Abstract

Internet importance and effect is increasing in every part of daily life, especially in business where internet can
provide some serious solutions for many issues, it can alter many traditional methods and procedures that would
include distribution. Distribution channels are traditionally the organization, or set of organizations, responsible
for delivering a product from the manufacturer to the end-users, Internet has affected traditional distribution
channels in developed countries and markets, as a matter of fact; internet itself can be viewed as a new
distribution channel. Accordingly, this study aims at identifying the effect of internet usage on the traditional
distribution channels in Jordanian private commercial firms in terms of creating new direct online sales channel
and reducing the numbers of intermediaries. The study also examines the moderating effect of firm’s size on the
original relation between internet usage and traditional distribution channels. In order to achieve these
objectives, two main hypotheses were formed based on the literature review. A regulated research methodology
was applied to test the hypotheses over a proportional systematic random sample from large, medium, and small
private commercial firms in Jordan. A questionnaire was constructed and distributed to top and middle
management of private commercial firms in Jordan. 904 screened and filtered questionnaires were processes
using SPSS. The results of the statistical analysis were demonstrated. The study had shown that internet partly
effect traditional distribution channels, the effect is limited to creating new direct online channel, and even this
effect is weak, and got even weaker as the firms size got smaller.

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