Globalization and Technological Developments
Research Proposal: Impacts of Website Quality on E-Loyalty for the Saudi Online Shoppers
The global commercial and business frameworks have changed considerably, over the years, primarily owing to the international phenomena like that of Globalization, commercial and trade liberalisation as well as technological and infrastructural developments (Sako, 2012). With the advent of different technological developments, in the global scenario, the influences of the same can be seen in all the aspects of human life, including that of the commercial and business-related activities. One such technological innovations of immense significance and increasing popularity is that of internet (Poushter, 2016).
With the increase in the usage of internet and with increasing number of business across the world going global, the notion of “e-commerce” has been gaining increasing importance among both the supply side as well as the demand side participants of different industries across the world, in the contemporary period (Laudon & Traver, 2013). The notion of e-commerce, as asserted by Colla & Lapoule (2012), refers to the buying and selling activities of different products and services, online, with the help of the internet. Different companies, across the world, have been resorting to this type of e-commerce for the purpose increasing their clientele and market in different and previously unexplored regions. For the purpose of online business activities, the companies develop their own websites, where the customers can view their products, prices and buy according to their preferences (Rowe, Truex & Huynh, 2012).
Keeping this into consideration, it becomes important, in the contemporary global business scenario, to study the different attributes and features of online business websites of the companies and their influences on the behaviour of the customers, especially in terms of their level of satisfaction, loyalty and repeat purchase intensions from the same companies. This is because much of the company’s prosperity, profitability, sustainability and competitiveness in the market, depends on these factors.
Keeping the above discussion into consideration, the concerned research proposes to study whether website qualities of different companies have any impact on the e-loyalty of the online shoppers. To study the same, the proposed research specifically aims to concentrate on the population of online shoppers in Saudi Arabia, thereby analysing the influence of online shopping website qualities and their different attributes on their shopping behaviours and overall level of e-loyalty.
The primary research question for the concerned research is as follows:
Do the website qualities of different companies have positive impacts on the level of e-loyalty of online shoppers in Saudi Arabia?
The different sub-questions under the domain of the primary research question, as stated above, which the concerned research proposes to explore are as follows:
- What are the different attributes which determine the quality of shopping websites in general?
- What are the different indicators of e-loyalty of customers buying products and services online?
- Which attributes of the quality of online shopping websites have positive implications on customers’ e-loyalty?
- Which attributes of the quality of online shopping websites have negative implications on customers’ e-loyalty?
The proposed research, aiming to study the impacts of online shopping website qualities on the aspects of e-loyalty of the online shoppers of Saudi Arabia and the inter-relationship between their different components, holds immense significance, especially in the contemporary integrated and inclusive global business framework with increased importance and implementation of technological developments. The implications and results obtained from the research, if carried out appropriately and efficiently, are not only expected to highlight the scenarios in Saudi Arabia but also in the global framework in general, thereby having considerable implications on the strategic management and marketing plans of businesses in all industrial domains across the globe.
Significance of E-commerce in the Global Scenario
The notions of usage of internet and online shopping gaining immense importance in the contemporary global commercial scenario, there exist considerable amount of literary and scholarly works in this domain, especially in the aspects of the aspects of website qualities which attract customers and retain them for long term. This section of the research proposal attempts of extensively review these literary works and empirically supported scholarly evidences in order to study the previous works and perceptions regarding the same.
There exist different perceptions among the scholars across the globe regarding different attributes of shopping websites which augment the quality of the same. Wu et al. (2014), in this aspect, points out the primary aspects which increases the quality of online shopping websites, in general framework as follows:
- Ease of navigation-As per the assertions of the authors, the primary component which enhances the quality of a shopping website in the eyes of the visitors, is the level of ease with which the users and the customers find the products which they specifically want or desire. As Wu et al. (2013), argue, extremely difficult-to-use websites discourages customers and lost visitors directly imply lost sales for the companies, thereby asserting the need for the presence of a simple and easily comprehensive framework for browsing, comparing, payment and checkout facilities for the customers, as features contributing to website quality.
- Simplistic and comprehensive website designing-According to Hasan (2016), extremely extravagant and needless website designing often confuses the customers and divert their attentions away from the actual products which they want to buy, thereby causing irritation among the customers, thereby implying that the simplistic design for online shopping websites is another crucial component of high quality shopping website.
- Well-structured organization of information and maintenance-Another characteristic of a good quality shopping website, as per the opinions of Katawetawaraks & Wang (2013), is that of the presence of a well-organized format where the customers can easily get hold of the necessary and relevant information and also the constant maintenance of the different aspects of the websites.
- Security-One of the foremost attributes enhancing the website quality, Cebi (2013), is that of the level of security present in the online shopping websites, which also plays crucial roles in retaining the customers for the concerned company as per the assertions of the author. As per Rose et al. (2012), the features of a high-quality shopping website are as follows:
- Rare or no instances of getting hacked
- Security of the personal information of the customers
- Security in the payment and online financial data preserving aspects
- Protection of the privacy and dignity of the users
- Less sharing of information of the customers with other websites
Thus, from the above discussion of the existing literatures, it is evident that the quality of the online shopping websites, in general, depends on many crucial factors ranging from its design, ease to operate, security to the organization of information in the website.
Valvi & Fragkos (2012), keeping into consideration the consistent increase in the activities of online selling and buying, in the global economic and commercial scenario, define the newly developed term of “e-loyalty” as the aspects of the online loyalty of the customers buying products and services from online websites of different companies. Thus, e-loyalty is in general expressed by the repeat purchasing activities of the online shoppers from the same e-vendors, also in situations where the options of switching are available for the concerned online customers (Marimon, Petnji Yaya & Casadesus Fa, 2012).
O’Cass & Carlson (2012), in this context, highlight several indicators of e-loyalty, in general online shopping framework across the world to be as follows:
- Repeat purchase intentions of the customers from the same online retailer while buying the same commodity
- High level of satisfactions of the customers with the website and the services of the concerned company
- Recommendations about the website to others though word of mouth (in terms of giving positive reviews, sharing and promoting the websites without any personal vested interests) (Pearson, Tadisina & Griffin, 2012)
- Choosing the same website even in the presence of other options, sometimes even more convenient
There exit different perceptions among various scholars regarding the relationship between the quality of the online shopping websites and the level of loyalty of the customers availing the services of the same. Different scholars can be seen to highlight different aspects of the website quality having implications on the aspects of customers’ level of loyalty, satisfaction and repeat purchase intention.
As per the assertions of Shafiee & Bazargan (2018), the service quality of websites is directly and positively influenced by the level of information security and performance of the websites and the e-loyalty of the customers are positively influenced by the e-recovery showing the steps taken by the company in the instances of failure in service delivery, which in turn affects repeat purchase intentions of the customers positively. As per the authors, e-recovery is again influenced by factors like responsiveness and compensation framework of the companies.
The findings of the above paper can be seen to be augmented by that of the findings of Pandey & Chawla (2016), who, exploring the Indian online clothing market and shopping activities, infer that the loyalty or disloyalty of the online customers, in this domain, primary depend on the website qualities like that of navigation, informativeness, interactivity and visual engagements.
According to the findings of Gümü? & Bal (2016), the design, service, information and system quality of the shopping websites have direct implications on the e-loyalty of the customers of the concerned websites, which in turn leads to a direct implication on the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on part of the customers, which in turn directly influences the purchase intensions of other customers. This argument can be seen to be supported by Khan & Hashmi (2016), according to whom the responsiveness and the level of interactivity of the shopping websites plays direct role in influencing the electronic word of mouth of the online customers (which is a direct indicator of the aspects of e-loyalty), in the contemporary global commercial framework.
Research Proposal: Aim and Objectives
Keeping the above discussion into consideration, it can thus, be concluded that the quality of websites, as per the perceptions of scholars across the globe, play significant roles in influencing the e-loyalty of the customers in general and there exist different components of website, which enhances the quality of the same, thereby affecting the level of loyalty, which again can be seen from the performances of the different indicators of e-loyalty of online customers, as proposed by different scholars.
For the concerned research to be robust and efficient, it is of immense importance to construct a proper and relevant research methodological framework with appropriate methods and tools.
An inductive approach is aimed to be selected for the concerned study, where on the basis of the evidences and data collected and analysed the inferences and conclusions will be drawn without forming any kind of prior assumptions regarding the working of the variables and their relationships (Maxwell, 2012).
The concerned research aims to adopt a quantitative and descriptive research strategy, thereby focussing on collecting primary data from the relevant personnel (online shoppers in the Saudi Arabia), collecting their perceptions regarding the relationship between different aspects of website quality and their loyalty to the concerned website in cardinal forms (Maxwell, 2012). Under the descriptive framework, the evidences collected will be analysed and interpreted, with the objective of finding the implications which website quality have on the aspects of e-loyalty of the customers.
The research aims to be based on primary data collection and analysis, as mentioned above. The data will be collected with the help of survey questionnaires (containing close-ended questions with range of relevant options provided) from the online shoppers of Saudi Arabia. For the purpose of selection of the sample, random sampling method will be used so as to remove any kind of intended or unintended bias in the aspects of sample selection. In some of the questions Likert Scale will also be used, thereby keeping the provisions for the respondents to rank several aspects according to the perceptions between 1 to 5 (Mitchell & Jolley, 2012).
The concerned research proposes to analyse the collected data with the help of the statistical software, SPSS and statistical methods like correlation and regression will be used to find the relationships between the concerned study variables.
The proposed research aims to abide by the ethical framework of research, acknowledging the importance of the same for the quality and authenticity of any research. The interviews will be conducted only after receiving the consent of the selected respondents and their responses will only be used for the purpose of the concerned study. To respect their dignity and integrity, confidentiality and anonymity will be maintained (Greenfield, 2016). The result of the analysis of the collected data will also be unbiasedly interpreted and published, so as to remain true to the purpose of the concerned research.
From the discussion of the different literary and scholarly works, present in the contemporary scenario, regarding the relationships between the quality of shopping websites and the level of e-loyalty of the online customers as well as the relations between the different components of website quality and the indicators of e-loyalty and further, the following integrated conceptual framework can be formed, by combining the assertions and opinions of different authors and scholars:
Literature Review
Keeping the above model into consideration, the concerned research proposes to observe the relationship of the different components of website quality on the different indicators of customer loyalty in the domain of online shopping in Saudi Arabia in the contemporary period.
References
Cebi, S. (2013). A quality evaluation model for the design quality of online shopping websites. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 12(2), 124-135.
Colla, E., & Lapoule, P. (2012). E-commerce: exploring the critical success factors. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 40(11), 842-864.
Greenfield, T. (2016). Ethics of research. Research Methods for Postgraduates, 46.
Gümü?, H., & Bal, V. (2016). Analysis of the Effect of Quality Components of Web 2.0 Enabled E-Commerce Websites on Electronic Word-of-Mouth Marketing (EWOM) and on Customer Loyalty. Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic Science, 25(1), 979-986.
Hasan, B. (2016). Perceived irritation in online shopping: The impact of website design characteristics. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 224-230.
Katawetawaraks, C., & Wang, C. L. (2013). Online shopper behavior: Influences of online shopping decision.
Khan, M. M., & Hashmi, H. B. A. (2016). Impact of Interactivity of Electronic Word of Mouth Systems and Website Quality on Customer E-Loyalty. Pakistan Journal of Commerce & Social Sciences, 10(3).
Laudon, K. C., & Traver, C. G. (2013). E-commerce. Pearson.
Marimon, F., Petnji Yaya, L. H., & Casadesus Fa, M. (2012). Impact of e-Quality and service recovery on loyalty: A study of e-banking in Spain. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 23(7-8), 769-787.
Maxwell, J. A. (2012). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (Vol. 41). Sage publications.
Mitchell, M. L., & Jolley, J. M. (2012). Research design explained. Cengage Learning.
O’Cass, A., & Carlson, J. (2012). An e-retailing assessment of perceived website-service innovativeness: Implications for website quality evaluations, trust, loyalty and word of mouth. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 20(1), 28-36.
Pandey, S., & Chawla, D. (2016). Understanding Indian online clothing shopper loyalty and disloyalty: the impact of e-lifestyles and website quality. Journal of Internet Commerce, 15(4), 332-352.
Pearson, A., Tadisina, S., & Griffin, C. (2012). The role of e-service quality and information quality in creating perceived value: antecedents to web site loyalty. Information Systems Management, 29(3), 201-215.
Poushter, J. (2016). Smartphone ownership and internet usage continues to climb in emerging economies. Pew Research Center, 22, 1-44.
Rose, S., Clark, M., Samouel, P., & Hair, N. (2012). Online customer experience in e-retailing: an empirical model of antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Retailing, 88(2), 308-322.
Rowe, F., Truex, D., & Huynh, M. Q. (2012). An empirical study of determinants of e-commerce adoption in SMEs in Vietnam: An economy in transition. Journal of Global Information Management (JGIM), 20(3), 23-54.
Sako, M. (2012). Business models for strategy and innovation. Communications of the ACM, 55(7), 22-24.
Shafiee, M. M., & Bazargan, N. A. (2018). Behavioral customer loyalty in online shopping: the role of E-service quality and E-recovery. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 13(1), 26-38.
Valvi, A. C., & Fragkos, K. C. (2012). Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework. Electronic Commerce Research, 12(3), 331-378.
Wu, L. Y., Chen, K. Y., Chen, P. Y., & Cheng, S. L. (2014). Perceived value, transaction cost, and repurchase-intention in online shopping: A relational exchange perspective. Journal of Business Research, 67(1), 2768-2776.
Wu, W. Y., Lee, C. L., Fu, C. S., & Wang, H. C. (2013). How can online store layout design and atmosphere influence consumer shopping intention on a website?. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 42(1), 4-24.
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