Customer Satisfaction Towards Online Shopping by Empirical Validation of Self-Determination Theory

The chapter aims at understanding the predictors of customer satisfaction with online shopping in India by using self-determination theory. This research validates perceived enjoyment, social influence, social media interactions, reverse logistics, and pay-on-delivery (POD) mode of payment as new predictors of customer satisfaction in online shopping. Data was collected through a self-administered and structured questionnaire targeting online shoppers in North Indian states. A sample of 424 online shoppers was considered in this research. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to evaluate the constructs. CFA was applied to calculate validity and composite reliability. To examine the hypothesized relationships, path analysis was carried out. The findings of the chapter revealed that social influence, reverse logistics, and POD mode of payment had a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction. Perceived enjoyment emerged as the strongest predictor of online shopping satisfaction. In contrast, social media interactions emerged as non-significant.

Determinants of Online Purchase Intention of Apparel Products in Lebanon

This study investigates factors (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, privacy concerns, trust, innovativeness, and perceived benefits) affecting Lebanese consumers’ attitude toward online purchasing and their intention to purchase online. Data collected from 416 online shoppers were analyzed using regression analysis. All the factors affect attitude towards online purchasing except trust and privacy concerns which were not supported. In addition, results show that attitude toward online purchasing affect online purchase intention. This study is the first to empirically examine factors influencing online purchase intention towards apparel products in Lebanon. The study provides insight from an overlooked emerging country, Lebanon.

Shipment Tracking, Delivery Speed, and Product Presentation as Antecedents of Repurchase Intention

The chapter aims at understanding the predictors of attitude and repurchase intention with online shopping in India by using signaling theory. This research validates shipment tracking, delivery speed, and product presentation as new predictors influencing attitude towards online purchase. It also validates trust as a mediator between attitude and repurchase intention. Data was collected through a self-administered and structured questionnaire targeting online shoppers in North Indian states. A sample of 519 online shoppers was considered in this research. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to evaluate the interrelationships among constructs. To examine the hypothesized relationships, path analysis was carried out. The findings of the chapter revealed that delivery speed and product presentation had a significant positive impact on attitude towards online shopping. In contrast, shipment tracking emerged as non-significant antecedent of attitude. The study further empirically provides the evidence that trust mediates the relationship between attitude and repurchase intention.

Batch Order and Discrete Order Picking Integrated with Vehicle Routing Decisions

In a business-to-consumer (B2C) context, customers order more frequently and in smaller quantities, resulting in a high number of consignments. Moreover, online shoppers expect a fast and accurate delivery at low cost or even free. To survive in such a market, companies can no longer optimise individual supply chain processes, but need to integrate several activities. In this article, the integrated order picking-vehicle routing problem is analysed in an e-commerce environment. In previous research, a mathematical programming formulation has been formulated in literature but only small-size instances can be solved to optimality. Two picking policies are studied: discrete order picking and batch order picking. The influence of various problem contexts on the value of integration is investigated: a small picking time period, outsourcing to 3PL service providers, and a dynamic environment context.

The victims, villains and heroes of ‘panic buying’: News media attribution of responsibility for COVID-19 stockpiling

Societies often respond to a crisis by attributing blame to some groups while constructing others as victims and heroes. While it has received scant sociological attention, ‘panic buying’ is a critical indicator of such public sentiment at the onset of a crisis, and thus a crucial site for analysis. This article traces dynamics of blame in news media representations of an extreme period of panic buying during COVID-19 in Australia. Analysis reveals that lower socio-economic and ethnically diverse consumers were blamed disproportionately. Unlike wealthier consumers who bulk-bought online, shoppers filling trollies in-store were depicted as selfish and shameful, described using dehumanising language, and portrayed as ‘villains’ who threatened social order. Supermarkets were cast simultaneously as ‘victims’ of consumer aggression and ‘heroes’ for their moral leadership, trustworthiness and problem-solving. This portrayal misunderstands the socio-emotional drivers of panic buying, exacerbates stigma towards already disadvantaged groups, and veils the corporate profiteering that encourages stockpiling.

Explaining the Factors Influencing Consumer Perception, Adoption Readiness, and Perceived Usefulness toward Digital Transactions: Online Retailing Experience of Millennials in India

The present study intends to identify and evaluate the factors affecting the perception and readiness of young online shoppers regarding digital transactions. Thirty variables were identified through systematic literature review that can influence consumers’ perception of digital transactions. Data were collected from 525 millennials from north India. After performing factor analysis, five broad factors were identified namely (a) personal characteristics and incentives, (b) knowledge technical capability, (c) perceived usefulness, (d) sense of security, and (e) transaction risk, which affect the perception and intention as well as adaption of young consumers regarding the digital transactions. Using regression analysis, factors affecting consumer’s perception and readiness regarding digital transactions are modeled out. The study also examines the influence on intention to adopt digital transactions and the actual adaption of digital transactions. Further, the study concludes that consumer intention to make digital transactions mediates the relationship between factors of digital transactions and digital transaction adaption behavior.

Value of Online–Off-line Return Partnership to Off-line Retailers

Problem definition: This paper examines whether and, if so, how much an online–off-line return partnership between online and third-party retailers with physical stores (or “location partners”) generates additional value to location partners. Academic/practical relevance: Online shoppers often prefer to return products to stores rather than mailing them back. Many online retailers have recently started to collaborate with location partners to offer the store return option to their customers, and we quantify its economic benefit to a location partner. Methodology: We analyze proprietary data sets from Happy Returns (which provides return services for more than 30 online retailers) and one of its location partners, using a panel difference-in-differences model. In our study, a treatment is the initiation of the return service at each of the location partner’s stores, and an outcome is the store and online channel performance of the location partner. We then explore the mechanisms of underlying customer behavior that drive these outcomes. Results: We find that the partnership increases the number of unique customers, items sold, and net revenue in both store and online channels. We identify two drivers for this improved performance: (1) the location partner acquires new customers in both store and online channels, and (2) existing customers change their shopping patterns only in the store channel after using the return service; in particular, they visit stores more often, purchase more items, and generate higher revenue after their first return service. Managerial implications: To our knowledge, we provide the first direct empirical evidence of value to location partners from a return partnership, and as these partnerships become more prevalent, our findings have important managerial implications for location partners and online retailers alike.

The internet and consumer privacy - shopping basket or too hard basket

<p>The Internet has rapidly become the world’s most prevalent form of communication. It can be accessed twenty-four hours a day from virtually any location in the world from a myriad of technologically savvy devices. Internet users can keep up to date with world events, watch movies, listen to music, interact with government agencies, analyse business trends, undertake research and maintain contact with people anywhere. The Internet also provides the ability for users to shop ‘online’ with virtually any product or service supplier anywhere in the world. This has created concerns regarding the use of personal information obtained through the medium of the Internet. An individual’s right to privacy is a right enshrined in legislation and through tort law. With the uptake of technology and the burgeoning use of the Internet the subject of online privacy has become a complex issue for law and policy makers both in New Zealand and internationally. The aim of this paper is to look at the online shopper or consumer and how their information could be protected. This paper looks at the key areas of privacy legislation, the storage of data and the rise of new technologies including ‘cloud’ computing and suggests that the complexity of online privacy is such that a different approach to access and use of personal information of online shoppers may be required. The rate of technology change, the enormity of the data capture situation and the international accessibility of the Internet are all factors that create an almost impossible situation for ensuring consumer privacy so this paper proposes that the onus moves away from the law and policy makers and put into the hands of the users of the Internet.</p>

Would compensation be necessary? The importance of service recovery strategy in e-retail delivery problems

PurposeThis study examines the different effects of service recovery strategies on customers' future intentions when online shoppers were experiencing delivery failures. Two types of problem severity are evaluated: wrong-product delivery (issues with the product quality or quantity) and late delivery. This study also investigates the impact of service criticality on the relationship between service recovery strategies and customers' future intentions.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs experimental research with 123 online shoppers as participants. Following the results, a subsequent test is conducted to examine the effect of participants' demographics on future intentions. Finally, the current study elaborates the findings using qualitative research, interviewing both sides impacted by the service failures: online shoppers and e-retail managers.FindingsThe findings show that complementing product replacement with monetary compensation is the most effective strategy to improve repurchase intention after a dissatisfaction moment. This effect is indifferent to service criticality and severity. Age influences the participants' repurchase intentions, in which younger people are less tolerant of service failures. In contrast, gender and education level do not provide any differences. To prevent delivery failures, managers participating in this study suggest several best practices regarding systems and infrastructure, people and coordination and collaboration with logistics partners.Research limitations/implicationsThe study mainly examines a limited type of service and service failures. Further studies are encouraged to expand the variables and scenarios, as well as to employ more distinctive methods, to enrich the findings related to recovery strategy in the e-commerce industry.Practical implicationsGiven proper compensation, service failure could create momentum for online retailers to boost customer loyalty. This study suggests that managers design the most effective service recovery to win customers back to the business.Originality/valueThis paper enriches the literature related to a service recovery strategy, particularly within the online shopping context.

Sense of online betrayal, brand hate, and outrage customers’ anti-brand activism

The current study develops a research model and explores the correlation between customer sense of online betrayal, brand hate, and anti-brand activism. The outrage customers’ anti-brand behaviors consist of negative online word of mouth, online public complaining, and online boycott. Data from an online survey of 383 online shoppers were used to test seven proposed hypotheses. The partial least square–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was adopted to assess the measurement and structural model. The findings showed that the sense of online betrayal positively and significantly affects brand hate and anti-brand behaviors. In addition, brand hate is also the leading cause of customers’ anti-brand actions. The present study highlights the mediation role of brand hate in eliciting revenge from consumers subjected to online betrayal. This study also gives some recommendations to customers to stop the misconduct behaviors of online betrayals, such as spreading their betrayal cases to friends and relatives via social media, then asking for supports and help from governmental and legal agencies and participating in boycotts; raising boycott movements against the betraying brand should be considered as the most extreme punishment.