, or automated creation of e-invoices. Finally, fungible and non-fungible tokens are the core concept to enable tokenisation, i.e., the tokenisation of ownership and the associated property rights.

While the generalisation of the underlying principles of BCT usage is especially interesting for researchers to address in future research, the motivation of our research was practitioner-driven. Thus, we will briefly discuss how our findings impact practitioners and policymakers. As shown in the background section, the usage of BCT in e-commerce is dominated by a few well-researched applications, such as tracing product information, BC-based payments, or the handling of customer data. In contrast, our findings outline several BC-based e-commerce activities that are not frequently discussed and thus provide an opportunity for competitive advantage. We will summarise the most significant takeaways from each VC step as follows:

• The new target group of Blockchain/crypto enthusiasts is an opportunity to expand a business as they are early adopters willing to spend a lot of money on innovative products.
• The experience design is an important aspect besides purely convincing customers of the benefits of BCT.
• The interconnectedness through communities is of particular importance in BC-based e-commerce.
• Instead of just expanding a business, many organisations benefit from developing a brand specialised in BCT products and services.
• The completion and settlement are well understood in BC-based e-commerce and do not provide a competitive advantage or unique selling point for Blockchain enthusiasts.
• Even though customers aim for data ownership and self-sovereign identity, CRM is still an important aspect of after-sale services and can be enhanced by BCT.

Apart from these takeaways regarding single VC activities, we encourage practitioners to develop holistic ideas for the innovations of their business model based on the rich collection of examples and their inter-relations. To illustrate how this can be done based on our research, we will use the following example of a holistic idea for a clothing brand. An established e-commerce clothing brand can extend its assortment design and create fashion for the metaverse in the form of 3D models represented as an NFT. They thus address Blockchain enthusiasts as a new target group (cf. offer design). The new NFT-based clothing collection is offered via a pop-up shop in a metaverse that enables a gamified experience and a special experience design (cf. offer presentation). To enhance the interconnectedness with and among customers, the NFTs grant access to an exclusive community of the brand (which is interesting for marketing). The contract when selling the NFT-based collection includes royalties for future sales in case an item of the collection is sold afterwards (cf. completing). The payment is handled through cryptocurrencies as the means of payment and the token is directly distributed to the customer’s wallet (cf. settlement). Later, the company could offer the manufacturing of the clothes their customers bought as NFT collectibles to enhance the customer relationship and promote further purchases (cf. after-sale service).

6. Conclusions

Aiming to enhance the current knowledge base on how and why BCT is used and might be used in e-commerce from a holistic and practitioner-driven perspective, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of news articles from CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. As a result, we propose 41 application domains of BCT along the e-commerce value chain, describe them, show the full extent of each category by providing anchoring examples, and interpret them by referring to the academic literature. In the subsequent discussion across all the value chain steps, we generalise the proposed application domains and outline why BCT is used (according to its underlying principles) in the value proposition in e-commerce from an economic perspective as well as from a technical perspective.

Our findings are limited by the common critique of the qualitative content analysis as a method. Therefore, we ensured a rigorous examination by relying on a well-established method for analysing qualitative data, and took actions to ensure reliability and validity through recoding parts of the material and determining the final coding frame in discussions with other researchers. Another limitation in our methodological approach is a potential bias according to the socio-political agenda of the authors of the analysed news articles, as they might be Blockchain/crypto enthusiasts and their reports might be overly enthusiastic, mainly highlighting the success stories. More critical articles are calling BCT in e-commerce a hype, presuming the NFT market to be overrated, and criticising organisations for using BCT only for marketing purposes; see also [9]. Nevertheless, the approach to analyse news articles fits our overall research goal, as the goal was not to provide a state-of-the-art of current applications but to provide an overview of application domains which might be used in e-commerce in a few years, i.e., focusing on the potential development in the field. Hence, our findings are relevant for practitioners who want to get a general idea of potential BCT-related innovations for the e-commerce business model, cf. [1] and to assess which parts of their value creation would be affected by the adoption of BCT.

The findings of our research imply that BCT can affect all the steps along the value creation in the e-commerce business model. Thus, we were able to introduce multiple examples for each value chain step and the respective activities. Furthermore, along with the description of the suggested application domains, we pointed out several links between them, which empower practitioners to develop holistic ideas for the innovations of their business model, as described in the discussion.

Our findings are also highly relevant for researchers as the paper extends the current knowledge base of BCT application domains in e-commerce, which mainly consists of research on the single aspects of e-commerce and a few comprehensive reviews based on the academic literature, by a holistic perspective considering the complete value chain of the e-commerce business model. By introducing examples for each value chain step, our study implies that a research focus on the complete value creation in a business model is worth considering to foster business model innovations as suggested by Gassmann et al. [1]. Even though we indicate how application domains along the value chain can be linked, future research is required that addresses this aspect.

In future research, we will further analyse the interconnectedness of the proposed application domains, e.g., as described in the example. On the one hand, the proposed application domains could be applied to various single cases in the field. This would allow for a deeper contextualised and nuanced understanding of some of the application domains with the aim to assess certain combinations of domains in further detail and develop business model patterns of BCT in e-commerce. On the other hand, the application domains could be used to develop a method for practitioners for them to combine the application domains according to their current business model and to develop a BC-based business model innovation in the field of e-commerce. Apart from e-commerce, future research could be focused on a generalised view and indicate value chain steps and their respective BC-based application domains that are relevant considering other business models as well, such as marketing or after-sale services. Thus, the contribution of this research is also worth considering in other fields apart from e-commerce.