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Customer Loyalty of Amazon

Project Report Submitted in Partial fulfilment of the requirement for


the award of Degree of

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (BBA)

Submitted by
MOHAMMED
SAAD Reg. No:
18DBBAD129 Under
the guidance of
HEBZABAH VANI

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
CMR UNIVERSITY

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DECLARATION BY THE STUDENT

I MOHAMMED SAAD bearing Reg:18DBBAD129


hereby declare that this project report entitled Customer Loyalty of Amazon
has been prepared
by me towards the partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the Bachelor of
Business Administration (BBA) Degree under the guidance of HEPHZIBAH VANI

I also declare that this project report is my original work and has not been previously
submitted for the award of any Degree, Diploma, Fellowship, or other similar titles.

Signature
MOHAMMED SAAD
Reg. No. : 18DBBAD129

Place: <Bangalore>
Date: 30 April
2021

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CERTIFICATE

Certified that this project report titled “……………………………………………..” is the


bonafide work of “………..……..<NAME OF THE CANDIDATE(S)>. ............... ” who carried
out the project work under my supervision in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
award of the BBA degree.

SIGNATURE

<Name of the Guide >

<Guide Registration Number >

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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank everybody who has supported


me and
provided me with guidelines. I would specially
thank my guide , HEPHZIBAH VANI , because of her
patience and helping me through my project .I
cannot possibly find a way to truly thank her. Also I
would like to thank my friends ,who help me all
time while I’m here in India that didn’t let me get
homesick. Finally I would like to thank my family,
my Mom, Dad. Without their support I wouldn’t
have had the courage to get here. Thank you for
everything.

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Abstract
Aim: The purpose of the study is to do the research that under the e-
commerce business model, the impact factors of customer loyalty in an
online shopping environment, how to improve the customer loyalty
and how to build a long lasting customer relationship.
Design/Methodology/approach: Through to the questionnaire survey
research, design and collect sample data, combine with the Amazon
Company’s current operating mode and the theoretical, and also got
the second data. In order to make the data become more and more
reliable. Findings: The studying on improving customer loyalty under
the B2C e-commerce model is significant for theory and practice. On
the background of Amazon company, which is the biggest e-
commerce company in America, according to the relevant literature
and field surveys,the paper brings forward the importance of
customer loyalty at the e-commerce business. It could come to the
conclusion is how to improve the customer loyalty and then how to
build the long lasting customer relationship. Contribution: The paper
according to the characters of the online shopping and combine with
the literature about the e-commerce and customer loyalty research, Put
forward a certain hypothesis, through questionnaire survey on
customers, and statistical analysis of the relationship between customer
loyalty and its influence factors make an empirically evaluation. The
paper gives contribution to the e-commerce business, how to build the
long lasting customer relationship. Key words: Customer loyalty;
Customer relationship; Satisfaction; Services; Online shopping website

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION 6
1.1 Introduction 6
CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW 7
2.1 Introduction 7
CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 8
3.1 Research method 8
Sampling and DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION
3.2 9
3.3 Data collection 10
3.3.1 Types of Data 10
3.3.2 Methods of Data Collection 10

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3.3.3
11
CHAPTER 5 – FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS 12
5.1 Findings 12
5.2 Conclusion 13
5.3 Recommendations 14
CHAPTER 6 – LIMITATIONS AND SCOPE OF FUTURE RESEARCH 15
6.1 Limitation 15
6.2 Scope of Future Research 16
Bibliography 17
Appendix – Questionnaires 18

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CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

1.1.1 About Amazon Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500


company based in Seattle, which is the one of the earliest began to the e-
commerce company. It was opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and
today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. It also included three subsidiaries, they
are Alexa Internet、a9.com and Internet Movie Database,IMDB. Amazon.com
and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items
(Amazon, 2011). Amazon bookstore (amazon.com) is one of the biggest
bookstores in the world. It provides 310 million books directory, more than the
global any bookstore of storing books to 15 times more above. To run the special
business needs neither large buildings nor great numbers of staff. Even though
there are only 1600 employees in Amazon bookstore. The sales reach 37.5
million dollars per capita, which are 3 times those of Bames & Noble, the largest
bookstore in the world, which has 27.000 employees (Hamiton, 2008). The
commercial activities of Amazon bookstore focus on marketing and the after
service. That is, they aim at attracting customers, while building good image for
the company.Customer Loyalty of Amazon --how to build a long lasting
relationship? 2 To become a customer-oriented company is the mission of
Amazon.com (He & Zhang, 2003). The biggest online bookstore—Amazon
began to profit in 2002. This is a piece of good news to global electronic
commerce development. However, in the following years, electronic commerce
suffered from loss. A survey conducted by the Temkin Group revealed that
Amazon has been at the highest rates of customer loyalty in America. Three
factors were taken into account in the chart of customer loyalty, including
hesitation to switch to other company, readiness to buy more goods from the
company and readiness to recommend it to others. The survey showed that
customer loyalty had fallen to a new low with just 17% companies getting to the
'very strong' mark for loyalty. Thanks to its ability to attract repeat customers,
Amazon ranks high on the list of customer loyalty at the rate of 68%. The
customers choose Amazon again because of its ability to get them the right
results. Amazon's performance in customer loyalty stands out when most online
companies received significantly lower ratings (Grant, 2011)

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1.1.2 Customer relationship CRM is a combination of
hardware, software, process, applications and management commitment to
improve customer service, retain customer and provide analytical capabilities
(Romano & Fjermestad, 2002). The dynamic process of managing a customer-
company relationship such that customer elect to continue mutually beneficial
commercial exchanges and are dissuaded from participating in exchanges that are
unprofitable to the company (Wiley, 2002). CRM is not only the implementation
of a technology solution about information on their customers, but also CRM
could deliver strategic market relationships. It could Customer Loyalty of
Amazon --how to build a long lasting relationship? 3 know all the things about
their customers all the time. It could do a perfect data collection work and
understand well what customers’ needs (Donaldson & O’Toole, 2007) Building
sound relationships with customers is the one of the keys to make business
successful. Humans build relationships all their lives, be it with their friends,
family, employers, colleagues or peers. As humans, we like to stick to what we
know, and this behavior reflects in the choices people make regarding which
business organizations to deal with. Building customer relationships is as
important to business as the price and quality of what are selling. The enterprise
goes through efforts to consolidate and further development with the customers to
establish a long-term and stable relationship. In fact, the customer is willing to
take this kind of feeling to tell their friends .The effects of this "propaganda" is
absolutely much more effective than the enterprise cost a huge commercial
shooting . Speaking of the enterprise, the customer retention can bring lower cost
than attract a new customer. According to statistics, attract a new customer needs
is the cost of maintaining an old customer required cost 5 ~ 10 times (Xi, 2009)

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Customer loyalty
Customer loyalty is usually viewed as the power force of the relationship between
the attitude of individual's relative and repeat patronage. Customer loyalty is one
of the most over used phrases in business today (Shaw, 2000). In the business
environment the concept of customer loyalty is important because it is considered
to be a profitable link. Loyalty is an economic necessity and a competitive
necessity (Reichheld, 2001). Customer loyalty means to attract the target
customers, in order to make them repurchase the products. Customer Loyalty of
Amazon --how to build a long lasting relationship? 4 The loyalty is as primarily
an attitude that sometimes leads to a relationship with the brand to understand the
customers spending behavior and satisfaction is very important. And the critical
result of the customer behavior and satisfaction is customer loyalty (Nykamp,
2001). Along with market competition aggravating, the customer loyalty has
become the determinant element that influences the enterprise’s long-term profits.
As a sign of the market share, customer loyalty is more meaningful than that to
customer measured market share. As a result, enterprise’s managers prefer to pay
much more attention to improving customer loyalty aspects, so that to make the
enterprise gain critical competitive advantage in the fierce competition.
Economists do some researches on the TOP500 enterprises and find that, the loyal
customers are not only doing repurchase enterprise products and services to save
expenses of advertising and publicity, but also recommend the products or
services to their relatives and friends. In another words, this kind of behavior
becomes the personnel sources of the firms. It is the main profits of the company
(Li, 2004). Customer loyalty is the important factor when the enterprise marketing
working with the customers the managers must pay more attention to. Customer
loyalty will help the enterprise have the long-term stable growth means of sales,
lower marketing costs and rising profits.

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CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW

Relationship marketing From Wilson, Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler’s (2008)


view, the marketing is not like the traditional marketing anymore. It has turned
into relationship marketing now which means customers also involve the whole
business process. Who should take their customers into consideration and know
what customers really needs (Wilson et al., 2008). “There has been a shift from a
transaction to a relationship focus in marketing. Customers become partners and
the firm must make long-term commitments to maintaining those relationships
with quality, service, and innovation.” (Webster, 1992). It means that the
relationship marketing plays an important role of doing business, focusing on
keeping and improving relationships with the current customers is more
important than attracting new customers. It is a strategic direction. The fact is
much cheaper to keep a current consumer than to attract a new one in general. It
will be much more successful to marketers who working on effective strategies
for retaining customers

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The evolution of customer relationships Firm’s relationships with their customers
just like other social relationships that have tended to evolve over time. Scholars
have suggested that marketing exchange relationships between providers and
customers often have the potential to evolve from strangers to acquaintances and
to friends even to partners (Johnson & Selnes, 2004)

1. Customers as strangers. The firm makes communication with the potential


customers in order to attract them and acquire their business. The marketing
efforts towards could familiar those potential customers with the firm’s
offering, and encourage them to make the firm have a try.

2. Customer as acquaintances. When the customers’ awareness and attempt are


achieved, the firm and the customer could become acquaintances by the
familiarity. At this period, the firm should build the relationship to satisfy the
customers. An acquaintance is effective as long as the customer is relatively
satisfied and what is being received in the exchange is perceived as fair
value. (Wilson et al., 2008).

3. Customer as friends. When the customers continue to create and achieve the
value with the firm in the exchange relationship, the firm should begin to
collect specific knowledge of the customers’ needs. The firm needs to build
the relationship to achieve the customer retention at this period. Customer
Loyalty of Amazon --how to build a long lasting relationship? 10

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4. Customers as partners. The creation of trust leads to the creation of
commitmentand that is the condition necessary for customers to extend
relationship (Siredeshumkh et al., 2002). Therefore, if the firm wants to build
a partner relationship with the customers, the firm must use customer
knowledge and information systems to deliver highly personalized and
customized offerings

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E- Service quality E-service quality is a new concept started on 2002 (Ziethaml
et al., 2002). Introduced the concept of electronic service quality (e-SQ) which is
defined as the “the extent to which a website facilitates efficient and effective
shopping, purchasing and delivery of products and services” (Asuboteng et al.,
1996). With the internet and technology developing fast, the website has replaced
the traditional business unit gradually. Both website and electronic environment
are very important parts of the corporate image and can affect the customers’
shopping behavior. Today the internet has become an essential channel for
selling the goods and services. The traditional service model was not suitable for
use in the internet retailing due to each of them represent the unique service
delivery process. In fact, the online shopping is much more easily to compare the
products’ qualities and prices than the traditional channel, the online customers
always expect equal or higher levels of service quality than traditional channel
customers. (Lee & Lin, 2005) Most of electronic commerce companies realized
that the e-service quality is the critical factor to determine the online business
success or failure (Yang & Jun, 2002). Lee & Lin (2005) identified the main
factors influencing the customer perception of the e-service quality online
shopping: website design (degree of users friendliness), reliability (reliability and
security), responsiveness (responsiveness and helpfulness), trust (trust and
mechanisms provided by a website), and personalization Customer Loyalty of
Amazon --how to build a long lasting relationship? 11 (differentiating services to
satisfy specific individual needs). A scale called WEBQUAL with 12 dimensions
was established: informational fit to task, interaction, trust, response time,
design, intuitiveness, visual appeal, innovativeness, flow, integrated
communication, business process, and substitutability. These WEBQUAL
dimensions are more pertinent to interface design than to service quality
measurement (Zeithaml et al., 2002). After a mass of literature review, (Zeithaml
et al., 2002) developed the e-SEQUAL model to help the customers how to judge
the e-service quality. It includes seven dimensions: efficiency, reliability,
fulfillment, privacy, responsiveness, compensation and contact. The seven the
seven dimensions in two separate scales split: E-S-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL.
The first four dimensions are classified the cover scale, and the last three
dimensions are ascribed of the recover scale. It will be much prominent when the
online customers have questions and problems. If the companies create things
that customers like, customers will continue to buy products from them. Today’s
successful firm finds out what customers want and makes it –rather than making
something the company wants and hopes that people will buy (Sterne, 2000) .
For examples, when a customer visits Amazon.com, he can easily find the
product he wanted, and easily make the purchase. And how delighted he will be
when the item actually shows up on his doorstep the very next day (Sterne,
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2000). This will make customer’s expectation become more inflated which
means our customers can get more than they expected. The customers just want
to see if their questions answered or their problems solved. So being the online
shopping website builder, it should figure out what the customers want to see,
want to know, and want to ask (Sterne, 2000). Thus, The FAQ (frequently asked
questions) is needed. To set out all the usual questions and answers to the
customers, so they could find out the solutions by Customer Loyalty of Amazon
--how to build a long lasting relationship? 12 themselves. FAQ lets the casually
curious as well as the intent hunter-seeker come up to speed as quickly as
possible (Sterne, 2000). Another way to offer a good customer service is to
manage E-mail. E-mail is like glue that cements the internet together. Everyone
surfing on the internet would have an e-mail account. E-mail is the common
denominator and the most powerful tool (Sterne, 2000). To manage well the e-
mail of every customer will win the customers’ satisfaction. The companies
should let the customers know all of the new information through e-mail. When
the customer login on our website, it needs to have the record of the customers.

2.4 Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty Customer satisfaction directly


means that the customers’ overall evaluation of their experiences and the
expectations with a product or service provider (Johnson & Selnes, 2004). Oliva,
Oliver & MacMillan (1992), primarily proposed the theory of “expectation
inconformity”, that is, when the goods' practical situation is beyond their
expectation the customers will feel satisfied. However, contemporarily come up
with that the products and service quality will also directly affect the customers'
satisfaction. The basic assumptions are that improved the quality of the products
leads to add satisfaction, which in turn makes customers more loyal further leads
to more profit (Johnson & Selnes, 2004). Customer satisfaction is refers to the
value of the subjective experience of good’s value has a very good relationship
(Sallberg, 2004). Which is “the customers’ comparing applause of an e-
commerce enterprise, which causes the customers’ re-purchase”? (Brassington &
Pettitt, 2003) At the same time, researches indicated that the customers'
satisfaction with online business has a positive works on their loyalty (Sallberg,
2004). Customer loyalty is a self-reinforcing system in which the firm delivers
superior value Customer Loyalty of Amazon --how to build a long lasting
relationship? 13 consistently to find and keep high-quality to customers (and,
where applicable, employees). The marketing literature defined that customer
loyalty can be divided in two distinct ways: the first can be evaluated loyalty as
an attitude. Create a personal different feelings overall accessories of products,
services or organization. These feelings define the individual's degree of loyalty.
The second evaluation of loyalty is behavioral. Examples of loyalty behaviors
include from the same supplier to continue to purchase services, increasing the
dimension and or boundary of a relationship, or the recommendation. The
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behavioral viewpoint of loyalty is similar to define the loyalty in the literature of
service management (Sallberg, 2004). There are three measures of customer
loyalty that could be devised by loyalty (Anders, 2000): • Customer's primary
behavior – recent effects, frequency and sum of purchase; • Customer's
secondary behavior - customer recommendations, endorsements and spreading in
the word; • Customer's purpose to repurchase – that is means the customer ready
to repurchase products or services in the future The economic benefits of high
customer loyalty are essential. When they consistently deliver superior value and
win customer loyalty, market share, revenues and profitability all go up, and the
cost of acquiring new customers goes down. When the firm has lots of loyal
customers, it will receive lots of benefits. The economic benefits that a firm
receives from cultivating close relationships with its customers, a variety of
customer behavior benefits and human resource management benefits are also
often received (Wilson et al., 2008).

2.5 The relationship between satisfaction and loyalty There is a significant


positive relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty
(Colgate & Stewart, 1998; Hocutt, 1998; Patterson & Spreng, 1997)Customer
Loyalty of Amazon --how to build a long lasting relationship? 14 Firstly
satisfaction would be created when the performances of products or services
were achieved customers’ expectation. And then the customer loyalty comes out.
Therefore it can be told that when satisfaction reaches a certain level, loyalty will
increase dramatically. At the meanwhile, when satisfaction declines to a certain
level, loyalty will drop equally dramatically (Oliva et al., 1992).

2.6 conclusion of Literature survey The purpose of the literature part is to


introduce the important theories of the relationship marketing, e-service quality,
to classify the customer relationship from strangers to partners. It aims to make
clear the different of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty and its
relationship between them. To give the readers some background knowledge
about the customer loyalty. This study is mainly focused on the different
customer relationship, for instance some would evolve to loyal customers. And
the study is doing the research on the e-commerce company, so there would
involve many E-service elements. The questionnaire and the analysis part below
are all around thesis theories to research how to build a long lasting relationship
with customers.

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CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Purpose The first step in research is researching why the study
is being carried out. Identify research purpose, set the stage for the rest of the
research program, because it allows everyone in the results of the study, to
know the project's general principles of equity (for example, researchers,
customers outside the company), and the establishment of urgent sense of
research. According to the research motivations and literature review, our
research purpose is through make a survey on the customers of our case study
company, researching why the people chose Amazon as their online shopping
website and what elements made them feel satisfaction and dissatisfaction,
thereby, how to improve customer loyalty under the e-commerce business
scale and finally building a long lasting customer relationships. Based on our
research purpose, we adapted the quantitative method as our research
method. The study is researching the online shopping website, so doing the
questionnaire online is more suitable for it. To go deep into the people who
use the online shopping website, that we can get more authentic data from
internet. It can be more powerful. In this way, the data will be very effective
and authentic.

3.2 Quantitative and Qualitative Approach There are two main types of
marketing research, essentially different types of data that are generated by
fundamentally different research approaches: quantitative and qualitative
methods (Adcock & Collier, 2001).

Quantitative methods Qualitative methods

•Emphasis on testing and Emphasis on understanding


verification

•Focus on understanding
•Focus on facts •Logical and
critical approach

•Interpretation and rational


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approach

•Controlled measurement
• Observations and
measurements in natural settings

•Objective “outsider view” distant


from data
•Subjective “insider view”
closeness to data

•Hypothetical-deductive •Result
oriented
•Explorative orientation

•Particularistic and analytical


•Process oriented •Holistic
perspective

• Generalization by population
membership
• Generalization by comparison
of properties and contexts of
individual organization

Figure 2 the differences between quantitative and qualitative research


methods Source: Based on Reichardt and Cook (1979)

Based on compared the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods,


we consider that the quantitative method is suitable for our research. Amazon is
an online shopping website, the most effective data to prove whether it successful
is the number of its customers. We randomly extracted amount of online
consumers and made the questionnaire survey, through analyzed the response rate
to make an objective and realistic evaluation to the Amazon’s products and
service. We focus on the facts and results, because the data is more persuasive and
exact than interview, it is the foundation and most important primary stuff of our
research.

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CAPTER-4
DATA ANALYSIS &
INTERPRETATION
SAMPLING

Data collection Data collection is the method of gathering information. There are
various methods of data collection such as personal interviewing, telephone, e-
mail and the Internet. Depending on the questionnaire, these methods can be used
separately or combined (data).It is also a team of survey methodologists
specializing in the use of qualitative and quantitative research methods to enhance
quantitative enquiry and promote good practice (ONS). According to the research
is doing on an e-commerce company, the customers’ feeling is the most important
thing. So the questionnaires were sent to consumers who had experiences on
Amazon or knew something about Amazon before.

Primary data collection Questionnaire design To ensure the data collection is


suitable for our research purpose, the first step of the primary data collection is
designing the questionnaire. According to the research questions and theoretical,
there are 20 questions of questionnaire have been produced. Here are some
mainly questions designed as below, the data information which gathered from
those questions were very useful and helpful for our research.

Process of primary data collection After questionnaire designed, authors began to


look for the people who can become to our interviewees. At first, authors went to
the library of Gavle University and the shopping mall in Gavle center town, sent
the questionnaires to the customers and students randomly, but unfortunately,
most of them never heard of Amazon before, the data collection were ineffectual.
Hence, authors decided to send the questionnaires to customers on the internet,
such as on the Amazon shopping website, Taobao shopping website, Baidu post
bar, and other online shopping websites. Finally the authors found out the people
who have some online experiences, and sent the questionnaire to their e-mail box.
The respond rate is appreciably.

3.3.4 Secondary data collection Typically, the auxiliary data is from printed
sources (books, magazines, periodicals, and trade newspapers) and
electronic sources (CD-ROM encyclopedias, packages or online
services, such as the Internet). The books are general resources for
research related to the theoretical support. The journal is daily
information, it can provide very useful resources. They can provide the
latest views, research and development in specific areas. The Internet is
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also very useful for data collection, in particular, some Customer
Loyalty of Amazon --how to build a long lasting relationship? 19
professional websites. Our secondary data collected from textbooks,
magazines and the Internet, we used secondary data to support the
background of our Research Company, literature review and case
studies.

Data analysis Quantitative data refers to numerical and standardized data, it


usually can be analyzed through using of diagrams and statistics (Wang et al.,
2000). Basically, data can be divided into categorical and quantifiable data, it is
important to redact and code data before analysis began (Robson, 2002). Actually,
it is useful to conduct exploratory data analysis in the initial stages of data
analysis, this approach highlights the importance of using diagrams to explore and
understand data. For instance, pie charts and percentage component bar charts can
be used to explain the proportions of customers agreeing or disagreeing with the
statements which are presented in the questionnaire. “Subsequent analysis will
involve describing your data and exploring relationships using statistics”
(Saunders et al., 2003). Finally, it is essential to re-emphasis the importance of
using PC software programs during the process of data analysis, such as SAS,
APAK EXCEL etc. (Maxwell, 1992) On the questionnaire, it used the simple
random sampling method to do this research. This method is completely depends
on the random principle, it will be much more easy and it is popular as well.
There are two ways to distribute the questionnaire to public, one is put it on the
online, and the net friends can fill it in if they want. The answer to questionnaire
could be variety because of different ages, different education background and
different incomes, that is exactly could make the result became more feasible.

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From figure 3, there are the data which gathered. On the questionnaire, it
totally gathered 150 questionnaires. The respond rate is 47%. There are 132
from the internet and 18 from our relative and friends and strangers. The data
shows us that there are 35 persons have no experiences on shopping on
Amazon.com. The rest all have experiences on Amazon.com. It occupied 76
percent of the whole persons. And it contains 80 males and 70 females. The
biggest parts of their age are 21-30. Most of them have the bachelor or master
education background. 46 percent of them think that they will go to the
online shopping website depends on when they want to buy something. It is
irregularly scheduled. And there are 82 Chinese and 68 Europeans.

CAPTER-5
FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS &
RECOMMENDATIONS

4. Empirical finding’s/Presentation of a Case study

The reason why customers choose Amazon? The detail to the questionnaire,
Question NO.8, it tries to find out that which element is the most important
that customers will choose Amazon.com instead of the other online shopping
websites. We can check figure 4 below. To the interviewees, we have
surveyed, we can clearly find out that there are 24 percentages of customers
consider Customer Loyalty of Amazon --how to build a long lasting
relationship? 23 that according to Amazon.com having a low price than other
shops, so they choose Amazon.com. Figure 4 And at the same time, they are
also 24 percentages of customers consider that according to Amazon.com
having a low price than other shops, so they choose Amazon.com

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And at the same time, they are also 24 percentages of customers think that
the payment system on Amazon.com is very safe so that they choose
Amazon.com rather than others. On Amazon’s website, we have many
different kinds’ ways of payment. Customers can depend on their own
situations to pick one of them. After that, there are 14 percentages customers
consider that convenient and fast using, providing good services and free
shipment are the reasons drive them to choose shopping on Amazon.com.
Amazon’s customers will feel delight when they are purchasing on Amazon’s
website. Good service is also an important point of attracting customers to
choose Amazon. Because online shopping is different, they cannot see each
other directly. And Customer Loyalty of Amazon --how to build a long
lasting relationship? 24 customers cannot see the products before they
purchased. So customers and sellers need to build a good relationship, and
they need to serve their customers well to let them rest assured. Moreover,
shipment is an important part of online shopping. For instance, some online
shopping websites offer a high price shipment, this will increase the costs of
the customers, so no matter how much the customers like the products, and it
will influence customers to buy them or not. To Amazon.com, it always has a
promotion that to help its customers to save the high price shipment. It often
offers free shipment at regular intervals or giving some discount on the
shipment. In order to delight the customers and save their costs, Amazon
needs to focus on the shipment since there are 14 percentages customers
consider that it is an important reason that they select Amazon.com. In the
figure 1, it could be found out that except the most parts of reasons, there are
something rest. There are still 5 percentages customers think of choosing
Amazon because of its good website credit and its individuation. Even
though they just take a little part of them, they still exist. When the customers
consider that it’s a reason, Amazon cannot let it pass. Since Amaozn.com
established a long time ago and it has strong brand equity, so many
customers will choose it. On the other hand, Amazon also has a customer’s
database to record our customers’ interests. This is also a way to ingratiate
with our customers. To know each customer’s favor and depends on different
favors to make some recommendation to our customers. So that according to
the questionnaire, the low price and the safe payment system become the
most strong points that the customers would like to choose Amaozn.com.
And there are still other points that customers would like to choose it. So
Amazon should keep its strengths and also need to improve the shortcomings

Which elements customers care most?

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1
According to our questionnaire, Q9, we refer that when the
customers shopping on Amazon.com, which elements they
care about most? On the research, the data shows that the
purple pie, there are 38 percentages of customers consider of
the quality of products are their most concern thing. When
they are shopping online, they usually focus more on the
quality of the products. Due to the different from the real shop,
customers cannot touch or see the products; customers will
doubt that the quality of the products, so they worry about the
product quality. In the meanwhile, the safe payment system
also is the important point that customers care about. In the
pie, the blue part, it takes 31 percent. For online shopping,
customers think a lot of payment system; all of them hope to
pay in a very safe environment. No one is willing to buy
something through a bad payment system. Customers will
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2
worry of credit card theft. So to build a safe payment system, it
is one of the important things for online shopping website to
attract more customers. And the third important point is the
quality of the services. Let’s check it from the pie;Customer
Loyalty of Amazon --how to build a long lasting relationship?
26 the yellow part occupied 15 percent of them. In other
words, the quality of services sometimes directly influences
the customers. The customers’ mood would directly decide
that they buy or not buy products. If Amazon offering good
services, the customers delight, it will get it. In addition to this,
there is still some customers’ regard the reliable information as
an important part of what they care about. As we all know,
shopping online, the credit rating is very important. Amazon
online website has to make the customers trust it. Let them rest
assured. After sum up the results that we have found, we know
what the customers care about, so that Amazon can try the best
to avoid the negative factors, and give the best to the
customers. To guarantee the quality of our products, to
promise the customers never sell the poor quality products on
the website, every product selling on the website have strictly
check by the staffs. It needs to establish a safe payment
system, to offer different kinds of credit card payment
methods. In order to keeps it being safe. To do the best to
serve the customers, give them what they want and make them
feel satisfied. Offering the best and true information to our
customers, try to avoid all the wrong information to the
customers.

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The satisfaction in each aspect of the customers According to
the questionnaire, the aim of question 13 to question20 is to
investigate seven different parts of the degree of satisfaction
from customers. Consequently, the results of those questions
are showed below (See figure 5):

From the chart, we can see that for all respects, the answers of agree and so so
from customers take a big part. And the answers of completely disagree and
disagree almost occupies a little parts of them. But it still exists, so it means we
still have the problems that make the customers feel dissatisfied. After collecting
these data, it is quite clear to figure out what aspects Amazon should improve.
And it also indicates there is a lot of things can be improved. To finish these steps
the strong relationship between customers and company is possible to achieve.

Conclusion’s -The questionnaire data is very useful to do the research of


customer loyalty. It can be used as a guide to improve the customer loyalty. It
reminds our main questions and main goals. After the research, it is significant
to find out that customers mostly focus on the payment safety, the price of the
products, the quality of the products, the services and the satisfaction of the
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customers.

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CHAPTER 6 – LIMITATIONS AND SCOPE OF
FUTURE RESEARCH
Limitations of Loyalty Data
As loyalty data does not look at the purchases from other brands and stores,
it provides a limited picture of consumers’ overall purchase behavior.
Customer panel data may also be more representative than the loyalty card
member data. Furthermore, customers may feel offended if they are
uncomfortable sharing sensitive information in order to get the incentives of
the program.
However, it’s possible to address this point on the list of the pros and cons of
loyalty programs by incentivizing customers to share their other purchase
data by rewarding them for submitting third-party receipts to you. Whether
they do so by scanning physical receipts or by forwarding e-receipts, you can
gather this information to reward them for their purchases of your goods
while also processing the receipts for additional information

Suggestions for further research


According to the limitations of the research, there are some suggestions about the
further research. Firstly, pay more attention to the website design and creative
marketing. Due to the rapid development of internet, more and more people
choose to shop online, at the same time, a variety of online shopping websites
come out emerge in endlessly, the company want to keep stable profits and
occupy more market shares, just improve the existing customer loyalty is not
enough, how to attract more and more new customers is also important. A good
website design and creative marketing strategy are necessarily to e-commerce
companies. Secondly, pay more research on Customer Loyalty of Amazon --how
to build a long lasting relationship? 42 the staff management strategy aspects. The
employees’ service awareness and professional skills those are deciding factors to
remain customers, thus, the company need to formulate a comprehensive staffing
management system. Further research could focus on those two aspects to make
the research more meaningful and useful.

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Appendices Questionnaire Here is our full text of the customer loyalty survey
design. We are conducting research the customer loyalty of Amazon.com. In
order to find out that how can we improve the customer loyalty to build a long
lasting relationship. Thank you for spending your precious time to finish the
questionnaire. Thank you for your cooperation. Please follow the prompts and
depend on your individual experiences to finish your answer.

1. Have you shopped on Amazon.com before, or ever


search the products on Amazon.com? ( )
A. Yes, continue the questionnaire
B. No, I never used Amazon.com. Thank and terminate

2. Sex ( )
A. Male
B. Femal

3. Your age level? ( )


A. Under 20
B. 21-30
C. 31-40
D. 41-50 E. Over 51

4. Your nationality ________________

5. You are now studying or acquired qualification ( )


A. High school
B. Bachelor degree
C. Master degree
D. Doctor degree E. Others ___________

6. Your monthly income is about ( )


A. Under 8000kr
B. 8000kr-20000kr
C. 20000kr-30000kr
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D. Over 30000kr

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7. How often do you shop on Amazon.com? ( )
A. More than once a week
B. More than once a month
C. More than once a half year
D. More than once a year
E. Depends on when you want to buy something
8. The reasons why you choose Amazon.com
are? ( ) multiple choices
A. The lower price
B. Convenient and fast using
C. Provide good services
D. Have individuation
E. Membership rewards
F. Free shipment
G. Pay safetyCustomer Loyalty of Amazon
--how to build a long lasting relationship?
50
H. Website credit
I. The quality of the products
J. Others ______________
9. When you are shopping on Amazon.con,
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11
which elements you are worrying
about?
( ) multiple choices
A. Online payment safety
B. The reliability of the information
C. The convenient operations
D. The integrity of the website
E. The quality of the services
F. The quality of the products
G. Others _____________
10. What kinds of products do you purchase on
Amazon.com? ( ) multiple choices
A. Books
B. Clothing, shoes & jewelry
C. Movies, music & games
D. Electronics & computers
E. Home, garden & tools
F. Grocery, health &beauty
G. Toys, kids & baby
H. Sports & outdoors
I. Automotive & industrial
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12
J. Others ______________
11. What drives you to come back to shop again
on Amazon.com? ( ) multiple
choices
A. Good quality of productsCustomer Loyalty
of Amazon
--how to build a long lasting relationship?
51
B. Good pre-sales and after-sales services
C. Impeccable database of all customers
D. Convenient and clear website
E. Others _________________
12. What kinds of shortcomings does
Amazon.com have? ( ) multiple
choices
A. High prices
B. Not convenient to use
C. Bad services
D. Lack of individuation
E. Bad credit of the website
F. Less safety of payment
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13
G. Others ______________
13. On the whole, the satisfaction of your
consumption on Amazon.com is? ( )
A. Very satisfied
B. Satisfied
C. So so
D. Not too satisfied
E. very dissatisfied
14. Are you willing to come back to shop on
Amazon.com since Amazon.com
offering a good service? ( )
A. Definitely will
B. Will
C. Maybe will
D. Not sure
E. NoCustomer Loyalty of Amazon
--how to build a long lasting relationship?
52
15. Do you think the individual service of
Amazon.com is very good? ( )
A. Very good
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B. Good
C. So so
D. Not enough
E. Very bad
16. Do you think the recommendation of
Amazon.com is very helpful? ( )
A. Extremely agree
B. Agree
C. So so
D. Disagree
E. Completely disagree
17. Do you think our distribution is faster than
the other online shopping website?
()
A. Extremely agree
B. Agree
C. So so
D. Disagree
E. Completely disagree
18. Do you think the customer services are very
friendly? ( )
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A. Extremely agree
B. Agree
C. So so
D. Disagree
E. Completely disagreeCustomer Loyalty of
Amazon
--how to build a long lasting relationship?
53
19. Do you think the description of our
products is reliable? ( )
A. Extremely agree
B. Agree
C. So so
D. Disagree
E. Completely disagree
20. Do you think the product classification of
Amazon.com is reasonable? ( )
A. Extremely agree
B. Agree
C. So so
D. Disagree
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E. Completely disagree

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5.1 Conclusion

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5.2 Recommendations

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6.1 Scope of Future Research

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Bibliography

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Appendix – Questionnaires

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