Examining of Customers’ Perception towards online service Quality

in Retail: An Empirical Study

Dr.Akondi Srikanth
Associate Professor, KL Business School, Vaddeswaram, Guntur District, AP
drakondi@kluniversity.in
Ms. G. Lalitha Devi
MBA Student, KL Business School, Vaddeswaram, Guntur District, AP
lalithagalla1996@gmail.com
Ms S.Pravallika
MBA Student, KL Business School, Vaddeswaram, Guntur District, AP
kalapravallika@gmail.com

ABSTRACT commerce website, product type and amount

According to the report on online sales from
2000-2018, the growth rate has increased
rapidly from 0.8% to 9.34%. It emphasises
that the customers are slowly inclining
towards the online shopping from the
traditional store based shopping. This growth
has given a push to understand the change in
the customers’ perception towards this
enhancement. Keeping these in view, the
first objective of this research is to evaluate
the customer satisfaction towards the online
service quality based on the type of E-
commerce website used for transactions.
The second objective is to analyse the effect
of demographic variables on the overall
customer satisfaction. In order to meet these
objectives, the study has collected 21
statements tested scale from the literature
that helps in examining the customers’
perception, a part of exploratory research
design. The data is expected to collect from a
sample of 163 of 283 post graduate students
using stratified random sampling. As the
response rate is 66.8%, the obtained data is
analysed for 109 respondents using one
sample t-test, Independent sample t-test and
One-Way ANOVA. The results have stated
that the surveyed users are positive towards
online service quality. Surprisingly, among
the three demographic variables and other
four supporting variables namely Gender,
Age, Education and purpose, type of e-
spent, the amount spent variable is the most
effecting variable contributed towards the
online service quality. The customers
spending an amount ranging from 2000-4000
are more satisfied than other amounts spent
by them. Further, it is also observed that
among the four major online websites taken
under survey namely Amazon, Flip kart, E-
bay, Snap deal and others, the respondents
voted more for Amazon (mean score is 81%)
because of its service on time and tracking
provision. The present research can further
be extended to the other target market
including other age groups, other location
students apart from the youth to whom the
results are applicable.
Keywords: online retailing, One-Way
ANOVA, E-Commerce
1. Introduction
In 2000, the online retailers had merged with
other retail firms to downfall of the
survey[ CITATION cro \l 16393 ]. Although
many online shopping have shut down and
31 percent of those firms were online
retailers. In addition to other factors, such as
competition among the retailers and
customer shopping habits, it led to the failure
of online retailers due to poor quality
services to their customers at present when
compared to the past online retailors’ there
has a huge increased in online retailing
 S Statement
N
O
1 The quantity and quality of the
product/service received was exactly
[ CITATION par85 \l 16393 ] .From lot of study respectively.[CITATION Jay98 \l 16393 ] The
the same as that I ordered
we observed that the online retailers should 2respondents
Delivered werethe requested to give their
product/service I
focus on online service including all response according
Ordered within the to time
theirspecified
choice by and
positives and negatives that occur before and perceptions towards
the online retailerthe 21statement, by
after the transactions. Of course, if properly 3using a five-point
The billing process likert scale,
and itswhere records1 =
utilized, the Internet can definitely be a strongly
weredisagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral,
kept accurately
powerful tool to increase overall service 4 = agree,
The and
online5= strongly agree. [CITATION
retailer
offerings, quality checking of the DeR97 \lresponded
16393 ]
product/service, comparing the prices, and Quikly to my
For this, Research we categorised the
inquires.
making purchasing decisions.[ CITATION
ONe01 \l 16393 ] 5respondents based on
The multiple online options
ordering purchasers wereand
Non-online
offeredpurchaser.
by the online If the purchaser is
retailer
2. Literature review and research 6online All the terms and conditions (e.g.are
purchaser then only the responses
questions collected otherwise
payment the response
,warranty, return is ignored.
policies)
The first
werepart of to
easy theread/understand
research is related to the
The perception of customers and online
7demographics
The contents of the in the customer
Websitesuch were as
retailers, are analysed in detail[ CITATION easyAge,
to understand
Gender, Education, Purchasing type,
CNa02 \l 16393 ]
8Type ofTheshopping
onlinewebsite and the
retailer amount
gave me of
The importance of this survey study is to the customer willing to spend on asthe
personalized attention such
define that most of the people in India are telephone
products or mailpart
.The second options
of the research is
preferring online shopping according to the 9based The Website had a message
on the quality scale which was area taken
for
increase in availability of huge products to customer
from the questions
past authors and statements
scaled comments they
their choice. In the present scenario the 10
are: I received a personal “thank you”
people of this generation are adapting to the note via e-mail or other media after I
Service Quality
placed Evaluation Scale with 21
an order
online services to their door steps. Another
statements
11 I felt is as follows;
secure in providing persona l
important aspect of online systems is to
information for online purchase
enable customers to choice independently
and conduct many transactions on their 12 I felt that the risk associated with
online transactions was low
own[ CITATION car90 \l 16393 ].So the
13 The Website
3. Objectives of theshowed
Study how long the
research of this paper entirely focusing on
online retailer has been in this online
customer perception towards online retailing This research
business is based on online customer’s
which saves time and low cost of products, perception
14 I received where the entire research
special rewards studiesand
service quality etc. According to the recent have discounts
examined as thepromised
customers’ store
by the online based
studies on e-commerce noticed that some retailing towards their need and capacity of
retailer
features of Web sites are difficult to spending
15 on products.
The system of the Website The rapidlyspecific
understand their business success [CITATION retrieved
objectives theresearch
of this informationare to:I requested
joh95 \l 16393 ].To gain profit online business 16 When the online retailer promised to
examine the overall satisfaction of
is focusing more on these factors such as e-mail or call me by a certain time, it
respondents
did so towards online retail service
Web site preference, product lists and choice
of customer’s. The questionnaire of our 17 quality;
If I want to, I could easily contact a
survey contains 29 items: the first part of the customer the
evaluate service representative
significant impact over of
survey were to measure the consumers’ the telephone on the respondents
demographics
perceptions of online service regarding their 18 opinion
The Website
towardsshowedonline its streetquality;
service and e-
most recent purchasing experiences; the mail addresses, contact number and
fax numbers
analyse the variance in performance of
remaining 21 items were to measure the
19 select
For more
onlineinformation,
retail service I could
quality; turn to
customers’ perception towards the overall
the online retailer’s chat rooms,
service quality and their satisfaction, bullet in boards.
20 The Website address was easy to
remember
21 The organization and structure of
online catalogs were logical and easy
to follow
Let us understand the methodology adopted
by the paper in meeting the above mentioned
objectives.
4. Hypothesis of the study
These are the three hypothesis framed for
meeting the objectives. They are as
follows;
Objective 1:
Null Hypothesis (H0) :
The respondents are not satisfied with the
quality of services offered by the retailers.
Alternative Hypothesis (H1) :
The respondents are satisfied with the quality
of services offered by the retailers.
Objective 2:
Null Hypothesis (H0) :
There is no significant impact of
demographic variables of respondents on
their perception towards online service
quality offered by the retailers.
Alternative Hypothesis (H1) :
There is a significant impact of demographic
variables of respondents on their perception
towards online service quality offered by the
retailers.
Sub-Hypotheses:
i. Gender
Null Hypothesis (H0) :
There is no impact of Gender on
the respondents’ perception
towards the quality of services
offered by the retailers.
Alternative Hypothesis (H1):
There is a significant impact of
gender on the respondents’
perception towards online retail
service quality offered by the
retailers.
ii. Higher Education
Null Hypothesis (H0):
There is no great impact of levels
of Higher Education on the
respondents’ perception towards
online retail service quality
offered by the retailers.
Alternative Hypothesis (H1):
There is an impact of levels of
Higher Education on the
respondents’ perception towards
the quality of services offered by
the retailers.
iii. Age
Null Hypothesis (H0):
There is no significant impact of
respondents’ Age on their
perception towards the quality of
services offered by the retailers.
Alternative Hypothesis (H1):
There is a significant impact of
respondents’ Age on their
perception towards online retail
service quality offered by the
retailers.
iv. Frequency of Visit to Online
Null Hypothesis (H0):
There is no great impact of
respondents’ frequency of visit to
online stores on their perception
towards the online retail service
quality offered by the retailers.
Alternative Hypothesis (H1):
There is a impact of respondents’
frequency of visit to online stores
on their perception towards the
quality of services offered by the
retailers.
v. Type of Product
Null Hypothesis (H0):
There is no great impact of type
of product purchased by the
respondents towards their
perception on online retail service
quality offered by the retailers.
Alternative Hypothesis (H1):
 There is a significant impact of 5.1 Research Design
type of product purchased by the
The study has used a literature review
respondents towards their
method of Exploratory Research in
perception on quality of services
extracting the statements for meeting its
offered by the retailers.
objectives. Further, it has proceeded to
vi. Ecommerce site
Descriptive Research wherein it has
Null Hypothesis (H0):
conducted a Cross Section Survey to
There is no impact of type of
examine the customers’ opinion towards
Ecommerce website preferred by
online shopping.
the respondents towards their
perception on quality of retail 5.2 Sampling Design
services offered by the retailers.
Alternative Hypothesis (H1): The following are the parameters put in place
There is a great impact of type of to identify the sample elements for the study.
Ecommerce website preferred by They are;
the respondents towards their i. Population: 283 post graduates in
perception on online service KL Business School
quality offered by the retailers. ii. Sampling frame: 283 post
vii. Expenditure Graduates
Null Hypothesis (H0): iii. Sample Size: 163 based on
There is no sententious impact of Cochran’s Formula. Sample Size
levels of Expenditure on the is obtained as follows;
respondents’ perception towards N0 = 384.16 when the population
online service quality offered by is infinite.
the retailers. New Sample Size= (N*N0)/(N-
Alternative Hypothesis (H1): 1+N0, As N=283,
There is a valid impact of levels New Sample Size =
of Expenditure on the (283*384.16)/(283-1+384.16) =
respondents’ perception towards 163 respondents.
online retail service quality iv. Sampling Procedure : Stratified
offered by the retailers. Random Sampling method
Objective 3:
Null Hypothesis (H0): The sample is derived using stratified
random sampling method as follows;
There is no noteworthy impact of type of e-
commerce websites on the respondent
perception towards the quality of services Popul Popul Popul Sa
offered by the retailers. ation ation ation Samp mpl
Categ Size Propo le e
Alternative Hypothesis (H1): Propo
ories rtion Siz
(2 rtion e
There is a noteworthy impact of type of e-
commerce websites on the respondent Stratu
perception towards online retail quality ms)
services offered by the retailers. MBA 119 42.05 42.0 69
I year % 5%
5. Methodology MBA 164 57.95 57.9 94
 II % 5% One-Sample Test
Year
Test Value = 63
Total 283 100% 100 163
% t Df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference
Table No:1
From the above table, it can be expressed
that 69 students should be surveyed out of OverallR 15.253 105 .000 15.009

119 students of MBA I year and 94 out of

164 from MBA II year students. Once the
ii. Result Analysis of Objective 2
stratas are devised, the sample elements are
selected from the collected data using simple These results emphasize on the impact of
random sampling wherein inverse hat demographics on the respondents’
methodology is adopted by the study.
perception towards online shopping
5.3 Data Collection offered by retailers. The outcomes are as
The study has collected data using follows;
schedule with two parts namely PART A and
Demog Mean P- Rema H0
PART B. Part A has 7 categorical variables
and Part B has a scale of 21 statements raphic values val rks Reje
meant for knowing the opinion of customers’ Variabl ue cted
towards online service quality as stated
es
above under the literature review.
Gender Male: 0.0 Not No
5.4 Data Analysis
80.18 63 Signif
After collecting the data, the data is analysed
Female: icant
using Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences programming(SPSS) by applying 76.47
statistical tests Educati UG: 0.8 Not No
6. Results and Discussion on 78.46 65 Signif
The following are the results obtained by PG: icant
using SPSS 20 version. 77.95
i. Result Analysis of Objective 1 Age 16-24: 0.6 Not No
78.13 44 Signif
One-Sample Statistics
25- icant
34:76.2
9

N Mean Std. Std. Error Freque Once a 0.5 Not No

Deviation Mean ncy of Week 20 Signif
Overa Visit to Once a icant
106 78.01 10.131 .984
llR Online Month
Store 2-5
 times a 4000:81
Week .6
>5
times a
week iii. Result Analysis of Objective 3
Value
ranges The entire research study is focusing on two
factors they are independent and dependent
from
factors compared to the overall perception of
75.67 to the customer towards the online retailing.
79.18 The first and foremost part of the research
examines the customer demographics such as
Type Electro 0.9 Not No
Gender, Age, Education, Choice of the
of nics 37 Signif website, Purchasing type all these factors are
Produc Househ icant analysed through the stratified random
sampling and further tested analysed through
t olds independent sample test where we got all the
Gifts/B data is significant towards the hypothesis
ooks where the (p<0.05) and there is a failure in
the case of statement that the amount spend
Ecom E 0.9 Not No by the customer is not significant where
merce bay:77 93 Signif noticed that the perception of the customers
Others: icant towards their varies from customer to
customer where the significance of null
77.54 hypothesis failed then the data is further
Amazo analysed through post hoc where we came to
n:77.92 conclude that the customer perception is
different from individual here the (p>0.05)
Flip hence rejected the H0 and accepted the H1.
Kart:78. The remaining data examines the 21
statements which are taken from the past
75
scaled dimensions of the research scholars
where all the data is significant and the
Expend <2000: 0.7 Not No (p<0.05) hence accepted the null hypothesis
for all the 21 statements that are stated in the
iture 76.33 16 Signif
questionnaire that are stated to collect the
>6000:7 icant data regarding the customers’ opinion to
6.80 online services.
4000- 7. Findings
6000:77 Obj-1:None of the respondents are not
.3 satisfied with online service quality
according to Null Hypothesis.
2000-
Obj-2: Amazon is effecting more when
compared to other E-Commerce website.
There is no impact of demographics on the
respondents opinion towards online service
quality.
Obj-3: According to our analysis the
variance in performance of online retail
service quality is not significant according to
Null Hypothesis.
8. Suggestions
There are different variable that are not
mentioned in our research are affecting on
the online service quality.
It is suggested that online retailer should
enable customers to make enquires to obtain
useful information through online and offline
media.
For example they may create online
communication for their customers which
would allow direct interaction with the
experts according to their interest through
telephone, Email, other electronic
appliances.
questions.
9. Conclusion
Thus the subtle “differentiating” customer’s
perception towards the online retailers have
increasingly become a key driving force in
enhancing customers’ satisfaction and in turn
in expanding their customer basis towards
online shopping.
10. Limitations and future research
There are some limitations in this study. One
major limitation is in sampling. Since the
survey was given to a non-random sample of
students drawn from the KL BUSINESS
SCHOOL, the prudent reader may need to
interpret the results of the study is strongly
focussing towards MBA students in INDIAN
online customers as a whole. Further survey
is required to make several extensions of the
current study. First, to verify the customers’
opinion towards online shopping derived in
this study for future research needs to use
more diversified random samples.
11. Reference

There is another suggestion that online

retailer need to have sufficient staff to
answer customers

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