STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEȘ-BOLYAI OECONOMICA

VOLUME 62, ISSUE 2, 2017, pp. 77-88

DOI: 10.1515/subboec-2017-0010

THE IMPACT OF THE PROBLEMS FACED BY ONLINE CUSTOMERS ON

ECOMMERCE

Simona SABOU *
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Bianca AVRAM-POP
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Liliana Adela ZIMA

Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Abstract. The purpose of this study is to identify the behavior of customers in the online
environment. We analyzed the evolution, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages
of this type of commerce, and its implications on the consumers. In order to identify the
customers’ behavior online, we selected three variables which are characterized by time
intervals of the latest online order, and six variables which analyze the main problems
faced by consumers of goods/services bought online (a long shipping time, damaged
products, non-compliant products, fraud related issues, underperforming complaint system,
technical issues, lack of customer and legal aspects). Online commerce is less developed
in the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Ireland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Slovenia
and Norway. But, the advantages of ecommerce weigh more for the consumer than the
problems they face, for example: online shoppers will continue to make online purchases
even if they have experienced delays in delivering goods/services, damaged products,
online fraud, technical problems or difficulties in finding information about the warranty of
goods/services.

JEL classification: E20, F10

Keywords: e-commerce, unsatisfied customers, European states.

*Corresponding author. Address: Faculty of Sciences, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, North

University Center in Baia Mare, Victoriei, nr. 76, 430122, Baia Mare, România, Tel. 0262-276059,
E-mail: [email protected]

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1. Introduction
The Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) first appeared in the 1960’s and can
be considered the forefather of Electronic Commerce (EC) (Antohi, 2009).
Cyberspace has brought about an era during which acquisitions and sales have become
more automated and more convenient, businesses have become interconnected and
have also connected with their customers in a network, time and distances, which
acted as commercial barriers and required high costs in the past, have shortened
immeasurably, and vendors continuing to sell the old-fashioned way will disappear from
the marketplace (Kotler, 2003). As the use of the internet has increased, e-commerce
has become available for a great number of customers (Holdorf and Haasis, 2014),
and predictions show the electronics links between companies will intensify (Benjamin
and Wigand, 1995). In recent years, the Internet (and its technology) has brought
about an increase in international commerce (Totonchi and Manshady, 2012). The
volume of international commerce will increase through e-commerce (Terzi, 2011).
Since the first online transaction, which was first performed in 1995, to the present
day, e-commerce has grown rapidly (Laudon and Traver, 2013).
Consumers are ever more attracted by online shopping due to their
attitude as regards saving time, price flexibility and availability of various products
and a range of products on one platform (Ferri et al., 2008). Online shopping has
been growing in time because more and more consumers have begun trusting online
commerce and have moved a significant part of their shopping online (Lixandroiu,
2017).
The consumers in the European countries also join this evolution. But being a
relatively new phenomenon, their behavior can be influenced by the various
difficulties which appear in the online environment. That's exactly why we have
proposed in this paper to analyze how it affects the problems encountered by online
customers developing this type of commerce.

2. Literature review

E-commerce is a new way of doing business (Seyal and Rahman, 2003).

Several authors have tried to define this notion. E-commerce represents the use of
electronic devices in doing business (Choi et al., 1997) or the process of buying
and selling products or services which use electronic data transmission by means
of the internet (Grandon and Pearson, 2004).
Electronic commerce means using the computer and the internet when
proposing businesses, including the selling, buying, and exchange of goods, services,
and information (McKay and Marshall, 2004). Another definition of electronic
commerce refers to the electronic exchange of information, goods, services, and
payments (Harrington and Reed, 1996).
E-commerce is the enterprise of buying and selling by means of remotely
sending data, which is specific to the expansive policy of the commercial companies’
marketing strategy (Bucur, 2002).
Many studies have noticed the benefits and the impact of e-commerce,
these being summarized as follows (Nejadirani et al., 2011):

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 - it offers unmatched savings as regards transaction costs;
- it reduces advertising and promotion costs;
- it grants fast communication between the buyer and the seller;
- it minimizes transportation obstacles;
- it limits delivery costs;
- it eliminates the physical limitations of time and space.
E-commerce intensifies competition and generates advantages for the
consumers, who can get lower prices due to having several options (Malkawi,
2006). Moreover, the development of global markets through the internet makes
historical relations less important and suggests that countries with the least
previous commercial relations have the most to gain from e-commerce, especially
developing countries (Freund and Weinhold, 2004). E-commerce can add more
value to enterprises and consumers in developing countries than in developed
countries (Annan, 2001). The legal regulations of e-commerce are justified since its
dynamics leads to the creation of a significant market, and most laws regarding e-
commerce state that transactions carried out over the internet fall under the jurisdiction
of the supplier’s country (Bătăgan et al., 2010).
Ensuring the consumer’s protection in the virtual environment, where the
commercial transaction is carried out, requires the existence of new and extremely
important aspects regarding the security of the consumer (Surcel and Dinu, 2007).
E-commerce comprises a wide range of problems such as security, trust, reputation,
legal framework, payment mechanisms, advertising, online catalogues (Haleema
and Iyengar, 2016).
The issues regarding security and the legal framework are the most recent
problems which prevent companies from joining e-commerce (Savrul et al., 2014).
One reason why consumers do not buy online, which is often mentioned, is the lack
of trust (Petrovic et al., 2003). Trust has always been the underlying component, with
great importance within the uncertain, internet-based environment of e-commerce
(Gefen and Straub, 2003).
Within e-commerce the behavior of consumers from various areas could differ
because of the geographical and cultural environment, as well as because they live in
different countries and social cultures (Dabidian et al., 2016). Thus, the manner of
shopping could differ very much from region to region (Zhou and Wang, 2014).
Some advice regarding safe online shopping and payments could be summarized
as follows (Bătăgan et al., 2010):
- the need to take a closer look to the type of information generally requested
when buying goods and services online;
- the need to be careful to the rights regarding the physical delivery of the
products ordered online, the right to return the ordered products if they do not meet
the requirements.
Within e-commerce, the behavior of consumers tended to be concerned
mainly with functional and utilitarian considerations (Brown et al., 2003). The study
of e-consumer behavior is gaining in importance due to the proliferation of online
shopping (Dennis et al., 2004). The behavior of online consumers is not yet fully
understood, due to the fact that there are a lot of problems that clients encounter.
Therefore, in this paper, we are trying to analyze some of them.

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3. Research Methodology

The aim of this study is to identify the behavior of customers in the online
environment – a hot topic recently. The results of this study should serve both
policy makers who need to implement and adapt laws that protect both consumers,
as well as companies involved in ecommerce. The latter must adapt their online
sales strategies according to customer needs, both loyal and potential clients.
In order to achieve this, we selected 3 variables which are characterized
by time intervals during which the latest online order was made (the last 3 months,
3-12 months, more than 1 year), and six variables which analyze the main issues
consumers of goods/services bought online are faced with (long shipping time,
damaged products, non-compliant products, fraud related issues, underperforming
complaint system, technical issues, lack of customer and legal aspects).
All these variables are expressed in percentages (e.g.: the percentage of
individuals who placed their latest ordered within the past 3 months of the total number
of individuals living in the country or the percentage of individuals for whom the
delivery of goods lasted longer of the total number of individuals ordering over the
internet) and are related to the population of the 29 European states, the data being
collected from the EUROSTAT website and referring to the year 2016.
We used graphics in order to present the three variables for each country
included in the study. Moreover, in order to analyze the manner in which problems
occurring within online commerce influence the buyer’s decision, we want to study
the relation between the time interval of the latest online order and the difficulties
which occur most often in this situation, and for this we used the statistics software
SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).

4. Outcomes and Discussions

To begin with, it is important to identify and analyze the differences which

appear amongst European states when considering the time interval of the latest
online order. Thus, in figure 1 we present the percentages of individuals of the 29
European states included in the analysis who placed at least one online order
within the past 3 months of the total number of individuals. One can notice in this
figure that Great Britain holds the highest percentage (78%) of individuals who
purchased online a good/service within the past 3 months, while at the opposite
end of the scale one can find Romania, a country where only 8% of the population
made at least one online purchase over the analyzed period of time. Close to Romania,
at the end of the classification, one can find countries such as: Bulgaria (11%),
Macedonia (11%) and Turkey (13%). As regards this percentage of individuals, we
calculated the average of the 29 European states and thus obtained the value of
39%. Thus we can identify the states which are bellow this value. There are 14
countries in total, amongst which: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Spain, Croatia,
Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Cyprus and Turkey.
With this analysis we seek to identify the European states where e-commerce
is not very well developed because certain interventions and changes need to
happen here in order to generate its development. In the above list one can notice

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that the economy of most countries included here is developing (e.g.: Romania and
Bulgaria), as well as the fact that there are cases where its growth is very slow (e.g.:
Greece, who had to enforce some austerity measures during the recent years).

Fig. 1. Representation of the European states depending on the percentages

of individuals who placed at least one order within the past 3 months

As regards the percentages of individuals who shopped online within the

time interval of 3-12 months, seen in figure 2, the classification changes, the top
positions being held by Finland (20%), the Czech Republic (18%) and Ireland
(18%), while the bottom positions are held by Romania (4%), Macedonia (4%),
Turkey (5%) and Great Britain (5%). The small percentages recorded by Great
Britain as regards the latest online order placed within the 3-12 month time interval
and the one placed more than one year before (2% - figure 3) is due to the fact
that over 70% of the individuals often shop online (at least one order within the
past 3 months). As regards the other 3 states at the bottom of the hierarchy, the
explanation is different and is related to the level of development in these countries.
Five of the 29 European states record the average value of the sample (10%)
when speaking about the percentage of individuals who ordered a good/service
online within the time interval 3-12 months. These countries are characterized by
stability and a strong economy: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Luxemburg and Austria.

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Fig. 2. Representation of the European states depending on the percentages
of individuals who placed the latest order within the 3-12 months time
interval

The last figure included in this paper, figure 3, represents the percentages
of individuals who have not ordered anything online for over a year. Thus the
states where these values are higher, e-commerce is less developed. Here are
some examples of such states: the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Lithuania,
Ireland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Slovenia and Norway. All of the above states are
characterized by percentages of individuals who order online higher than the
average value of 7%.

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Fig. 3. Representation of the European states depending on the percentages
of individuals who placed ordered a good/service online more than one
year before

In order to better understand e-commerce in Europe, we calculated the

descriptive statistics of the percentages of individuals depending on the time interval of
their latest online order. If the minimal and maximal values were highlighted in the
above representation of the three variables, in table 1 we calculated the range, which
is the difference between the extreme values, offering an image of the scope of the
data. The highest range can be found, as expected, in the percentage of individuals
who placed at least one online order within the past 3 months (70), being followed at a
great distance by the one for online shoppers within the past 3-12 months (16), a range
which nevertheless is close to the one recorded in the case of individuals who ordered
at least one good/service more than one year before (14).
The fact that the average value and the modal values are equal in all three
situations can be explained by the limited size of the analyzed sample (29 European
states). Thus the value which divides the observations in two equal parts and the one
which can be found most frequently in the series of data is 41 in the case of individuals
who ordered online within the past 3 months, 10 when the latest order was placed
within the past 3-12 months, and 7 when the period is over on year.

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Table no. 1. Descriptive statistics of the values which describe the time
interval of the latest online order
Customers of Customers of Customers who
e-commerce within e-commerce within shopped online more
the past 3 months the past 3-12 months than 12 months before
Range 70 16 14
Mean 39.41 10.3448 6.7931
Median 41 10 7
Mode 41 10 7
Std. 19.785 4.20269 2.89555
Deviation
Variance 391.466 17.663 8.384
Skewness 0.243 0.63 1.103
Kurtosis -0.933 0.009 2.708

In table 1 we also represented the variance and the standard deviation, yet we
shall only explain the values of the latter because it represents the square root of the
variance, being a more precise parameter. The standard deviation shows the average
deviation of the recorded values as compared to the average values. As regards the
three variables analyzed descriptively, the standard deviation (19.785 – customers of
online shopping within the past 3 months, 4.20269 – customers of online shopping
within the past 3-12 months, and 2.89555 – customers of online shopping more than
12 months before) is far below the average value, which means a wide spread of the
studied values.
In analyzing the series of data we also used the Skewness and Kurtosis
indicators. Skewness indicates the deviation of the empirical distribution in relation to a
symmetrical distribution around the average, and the values higher than 0 in all three
variables show that the distributions are tilted towards the left, with more extreme
values towards the right. The value of the Kurtosis indicator is used in order to indicate
the level of flatness of pointedness of a distribution, and is compared with value 3.
Thus all 3 variables have flatter distributions than the average and have values
dispersed over a wider interval around the average.
The graphical representation of the European states as regards e-commerce
serves in creating a classification which points out the top and bottom positions.
In this paper we want to carry out a more complex analysis of e-commerce
in Europe, and in order to achieve this we identified in table no. 2 the correlation
between the frequency of online orders and the main six problems individuals face
when buying online (it takes a long time to deliver the goods/services, the
goods/services are damaged are do not correspond with the ordered, fraud related
issues, complaints were not solved or there was no satisfactory solution, technical
problems and difficulty in finding information regarding guarantees/warranties, and
other legal rights).

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Table no. 2. Spearman correlation coefficients between the time of the latest
online order and the main problems customers face
Customers of Customers of e- Customers who
e-commerce commerce within shopped online
within the past the past 3-12 more than 12
3 months months months before
Correlation .890* .543* -.185
Speed of delivery Coefficient
longer than indicated Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .002 .336
N 29 29 29
Correlation .864* .250 -.284
Wrong or damaged
Coefficient
good/services
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .218 .159
delivered
N 26 26 26
Correlation .532* .216 -.431
Coefficient
Problems with fraud
Sig. (2-tailed) .016 .360 .058
N 20 20 20
Complaints and Correlation .753** .175 -.251
redress were difficult Coefficient
or no satisfactory Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .424 .247
response received N 23 23 23
Correlation .879** .409* -.083
Coefficient
Technical failure
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .031 .674
N 28 28 28
Difficulties finding Correlation .749** .120 -.452*
information Coefficient
concerning Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .587 .030
guarantees N 23 23 23

Due to the fact that the database is made up of a small number of

observations (29 states), for the study of the impact of difficulties customers face when
ordering online upon the frequency of the buyer, we chose to use a non-parametrical
test. Moreover, the characteristic of the variables used for the analysis (quantitative
analysis) allows the calculation of the correlation between the variables with the the
Spearman test. The results of this test are presented in table no. 2, where for every
association between a problem customers faced and the percentage of those who
made a purchase within the past 3 months, 3-12 months or more than 12 months.
We start the analysis of the correlation between the frequency of online
shopping and the main problems occurring in this field with individuals who purchased
online at least one good/service within the past 3 months by comparing the Sig values
of column 3 with the chosen significance threshold (0.05). Subsequent to this
operation, we reached the conclusion that there are relations (marked *) between the
percentage of individuals who faced all six studied problems and those who ordered
online within the past 3 months. Moreover, all these correlations are positive, which
means that as the percentage of people who face one of the problems presented
above when ordering online grows, so will the percentage of those who ordered online
within the past 3 months.

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 Positive correlations, yet weaker in intensity, are also formed between the
individuals who last ordered online within the past 3-12 months and those who waited
for a long time for the good/service to be delivered (Sig=0.002<0.05). Moreover, the
former category of individuals is significantly influenced by individuals who faced
technical difficulties when ordering online (Sig=0.031<0.05). These two correlations
lead to the idea that as the percentage of individuals who faced these two types of
problems grows, so will the percentage of those who placed an online order within the
3-12 months time interval.
If we take a look at the last column, where the coefficients of the correlation
between the six categories of problems occurring in e-commerce and the percentage
of individuals who did not place any online orders within the past year are calculated, we
can notice only one correlation (between the percentage of individuals who had difficulties
in finding information about guarantees/warranties and those who rarely order online),
and this is a negative one (the Sig value = 0.030<0.005, and the Spearman coefficient
= -0.452). This correlation signifies that as the percentage of individuals who had
difficulties in finding information about guarantees/warranties grows, the percentage of
those who rarely ordered online will decrease, and vice-versa. In this situation there are
two possibilities: either some of the customers who do not order online often stop ordering
entirely or order even more rarely, being discouraged by this problem, or they order
more often and then the percentage of those who ordered online one year ago will
decrease and the percentage of those who purchased something online within the past
3 months and 3-12 months respectively will increase.

5. Conclusions

In an ever-developing market, subjected to globalization, it is important that

both businesses and decision-makers make sure that e-commerce is carried out fairly.
The expansion of this sector needs careful monitoring and analysis due to the huge
potential of development it has, but they also need to ensure the safety of online
consumers by clearly stating the rights and obligations of each party, by eliminating
fraud or ensuring technical maintenance of the online store.
At European level there are significant differences as regards of e-commerce,
which occurred due to the different levels of economic growth and level of education of
every people. In order for an individual to order a good/service online they first need
access to a computer/phone/laptop and to the internet, as well as knowledge to use
these devices. Moreover, e-commerce is also influenced by the difficulties the
customers face. What is interesting is the fact that as the number of unsatisfied
customers increases, so does the number of people who order online more often.
Amongst the possible explanations of this phenomenon one can mention the
advantages e-commerce has for shoppers, such as: fast shopping at any time of the
day or night, fast product/service search, as well as the possibility of comparing prices
and the quality of these products/services, and the multitude of choices.
These are only the most important advantages of e-commerce for the
consumer, which make him/her overcome the problems he/she faces when shopping
online and continue to purchase goods/service in online shops. Despite these,
vendors should not neglect the problems occurring along this process because
competition is fierce and customer can easily choose someone else.

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 The advantages of ecommerce weigh more for the consumer than the problems
they face, for example: online shoppers will continue to make online purchases even if
they have experienced delays in delivering goods/services, damaged products,
online fraud, technical problems, or difficulties in finding information about the warranty
of goods/services. Moreover, those who never ordered online are not discouraged
by such problems as even as the number of unsatisfied clients grows, the number
of those who make frequent online purchases will also grow.
At the opposite end there are the customers who rarely order online and
who are not at all influenced by the problems which may occur when ordering
online, except difficulties in finding information about guarantees/warrantees and
other legal rights, an issue which deters many buyers from purchasing online.
A limitation of this study is the impossibility of conducting these analyzes at
the level of each European country as there is insufficient data collected, much of it
being accumulated over a period of 10 years, inadequate for formulating relevant
conclusions. In few years, this specific shortcoming can transform and it might enable us
to creating robust data bases that allow for the study of ecommerce in each European
country. This is a proposal for future articles in the field.

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