Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty In Online Market Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Abstract-The aim of this research is to investigate how customer's trust can conceive through technology acceptance factors, website service quality, the other purpose of this article explore how internet customer satisfaction and loyalty connected to each other and how they are affected by these items. This research materials are collected from several literature that describe how a conceptual model of trust can be created and how appearance of website and good brand recognition can motivate a customer and how ease usage of website and quality of website can satisfy customers. Our study also confirms that e-satisfaction can directly and positively affect on customer e-loyalty; the technology acceptance factors can directly and positively affect on customer e-satisfaction and customer-loyalty: service quality provide by the website can directly affect on e-satisfaction and customer e-loyalty.

Keywords- Brand, E-loyalty, E-satisfaction, Trust and perceived risk.

INTRODUCTION

The growth and astounding progress of internet over the last decade has meant to substantial changes for retail trading for many goods markets. The fact that e-commerce solely can be classified as kind of information technology and that many business activities are transacted through the internet including advertising ,selling service and so on. Former studies have emphasized this point that the consumer purchase process, particularly, consumers' attitudes and beliefs noting convenience and security concerns have significant effects on their intention to purchase online [9]. A primary scope for fostering business-to-customer B2C e-commerce is to relieve the scarcity of consumer confidence and tranquility to increase the satisfaction in each transaction the consumer accomplishes. Satisfaction is also necessary to reduce the consumers' uncertainty about the virtual firm' honesty and its ability to provide product and services correctly in marketing concept [16]. Customer satisfaction is related with frequent repeated purchases with loyalty. A number of studies have illustrated the significant role of website technology factors and service quality in influencing customer e-satisfaction and e-loyalty , in terms of customer' psychological state ,cognition ,and behavior which is derived from how they assume and feel about their online shopping experiences, but little is elicited about the reflection of customer-related internal factors in the same way. Therefore, this study propose that how the external factors like of website technology and service quality affect online customer satisfaction and loyalty as a whole.

Trust is a key variable to promote B2C e-commerce based on many surveys acknowledged its importance role in fulfilling the action of purchasing and it is an important factor for successful online transaction. Trust create positive perception about the future behavior of the firm and influences the consumer's buying intention, satisfaction, and loyalty[7]. The concept of trust and perceived risk can be viewed as psychological state and have been identified as critical mediators that impact customers online purchase behavior [10]. This research base on online environment indexes such as website quality and website brand tempt customer purchase inclination from online retailer whether this impact is mediated by customer trust and perceived risk For the online store the website is the only course to communicate with customers . Hence, the quality of website plays important role of draw the customer attention and accordingly is a trustworthiness cue especially at the beginning of transaction, regarding this point that website quality exclusively could not persuade clients to trust the website. Thus, website brand can present intangible role which is able to draw customer trust .so, brand recognition is the most important part of a company through its marketing strategy.

Researcher have point out that online store atmosphere contains all the elements used to design the website ,features ,and its lay out, with examples including the background color and patterns icons, dynamic scheme ,typeface and web border [2]. Based on previous studies this article defined the stimulus as the criteria that are tangible such as web site' technical adequacy ,content quality ,specific content and appearance [1] and intangible such as web site awareness and website image to internet user.

The risks and ventures of online shopping are different from those of bricks and mortar store shopping[16]. Some reasons of risk are the consumer inability to value the quality of product directly. the shortage of personal contact with a salesperson, the costs of learning how to use the internet or site, the change from other channels to electronic one ,the generation of anxiety and stress for consumers who don't feel comfortable using internet ,the shortage of interaction and social contact with other people ,and security of payment and personal information, however, the perception of risk and costs is not identical for all internet buyers[16]. Perceived risk is a customer's anticipation of adverse consequences and feelings of uncertainty regarding the services provided by the organization[14] .While some purchaser is assuming that electronic commerce as a risky and expensive method of buying, other value the privileges of e-commerce to such as ease of information searching and comparing product and price [16]. Weiss et la (2003) , indicated that perceived risk depends on the buyer's general internet expertise as well as on the information provided on website.

Based on technology acceptance model(TAM), the aim of this study was to access the degree to which the risk the consumer perceive in online commerce determines the firm signal that influence the customer satisfaction and trust in the website . it is suggested that in order to solve the consumer adverse choosing problem ,online vendor will try to generate trust by sending positive signals like reputation ,the firm brick and mortar experience and service quality or warrantee offers[16].

Trust in the seller is a vital key to building customer loyalty and maintaining continuity in buyer-seller relationship [3]. If trust is an important aspect of online shopping then understanding the antecedents of trust should be a prime concern of online vendors.

Facing with dramatically fierce market competition, business has gradually recognized the customer loyalty is a key to success [18]. An empirical surveys showed us average customer must shop four times at an online store before the store profits from that customer[3] .so it is vendors obligation to devise a method to encourage customer to repurchase from an on line mall, understanding the belief and motivation underlying customers repurchase intention towards online shopping was the objective of this study. Previous studies posited this point that if proportion of loyal customer in total customers increased by a small share, the corporate profits and overall value would substantially increased [18]. Furthermore, only those who continuously purchase product and services of the company and more like the business are true loyalists of this business [6].

This study focused online business-to-consumer transaction. Technology acceptance factors, website quality of service, trust and perceived risk and customer e-satisfaction and e-loyalty will be scouted out.

Key learning point

website are the essentially a sort of information technology. Shopping websites allow customers to choose goods based on their own necessities and provide business with transaction platform through interactive communication to fulfill the transaction. However, for the customer to easily buy online, he or she must first find the website useful and easy to use [9]. Internet customer experience include four dimensions: the convenience of website, customer autonomy, a sense of customer relation and customers trust to site [18]. Trust and convenience are very necessary for the customer to complete the transaction and autonomy and a sense of relation are essential for customer loyalty[18]. A good number of previous studies have adopted technology acceptance factors as a measurement of the inclination for customers to consume online. Davis proposed the technology acceptance model (TAM) to explain and predict user acceptance of information system (IS) or information technology (IT) based on TAM perceive usefulness (PU) defined as degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance, is a major factor[5], and perceive ease of use (PEOU) defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort[9] . Individual attitude of toward e-shopping are strongly and positively correlated with user acceptance[15]. the empirical research results confirmed that perceive ease of use of trading online(PEOUT) and perceive usefulness (PU) significantly determine individual loyalty towards e-shopping[9] . website quality is defined as here as users evaluation of whether a web site's features meet user's needs and reflect the overall excellence of website[1]. Internet users are classified internet shoppers into two categories first, those who have made purchases on the internet and internet browsers those who have browsed online for product or services but have not made purchases[10]. The quality of website affects the users view of the site because it is the portal through, which transaction are conducted .website quality is measured from perspective users by four underlying dimensions: Technical adequacy, content quality, specific content and appearance[1]. Technical adequacy means that appropriate technologies have been adopted by web retailer, such as ease of navigation, speed of page loading, valid link and so on. Content quality deals with attributes such as information usefulness, completeness, accuracy and so on. Specific content refers to finding specific details about the service, customer support, privacy policy and other important information. Appearance refers to the visual attractiveness of the web site such as colors, fonts and multimedia features[1].But regarding this point is vital that there are discrepancies between use of the website and online purchasing especially respect to repurchase[17].

Many folks believe that ease of use of a web site is not a significant point whereas those believe that perceived usefulness has a stronger effect on loyalty towards an e-service [3].

Web site brand is defined as a name or symbol like logo, trademark and package design that uniquely recognizes the merchandise or services of a seller and differentiate them from those of its competitors. Brand equity is a set of assets linked to a brand's name and symbol that acts to the value provided by product or service to a firm[10]. Brand equity creates a familiar knowledge which is composed two major dimensions: Brand awareness and Brand image. Awareness is composed of brand reminder and recognition, while image is composed of a various association with a brand[10]. Website recognition feedback familiarity achievement from the past exposure. Website reminder refers to the ability to remember a website. Familiarity is not the same as experience over time. Brand image could come from a variety of sources including consumer experience, marketing communication and word of mouths.

Website quality service measured service quality (SERVQUAL) in following five phases: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy [3]. In electronic commerce service quality measures have been applied to assess the quality of search engine and factor association with website success [9]. The means objectives of website service quality represent aspects of the customer desired e-service experience such as safe system security, maximize product information, maximize ease of use and are operationalized by e-service process traits during the customers interactions with the e-service in the website . The report result of a study that measured customer satisfaction with a e-commerce channel through the constructs prescribed by three established frame works, namely the technology acceptance model, transaction cost analysis (TCA) and SERVQUAL [9]. The study found that TAM components _ Perceived usefulness _ are important informing consumer attitudes and in strengthening the e-commerce channel. This study also found empirical support for the assurance dimension of SERVQUAL as a determinant in e-commerce channel satisfaction. It was suggested that when a customer perceived better website service quality such as special treatment benefits, they will have more e-satisfaction; when customers feel e-satisfaction with the website, so they will feel more e-loyalty. Furthermore; when the website is responsive it will directly influenced the customer's e-loyalty.

Chiu 2006 divided transactional cost into a four parts: explicit unit benefit cost, information search cost, moral hazard cost and specific hold up cost that specific hold up cost defined as a particular intangible and tangible asset made in a course of buying and selling. In general, specific hold up cost refers to a relative lack of transferability of assets intended for use in given transaction to other users. There are six main types of asset hold up specificity: site specificity, physical asset specificity, human asset specificity, brand names, dedicate assets and temporal specificity [9].

In an online environment, in contrast to physical one, greater risk and less trust expected due to the fact that there is a major difficulty in evaluating a product or service as there are no visual or tangible indication about the quality of the product nor face to face interaction with sales force, and the purchase is affected by security and privacy issue [13]. Risk plays an essential role in a consumer behavior and it makes a valuable contribution towards a explaining information searching behavior and consumer purchase decision making [4]. Risk has been defined as a attribute of a decision that reflects the variance in feasible result and includes all the negative consequences of a purchase for a consumer that cannot be anticipated [3]. In e-commerce, the retail channel is the internet. The risk linked to the channel is usually greater than the risk linked to the seller in online shopping. Hence, this work will consider the general risk perceived in online buying. Online buying may be associated with a negative result that are not found in a traditional commerce, such as security and privacy problem, the lack of sale person advice or inability to touch, smell or see the product. These factors enhance adverse selection problem and perception of risk.

Trust is a psychological state and a multi-faceted concept that incorporates cognitive an affective trust [12]. A trustor can have cognitive trust, which is "good rational reasons why the object of trust merits trust", or affective trust that is motivated by strong positive feeling toward that which is trusted [10]. Trust can also be defined as a belief that one party can rely on a word or promise given by another party, and it can also help to develop or maintain a relationship between the two parties [11]

As a summary psychological state resulting when the emotion surrounding disconfirmed expectations is coupled with a customer's prior feeling about a customer experiences. Based on a Hise 2000 research the consumer perception of online convenience merchandising site design and financial security play important roles in e-satisfaction assessments. Customer loyalty defined a deeply health commitment to rebuy or re-patronize a preferred product or service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same brand or same brand set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior[9]. On the other hand e-loyalty identified as a customer's favorable attitude toward an electronic business resulting in repeat buying behavior [9]. Furthermore; the investigated the impact of satisfaction and loyalty in the context of electronic commerce. They conclude that also e-satisfaction has an impact on e-loyalty this relationship is moderated by consumer's individual level factors and firm's business level factor.

conclusion

Our paper found the important role of the technology factors in e-satisfaction and e-loyalty of customer directly and it is consequential variable. In order to observe the positive behavior of customer the website should provide facilities to allow the customers save time and thrift in money without any confusion while having shopping efficiency, leading in enhanced satisfaction and loyalty. Shopping websites can provide customizable features for customers, such as a recall customer information system and an order tracking system. A recall customer information system cant out recall customers billing and shipping address when they return to a website to place an order. An order tracking system can help customer to track the status of their orders 24 hours a day. This paper finally point out that satisfaction with online shopping increases as perception of convenience become more positive [9]. Therefore, if a shopping website managers wishes to attract more internet shoppers, he or she must think of means to increase website's usefulness.

Notably this study indicates that website brand is more influential factor than website quality in online purchase decision making, implying that managing the brand of website is more important than emphasizing the interface quality in the context of online shopping. this finding is particularly important for managers of online retailers as they decide how to allocate resources .this paper suggest that the online retailers must consider concentrating on their marketing strategies more on establishing the awareness and image of website. The firm reputation has significant effect on trust in case of high risk perception. Our investigation posited that customer trust and perceived risk could well capture the effect of online environment cues although website quality appears to indirectly affect perceived risk.

Furthermore, based on our literature we note that the effect of website service quality on customer e-satisfaction and e-loyalty is basically positive and direct. Thus in the face of increasing competition, internet shopping websites want to attract and retain customers and the first condition is to provide good website service quality to customers. In order to reach this purpose the enterprise must enhance their service quality such as implementing , general feedback on website quality, competitive price of the product, list of goods and production existed in warehouse, delivering process, security and privacy policy, sales return policy , customer support, multistep discount , and promotion and incentive. Conducted this features enhance service quality and therefore e-satisfaction.

At end we conclude the service quality has positive influence on customer's satisfaction and also high risk perception especially in part of security for transaction and privacy policy. Website brand draw the trust of online purchaser and shopping experience. It can be known as trust key to persuade customer for repurchasing which is caused loyalty. Our study also confirms that e-satisfaction can directly and positively affect on customer e-loyalty; the technology acceptance factors can directly and positively affect on customer e-satisfaction and customer-loyalty: service quality provide by the website can directly affect on e-satisfaction and customer e-loyalty.