To
Study the risk involved in e-tailing and ways to manage them from customer’s
perspective.
Synopsis
Submitted
by
Deepak
Tripathee
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Dr.Preshita Neha Tudu
MBA,
Ph.D. (Human Resource)
In fulfillment for the award of the
Degree
of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
ALABBAR
SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
RAFFLES
UNIVERSITY
JAPANESE ZONE, N.H-08, NEEMRANA,
ALWAR
RAJASTHAN-301705,
INDIA
Jan, 2017
INTRODUCTION:
E-tailing
abbreviation of Electronic retailing (written just as e-tailing) is the process
of selling or buying of retail goods via internet. The term seems almost
inevitable addition to e-mail, e-business and e-commerce (Investopedia, 2015).
E-tailing
has resulted in the development of e-tail ware software tools for creating
online catalogs and managing the business connected. Web space is virtual shop
which is utilized to display the products through images in this space with
details of price and features (Searchcio,2017). By accessing this
web space shop website, a customer can choose their own preferred products into
buying cart. Once assigned to cart, the payment would be done in various modes
especially electronic card. As per delivery address mentioned into the cart,
the products would be delivered to customer by courier or postal services.
E-tailing business has become more popular due to time saving and chooses the
product by accessing website of the vendor through PC, laptop, notebook or
mobile.One can choose the product based on image displayed and information
available for the product. In simple word e-tailing is defined as retailing
conducted online over internet (Turban, 2006).
In
other hand, E-tailer is benefitted in multiple ways like no need to hire shopping
complex paying costly rent. Neither hiring sales representative nor need to
maintain the beauty and decoration of shopping room etc. Instead e-tailing can display platform of various
goods with their features and visual images. There is method in retailing that
offers customers to buy a product with multiple ways of choice called as
multi-channel retailing(rebirth of e-commerce in India,2012).E-stores offer offline
pay option to lure buyers (Times of India, 2008). E-tailing is a mode of
e-commerce type of B2C. (Business to Consumer)(Pasha,2008)
Multi-channel
strategy covers purchase from vendor’s website, telephone ordering, e-mail
ordering, interactive television ordering, catalog ordering, Mobile apps
ordering etc. Multiple behavior customers have multiple interests, multiple
ways of choice and multiple ways of purchase strategy. Whatever method, an individual
should ensure that customer facing staff, customer care executives, retail
outlets, order processing department and product website must understand and
comply with company’s brand. It has to maintain service standards, policies
such as returns and delivery charges must considered consistent across each
channel.
Multi-channel
strategies can be integrated to identify customer’s preferences and maximize
lifetime revenue. The main advantages of multi-channel strategy is variety of
customers can be viewed by 0 degree to 360 degree i.e. when companies collect
feedback from customers, they can better understand what is expected by their
customer bases and how to improve product and service offerings. Companies can
then augment marketing efforts and identify which channels work best for
certain customer segments and strategize to cater to the needs of that group of
customers (Techtarget,2015). Multi-channel strategy provides the ability to expand
your business on a global level to
operate in multiple currencies, expanding the business without restriction in
all different time zone. Now the era has become digital era and the most
effective connection has become social network like Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn. These Networks raft new opportunities to engage consumers and to
learn from comments and behaviors. These social media are very popular and
cheap tools for advertisement, online campaign, review and feedback.
E-tailing
has begun to work for some major corporations and entrepreneurs on early
1997.E-tailing provided its success when Dell reported its multimillion dollars
orders taken by its website. Meantime Autobytel (US based automotive media and marketing
service company) later started automotive dealers and manufactures with own
brands reported that they sold their millions of car over the web (Botha,2008).Commerce
net is a 501(C)6 organization which is non-profit association and helps small
business advance their industry or geographic area. In 1997 Commerce net media
reported that 10 million (1 crore) people had made purchase on the web. The
Unbelievable success of Amazon.com hastened the emerging of new e-tail site
like Barnes and Noble’s site, eBay, Latestbuy.com. etc. Later online and
digital market researcher group called “Juniper research” did extensive
research on e-tailing and predicted that e-tailing would grow to $37 billion by
2002.(Investopedia, 2015).
Hence,
E- Tailing can be defined as a term, seems an almost an evitable addition to e-mail,
e-business,
and e-commerce.
E-tailing is synonymous with business-to-consumer (B2C)
transaction where a customer can shop for apparel, cameras, computers, software,
cellphones, books, magazines, music CDs and DVDs, shoes, furniture, health equipment,
flowers etc. (Davy, 2014).
E-tailing has resulted in the
development of e-tailing software called as e-tail ware
software tools for creating online catalogs and managing the business connected
with doing e-tailing (Techtarget,2017). A new trend is the price comparison
site that can quickly compare prices from a number of different e-trailers and
link you to them.However, Dr. dawan found the Limitation of e-tailing
as below:
A customer feels emotional while entering
into shopping complex. There are varieties of products, varieties of shopsand
shopkeeper, beastliness and shine in show room, smiling young ladies and young
sellers. One can relax which really lacks in e-tailing (Kumar,2011). Customer
can hold, smell, face, try and weigh the product system which is not possible
in e-tailing(Katawetawaraks, 2011).
In
south Asia, especially in India, bargaining in shopping is very popular. Talking
or chatting to reduce (often called as bargaining) the product price by high margin
amount gives customer satisfaction which
is not possible in e-tailing at all.
In Indian context, family shopping
experience which they enjoy in weekend especially in season and festival. Marketing
with group of friends and relatives for fun or for special purpose like marriages
gives varieties of idea about the special goods to buy which e-tailing lacks (Faldu,
2012).
REVIEW OF LITERATURE:
Eighmey (1997):John
Eighmey (1997) conducted a study to examine theperceptions of commercial
website on www. Research focused on commercial websites as means of providing
information about their product; about company and value added services. He
focused his study on “Profiling
user responses to commercial website”. Since internet era was just launched and
on development phase, customers yet to use e-tailing technology.
Dholakia et.al. (1998):Nowadays
it is found that the attractive webpage makes customer surf their website and
encourage doing online transaction. (Dholakia
et al., 1998)started research focused on
attractive webpage design that lead to increase visit or hit rates into their websites.
The way of putting marketing information in commercial website home page,
information content paradigm etc. His research was fully technical for website
design rather than common public and risk involved.
Kambil (2001):It
is found that very few researches were conducted on “returning and refunding
unplanned or wrongly procured items via e-tailing”. Kambil(2001)focused the same. The major drawback in e-tailing is if product
is not the customer’s choice, then returning and get replacement is a major
issue. Customer should be aware the process of returning the product which
seems time consuming ultimately makes customer frustrated.
There
are few amazing advantages like the search of value added service provided in
web, the similar product availability, link to browse similar products in web,
the advertisement of similar products, the enjoyment of website surfing as per
the graphical and animation design etc. But the customers who are not
interested in all web application, the e-tailing has drawback on these.
Jiming et.al. (2007):The
scholars did investigations on re-tailing the software especially for online games.
It is extended with two important constructs Trust and enjoyment. Their
research is solely limited to enjoyment on 3D animation and games software.
Suresh (2011):The
scholar conducted a study to identify factors of consumer perceived risk and
toward e-tailing in Indian context. ReliabilityFactors like monetary factor, source,
performance, psychological and time were identified as factors of consumer perceived
risk towards e-tailing. Monetary and performance has highest risk while
Psychological and social have the lowest risk.
Connolly (2007):The
scholar studied the influence of technical skill on consumer trust in online
shopping in Ireland. The first objective of the research is to examine the
antecedents of trusting in online shopping manually and perception of vendor’s
trustworthiness.The researchers was mainly focused on whether information
technology expert e-tailing differs from non-technical e-tailing or not . From
researchIt wasobserved that a difference exist between information technology
expert e-tailing and non-technical individual’s e-tailing.
Gurvinder et.al.(2005):The
scholar focused on Newzlandcustomers
research on “web based shopping: Attitude towards online shopping.” Online buyers
perceive website differs person to person .The nature of buyers can be
categorized as trial buyers, frequent buyers, occasional buyers and regular
buyers. These buyers have different evaluations of website design and need
fulfillment. Most of the customers having security or privacy concern rather
than cost and convenience.
This
study found that consumers’ perception on online shopping is influenced by
following factors:
Evaluation
of website design:
Website
security and Privacy issue: Scholar found that customer has better trust on
influencing and reliable website. Website should have proper reliability like:
during transaction processing, it should not stop responding. If transaction
fails, website should have provision to reserve customer’s chance to redo
it.
Customers
worry much about security and privacy during transaction. If transaction for
e-tailing prompts for OTP(One Time Password), then customers are more happy
than it does not ask. Customers are happily do the transaction which ask for
credit/ debit card details. If the website displays padlock indicating secure
site (like standard chartered bank’s website), customer’s feel secure and
privacy would be more.
Alan
et.al.(2009):The
Scholars conducted a cross-cultural study between Bangkok and London to assess
the usage behavior on e-tailing, to
investigate perceived barriers to e-tailing in these business hub cities,
online purchase behavior and then evaluate overall reaction in e-tailing in
both the cities.
The findings shows the respondents’
positive attitude in general towards shopping online. The customers find
e-tailing the most user-friendly, with positive features, time saving,
convenient, useful and better ease of use.
It was found that in London and Bangkok
internet security, privacy information and cyber laws are very good. If
anything goes wrong, customers can sue case in court then company will have to
compensate or reimburse the customers
without delay.
Narges
et.al.(2009):The study was labeled
on utilitarian and hedonic category for e-tailing. Hedonic online shopping was
very high because of the features likefun in web surfing, convenience, customer
care phone service, chat service, homepage with advertisement of similar
products and features with varieties of prices list as well.
With high correlation among these variables
comprising the set and accordingly that individual items (or set of items) should
produce result consistent with the overall instrument.In light of this, it can
be concluded that this instrument offers to the research community a tool that
can be used in conducting future research related to e-tailing and online shopping.
Arvind
et.al.(2001):The
scholar studied consumer choice behavior in online and traditional supermarket.
It is found that brand names become more important online in most of the
product.Sensory attributes like touch, feel, sense, smell, turn on/off, feel of mechanical action is
possible when customer is with product
physically in shopping complex or supermarket.Visual cues about the product (e.g.
paper towel design) has lower choice on online, instead better choice in
traditional market and supermarket.
Research
concluded that the combined effect of price and promotion online is weaker than
offline i.e. E-tailing is weaker than
shopping in supermarket.
Matthew et.al. (2001): A Model for
Consumer Internet Shopping was developed by the authors. The model identifiedfour
groups of major potentialantecedentsnamely trustworthiness of internet merchant,
trustworthiness of internet shopping medium, infrastructure contextual factor
and rest factors.The construct of individual trustpropensity is believed to
positively moderate the effect of these antecedents on consumer trust.Internet
storefront parameters that may affect consumer’s trust in internet shopping
through their effect on trust antecedents in the model presented includes: credit
card loss assurance policy, product warranty policy, policy on return
merchandise, availability of escrow service.
White paper (2014):Techno
park of India has started maintaining standard of e-tailing with the motto of
“unlocking the potential e-tailing in India”. It has taken initiative for
performance enhancement and startup assistance.
For
performance enhancement:
To
enhance the performance and value of client business, it has initiated
operations, industry and MOC (Maintenance of certification) expertise.
Following
are the standards that techpark initiated:
1) Sourcing
and Supply management
2) Merchandising
and category management
3) Productivity
enhancement, pricing promotions and range architectures productivity
management.
Post implementation
assistance was the key leveraging operations and industry expertise to
commission the concept on a “Turnkey basis”.
Huan-Minget.al. (2011):The
study aims to explore the role of trust in the relationship between e-trailer
quality and customer’s intention for online shopping. This result shows trust
in online re-tailing positive regards to consumer’s intention. Trust takes long
time to build but takes one time to destroy andit is hard to regain. Also trust
once broken leads to distrust in future. Maintaining trust always requires
careful attention, mutual understandable behavior, clear policy etc. distrust
in future.
Syed et.al. (2015):Internet
customer is very hard to predict and is different from the normal customersso e-tailer
has to take more effort than to just attract them. Since normal customer can be
discussed personally, learn about them from face to face interaction, learn
from customer’s body language so customer loyalty would be more in normal
shopping which lacks in e-tailing.For e-tailing, the product brand, view in
webpage, presentation and display in digital world wide would be more
important. Most internet retail shop use English as their mode of
communication. English may not be comprehensible and comfortable to the
majority of Indian population.According to the data captured from the major
e-tailing sites and their report, e-tailing has increased by 58 percent to 76
percent in varieties of shopping as graph below:
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
The
Problem:
Following
gaps were identified while going through pertinent literature review submitted
by research scholars:
The
studies carried out in Indian context are very less. The consumers based in USA
or UK have provisions to eliminate the risk involved in e-transaction. Their
cyber law is very effective and consumers are very much aware about the risk
during pre and post transaction. Shopping transactions and return satisfaction
with repurchase intention is explored and studied but equally risks are involvement
is not studied in depth (Wagh, 2013).
E-tailing
research is carried out on e-fulfilment and success transactions. Groups of
customers who encountered problem not on transactions but encountered problem
like quality of product, delay in shipment and return or replacement of
product, short shipping of product and undelivered product needs to be deeply
studied.
E-tailing
is done with debit card, credit card, bank money transfer, e-wallet, and online
banking. But mostly Indian villages do e-tailing by cash on delivery. Pertinent
literature review does not explain about cash on delivery product system.
Previous researches were focused on metropolitan cities and urban areas people.
The rural area of people like villages in Nepal, Bhutan and Indian rural state
like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Uttaranchal not considered for research.
Almost
all the research is conducted either for trust or risk in e-tailing but not on
both. Neither research is conducted how to manage to reduce the risk in
customer’s perspective. The goal of the research process is to produce new
knowledge or deeper understanding about the e-tailing.
Objective
of the Study:
The
present study has been undertaken with an objective to understand the
consumer’s behavior to use internet for online shopping. Various studies
conducted earlier and the review of literature proves the need for a more
detailed study on consumer’s behavior towards intention to use internet as a
medium for shopping in India. The present study was conducted to add to the
extant literature and aims to understand the nature of e-tailing and analyze
risk factors involved in e-tailing and suggest safety measures to Indian
customers. The objectives of the study are:-
1)
To understand e-tailing and analyze the factors that attract customers towards
e-tailing.
2) To analyze risk factors involved in
e-tailing and suggest a safety measures to
customers to avoid risk during e-tailing.
PROPOSED RESEARCH PLAN:
1. Exhaustive literature
review will be conducted to understand the concept of e-tailing. 2. An
instrument will then be developed to collect responses from the respondents of
the research. Primary data will be collected through personnel interview and
questionnaire and second data through journals, articles, newspapers, business
magazines, internet, etc. 3. The responses then will be analyzed using tools.
4. Appropriate safety measures will be suggested to
the customers to avoid risk during
e-tailing.
EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION:
The study would be
helpful in understanding the concept of e-tailing and facilitate formulation of
strategies to tackle current e-tailing issues and reduce the risk during e-tailing.
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