Key Features:
No of Chapters: 5
No of Pages: 77
Introduction:
1.1. Background to the study
Recently, the population of internet users has been growing rapidly. The users of the World Wide Web (WWW) have been growing at a geometrical rate that it has spread widely into all works of life. The use of the Internet is no longer limited to those computer literates who do it for fun or curiosity. It has created for its users tremendous business opportunities
Customer satisfaction on the other hand is a key determining factor of the success of any business system, be it normal face-to-face buying and selling (traditional) or buying and selling through the use of the internet, generally known as online stores (cyber shopping stores).
It is the need to bridge the gap that existed between buyers and sellers and reduce the cost of moving goods from sellers to buyers especially when it involves transactions across nations, states, or regions, that led to the invention of the internet for transaction purposes (electronic business).
Electronic commerce, commonly known as E-commerce, is a subset of electronic business. E-commerce is the exchange of goods or services through the use of the computer networks, such as the Internet. E-commerce encompasses technologies such as inventory management systems, Internet marketing, automated data collection systems, electronic data interchange (EDI), mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, online transaction processing, and supply chain management. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of its transaction life cycle, although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail. In other words, e-commerce can simply be defined as performing any form of business transaction in an electronic format.
The use of e-commerce may encourage acceptance and satisfaction of intentions and as such influence customers' satisfaction and their behaviors towards an e-commerce website. Customer satisfaction is the gratification or pressure obtained by a customer from the supplied product/service. According to [Geyskens, Steenkamp, Scheer, and Kumar 1996], It is closely related to interpersonal trust
A high level of customer satisfaction is most likely to bring about greater customer loyalty (Zins 2001). In other words, the impact of satisfaction on customer loyalty is that of complexity. Fisher [2001] is of the opinion that customer satisfaction is the major reason why people switch from different service providers/products. Previous studies have also shown customer satisfaction as one of the key factors that determine loyalty [Anderson and Lehmann 1994]. Anderson and Srinivasan [2003] e-Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, VOL 12, NO 1, 2011 Page 81, it was found that trust and perceived value developed by a company, determine significantly the impact of satisfaction on commerce loyalty. A recent study by Cyr [2008], discovered that website satisfaction is strongly related to loyalty in three countries: Canada, Germany, and China.
Loyalty is generally been defined as the frequent buying or repeats purchase of a related quantity of the same brand of an item. According to Oliver [1997], it is "as a deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive in the same brand or same brand set purchasing, despite the fact that situational influences and marketing efforts have the potential to cause switching behavior". Customers' loyalty in e-commerce is something to be considered of great importance. Today, electronic commerce retailers (e-retailers) are searching for answers on how to make their customers loyal to them. Loyal customers do not only require more information themselves but also serve as a source of information to other customers. Today, one of the major challenges business-to-customer e-commerce faces is building customer loyalty. Several antecedents of customer loyalty have been proposed. Customer satisfaction and trust have been recognized as a fore-requirement for patronage behavior [Pavlou 2003] and the development of long-term relationships with customers [Papadopoulou, Andreou, Kanellis, and Martakos 2001].
Kassim and Ismail [2009] discovered in their study that the quality of service and assurance by vendors to their online customers, to great extent assist in building satisfaction and trust which in turn improves customer loyalty. This study therefore shall try to find out the roles electronic commerce plays in improving customer satisfaction.
1.2. Statement of Research Problem
The development of electronic commerce activities, of which has brought about a transitional change from the traditional ways of conducting business, and as such creating a fundamental shift from the previous passive consumer to an active one and it is not only used in finding information about required products fast using the internet but can also easily change any of the merchants. Therefore, in this modern (internet) time, compared to the traditional businesses, satisfying customers and cultivating customer loyalty for e-businesses is paramount. A number of problems in e-commerce system performance have been observed mainly because of higher than anticipated loads and the consequent inability to satisfy customers' requirements. As result, a lot of studies have attempted in characterizing the performance of internet applications and web servers. Most online businesses are unsuccessful is as a result of their failure to satisfy their customers. This is because most time, the expectations of online customers is often higher and may not be the same as that of those using traditional marketing. Marketing with the use of the internet, therefore, brings about a new challenge to businesses as well as marketers all over the globe.
In addition, the current satisfaction and trust of customers in online shopping are not high. Most Internet users have low trust in the Internet, only but few Internet users trust the Internet. The previous study has shown that many Internet applications may impact the popularity negatively, or might influence the non-internet users to get involved with the internet. Furthermore, high school, college, and university users show a high degree of trust towards the internet and most of these populations have expressed their confidence level towards the internet. Meanwhile, for the bachelor degree holders, their trust in the internet for shopping has decreased to thirty percent (29.6%). China's recent Internet Development Statistics report shows that the total number of Internet users in China as of January 2009 was up to 2.1 billion in overall satisfaction on the Internet, which account for only 40.7%, while, 47.3% in general, were not satisfied with the total 6.4% (CNNIC, 2009). In the end, the focus of this study is to investigate the cause of the current situation of online shopping users, which includes the low satisfaction of the Internet. Frederik Reichheld, an American scholar, discovered that the profit can increase by 5% if the level of customer satisfaction increases by 25% - 100%. Anderson, Using Michigan University data in 2000, "Swedish Customer Satisfaction Index", shows the empirical studies on satisfaction and investment returns of 125 companies that 1% increase on customer satisfaction bring about a corresponding average increase of 2.37% on ROI (Return On Investment) On the contrary, each 1% reduction in customer satisfaction, will bring about 5.08% average decrease on ROI. In other words, there will be high ROI if satisfaction were retained, whereas it will be low if otherwise. It is now obvious that customer satisfaction is directly related to corporate profits. Similarly, in an e-business environment, there will be no customer satisfaction even if you make the so-called "good goods", it will not be sold, as it is doomed to fail if the customers are not satisfied. Enterprises should understand the reasons behind customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and also should analyze the implied forecast of potential demand, thus promoting the enterprise's products and services, continuous improvement, and innovation. Customer satisfaction is a dynamic and relative concept.
Today's customer is not satisfied with respect to terms yesterday, more does not mean that tomorrow you will get customers satisfied. E-commerce is made up of notable business ways and processes of conducting modern business transactions as many users are connected to online services through the use of the internet and other websites. Furthermore, building customer satisfaction is very important to help enhance repeat purchases and customers loyalty.
1.3. Research Questions
Against this background, this study attempts to find answers to the following research questions
• What impact do e-commerce products/services of Jumia have on customers' satisfaction?
• What is the impact of e-commerce security features of Jumia have on customers satisfaction?
• What impact does the e-commerce user interface of Jumia have on customers satisfaction
• How does Jumia e-commerce improve customer satisfaction in Benin city.?
1.4. Objectives of the Study
Arising from the above research questions are the objectives of the study. These objectives are to:
• To determine the impact of e-commerce products/services of Jumia on customers satisfaction
• To determine the impact of e-commerce security features of Jumia on customers satisfaction
• To determine the impact of the e-commerce user interface of Jumia on customers satisfaction
• To determine the role of e-commerce in improving customer satisfaction.
1.5. Research Hypothesis
To achieve these objectives above, the following hypothesis are tested.
Hypothesis 1:
H0: E-commerce product/service of Jumia does not have a significant impact on customer satisfaction.
H1: E-commerce product/service of Jumia has a significant impact on customer satisfaction.
Hypothesis 2
H0: E-commerce security feature of Jumia does not have a significant impact on customer satisfaction.
H1: E-commerce security feature of Jumia has a significant impact on customer satisfaction.
Hypothesis 3
H0: E-commerce user interface of Jumia does not have a significant impact on customer satisfaction.
HI: E-commerce user interface of Jumia have a significant impact on customer satisfaction
1.6. Significance of the Study
This study is very important because it assessed significance of e-commerce on customers’ satisfaction. Today E-commerce is a welcome development and also its impact on the general public is expected to be positive and yielding fruit to any economy. So this research is significant in so many ways.
It try to uncover those actors that are preventing e-businesses by putting effective and sustained e-commerce in place. Using e-commerce as a strategic tool will make a provision on how general electronic trading can embrace opportunities and reduce threats in any business environment. This will provide a means through which e- commerce can improve their performance, increase profitability and also increase their chances of survival. It will encourage/propel commerce and other economic agents to computerize their services.
It will provide advanced knowledge in the area of electronic commerce in Nigeria. Furthermore, to sustain effective e-commerce in Nigeria, certain strategic measures will be revealed in order to reduce the negative effects of the problems identified as obstacles to the smooth functioning of the system.
The study shall provide a conceptual assessment of the nature of e-commerce. It shall ascertain the role of e-commerce in improving customer satisfaction in Benin city. And also shall provide information to organizations, Business managers, and IT professionals, in Benin city on e-commerce
1.7. Scopes of the Study
This research work examines electronic commerce and customers’ satisfaction with a view to exploring Jumia as a selected company. It studies customers satisfaction towards e-commerce using Jumia customers in Benin city as a case study. And it looked at the role that e-commerce play towards improving customer services in Benin city. It also provides a conceptual assessment of the nature of e-commerce and those factors that determine customer satisfaction in e-commerce
1.8. Limitations to the Study
• The study is limited to Jumia customers in Benin city only.
• The study is based upon the consumer behaviors of online shopping.
• The data collected for the purpose of these studies is fully on primary data directly from the respondents, and as such, there is a chance for personal bias. So the accuracy is not certain
1.9. Definition of Terms
E-commerce: E-commerce is the exchange of products/services or the transmitting or transferring of funds as well as data, using an electronic network, such as the internet. Electronic commerce encompasses such technologies as Internet marketing, mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, online transaction processing, supply chain management, inventory management systems, automated data collection systems, and electronic data interchange (EDI). Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of its transaction's life cycle, it may also use such technologies as e-mail.
Customers satisfaction: The customer is satisfied when a products or services meet the customer's expectations. It is pivotal that consumers are satisfied with the products and services provided by a particular website, because satisfied customers are likely to be loyal and as such make repetitive purchases that will increase the profitability of that particular e-commerce company
Royalty: Royalty is customers favorable attitude towards a company product that resulted in a repeated buying behaviour
Cyber shopping stores: Simple known as cyber shops, it is a Web site that allows customers to browse and purchase goods or services from a seller over the internet using a web browser.
Information Technology (IT): This represents a set of tools, processes, and methodologies and its associated equipment used in collecting processing, and presenting information
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