CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
Electronic commerce also known as e-commerce has
facilitated the emergence of new marketing strategies and business models in
several industries in developing countries, Nigeria inclusive. Significant
changes are happening in product retailing with the introduction of online
shopping, especially in terms of channel development and coordination, business
scope redefinition, the development of fulfillment centre model and core
processes, new ways of customer value creation, online partnerships and general
customer satisfaction. In fact the role of online marketing itself has
undergone some significant changes in the last few years in Nigeria (Irene 2004).
The electronic commerce segment of the retail market has witnessed tremendous
growth in terms of participation in the Nigerian economy in the past few years.
According to Johnson, (2012) over 100 firms both local and foreign have shown
greater interest in the sector alleged to worth over $50 billion annually. The
industry has no doubt opened doors for the coming generation of young Nigerian
entrepreneurs. Electronic commerce industry has no doubt increased the
percentage of local content in products and services as well as increased
utilization of local capacity.
Ayo, Adewoye and Oni (2011)
asserted that the adoption of e-commerce in Nigerian business organizations has
increased since the users of internet in Nigeria has grown from 0.1% in 2000 to
29.5% of its population in 2014 and still has the potential to grow higher.
Tunde (2014) also noted that online retail market in Nigeria has significantly
impacted the nation’s economy. In the same vein, Mary-Anne (2008) affirmed that
e-commerce has offered a level playing ground for large businesses, as well as
small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) to operate in the global
market-place; and for regional businesses and communities to participate in
social, economic and
cultural networks seamlessly
across international boundaries. E-commerce refers to the use of communications
technology particularly the internet to buy, sell and market goods and services
to customers. The Internet has brought about a fundamental shift in national
economies that are isolated from each other by barriers to cross-border trade
and investment; isolated by distance, time zones and language; and isolated by
national difference in government regulations, culture and business systems
(Mohammad, 2004).
A customer is said to be satisfied
when products and/or services meetthe expectation of the customer. Trust which is
a belief that one can rely upon a promise made by another (Pavlou, 2003), is an
important factor in customer satisfaction. Stewart, Ellis, Johnson and Meyer
(2009) define trust in electronic commerce as the subjective probabilitywith
which consumers believe that an online transactionwith a web retailer will
occur in a manner consistent withtheir expectations. Scholars have identified
lack of trustas one of the main reasons for consumers’ cynicismtowards
electronic commerce. In the context of ecommerce,trust beliefs include the
online consumers’beliefs and expectancies about trust-related characteristics of
the online seller (McKnight and Chervany,2002). The online consumers desire the
online sellers tobe willing and able to act in the consumers’ interests, tobe
honest in transactions (not divulging personalinformation to other vendors),
and to be capable ofdelivering the ordered goods as agreed.According to Mahmood
(2004), the trust factor hassignificant positive contributions to consumers’
online shopping behaviour. Jiang, Chen and Wang (2008) argued thatconsumer
trust is a critical enabler of successful onlineretailing and knowledge is one
important factorinfluencing the level of trust. The work of Gefen (2003)and
Al-Dwairi, Chappel and Feindt(2009), among others presented anintegrated trust
model with the technology acceptancemodel for business-to-consumer (B2C)
e-commerce.
It is very important that
customers are content with the products and servicesprovided by the particular
internet shop as satisfied customers arelikely to be loyal and make repeat
purchases which willincrease profitability of that particular e-commerce
company. In this study, the concept of satisfaction will be referred in terms
of outcome by comparingthe prior expectation and the perceived performance for
eachantecedent factor in order to measure the attitude of the respondents for
each of thosefactors.Many studies have been carried out to investigate the
various degree of influence that e-commerce has on business development in
Nigeria using different sectors of the economy but there seems a dearth of
research that has specifically studied the relationship between e-commerce
adoption and customer satisfaction using online shops. Based on this, this
study takes a comparative analysis of E-commerce and customer satisfaction in
Jumia and OLX.
1.2
Statement of the Problem
Despite
the growth of internet users in Nigeria, muchresearch work has not been done in
accessing the Business to Customer (B2C) e-commerce relationship. Presently,
many online shoppingsites are thriving in Nigeria, servicing thousands
ofsearchers every week. Some of them are:www.234 world., Xtaples.net, www.booksng.com,
www.orderbay.com.,
Jumia.com and OLX.com. Some of these sites make thetransaction process so easy that
buyers forget about theopen market. A site like OLX.com allows buyer topay to a
designated bank account after making onlinepurchases. The items purchased are
then shipped to thebuyer at the speed of light. Jumia.com allows individual
toreceive money online and thereafter use it to pay forpurchases made.
Considering allthese, it is expected that the number of people engagingin
e-commerce activity will increase. E-commerce hashowever not been widely tapped
into in Nigeria. Many Nigerians stilltreat its benefits with deep skepticism.
They do notbelieve that e-commerce transactions could besuccessfully conducted.
Customers do not have trust on the delivery system, the payment style and the
facelessness of e-commerce activities. Therefore, there is need for online marketing
organizations in Nigeria to understand what satisfies individual and
organizational customers. Based on this, the study is a comparative analysis of
e-commerce and customer satisfaction using Jumia.com and OLX.com, which are
some of the leading online shops in Nigeria.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The
general aim of this study is to analyse e-commerce and customer satisfaction
while the objectives are as follows;
i)
To identify the factors responsible for
consumer re-order purchase in Jumia and OLX.com;
ii)
To determine causes of consumer loyalty
to the online products of Jumia.com and OLX.com.
1.4
Relevant Research Questions
In
comparatively analyzing e-commerce and service delivery the following questions
are pertinent:
i)
What
are the factors responsible for consumer re-order purchase in Jumia and OLX.com?
ii)
What are the causes of consumer loyalty
to the online products of Jumia and
OLX.com?
1.5 Relevant
Research Hypotheses
H0:There
are no factors responsible for customer re-order purchase in Jumia and OLX.com
H1:There
are factors responsible for customer re-order purchase in Jumia and OLX.com
1.6 Significance
of the Study
This
study became extremely important because of observed knowledge gap on
e-commerce and its impact on customer satisfaction. This has made it apparently
necessary to carry out this study. This study is therefore of significance to
the following user groups:
Managers of marketing organizations
in Nigeria would benefit from the study as recommendations would serve as
necessary data for management strategic decision making.
Findings obtained from this study shall be of
assistance to the Nigerian consumer public as recommendations would serve as a
source of information for purchase decision making.
The online shops in Nigeria would
also benefit from this study as findings would assist them in formulating
policies to counter competition in the sector.The study would also be of
benefit to entrepreneurs who wish to venture into online marketing in Nigeria.
This study would be of importance
to academics who are involved in knowledge transfer as findings would serve as
research evidence.
1.7 Scope of the Study
This
study aims at comparatively analyzing e-commerce and customer satisfaction. The
scope of the study is limited to the study of e-commerce strategies in
Jumia.com and OLX.com.
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