Exploring factors that influence e-commerce customer experience in South Africa

Abstract

Purpose - The world of business has noticed an important shift in the way trade activities are done with the universal retail landscape continuously changing due to the evolution of e-commerce, challenging sellers and creating a competitive environment. The South African online customer base is still gradually growing with low penetration and currently a small target market. However, the South African online market is slow in growth when compared to its developed counterparts, impacting the ambitious growth plans for the online South African market and making it more challenging. Highlighting the role of customer experience and expanding on the value add to consumers are unquestionably important aspects for the long-term survival of any business. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to examine the influence of online store factors on e- commerce customer experience in the context of the online landscape in South Africa.

Design/methodology – Qualtrics was used for the online survey, 252 valid responses were collected from males and females who are e-commerce users and non-users for the past 12 months between the ages of 18 – 64 years in South Africa. MATLAB modelling was used to test the hypothesis of this study.

Findings – Results revealed that e-commerce customer experience is influenced by online communication, online interpersonal communication and loyalty programmes. In contrast online merchandise, online post-transactional services and online store atmosphere were found to have non-significant influence on e-commerce customer experience.

Research limitations - The area where the research is conducted is a limitation as it is considered a developing country. However, the researcher urges other researchers to replicate the study from other different countries. The research is limited to consumers who are users and non-users of e-commerce platforms for the past 12 months. There may be delays in response time for the online questionnaire from the randomly selected participants. The randomly selected participants may pose a constraint to the research and not consent to taking part in the online survey. Distribution of questionnaire (E.g. email, WhatsApp and LinkedIn), survey could end up in junk mail or ignored. The study focuses on certain aspects that lead to the influence of e-commerce customer experience and not the adoption.

Originality/value – Marketing, retail and distribution researchers recognize little knowledge on the contribution on online store factors to e-commerce customer experience. This study represents original research that encourages online businesses to employ the adopted model as a new marketing thought in designing robust online customer experience strategies to capture the South African market.