Online Shoppers' Satisfaction: The Impact of Shopping Values, Website Factors and Trust

Introduction

Internet as an information and communication tool (ICT) is effecting the way people communicate and also the way they shop across the world (Lennon et al., 2009). Its growth has resulted in the massive switch from the traditional format of retailing to online retailing. Besides promoting their websites, e-retailers have been striving to induce the attitude of online buying among shoppers.’ For this, they resort to various marketing and promotional strategies aimed at increasing shoppers’ online buying convenience. Shoppers are lured with the widest options of goods/services, 24X7 accessibility with all possible strategic tools of payments and assurance (Brynjolfsson & Smith, 2000; Hsin Chang & Wang, 2011; Prashar et al., 2015).

Online shopping has ushered leverage in both consumers' buying environments and retailers' selling strategies. According to Eroglu et al. (2001), web shopping provides buyers with convenience with regards to time and space, compare and evaluate different products at a time and facilitates enriching experiences. For online marketers, besides providing a way of conducting business, Internet based stores also act as enabler of competitive marketing strategies (Varadarajan & Yadav 2002). Though the Internet based shopping system has multiple benefits, literature has also raised questions on some of its limitations. These include privacy and security problems which tend to draw consumers away from online retail sites (Tsai et al., 2011; Tsai & Yeh, 2010; Vila & Kuster, 2011). Also, inability to physically examine the product before purchasing is considered as a significant obstacle in online shopping (Lorenzo-Romero et al., 2011).

Aimed at lowering the risks inherent in e-buying and also to augment shoppers’ buying experiences, web-based retailers constantly endeavour to increase buyers’ satisfaction, trust and purchase intentions. One of the means to achieve higher satisfaction is to improve the e-retailing environment (Lee et al., 2010; Vijay et al., 2017). While postulating the criticality of a high-quality website environment in the successful online retailing, Yang (2001) have identified security, reliability, access, ease of use, personalization and credibility as important elements of web environment. While focussing on the effects of environmental stimuli (atmospherics) on online consumer behaviors, many other studies too have highlighted the importance of web site atmospherics in e-shopping settings (Massara et al., 2010; Wu et al., 2008). Hence, it becomes pertinent to decipher the association between the web portal environment and shoppers’ satisfaction (Kim and Stoel, 2004).

Since competition is only a “mouse-click” away, shoppers’ loyalty is a critical element of success in a competitive and an economic sense for Internet based retailers (Semeijn et al., 2005). As per Reichheld & Schefter (2000), shoppers exhibit loyalty only when they are satisfied and their trust is secured and maintained. With aggressive competition in the e-commerce market, shoppers’ issues and perspectives of trust and loyalty become extremely significant. To create the sense of loyalty among shoppers, online retailers must pivot strategies around developing trust and satisfaction. Satisfaction with electronic environments, referred to as e-satisfaction, increases web portal traffic and encourages repeated use of a site.