Online Customer Experience : What is the Experience and how is it Difference for Frequent and Infrequent Purchasers, Age Cohorts and Gender Groups?

What do we know? • Customer Experience is increasingly becoming the new standard for differentiation in both offline and online retailing, and offers a sustainable competitive advantage. o The economic value of a company’s offering has been observed to increase when the customer has a fulfilling shopping experience (Pine & Gilmore, 1998) o Crafting engaging and customer experience is a known method of generating loyalty, advocacy and word of mouth (Tynan & McKechnie, 2009). o A good experience can entice consumers to shop for longer and spend more (Kim, 2001). • The customer’s experience is made up of diverse elements occurring before, during and after the purchase itself. (Discussed further on page 5). It is cumulative over time and can be influenced by touch points across multiple channels. What remains unclear? • How do Coles customers respond to the elements of online customer experience? • How does the online customer experience differ for frequent and infrequent purchasers? • Do differences between genders and age cohorts for online customer experience exist?

Re-examining online customer experience to include purchase frequency and perceived risk

This research examines the important emerging area of online customer experience (OCE) using data collected from an online survey of frequent and infrequent online shoppers. The study examines a model of antecedents for cognitive and affective experiential states and their influence on outcomes, such as online shopping satisfaction and repurchase intentions. The model also examines the relationships between perceived risk, trust, satisfaction and repurchase intentions. Theoretically, the study provides a broader understanding of OCE, through insights into two shopper segments identified as being important in e-retailing. For managers, the study highlights areas of OCE and their implications for ongoing management of the online channel.

Online customer experience in e-retailing: an empirical model of antecedents and outcomes

The theoretical understanding of online shopping behavior has received much attention. Less focus has been given to the formation of the customer experience (CE) that results from online shopper interactions with e-retailers. This study develops and empirically tests a model of the relationship between antecedents and outcomes of online customer experience (OCE) within Internet shopping websites using an international sample. The study identifies and provides operational measures of these variables plus the cognitive and affective components of OCE. The paper makes contributions towards new knowledge and understanding of how e-

Gamification and the online retail experience

Purpose – As online retailing grows in importance there is increasing interest in the online customer experience. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of gamification, the use of game mechanics, in enabling consumer engagement with online retailers. Design/methodology/approach – The research adopts a qualitative methodology carrying out 19 in-depth interviews with individuals who are frequent online shoppers. Findings – Findings support the importance of including game elements to enhance the retail experience. However, data also suggests that without appropriate management customers can subvert gamification strategies to create their own “games” which increases competitive pressure between retailers. Practical implications – The paper suggests ways in which retailers might more successfully “gamify” their online retail stores and reduce incidences of undesirable customer behaviour. Originality/value – This paper provides empirical support to the current paucity of research into the role of gamification in the context of the online retail experience.

Online grocery shopping: The impact of shopping frequency on perceived risk

Online grocery shopping has enjoyed strong growth and it is predicted this channel will continue to grow exponentially in the coming years. While online shopping has attracted an abundance of research interest, examinations of online grocery shopping behaviour are only now emerging. Shopping online for groceries differs considerably from general online shopping due to the perishability and variability of the product, and frequency of the shopping activity. Two salient gaps underpin this research into online grocery shopping. This study responds to calls to investigate the online shoppers’ experience in the context of online purchasing frequency. Second, this study examines the mediating effect of perceived risk between trust and online repurchase intention of groceries. An online survey was employed to collect data from shoppers who were recruited from a multi-channel grocery e-retailer’s database. The online survey, comprising 16 reflective validated scale items, was sent to 555 frequent and infrequent online grocery shoppers. Results find that while customer satisfaction predicts trust for both infrequent and frequent online grocery shoppers, perceived risk fully mediates the effect of trust on repurchase intentions for infrequent online grocery shoppers. Furthermore path analysis reveals that the developed behavioural model is variant across both groups of shoppers. Theoretically, we provide a deeper understanding of the online customer experience, while gaining insight into two shopper segments identified as being important to grocery e-retailers. For managers, this study tests an online customer behavioural model with actual purchasing behaviour and identifies the continued presence of perceived risk in grocery e-retailing regardless of purchase frequency or experience.

Understanding online customer repurchasing intention and the mediating role of trust - an empirical investigation in two developed countries

Although e-commerce adoption and customers initial purchasing behavior have been well studied in the literature, repeat purchase intention and its antecedents remain understudied. This study proposes a model to understand the extent to which trust mediates the effects of vendor-specific factors on customers intention to repurchase from an online vendor. The model was tested and validated in two different country settings. We found that trust fully mediates the relationships between perceived reputation, perceived capability of order fulfillment, and repurchasing intention, and partially mediates the relationship between perceived website quality and repurchasing intention in both countries. Moreover, multi-group analysis reveals no significant between-country differences of the model with regards to the antecedents and outcomes of trust, except the effect of reputation on trust. Academic and practical implications and future research are discussed. © 2009 Operational Research Society Ltd.

Can location-based mobile marketing enhance the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty?

This study intends to explore the impact of customer experience on customer satisfaction and loyalty by trying to understand how location-based mobile marketing might enhance the customer experience. Primary data was collected from 201 smartphone users in 24 countries. Results have indicated that targeted location-based marketing positively influences customers’ experiences. Besides, the analysis has also shown a favorable impact on customers’ satisfaction and self-perceived loyalty. This suggests that location-based mobile marketing has the potential to positively add value to a customer’s experience and should therefore be considered an important tool in marketing communications.

Exploring the consumer decision journey and online shoping experience through an emotional prespective

Traditional consumer decision-making models have long used quantitative research to address a link between emotional and rational behavior. However, little qualitative research has been conducted in the area of online shopping as an end-to-end experience. This study aims to provide a detailed phenomenological account of consumers’ online shopping experience and extend Mckinsey & Companys’s consumer decision journey model from an emotional perspective. Six semi-structured interviews and a focus group of nine people are analyzed using Interpretive Phenomenology Analysis and five superordinate themes emerged from the results: emotional experience, empathy and encouragement, in relation to brand preference, emotional encounters in relation to consumer satisfaction and emotional exchange and relationship with a company or brand. A model interrelating these themes is then introduced to visually represent the emotional essence of a large online purchase. This study promises to be applicable as a descriptive, and perhaps, better predictive report for understanding the complex consumer decision-making process as it relates to online consumer behavior. Future research topics are also identified.

Customer experience quality: an exploration in business and consumer contexts using repertory grid technique

This study proposes a conceptual model for customer experience quality and its impact on customer relationship outcomes. Customer experience is conceptualized as the customer’s subjective response to the holistic direct and indirect encounter with the firm, and customer experience quality as its perceived excellence or superiority. Using the repertory grid technique in 40 interviews in B2B and B2C contexts, the authors find that customer experience quality is judged with respect to its contribution to value-in-use, and hence propose that value-in-use mediates between experience quality and relationship outcomes. Experience quality includes evaluations not just of the firm’s products and services but also of peer-to-peer and complementary supplier encounters. In assessing experience quality in B2B contexts, customers place a greater emphasis on firm practices that focus on understanding and delivering value-in-use than is generally the case in B2C contexts. Implications for practitioners’ customer insight processes and future research directions are suggested.

Az online fogyasztói elégedettségmérés hatása a vállalatok versenyképességére (Effect of the online-customer satisfaction’s measurement to the corporate’s competitiveness)

A versenyképes működés elengedhetetlen feltétele a fogyasztói elégedettség, melynek egyik meghatározó eleme az észlelt és elvárt minőség közti kapcsolat. A minőségi elvárások az internettel, mint napjaink egyik meghatározó csatornájával kapcsolatban is megfogalmazódtak már, így kapott jelentős szerepet az online szolgáltatás minőségének meghatározása, illetve ezzel összekapcsolódva az online fogyasztói elégedettségmérés. Jelen tanulmány első része szakirodalmi áttekintést nyújt az online szolgáltatás minőségének fogyasztói érzékelésével, értékelésével kapcsolatos elméletekről, melyek az online fogyasztók elégedettségmérésének alapját képezik. Ezután kerül sor a különböző mérési módszerek bemutatására, kiemelt szerepet szánva a szakirodalomban sokat tárgyalt E-S-QUAL és E-RecS-QUAL skálának. Az áttekintés középpontjában azok az elméletek állnak, melyek az online vásárlást is nyújtó honlapokra vonatkoznak. A cikk további része két empirikus kutatást tartalmaz. Az első az elégedettségmérés hazai helyzetét tárgyalja, a másik pedig a szakirodalomból ismert E-S-QUAL és E-RecS-QUAL skálákat felhasználva részletesen elemzi az elektronikus szolgáltatásminőség dimenziói és a fogyasztói elégedettség közötti fontosabb összefüggéseket, emellett röviden vizsgálja az alkalmazott skálák megbízhatóságát és érvényességét. A kutatás fő célja a gyakorlati szakemberek számára is releváns kapcsolatok feltárása és bemutatása. _______ A company’s competitiveness significantly depends on the satisfaction of its consumers, which is influenced by the relationship between the expected and perceived quality. As over the last decade internet has become a significant channel, in parallel its customers have built some expectation about the quality of different websites and online services. Therefore the marketing literature should focus on the dimensions of e-service quality (e-sq) and online-customer satisfaction. This study first resumes with different concepts of e-sq, which are the principles of the online-customer satisfaction’s measurement. Than the different e-sq measurement methods are reviewed and the dimensions of E-S-QUAL and ERecS- QUAL scales are deeply explained. The study is focusing on concepts relating to web shops. The next part of the article includes two empirical studies. The first is about the situation of satisfaction measurement at Hungarian companies. The other one analyzes the most relevant relationships between the dimension of e-sq and customer satisfaction based on the E-S-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL scales for measuring e-sq and briefly outlines the reliability and validity of these scales. The main purpose of this empirical research is to summarise the managerial and practical implications.

Simulating customer experience and word-of-mouth in retail: a case study

Agents offer a new and exciting way of understanding the world of work. In this paper we describe the development of agent-based simulation models, designed to help to understand the relationship between people management practices and retail performance. We report on the current development of our simulation models which includes new features concerning the evolution of customers over time. To test the features we have conducted a series of experiments dealing with customer pool sizes, standard and noise reduction modes, and the spread of customers’ word of mouth. To validate and evaluate our model, we introduce new performance measure specific to retail operations. We show that by varying different parameters in our model we can simulate a range of customer experiences leading to significant differences in performance measures. Ultimately, we are interested in better understanding the impact of changes in staff behavior due to changes in store management practices. Our multi-disciplinary research team draws upon expertise from work psychologists and computer scientists. Despite the fact we are working within a relatively novel and complex domain, it is clear that intelligent agents offer potential for fostering sustainable organizational capabilities in the future.