E-Commerce: Customer satisfaction and its

unprecedented growth
Abstract:
The World Wide Web and the medium of internet have invaded the world from all
directions and it has transformed the business and economies into series of electronic
financial transactions. E-Commerce is a relatively new born phenomenon and this study
explores into the realm of Business-to-Customer e-commerce customer satisfaction in
Pakistan and Turkey. The present study is concerned in the field of consumer buying
behavior, especially e-shopping in Pakistan. E-commerce has created easiness and
innovativeness in humans’ life. Online consumer buying behavior is not like a physical
market having ability to touch, analyze, and thereafter shop the products.
Firms across the globe have adopted e-commerce (EC) in their operations and have
reaped benefits thereof. While firms in technologically developed countries like US and
UK has deployed EC to its advantage. The methodology used to extract primary data is
the contingency valuation approach; questionnaire. In total 205 Questionnaire were
filled and collected online which constituted 110 surveys from Pakistan and 95 surveys
from Turkey. The study uses descriptive analysis and also two sample t-test to test the
hypothesis of the study which is that there is no difference in the levels of Business-to-
Customer e-commerce customer satisfaction in Pakistan and Turkey. The findings of
the study reveal that there is no significant difference between the levels of Pakistan
and Turkey as the individual factors affecting e-commerce customer satisfaction do not
differ in intensity. There are few differences but mainly the countries are on converging
paths in this context.
Keywords: E-Commerce in Pakistan, Customer Satisfaction, E-Commerce, Business-
to-Customer, E-commerce adoption, E-commerce literature review, E-commerce
research agenda

Intro:
Ecommerce has shown good growth and The trend of shopping
throughout the world is rapidly changing consequently many customers are
adopting online shopping. To shop online has become an appropriate
approach to do a number of online purchases while sitting in office, home
or even in another country. It is common practice in advanced countries
that most of the stores have developed their websites where consumers
can avail online services and can make payment through their websites.
In case of Pakistan, the acceptance of these tendencies are more
challenging. Common people generally do not have confidence on the
goods being presented to them. Consequently, they do not think to
purchase online and are happy with the decision. Though, Pakistani youth
seems flexible as they are gradually involving in online purchasing,
especially putting online order for food items. This current increasing trend
of online shopping has inculcated researchers to accept that people are
determinant towards e-shopping especially Pakistani youth. There are
several other causes which are involved in shopping online, i.e., the rapidly
growing markets in every segment of the world especially Pakistani market,
which is widely serving the information technology industry of Pakistan. The
present research attempts to disclose like this important factors which are
affecting consumer behavior to shop online.
According to the research conducted it is realized that every individual who
is online is a potential customer thanks to reachability of internet. However,
there are limited studies analyzing consumer buying behavior towards e-
shopping with respect to shopping orientations, perceived benefits of online
shopping, and domain specific innovativeness of customers in Pakistan.
As per the report of Neilsen 2014, the internet penetration rates in Pakistan
and Turkey are 15% and 43% respectively. These rates are very low
compared to developed countries. The pre-requisite to e-commerce is the
use and acceptance of internet and therefore with these low rates in both
countries it is very vital to conduct researches and promote projects to
make a way through for e-commerce industry (Neilsen, 2014).
2. Literature Review:
2.1. Online shopping:
E-shopping or online shopping is a type of e-commerce which enables
clients to directly acquire products or services by any retailer through
internet using websites. Online shopping got much popularity in the users
of Internet. Nowadays, it has become easier to find even the most difficult
goods simply typing the name of an item or product using Internet.
Additionally, logistic companies are also being part of online shopping
process, making sure that products would be delivered at any destination in
the world. Indeed, there are many benefits and advantages of online
shopping and that’s why individuals select to do this kind of shopping over
traditional shopping.
2.2 Perceived benefits of online shopping:
E-shopping attitude depends on consumer’s view about the activities
executed on internet as opposite to traditional shopping environment.
Literature has revealed that time saving and ease is the core motive that
encourage customers for online shopping. Chen et al. (2010) described
that convenience stands for performing shopping through internet that may
decrease effort and time of buyers in the process of purchase.
2.3. Domain specific innovativeness
Domain Specific Innovativeness as degree to which a person is
comparatively earlier adopts an innovation as compared to other fellows of
his system. In general, people love continuousness in their day-to-day
routine and inclusive of the shopping routine. Whereas Internet and the
online shopping suggest customers an extensive range and particulars of
offered goods, also it enables the consumers to come out from their usual
shopping habits.
2.4 Shopping orientations
Shopping orientations are associated with the general tendency towards
the shopping acts. This tendency might be exhibit in varied methods like
info search, alternate judgment, and the selection of product. Shopping
orientations are a certain part of living style and are functionalized by a
number of actions, concerns and viewpoint narratives which are relative
with the shopping acts. As per relative study amongst online-shopping
orientation and shopping orientation, seven kinds of shopping orientation
were identified by Vijayasarathy and Jones (2000) for instance, in-home
buyers who enjoy shopping at home, economic buyers who visit shops at
different places before making buying decisions, mall shoppers elected to
do shopping at malls, personalized shoppers loved to do shopping
somewhere if they know the sales-people, ethical shoppers preferred to do
shopping at local stores for encouraging the local public, leisure shoppers
put a supremacy on ease while shopping, and enthusiastic shoppers enjoy
to shop. As per conclusion of the research, it revealed that consumers who
have a preference for conventional in-home shopping, for example by email
orders through catalogs, inclined to express extraordinary aspiration for
online shopping, however people with mall shopping preferences inclined
to possess little intentions for online shopping.
2.5 Impulse purchase orientation:
Impulse purchase is unplanned and is the result of any particular stimulus.
Impulse purchase occurs when consumer exercise a sudden wish to buy
anything instantly, lack essential supplementary assessment, and takes
action on the basis of urge. Basically impulsiveness is a psychological
characteristic which results in reaction to a stimulation. Impulse purchase is
usually created from buying situations that feature less mental control,
higher emotive activation, and much reactive behavior. Through
advancements of e-commerce, impulse purchase has been taken on an
unprecedented scale.
2.6. Quality orientation
Quality orientation is the main strategic factor to take competitive
advantage.To increase the worth of the product and services is the matter
of key concern for companies. Quality orientations effect on online buying
behavior of consumers. This has been well described in existing literature.
In conventional shopping, recreational purchasers are more likely to look
quality, store atmosphere and diversity of products as key factors while
selecting stores.
2.7. Brand Orientation: brand name is the identity of the ecommerce
business. Usually in ecommerce brand name is the company name. It also
helps in sticking your customers to your brand. For example: a person who
uses an iphone will consider buying anything that has apple logo on it.
2.8. Hypotheses:
Prior discussion has led to the formation of under mentioned three
hypotheses.
H1: There is a significant as well as positive relation exist in perceived
benefits and online buying behavior of consumers.
H2: There is a significant as well as positive relation exist in Domain
specific innovativeness and online buying behavior of consumers.
H3: There is a significant as well as positive relation exist in shopping
orientations and online buying behavior of consumer.
Methdology:
This study is based on a research in two countries namely Pakistan and
Turkey. The research employs a quantitative technique that is
questionnaire to collect the necessary data and information regarding the
study. A total of 229 respondents were asked to fill the questionnaire by e-
mail and over social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn. 124
respondents answered from Pakistan and 105 from Turkey. 110 responses
were selected from Pakistan out of 124 and 95 from out of 105 were
selected from Turkey. The reason for this was because the questionnaire
had the first question to see whether the respondent has an online
shopping experience or not and those who answered “no” were discarded
from the analysis. Therefore the total sample amounted up to 205
participants. The sampling done Sahal M. SHEIKH & Mehmet BASTI Page
|86 EJBE 2015, 8 (16) for this research was selective and convenient
sampling. This means that the respondents were chosen according to the
ease of being approached as well as having a first-hand experience of
online shopping. The questionnaire was designed and distributed online to
be parallel with the essence of the research which is the online realm of
activities. The respondents will be taken as sample and representatives of
the entire countries and an analysis will be conducted that will explore the
similarities and differences between the B2C e-commerce satisfaction in
the two countries under consideration.
Data Collection and choice of research analysis:
Primary data was collected in the form of 53 questions posed in the survey
questionnaire and were there upon translated into excel coding sheet which
was used for generating meaningful finding of this research. Four different
sections namely General, Customer Satisfaction, Repurchase Behavior
and Demographics were made comprising of non-directing and unbiased
questions so that consistent complete information is extracted from the
respondents. Multiple choice, grid and rank questions were designed in the
survey so that the questionnaire was systematic and consistent in then
question styles. These types of questions were also used so that the
respondents can easily comprehend the questions. Only two dichotomous
questions were asked which were regarding the use of online shopping and
gender of the participants. This study uses the unit of analysis as one
individual that filled the questionnaire. Contingency valuation approach
entails many important biases which were kept in mind while sketching the
questions for the questionnaire. The two biases that were likely to affect
this study were the hypothetical and embedding bias. A hypothetical bias is
where respondents are put into a self created hypothetical situation which
leads to “out of thin air” answers. This bias was hindered by not including
hypothetical based questions in the research. An embedding bias is one of
the most important and serious biases that had should be dealt with.
Embedding bias occurs when the answers have an affect due to the quality
of information at disposal about the topic and question under study.
Therefore information was provided carefully and personally all of the
respondents were talked with and discussed with about the questions they
filled after the respondents submitted their answers. As a comparative
analysis is set out to be conducted in this research, the inclusion of
questionnaire as a means of extracting the data was helpful as it serves as
a common base of comparison for the participants from both the countries.
Therefore with the participants exposed to the same questions a statistical
compare and contrast would be easier to design and probe into. The
questionnaire Customer Satisfaction in B2C E-commerce: A Comparative
Study of Turkey and Pakistan EJBE 2015, 8 (16) Page |87 also cuts down
unnecessary information that is always on the cards when engaged in a
qualitative technique compared to a quantitative technique. As the
hypothesis of this research is to compare and contrast the two countries
under consideration, two sample t-tests was employed to explore that if the
samples are different from each other or not. This statistic compares if the
mean of the two samples are different from each other. Another reason to
adopt this technique was due to the difference in the sample sizes. From
Pakistan we have 110 participants and from Turkey we have 95. This
technique allows unequal sample sizes and therefore it was the best fit and
in line statistical technique to use. Plus it used in comparison studies in the
literature and therefore it was adopted in this study.
Recommendations:
Keeping in mind the research findings and the limitation this what we would
recommend in order to enhance the further study of e-commerce.
1. Other factors affecting online consumer behavior can also be
examined by future researches as only three factors tested on e-
shopping attitude in this research
2. This research can be extended in other countries to get better
understanding and results of online behavior of peoples. This would
also help us in understanding the infrastructure necessary to build a
smooth e-commerce network.
3. The studies generally concentrated on consumer factors, In future
studies there might be further system, goods or services, and retailer
relevant factors that may be significant to address as predictors of
customers 'acceptance to shop online.
4. By taking cultural factors in account research may give better aspects
of online customers. We are suggesting this learning from
perspective of daraz, which is a really good e-commerce site but
lacks promotional efforts on regional grounds. Like advertising in
Sindhi language or Urdu.

4.2. Following are the limitations of the present study

Many Factors may affect online shopping behavior but the present study
could not examined all that because of time shortage.
The present research has examined the factors affecting online consumer
behavior only in Pakistan because of limited time and cost. Definitely, the
people of other countries have diversified behaviors and characteristics. So
there is lack of generalizability in this study.
As the Questionnaire has been used to collect data, there is possibility of
incorrect information given by the respondents that is not exactly according
to how they behave in real situation. The sample size may be regarded
proportionally as small.
5. CONCLUSION
The research outcomes have provided managerial implications to different stakeholders. The
findings also provide certain understandings and feedback to the e-traders to develop and apply
different trade tactics to raise consumers’ online buying intentions. To build the condition for
perceived benefits, web-retailers may offer free subscription to potential online buyers and free
samples to test the services and products. The present research shows that domain specific
innovativeness has positive and significant effect on customer buying intention so the web-
retailers may use new and latest features to make their online shopping stores more attractive
and user friendly. To boost the consumer impulse purchase orientation, web-retailers may offer
updates by e-mails on product improvement or grant exceptional discounts up to a specific time
period to attract potential clients. Web-retailers can provide loyalty plans and club-membership
to online clients who have brand orientation. To target the quality orientated clients, Web-
retailers may provide adequate online report on product quality and search information of the
product over the website to them.
The results ascertained the facts about various aspects of online shopping, it would provide
reliable information that can be interpreted to reach at conclusions. Furthermore, it is significant
to establish that opinion of either group of sample does not stand as standard. It, however,
reflects views of the effectiveness and deficiencies of online shopping especially in Pakistan. It
is also seen with reference to a theoretical framework for this study, it can assist in reaching at
the conclusions about online shopping in Pakistan.
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