BAIM: DØK HU2D ‐ Internet Marketing 

  

E‐retail: customer experience, brand, and social media 

 International Summer University Program at CBS 2010 

Prepared by: LiJuan Yin (110172‐xxxx) 

8/6/2010 

Supervisor: Ravi Vatrapu 

Characters (with spaces): 24,827 

 

 

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Table of Contents

E-retail: customer experience, brand, and social media ....................................................................... 3

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 3

1.1 Background of Taobao ................................................................................................................... 3

1.2 Motivation and Research Question Formulation ........................................................................... 4

2. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................................. 5

2.1 Customer Experience ..................................................................................................................... 5

2.2 Brand(ing) Online .......................................................................................................................... 6

2.3 Social Media Marketing ................................................................................................................. 7

3. Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 8

4. Findings ............................................................................................................................................ 9

4.1 Findings from Online Observation ................................................................................................ 9

4.2 Findings from Customer Survey .................................................................................................. 10

5. Discussion ................................................................................................................................... 12

Bibliography: ..................................................................................................................................... 14

Appendix 1 ......................................................................................................................................... 16

Appendix 2 ......................................................................................................................................... 17

Appendix 3 ......................................................................................................................................... 19

   

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E­retail: customer experience, brand, and social media 

1. Introduction 

Internet and information technology have provided great opportunities for the development of

e-commerce based on various internet business applications. The widely increasing public

acceptance of e-commerce has facilitated its expansion. In the past 2 decades, e-commerce has

touched virtually all over the world from the West to the East. Yet, the underpinning of the

marketing concept is that identification and satisfaction of customer needs leads to improved

customer retention (Day, 1994). In an increasingly competitive environment, companies must be

customer oriented (Kotler, 1997). Meanwhile, the development of social media has made it possible

for “…one person to communicate with hundreds or even thousands of other people about products

and the companies that provide them” (Mangold et al., 2009). In company with individual

customer’s negotiation power change is a shift in managing customer relations in organizations, i.e.

from informing customers to engaging customers, and from a monologue to a dialogue.

As customer centered market has gradually grown into a mature stage in western countries, it

appears rather undeveloped or not fully formed in most developing countries. Regardless of this fact,

the fast growing consumer mass has made e-commerce grow in a lightning speed in some of the

eastern countries as well. While there are varieties of e-commerce forms, the particular interest of

this study is in the online retail (i.e. e-retail) category and how it is in developing countries.

Taobao.com, as the largest Internet retail platform in China, is therefore taken as an example to

investigate.

1.1 Background of Taobao 

Taobao is founded in 2003 as an online shopping platform/marketplace for consumers in China. It

makes possible of transactions between individual consumers and a wide range of sellers such as

retailers, wholesalers, and other individuals. Similar to eBay, Taobao e-retailers are able to post new

and used goods for sale on Taobao’s online marketplace either through a fixed price, negotiated sale,

or by auction.

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Due to many Chinese people are not so familiar with the online purchasing process, and have

concerns about payment safety issues and product quality, Taobao’s has taken a series of actions to

tackle these challenges as well as eliminate buyers’ concerns with e-shopping. For example, to keep

its website platform up-to-date and advanced in terms of technology, excellent usability, and

functionality; to establish a whole set of market trading rules and processes, including critical systems

like a complicated credit rating system, so as to address the issue of quality concerns; to initiate a

“Customer Protection Program”, which demands every e-store joins this program to pay a deposit for

Taobao to compensate buyers if any of them claim a loss; In terms of payment safety, Taobao online

payment system provides different payment options, e.g. Paypal, direct credit card pay, etc.

Over the past five years, Taobao has taken up about three-fourths of the online market share in

China (iResearch.com). Its registered user base of more than 145 million by June 2009 (Taobao.com);

by the end of April 2010, more than 1 million people in China have opened online stores on it (NEW

ORIENAL); In April 2010, Taobao ranked 16th overall in Alexa’s internet rankings (Alexa.com).

1.2 Motivation and Research Question Formulation 

Given Taobao’s well-known reputation and its great website platform, the existing huge user base

on Taobao.com, and a variety of online media channels available to reach out customers, it is

assumed that Taobao e-retailers can easily make a fortune out of it. However, the fact that most

e-retailers’ monthly income is merely 1,000-2,000 Chinese Yuan i.e. $147-294 (NEW ORIENAL)

indicates, in reality, those e-retails are somewhat challenged or constrained. So, what are the main

dilemmas confronting them?

Glancing over the website, a common problem of low customer satisfaction seems to exist in a good

number of e-retails. What caused those problems, how to solve them? As customer experience is the

key driver of customer satisfaction (Chaffey et al., 2009), to tackle this issue, it requires one firstly

to understand what factors contribute to customer experience from customers’ perspective, on one

hand; and what internet marketing strategies can possibly be employed to improve customer

experience from a marketer’s perspective, on the other hand. My curiosity to discover the truth

formed my initial motivation.

Historically, many studies have been conducted to test e-retailing websites’ infrastructure, usability

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and functionality; the influence of customer relationship management; and service level, for

instance. However, according to Verhoef et al.’s study, research concerning customer experience in

relation to e-retail, how the influence of customer brand perceptions on their experience and to what

extent they leverage/moderate each other are not sufficient (Verhoef et al., 2009).

Based on Verhoef’s recommendation and the particular case at hand, my research question is

therefore:

How can customer experience be improved to benefit e-retails on Taobao?

This research question is further supported by 3 claims, which suggest that，Customer experience

may be improved when:

1) Customer expectations of e-retail service are met;

2) Customers’ online brand perception of an e-retail is positive;

3) Social Media Marketing tools are employed.

2. Theoretical Framework 

The theories applied in this paper are focused on Customer Experience, Brand, and Social Media

Marketing. The interactive and interlinked relations among these three concepts in relation to

customer experience are discussed as well.

2.1 Customer Experience 

Meyer and Schwager (2007) conceptualized Customer Experience as “……the internal and

subjective response customers have to any direct or indirect contact with a company. Direct contact

generally occurs in the course of purchase, use, and service and is usually initiated by the customer.

Indirect contact most often involves unplanned encounters with representatives of a company’s

products, service or brands and takes the form of word-of-mouth recommendations or criticisms,

advertising, news reports, reviews and so forth”. According to J Kirkby et al. (2003), “…customer

experience is delivered through touch points (e.g., salespeople, call center agents, advertising,

events, debt collectors, receptions, product brochures and Web sites). It is based on a customer’s

expectation of the value the enterprise will deliver…and managed via customer feedback”. In this

statement, along with customer expectations, the importance of customers touch points and

customer feedback are highlighted as well.

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The essence of customer experience in relation to customer satisfaction and loyalty is elaborated by

Chaffey et al. (2009) in a model: The relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and

loyalty (see Appendix 1, figure 1). In accordance with this model, customer experience is derived

from customer expectations of service, which consists of online service quality, core and extended

product offer, and offline service quality. The quality of customer experience will then form the key

driver of customer satisfaction to develop customer loyalty. If the customer experience is satisfactory,

and customer satisfactions are met, it can be suggested that customer loyalty will develop, leading to

repeat purchases.

Given that customer expectations of service are fundamental in customer experience creation, it is

necessary to define online service quality, core and extended product offer, and offline service quality

in the first place. Hence, in this study, E-retailer/seller credit, Customer review, and Website quality

will be assigned as indicators for Online service quality; and that of Price, Product quality, Product

range for Core and extended product offer, After sales service and support, Shipping speed for

Offline service quality.

2.2 Brand(ing) Online 

An organization who wishes to “distinguish itself from competitors companies must communicate

brands” (de Chernatony and MacDonald, 1998). By Aaker’s definition, a brand “is a promise to the

consumer regarding the product’s social, emotional, or aesthetic qualities. The typical brand

promise is that the product will make the customer appear more attractive to his or her

surroundings: look younger or better, signal membership of a particular social class, or indicate

affiliation with an aesthetic subculture” (Aaker, 1996). When promises are fulfilled, the expectation

is that consumers will stay loyal and “buy” the same brand. This assumption is further promoted by

Bergstrom et al.’s academic study, in which, they claim that, “Branding is about adding a higher

level of emotional meaning to a product or service and thereby increasing its value to customers”

(Bergstrom et al., 2002). Due to the merits that a brand can bring, branding activities are widely

conducted in organizations of all sizes; while the new focus of organizations “......has shifted from a

branding of stand‐alone products and services to a branding of the organization itself” (Hatch &

Schultz, 2001). This shift is based on the perception that, corporate branding is different from

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product branding and brings more benefits, as “……corporate brand associations can influence

purchasing behaviour and customers’ perceptions” (Christensen et al., 2008). Moreover, “…a

strong corporate brand reduces customers’ perceived monetary, social, or safety risk in buying

services, which are difficult to evaluate prior to purchase” (Van Riel and Fombrun, 2009).

De Chernatony (2001) evaluated the brand concept on the internet. He states that the main elements

of brand values and strategy are the same in the internet environment. However, he points out that

consumers are no longer passive recipients of brand value; rather, they are “….active co-producers

of value where consumers can contribute feedback through discussion groups to add value to a

brand”. Hence, “…the concept of online brand promise is closely related to that of delivering

online customer experience” (Chaffey et al., 2009).

2.3 Social Media Marketing 

In terms of Social Media, as it is difficult to find a universal definition, we adopt the description

from Wikipedia, that “an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology,

social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos, and audio” (Wikimedia). With

social media receives attention to a greater extent, social media marketing appears to be more

popular than ever, due to the huge opportunities it presents to organizations and the low cost to

operate. According to marketing researches, 3 out of 4 Americans use social technology (Forrester),

two third global internet population visit social networks, and time spent on them accounts for

about 10% of all internet time (Nielsen).

Mike Volpe, VP Marketing of HobSpot (HobSpot.com), summarizes social media into 3 types, i.e.

publish, share, and network; each type has different marketing tips for marketers. Firstly, social

media can be utilized to publish or promote anything to reach customers far and near; secondly,

social media may be employed to build huge network for developing new customer base, as well as

keeping close connections with existing customers; furthermore, it is also possible to apply social

media to locate where customers go and monitor what customers concern most. Mangold et al.’s

study adds extra credit to the importance of using social media tools like blogs and networking

platforms to engage customers (Mangold et al., 2009).

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One issue needs to be underlined is that, Social media should not be treated like just another

marketing channel for campaign; rather, it should be utilized for communication (Espresso).

Because customers are no longer merely listening to grand marketing talks; they expect marketers

to listen too. In addition, they tend to trust their own experiences and what is communicated among

other customers about a brand. According to Bromley (2000), “people’s impressions of the

company are affected by three levels of information processing. Namely, primary level (based on

personal experience), secondary level (based on others’ experience), and tertiary level (based on

mass media information) of information processing”. Word of Mouth (WOM) may play a vital role

in facilitating the second level processing, saying that “…the use of WOM can affect the likelihood

of purchasing a product, in a manner that sharing customers’ feedback, experiences, and opinions

with other customers” (Leskovec, J. et al., 2007).

3. Methodology   

This paper strives to explain how e-retails can improve customer experience in relation to customer

expectations of service, customer’s online brand perception, and SMM. The research outcome is

expected to provide Taobao e-retailers a couple of practical implications: firstly, to show them

which key factors contribute to excellent customer experience and thereby need to be cared for.

Secondly, to provide e-retailers insights on how customers online brand perception may possibly

influence customer experience or another way around. Moreover, to give e-retailers a basic idea

how SMM tools may be utilized to integrate e-retailing promotion efforts.

To fulfill this goal, a deductive research approach was adopted by applying a variety of theories as

framework to investigate particular issues challenging Taobao e-retails. With respect to the research

strategy, it can easily be defined as a case study due to the nature of the research question formulation

and the form of research questions.

A combination of quantitative and qualitative method was employed during the process of data

collection, in which both primary data and secondary data (Wiedersheim-Paul and Eriksson, 1997)

were involved. Since Taobao.com is an online platform for Chinese consumers, it is difficult to

conduct a customer survey with its customers because of the language barrier. Hence, the primary

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data was collected via both an online observation with Taobao and customer survey with English

speaking e-shoppers other than Chinese consumers. On the subject of the secondary data, it was

mainly collected through published documents, online research articles, and other documentation

from some social media marketing websites.

During the online observation, 100 Taobao e-stores were investigated by random selection. The

aspects to look into were focused on Seller Credit, Customer Satisfaction rating, Customer Review,

Product Range, Shipping speed, Monthly Visitor Number, and Monthly Sales Volume. The purpose

was to gain a comprehensive understanding and an in depth insight into the issues concerning

e-retails; furthermore, the observation outcome was to be utilized together with the survey result to

confirm or reject the hypotheses.

In terms of customer survey, it was conducted via Surveymonkey (a professional survey service

website). The questionnaire (see Appendix 2) consisted of 8 closed questions, which were created

based on solving research questions corresponding to the main theories applied in this paper. The

aim was to outline the customer experience in relation to e-retails in general. Constrained by the

project time limit as well as the language barrier mentioned earlier, e-mails containing the customer

survey link were only sent to 100 English speaking participators with online shopping experience,

and 39 completed questionnaires were returned by the survey deadline.

4. Findings

4.1 Findings from Online Observation 

My own observation with 100 random selected Taobao e-retails shows that: Over 65% of these

e-retails have low customer satisfaction rating, which is mainly caused by customer complaining

and comment in bad product quality, unreasonable pricing, slow shipping speed, and delay in

answering queries in after-sales support. Those very same problems turn up again and again in

customer reviews, and seem to be neglected over and over again. In consequence, those e-retails’

seller credit, monthly visitor number, and monthly sales volume are normally poor as well. On the

contrary, e-retails with high customer satisfaction rating generally have pleasant seller credit, big

monthly visitor number and monthly sales volume; In addition, comments in customer reviews also

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show that those e-retailers take serious of all reported problems by customers and help customers

out in a timing manner. For the few most outstanding ones, they have also their own unique

webpage design, e-retail brand, and product style; apart from a much wider of product ranges,

visual aids like model/customer shows and recommendations for cross-sales are offered as well in

those stores on the whole. More noticeably, blogs and/or communities have been utilized for new

arrivals display, special offer events, customer shows, and socialization, attracting considerable

amount of visitor traffic and customer orders.

These findings provide evidence not only to the influence of product quality, product range, and

price on customer satisfaction, but also that of shipping speed as a key aspect of after-sales service

and seller’s credit as an assessment for e-retail’s brand value. Besides, customer feedbacks from

customer reviews and other channels are important for improving service/product quality. What is

more, the strength of social media in facilitating information publishing, sharing, and interactive

communication is apparent. These outcomes consistent with the relationship between customer

expectations and customer experience claimed by Chaffey et al., and show also support to the 3

type’s functions of social media discussed earlier.

4.2 Findings from Customer Survey 

What presented from the findings of Customer Survey Results (see Appendix 3) is that:

Firstly, with respect to how influential the listed 8 factors is perceived on customer experience, the

rating result from Q1 reveals that, E-retail Brand (33.3%) and Price (28.9%) are regarded as the

most important attributes; Product quality was deemed as the second important (44.7%), while

Product Range (18.4%) and Other Customers’ Review (23.7%) ranked the top in categories No.3

and No.4 respectively. On the other hand, both the Website Profile and Infrastructure were

prioritized quite low, positioning the 7th and the 8th important respectively; After Sales Support was

listed No.6, only one place before them.

This result indicates that, customer experience is most likely affected by e-retail brand, price, and

product quality. Meanwhile, an e-retail’s product range and other customers’ reviews have

significant impact on customer experience as well. In contrast, website profile and infrastructure are

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not deemed so dominant; this could be explained by the advanced internet technology employed

and continuous development by big online retailing platforms in general. What is more, most of

those indicators defining customer expectations of service are proved being representative and

significantly influential.

Secondly, 87.2% of the respondents stated that their knowledge and perception of a brand affect

their experience (Q2), to the extent that helping them choose over from many other products with

similar functions (91.2%), and reducing their perceived monetary, social, or safety risk in buying

services (55.9%) as well (Q3). This confirms both De Chernatony’s suggestion of online branding

in relation to customer experience delivering, and the statements regarding benefits that a strong

corporate brand can bring in previous sections. Still, it is worth mentioning that most customers’

experience (especially a bad one) (65.8%) would reversely impact their brand perceptions as well,

and probably further affect their purchasing behaviour towards an e-retail, e.g. stop buying from the

e-retail (55.3%) again (Q5).

Yet, for online branding, price appears still to be an important element to deal with, as only 4 out of

34 respondents would overlook product’s price due to the brand perception (Q3); while merely 15.4%

of the respondents claimed willing to pay for a premium price for a well-know brand under no extra

conditions (Q4). This appears contradictory to the claims of classical brand concept, but in line with

the statement that ´the first-hand experience of the brand is a more powerful token of trust than the

perception of the brand´ (Jevons and Gabbott, 2000); Suggesting a difference between offline and

online pricing strategy in branding. Others like differential pricing method (Chaffey et al., 2009)

might be applied as well for different customer groups to create customer experience and brand

affinity. As revealed in Q8, most of the customers (90%) feel surprised/ happy when receiving a gift

or better deal from an e-retail, and over 50% may buy more than planed or stick to the same e-retail.

Next, on the question that the information from which channel is most likely to influence the

respondent on making a decision to buy, over half of the respondents (52.6%) chose Other

customers’ online review and their recommendations via social media such as social networks,

blogs, and community; and one third (28.9%) went for the recommendation from people they know

(both online and offline); noticeably, merely 5.3% picked E-mail received directly from a previous

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e-retail. This is corresponding to Bromley’s three levels of information processing described earlier,

representing that Word of Mouth is more powerful in shaping customers purchasing behavior, whereas

social media can facilitate it in a large online scale. The fact that social networks (85.7%) and

community (68.6%) are employed as the dominated channels for information sharing or discussing,

indicating that social networks and communities are where customers most likely gather together,

share their interest, and discuss their concerns. The messages for e-retails are clear: social media are

efficient channels to reach out customers and listen to customer’s feedbacks. An integrated

marketing communication approach of employing all three types of social media proposed by Mike

Volpe can not only increase customer touch points, but also lead to significant traffic growth to

e-retails’ websites, consequently generating opportunities in bringing new customer base and in

improving sales volumes.

5. Discussion 

The research results deriving from the online observation were consistent with that of from the customer

survey in general, despite that the findings for after sales service appeared contradictory from one

another. This conflict could be explained by the different geographic regions e-shoppers locate, due to

the considerable gap of e-commerce development between the Western and the Eastern.

For this reason, we assume that the overall outcome of this study confirms all three hypotheses, i.e.

Taobao e-retails customer experience may be improved when:

Customer expectations of e-retail service are met;

Customers’ online brand perception of an e-retail is positive;

Social Media Marketing tools are employed.

However, due to the size and scope of this paper, it appears impossible to attempt to

comprehensively investigate all areas of e-retailing. This is equally bound by the customer survey

sample to a small portion of e-shoppers. Even though the findings in this paper confirms customer

expectations in relation to customer experience and satisfaction, it appears challenging to determine that,

whether customer experience will develop customer loyalty and lead to repeat purchases as Chaffey et al.

asserted in their model (see Appendix 1, figure 1). More fruitful research outcomes regarding this issue

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call for further comprehensive investigations into e-retailing market, for instance, by taking into account

e-retails’ customer conversion rate, abandonment rate, and financial performance.

In conclusion, for most Taobao retailers, the first and foremost task is to understand determinant factors

contributing to satisfactory customer experience, thereby take actions to strengthen them. Customer

feedbacks collected from customer reviews should be drawn attention to and then effectively

utilized to improve customer experience and satisfaction, if e-retailers are to attract more customers

and retain existing customer base. Secondly, e-retail’s online brand building should be put on

agenda as well, so as to differentiate one e-retail from its competitors and thus provide customer

unique experience. For those who strive to engage customers into the processes of 2‐ way dialogs

and build outstanding customer experience with lower costs, an integrated social media marketing

approach can be desirable, provided that, first and foremost, excellent product quality has been

guaranteed.

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Bibliography: 

Aaker, D.A. (1996), “Measuring brand equity across products and markets”, California Management Review, 38(3): 102‐121.

Bergstrom, A., Blumenthal, D. and Crothers, S. (2002), “Why internal branding matters: the case of Saab”, Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 5 Nos 2/3, pp. 133‐42.

Bromley, D.B.(2000) “Psychological aspects of corporate identity, image, and reputation”, Corporate Reputation Review, 3(3):240‐252.

Christensen, L.T., Morsing, M. and Cheney George (2008), Corporate Communication: Convention, Complexity, and Critique, London: Sage.

Dave Chaffey, Fiona Ellis-Chadwick, Kevin Johnston, Richard Mayer, Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, 4. ed, 2009, Financial Times/Prentice Hall, ISBN: 978027317409

Day, G.S (1994), ``The capabilities of market-driven organizations'', Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 4, pp. 37-52.

De Chernatony, L. and MacDonald, M. (1998), Creating Powerful Brands in Consumer Service and Industrial Markets, Butterworth‐Heinemann, Oxford.

De Chernatony, L.(2001) Succeeding with brands on the Interne, Journal of Brand Management, 8(3), 186-95.

Hatch, M.J. and Schultz, M. (2001) ‘Are the Strategic Stars Aligned for your Corporate Brand?’, Harvard Business Review 79(2): 128–34.

Jevons, C. and Gabbott, M. (2000) Trust, brand equity and brand reality in Internet business relationships: an interdisciplinary approach, Journal of Marketing Management, 16, 619-34.

J Kirkby, J. Wecksell, W. Janowski, T. Berg (2003) The Value of Customer Experience Management, Strategic Analysis Report, March R-19-4070.

Kotler, P.R. (1997), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control, 9th ed., Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Leskovec, J., Adamic, L., & Huberman, B. (2007), The Dynamics of Viral Marketing, ACM,New York, USA.

Meyer, Christopher and Andre Schwager (2007), “Understanding Customer Experience,” Harvard Business Review, February 117–26.

Mangold, W. G. Faulds, D. J. (2009) Social Media: The New hybrid element of the Promotion Mix,

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Kelley School of Business, Indiana University Published by Elsevier Inc.

Porter, L., & Golan, G. J. (2006). From subservient chickens to brawny men: A comparison of viral advertising to television advertising. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 6(2), 30-38.

Rust, Christine Moorman and Peter R. Dickson (2002), “Getting Return on Quality: Revenue Expansion, Cost Reduction, or Both?,” Journal of Marketing, 66 (4), 7–24.

Smith, T., Coyle, J. R., Lightfoot, E., & Scott, A. (2007). Reconsidering models of influence: The relationship between consumer social networks and word-of-mouth effectiveness. Journal of Advertising Research, 47(4), 387-397.

Van Riel C.B.M. & Fombrun C.J., (2009), Essentials of Corporate Communication; Implementing practices for effective reputation management, Routhledge, New York.

Verhoef, Peter C., Scott A. Neslin and Björn Vroomen (2007a), “Multi- Channel Customer Management: Understanding the Research Shopper Phenomenon,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 24 (2), 129–48.

Wiedersheim-Paul, F. & Eriksson, L.T. (1997). Att Utreda, Forska och Rapportera. Malmö: Liber Ekonomi/AB.

Websites:

Alexa.com: http://www.alexa.com/topsites/global 

Espresso: http://www.brandinfiltration.com/

Forrester: http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/growth_of_social_technology_adoption/q/id/44907/t/2

HobSpot: http://www.hubspot.com

iResearch.com: http://www.iresearch.com.cn/ 

Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009

NEW ORIENAL: http://www.neworiental.org/publish/portal0/tab1127/info508003.htm

Taobao.com: http://www. taobao.com/

Wikimedia : http://www. wikimedia.org

Appendix 1 

Figure 1: The relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty

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Appendix 2

Customer Survey Questionnaire 

1. In terms of online shopping, please RATE the following attributes from 1 to 8 according to their

influence on your shopping experience:

a. price

b. product quality

c. product range

d. the website’s profile (e.g. well-known or not, credibility, trust)

e. the website’s infrastructure (i.e. design, speed, availability, ease of use, and content, etc.)

f. after-sale service and support

g. other customer’s reviews

h. the e-retail brand

2. Will your knowledge and perception of a brand affect your experience?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Don’t know

3. If yes in Question 2, to what extent it affects? (Multiple Answers)

a. It reduces my perceived monetary, social, or safety risk in buying services

b. It gives me a feeling of belonging to a specific social class with this brand

c. It helps me make decisions when choosing from many different brands’ products with

similar functions

d. It makes me overlook the product’s price

e. All of them

4. Are you willing to pay a premium price for certain well-known brands you have never

purchased rather than others which you have good experience with?

a. Yes

b. Yes, but only when the product and service quality are better

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c. Depends on what kind of product it is

d. No

5. Will your shopping experience (especially a bad one) with a particular e-retailer affect your

perception with this brand?

a. Yes, but I will stick to this brand

b. Yes, probably not buy from this e-retailer again

c. No

d. Don’t know

6. The information from which channel is most likely to influence you on making a decision to

buy?

a. Recommendation from people I know (both online and offline)

b. Other customers’ online review and their recommendations via social media such as social

networks, blogs, and community

c. E-mail I received from a previous e-retailer regarding the product’s description

d. Information I searched online

7. How do you normally share or discuss your shopping experience with others? (Multiple

Answers)

a. By blogging

b. By publishing on some social networks such as FaceBook, and Myspace

c. By emailing people I know

d. By discussing in a community

e. All of the above

8. How do you respond to receiving a gift or better deal than someone else from an e-retailer?

a. Don’t care

b. Be Surprised/ happy

c. Buy more than I have planed or return to this e-retailer next time

d. Recommend this retailer to my friends

e. Both C and D 

Appendix 3 

Customer Survey Resoult 

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