ELECTRONIC RETAILING: AN ANALYSIS OF WEB IMPACTS AND RELATIONSHIP MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

Abstract

<p>The Web brings enormous opportunities for retailers, where customer retention is important for e-tailing success. While relationship marketing (RM) and e-tailing are both active research areas, there is inadequate research on relationship marketing in e-tailing. This thesis was an effort to integrate the two areas of research, RM and e-tailing, and investigate online consumer RM issues. The focus of the thesis was to examine the Web factors that represent a significant impact on the retail market and contribute to online consumer RM. After addressing the research motivation and objectives in Chapter 1, Chapters 2 and 3 review RM and electronic marketing literature respectively. A hypothesized model is constructed in Chapter 4 to examine the effects of four online market characteristics (perceived shopping risks, perceived consumer power, perceived interaction, and perceived relationship investment) on consumer relational intention, through three important mediators (perceived switching costs, satisfaction, and trust). An empirical study, aimed to validate the hypothesized model, was reported and discussed in Chapter 5. The hypothesized model was supported. It was found that the online market characteristics and mediators incorporated in the model were critical for online consumer relationship building, and the relations among these constructs reveal important implications for etailers reviewing their RM strategy. Contributions and limitations of the research are presented in Chapter 6.</p>