TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE FINAL ESSAY BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD ONLINE RETAIL EXPERIENCE AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: MEDIATING
A BSTRACT
Recent years, the extraordinary expansion of e-commerce has been vital for different businesses around the world Enabled by the Internet retailers are able to contact more customers, extend the distribution network much further, and utilize their sources more efficiently Customer experience has developed as a font of competitive precedence in the new market environment This study looks into customers’ experience in online shopping which is affected by the function of the last mile delivery A study that was performed in Vietnam and analyzed the latest experience of participants was used as a part of quantitative methodology The finding shows that the association between the customers’ assessment of online purchasing experience and customers’ satisfaction is mediated by the last mile delivery These assumptions are the foundation for more in-depth research of last mile delivery’s function in the e- retail context and reinforce online sellers in raising their online shoppers’ satisfaction.
I NTRODUCTION
Global e-commerce has experienced tremendous development in recent years as a consequence of the Internet's quick expansion and soaring consumption rates Worldwide e-retail revenues were $2.3 trillion in 2017 and are predicted to reach $4.9 trillion in 2021 (eMarketer, Statista, 2022), Undoubtedly, e-commerce not only redefines the practices of numerous businesses (Oinas, 2010); (Wagner, 2013); (Schramm-Klein, H., and D Morschett, 2006)but also forms the value of its information advantage differentl (Baozhuang Niu, JianDong, ZhipengDai, YaoqiLiu, 2022) redefines the y practices of numerous businesses (Oinas, 2010) (Wagner, 2013); (Schramm-Klein, H., ; and D Morschett, 2006) By 2019, almost half of China's citizens will be shopping online, and nearly 80% of US Internet users will buy online at least once (eMarketer, Statista, 2022) In both developed and developing economies within countries, a similar trend can be seen, as the entire In 2020, the number of digital consumers is forecast to surpass 2 billion (eMarketer, Statista, 2021)
When the combined market value of e-retail goliaths like Amazon and Alibaba is similar to the GDP of Mexico or Spain, the rising market consistently generates revenue records
By creating e-services, digital media, and hardware and changing their focus to long- term relationships with their clients, the front runners go outside the realm of traditional retail To take advantage of customers' experience and obtain a competitive edge in this market competition (Neil F Doherty, Fiona Ellis‐Chadwick, 2009), e-retailers engage in the contemporary approaches and enhanced technology in accordance with customer demands (Mosa, 2022) E-retailers are turning to logistics to provide personalized services, point to the end customer is generally seen as a significant criterion for online consumers (Heleen Buldeo Rai, Sara Verlinde, Cathy Macharis, 2018); (Terry L Esper, Thomas D Jensen, Fernanda L Turnipseed, Scot Burton, 2011) (Murfield, M., C A ; Boone, P Rutner, and R Glyn Thomas, 2017) Last-mile delivery options that customers like include free delivery, same-day delivery, deliveries at certain times, in-store pickup, shipment tracking, and free return shipping According to PwC's Global Consumer Insight Survey (PwC, 2018), online buyers place high importance on quick and flexible delivery Consequently, last-mile delivery is to be quite important to online customers
Recent e-commerce and retail research have established a strong customer experience agenda (Pandey, S., and D Chawla., 2018) in order to properly address the rising and internet shoppers' expectations are rapidly altering The achievement of a profound knowledge of the client experience has made the topic become a complicated and multifaceted endeavor Recent research have revealed a multistage perspective for comprehending consumer decision-making and the shopping experience is suggested comprehending (Lemon, K N., and P C Verhoef., 2016)present a model which combines the pre-buy, purchase, and post-purchase stages which constitute the customer journey spanning a continuous cycle of previous, current, and future client interactions
In the effort to comprehend and improve client experiences across many industries, such a model is quite relevant However, e-retail studies mostly concentrate on the online experience of customers, while other stages have not gotten fair attention in research Once the key functions and touchpoints are determined, the multistage approach appears to be a strong fit for the online retail customer experience For instance, drawing parallels to the bricks-and-mortar retail model, one can claim that the consumer's experience with online shopping is incomplete until they have the desired item in their possession Following this argument, it is proposed that one of the many core components of the e- retail experience is the last-mile delivery experience While the delivery and return processes are essential in determining the customer's e-retail experience, e-retailers still view these activities more as needs than as potential sources of customers’ satisfaction and loyalty Evidently, the results of the delivery and return services will have an impact on the consumer's relationship with particular online shops (Marshall Fisher, Santiago Gallino, Jiaqi Xu, 2016) However, many e -retailers have a shortage of value chains by adding non-optimal options
By examining the effects of last-mile delivery on customer satisfaction, this research employs a more comprehensive perspective on the customer's e-retail journey More specifically, the role of last-mile delivery as a go-between for customers' online experiences and their general happiness with the e-retail experience The scientific data gives retailer managers a different angle on the online customer experience and a means of generating customer value, both of which promote customer happiness and trust This work adds something modest but original and significant to the amount of knowledge already available The proposed model establishes the foundation for future retail to adopt the customer journey concept and enhances the integration with customer orientation approach, which is gaining attention, but still has room for improvement (Mariola Palazón, Manuela López, María Sicilia, Inés López, 2022).
L ITERATURE REVIEW
In modern marketing, envisioning a brand is viewed as an experience for the customer Over the past few decades, user experience has been the subject of extensive studies over the last few decades (Kranzbühler, A M., M H P Kleijnen, R E Morgan, and M Teerling, 2018) And the concept of customer experience was originally introduced by (Holbrook, M B., and E C Hirschman, 1982) who argued that only a fraction of customer behavior is determined by the value and pricing perceptions of consumers Instead, a concept gai ned depth with a holistic view of customer experience was introduced, which included hedonic, symbolic, physical, social, economic, environmental, and aesthetic factors It endorsed a multistage aspect that featured the connection between past, present, and future customer experiences (Verhoef, 2009) It has recently been discovered that future customer experience is a consequence of customer-firm engagement and is in some ways influenced by the customer's consciousness of a firm's customer experience management output As a result, it is somewhat impacted by how people evaluate the outcomes of their companies' customer experience management efforts The customer experience, according to (Christopher Meyer, Andre Schwager, 2007), is a reflection of the subjective reaction that customers exhibit in both their passive and active interactions with the business Since the perception of experience results between the business and the consumer might differ greatly (James Allen, Frederick F Reichheld, Barney Hamilton and Rob Markey, 2005) (Kranzbühler, A M., M H P Kleijnen, R E Morgan, and M Teerling, 2018), this dyadic perspective on user experience production is conceptually essential More specifically, the characteristics of a consumer's individual experience are associated with the values, impressions, and emotions that vary from one customer to some other, as well as from one business within a particular service industry, to another (Awad, 2022)
Traditionally, a business's understanding of the consumer experience is turned into a set of methods for ensuring customer pleasure with the goal of fostering consumer trust and increasing profitability for the business (Frow, P., and A Payne, 2007) The desire to seek information and the intention to make future online purchases were both positively impacted by a satisfactory and enjoyable experience while making an online purchase transaction (Shareef et al., 2019) This viewpoint is typically based on the blueprint approach, as recommended by earlier studies (Mary Jo Bitner, Amy L Ostrom, and Felicia N Morgan, 2008) But in the setting of escalating industry competition, customer experience has been broadly acknowledged as the source of competitive advantage and long-lasting customer loyalty (Pine, B J., and J H Gilmore, 2011); Verhoef et al 2009); (Mascarenhas, O A., R C Leventhal, R Kesavan, and M Bernacchi, 2006)An increase in experience-centric concepts and companies can be attributed to this change in values According to this new viewpoint, businesses should create and promote their products and services as a series of transactions (Verhoef, P C., G Antonides, and A N de Hoog., 2004); (Patrício, L., R P Fisk, J Falcão E Cunha, and L Constantine, 2011) In this view, a customer's experience is a series of reactions to a series of contact points that make up the customer journey and begin a long time before the customer makes a purchase or interacts with the company (Lemon, K N., and P C Verhoef., 2016).A shop or service provider may find it difficult to identify all of the touchpoints, which can result in insufficient customer journey maps, a disjointed awareness of the customer's perspective, and a lack of influence over customer management stages
A survey found that only 8% of customers agreed with the assumption made by 80% of businesses that they offered superior experiences (James Allen, Frederick F Reichheld, Barney Hamilton and Rob Markey, 2005) This gap has been narrowing in recent years as businesses began to see customer experience management as a means of enhancin customer satisfaction and gradually made the switch to a "get out and look" strategy for accomplishing this goal Additionally, no trustworthy customer experience scales have been created, and the ones that are already in existence have not yet demonstrated their utility owing to their recent development and restricted applicability (Lemon, K N., and
O NLINE RETAIL EXPERIENCE AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Numerous merchants have changed their marketing plans and distribution methods as a result of the rapid development of e-commerce, which has also changed how they interact with customers and vice versa E-commerce provides access to distant markets because it is said to blur international boundaries (Suwarni et al., 2020) The customer experience evolved a fresh collection of factors as the retail context moved to an online format (Mathieson, M., and J Hoskins, 1995) (Parasuraman, A., V A Zeithaml, and ;
L L Berry, 1985) and (Zeithaml, V A., A Parasuraman, and A Malhotra, 2002)were the first studies to highlight important Internet retail characteristics, and they were successful in showcasing the areas where the online and offline retail environments diverged Despite numerous attempts by researchers to compile a list of the essential characteristics, no consensus has yet been reached An online store can be assessed base on a variety of frequently used factors, such as its usability, personalization, product selection, and clarity of the information provided about it, clear pricing, the accessibility of the desired goods, order tracking, on-time delivery, the product fulfilling expectations, customer support features, the overall appearance and style of the site, and retaining customers (Burke, 2002) (Ruby Roy Dholakia, Miao Zhao, 2010) (Jin, B., and J Y ; Park, 2006) that produce many sorts of customer value and serve as a benchmark for the consumer e-retail experience.
In the environment of e-commerce, implementing a customer journey point of view to engineer customer experience becomes a tremendous effort (Lemon, K N., and P C Verhoef., 2016) Customer journey is closely related to customer experience, which is the internal and subjective responses customers have towards contacts with service providers (Yiqing Ding, Erin F MacDonald 2022) When customers cannot be watched throughout their interactions with a range of interactions, customer behavior becomes less transparent, making it difficult to recognize and place many touchpoints on a customer journey map Since it takes into account that customers have experiences whenever they "touch" each and every component of a product, service, image, or business across many platforms and media, the principle of touchpoint is extremely intuitive and plain, and is therefore helpful (Pantano and Viassone 2015) Consumers now communicate with businesses throughout a variety of touchpoints across different publications and networks (e.g., social network sites (SNSs), apps, websites, and physical stores), leading to more complicated journeys that are partly based on recent dramatic changes in consumer habits and purchasing behaviors (Melero, Sese, and Verhoef 2016) However, a lot of retailers use big data and in-store behavior monitoring to keep an eye on client behaviors and create accurate customer profiles Customer behavior has changed in response to shifts in the retail environment, which has driven to modifications in customer satisfaction mechanisms (Ballantine, 2005); (Harvir S Bansal, Gordon H.G McDougall, Shane S Dikolli, Karen L Sedatole, 2004); (Szymanski, D M., and R T Hise, 2000)
The evaluation of online customer experience, as opposed to that pertaining to a retailer or online marketplace, advances the current knowledge of the interactions between the consumer and the retailer The construction of customers' impressions and expectations of an online store is strongly influenced by their online experience (Pappas, I O., A G Pateli, M N Giannakos, and V Chrissikopoulos, 2014) According to multistage perspective studies, self-efficacy, perceived effort, perceived utility, and simplicity of use are strongly correlated with prior online purchasing experiences (Tong, 2010).In the future, a mix of these factors and their linkages will determine the behavior of customers (for instance, retention and favorable word of mouth) and the degree of faith they have with the retailers (Hahn, K H., and J Kim, 2009) It will be challenging for businesses to build lasting relationships with their customers without loyalty (Setyorini & Nugraha, 2016) Safety, privacy, and dependability are aspects of trustworthiness (Harwood & Garry, 2017) The intention to repurchase a product or service will show up when consumers perceive that the goods acquired may satisfy them, which will help to improve the experience of shopping online through faithfulness and satisfaction among customers The primary aim of customer experience management is to increase customer happiness, which is connected to these and other aspects of the customer experience (Liu, X., M He, F Gao, and P Xie, 2008) (Lee, G G., and H F Lin, 2005) ; (Janda, S., P J Trocchia, and K P Gwinner, 2002) In accordance with the results of prior studies, we hypothesize that:
Hypothesis 1: Consumer satisfaction and online customer experience are positively correlated.
L AST MILE DELIVERY IN E RETAIL EXPERIENCE -
Three decades of inquiry about customer e-retail experience have produced a fragmented and rather limited knowledge regarding the link between delivery processes and the e- retail experience There has been substantial advancement in the understanding of the customer e-retail experience over the past three decades (Trevinal, A M., and T Stenger, 2014),however, there are still limitations in the knowledge regarding the delivery processes associated with the customer e-retail experience An initial investigation with reference to customer e-retail experience has proved that customer satisfaction levels can vary between the stages of online retail checkout and after delivery, so that delivery affects overall customer satisfaction (Jiang, P., and B Rosenbloom 2, 2005) Last mile delivery which comes from the last upstream shipment point to the end consumer is periodically considered a vital decision-making benchmark for online shoppers (Esper et al 2003; (Murfield, M., C A Boone, P Rutner, and R Glyn Thomas, 2017); Buldeo Rai, Verlinde, and Macharis 2018) Nonetheless, accessible discoveries reveal a connection between the customer's recognition of the online experience and their experience following a parcel's conveyance Reliable delivery has been mentioned as a source of customer value in e-commerce (Keeney, 1999) The key indicator that positively plows into customer satisfaction with parcel locker services is timeliness, whereas accuracy and security are similarly the predictive coefficients, according to responsiveness and tangibility, separately (Po-Lin Lai, Hyunmi Jang, Mingjie Fang and
Ke Peng 2022) Factors such as free delivery, same day delivery, in-store pickup, on- time delivery (Gregory R Heim, Kingshuk K Sinha, 2001), price, and total delivery time (Swaminathan, J M., and S R Tayur., 2003) (Marshall Fisher, Santiago Gallino, ; Jiaqi Xu, 2016) have been accepted as precedents to customer satisfaction and fealty to an e-retailer In 2017, according to Amresh Kumar and Bhawna Anjaly, their study determined that the extent for measuring OPPCE (online post-purchase customer experience) is multi-dimensional It consists of six dimensions which are conveyance, product- -hand, return and exchange, customer support, assets and feel-good elements in The accurate focus on the items of these measurements can help e-retailers advance customer experience and escalate repeat purchase From the customer experience viewpoint, cognitive discord over conveyance impacts customers's awareness of the online shopping experience (Liao, T H., and C J Keng, 2013)
As consumers tend to appreciate an e-commerce experience from a holistic aspect that is out of obviously distinguishing which of the participating market factors is responsible for which mechanism (Tax, S S., D McCutcheon, and I F Wilkinson., 2013)it could be concluded that a negative delivery result will make a breakthrough in overall customer satisfaction and in the future consumer relationship with a given e-retailer Consider the pattern in which a client purchases an item online but, in spite of an immaculate online shopping experience, the conveyance experience clears out the customer dissatisfied (for example, the parcel contains the off-base item or the parcel is taken to a very troublesome pickup location) Due to this, customers may switch to different e-retailers in an endeavor to avert future service failures and disappointments On t he point of the e- retailer is the factor which firms the delivery options for the consumer to choose from, it is expected that a well-designed online purchase experience takes into account consumer conveyance requirements and can hence have a positive effect on the last mile delivery process Following these beliefs, and in line with previous research, we hypothesize that:
Hypothesis 2: The last mile delivery experience provides a mediating relationship between the online experience and customer satisfaction.
M ETHODOLOGY
Sampling and data collection
This study uses quantitative research methods Self-administered online questionnaires were used as an approach in this survey with the help of Google Form The questions used to ask the participants were invented based on former papers that was merticulously collected and calculated b y the group of authors Participants in the survey were randomly selected from many e-commerce pickup spots in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City was selected as an appropriate location for this study because it has
567 e-commerce sites, over 20.680 websites and 134 apps that provide commercial services (Hang, 2021) The participants were given the chance to answer questions on their most recent e-retail experience after already being briefed upon this study's objectives, confidentiality, and voluntary nature of their participation The Shopee vouchers, worth 10.000 VNĐ, were given to each participant after they completed the survey The survey was given to the participants in their home tongue of Vietnamese The information for the study includes 170 valid respondent responses, which includes
69 percent of females and 31 percent of male with an average life expectancy of 18 - 25 years The demographic sample is shown in Table 1
Categories Frequency Percentage in the sample
Measures
The question table consists of three major parts, indicating respondent’s online retail experiences (which are represented in Table 2) The first part begins with measuring online experiences with the instruction of research conducted by (Janda, S., P J Trocchia, and K P Gwinner, 2002), (Lee, G G., and H F Lin, 2005) (Schlosser, A ; E., T B White, and S M Lloyd, 2006)and (Rose, S., N Hair, and M Clark, 2011) A scale of 12 items was devised to record the participants’ responses in terms of the design and how easy to utilize, goods accessibility, convenience and safety, e-retailers reputation through graphics image and customer trust, customization, quality of feedback channels, control, enjoyment and fairness perceived by purchasers The second part gives information about the 11-items scale aiming to analyze last mile delivery under customer experience setting The inquiries were developed by Esper et al (2003) and (Thirumalai, S., and K K Sinha, 2005)’s studies These questions tried to clarify the influence of the convenient and non-risk pickup service, the image and reliability of the logistics service providers, the control of perception, the excitability and status of order, punctuality, pleasure, and the clear-defined return policies and procedures The last part explains the overall level of satisfaction based on the e-commerce experience of customers From research of (Janda, S., P J Trocchia, and K P Gwinner, 2002) and (Walsh, G., and S E Beatty, 2007) a scale of 4 questions was developed The , participants were asked to respond to their online purchasing satisfaction on average, recommendation intention and repurchasing intention The approach to measure these items is based on the Likert 1 to 7, which customers can choose from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” Besides, there are control factors added in order to give detail about the demographic profile of the figure and provide further understanding of the e- commerce experience (for instance, the root and type of product bought, the purchasing time, the interaction and relation between consumers and online buyers, and the pickup procedure)
The test of reliability through these aforementioned controls which gives impressive outcomes in the degrees of internal consistency Cronbach’s alpha for online-purchasing experience, perceived last mile delivery, and overall customer satisfaction was 0.935, 0.924 and 0,847 respectively.
R ESULTS
Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate the structures An examination of the factor loading reveals that some of the subjects that were previously included to reflect the before-during-after experience did not match the convergent validity requirements and were thus eliminated from the study (see Table 2)
We have a conviction that it is related to the multifaceted expertise and that the components are collecting a greater range of consumer expertise than is reflected in the model terms of consumer expertise Certain patterns may be seen even if we don't make judgments based on the factor loadings
1.1 It’s easy to find any product on the Website 0.757
1.3 It’s easy to do the steps 0.815
1.5 A seller provides many choice of products 0.802
1.6 I feel safe when buying online products 0.716
1.7 All the important information was provided to me when shopping online
1.9 I feel enjoyable when shoppin online
1.10 a The online seller is reliable -
Customer experience in last-mile delivery 0.924 0.928 0.654 2.1 a I received exactly what I ordered
2.3 All the necessary information about my order was supplied
2.4 A suitable type of delivery was provided 0.806
2.5 The product with all flaps intact 0.770
2.6 a Returning online purchases is easy
2.7 a It’s convenient to go to the pickup location
2.8 I feel safe in process of delivery 0.805
2.9 The logistics service provider is reliable 0.850
2.10 I can control the process of delivery
2.11 I feel satisfied with the transport experience 0.846
3.1 I feel contented with the process of shopping 0.824
3.2 I have the right choice during the process 0.807
3.3 I want to recommend the delivery unit to other people
The validity loadings for online seller (1.10) seemed less than 0.7, consequently indicating their low importance in terms of the satisfaction and experience of the buyer The bulk of the measures that were kept in the final models related to how satisfied customers were with their experiences - blissfulness (2.11) and being in grasp (2.10) of the last mile delivery expertise, and comfortable sense (1.9), grasp (1.11) and safeness (1.6)
We performed a mediation study in accordance with Hayes' recommendations (Hayes, 2013) to determine if the expertise of a last mile delivery assistance mediates the impact that online expertise has on consumer contentment Respondents without gender and age information were eliminated, while participants were considered outliers for the assessment measures if their z-scores were higher than an independent point of 3.00 standard deviations Finally, 170 replies were accepted for study after all outliers in the data set were gotten rid of
The last estimated model shows a strong correlation between online expertise and buyer contentment: β = 0.271, SE = 0.094, t = 2.801, p < 0.005, which is illustrated in Figure
1 This is consistent with hypothesis 1, which holds that a satisfying online expertise increases buyer satisfaction The findings also show the importance of the last mile - delivery path from online expertise: β = 0.821, SE = 0.035, t = 23.584, p < 0.005 This shows that customers report having better last-mile delivery experiences have also had better online experiences Moreover, we can also observe that the relationship between last-mile delivery and consumer satisfaction is important: β = 0.821, SE = 0.035, t 23.584, p < 0.005 Customer satisfaction with the entire e-retail experience is directly impacted by the last mile delivery expertise is indicated
3.4 I’ll keep using this delivery service 0.860
These subjects were evaluated on a 7-point Likert scales (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongl
CR = composite reliability, AVE = Average Variance Extracted aitem deleted during the purifying process of measures
Conclusively, 10,000 data were used in a percentile bootstrap estimation strategy (Shrout, P E., and N Bolger, 2002); (Preacher, K J., and A F Hayes, 2004)to examine the indirect impact This was deemed appropriate for this mediation analysis since it works well with samples of a lower size (Preacher, K J., and A F Hayes, 2008) The outcomes demonstrated a strong indirect effect: β = 0.581, SE = 0.035, 95% CI [0.423, 0.741] The last mile delivery experience has a strong mediating influence because the confidence interval does not include zero, advocating hypothesis 2 The findings allow us to draw the conclusion that the retail experience was connected to 0.30 points better customer satisfaction scores when mediated by the last mile delivery experience.
D ISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
Research implications
This research enrichs to the current knowledge base by developing a model of the experience of the customer in the retail sector, which synthesized concepts between marketing and logistical operations One of the most researched ideas in marketing literature is customer satisfaction (Ngo, 2015) and is at the heart of a retailer's success (Pappu, R., and P Quester., 2006) There are various study streams related to customer experience and its multilayer nature as a result of the practicalization of customer satisfaction management and the shift away from cost-based customer growth and profitability (Kranzbühler, A M., M H P Kleijnen, R E Morgan, and M Teerling, 2018) Numerous studies that focus on consumers' online shopping experiences and how they relate to customer satisfaction reflect the fast development of e-commerce (Pandey, S., and D Chawla., 2018) (Kawaf, F., and S Tagg, 2017); (Trevinal, A M., and T ; Stenger, 2014); (Pappas, I O., A G Pateli, M N Giannakos, and V Chrissikopoulos, 2014) Unsurprisingly, findings from earlier studies have been verified by the evidence provided by this study in favor of hypothesis 1, which claims that a favorable relationship exists between an online purchasing experience and consumer pleasure More crucially, the hypothesis 1 test enabled us to lay the groundwork for future research into the mediating role of last mile delivery in the context of online retail
The purpose of last mile delivery in the context of online retail is verified and expanded upon by this study The study complements earlier research on delivery experiences, which has mostly concentrated on how delivery services affect consumer satisfaction (Jiang, P., and B Rosenbloom 2, 2005); (Liu, X., M He, F Gao, and P Xie, 2008).The inclusion of last mile delivery in the e-retail experience model unifies the results of previous research literature that only studied a small number of last mile delivery experiences and logistics service quality c omponents (Marshall Fisher, Santiago Gallino, Jiaqi Xu, 2016) (Gregory R Heim, Kingshuk K Sinha, 2001) (Liao, T H., and C J ; Keng, 2013) (Gil Saura, I., M E Ruiz Molina, and D Servera Francés, 2008) Hence, ; his analysis establishes the foundation for further investigation into the impact of last mile delivery on e-commerce, which helps both the logistics and marketing sectors and, most significantly, their junction As the vocabulary and organization of the core elements of the guest experience are redefined in the environment of e-commerce, this theoretical junction becomes more significant Beyond the cognitive assessment of goods or services, customer happiness and enjoyment have advanced (Parasuraman, A.,
V A Zeithaml, and L L Berry, 1985) toward the summation of responses along the customer journey (Voorhees, 2017), research has used a product augmentation method.Previous research has found that delivery lead time has an influence on logistics service quality and consumer satisfaction (Xing, Y., Grant, D.B., Mckinnon, A.C and Fernie, J., 2020) Based on prior study, our findings suggest that delivery lead time effects consumers' choice of sales channels and purchasing intentions (e.g order frequency and size) This, sequentially, influences the last-mile delivery experience and consumer satisfaction, meaning that delivery lead time is an important component in consumer adoption of growing last-mile delivery choices in e-commerce This move represents a rethinking of the sources of customer value creation in the e-commerce customer experience literature We contribute to a more comprehensive knowledge of e-commerce customer experience in this study by proving that the delivery is a process that adds value A fresh viewpoint on the e-commerce consumer journey is also provided by incorporating last mile delivery into the experience paradigm (Lemon, K N., and P C Verhoef., 2016); therefore, this research adds to the theoretical foundation for generating customer journey maps for particular e-commerce image.
Managerial implications
The expansion of the e-commerce industry and the resulting rivalry among sellers have prompted a number of players to look into fresh opportunities for increasing consumer value and gaining an edge over rivals Scientific research and cutting-edge marketing tactics are progressively connecting and extracting such sources from consumer encounters The focal point of the e-retail journey is frequently seen as being the online buying experience (Trevinal, A M., and T Stenger, 2014); (Pandey, S., and D Chawla., 2018) Online shopping can also be described as a customer making a purchase from a business via the internet, often known as B2C (Huyen T K Le, Andre L Carrel, Harsh Shah, 2021).The outcomes of this study provide changeover areas for e-retailers' customer experience management since they show that last mile delivery serves as a mediator between the online buying experience and customer pleasure The research also proves that customer satisfaction is the primary aim shared by all e - retailers The study specifically discovered that customer satisfaction with the transaction was not completely impacted by the online buying experience Participants in the study claimed that, in addition to their online shopping experience, a variety of other factors also have an impact on how satisfied they are with their purchases On the other hand, last-mile delivery has a very significant impact on consumer pleasure, demonstrating that customers are more focused on the stage of the delivery of the product than the actual purchasing procedure The evaluation has specifically demonstrated that the last mile delivery experience has a significant influence on customer satisfaction with the as a whole e-retail experience and that when last mile delivery is used as a mediating role, the straightforward impact of online experience on customer pleasure increases in importance According to the majority of users who responded to the survey, the last- mile delivery has a considerable impact on the online experience, and once customers are satisfied with the online experience, they will also be pleased with the last-mile delivery Despite the fact that many e-retailers acknowledge the importance of last mile delivery, it is not necessarily a part of their marketing strategy Convenience and simplicity are the top priorities of customers when shopping online Customers will not be too fond of asking for too much personal information during the purchase process, which makes them feel unsafe when revealing their personal information Customers value the logistic company's information and the standing of that delivery company in the logistics industry for the last mile delivery The timing and condition of the goods are two issues with which many buyers are not currently satisfied It's possible that an issue occurred while the item was in transportation, causing it to get to the buyer in less- than-ideal condition These results suggest that those e-retailers who provided a well- organized online shopping experience were successful at expanding the customer value chain by offering an adequate shopping experience As a result, we suggest altering the strategy for improving the experience for customers and reengineering the customer journey in accordance with the newly developed concept, which emphasizes last mile delivery as a technique for offering e-retailers a competitive advantage and highlights the importance of online experience as a way for e-retailers to increase the customer satisfaction
It is essential to recognize that the e-retailer and the logistics service provider are both responsible for designing the customer experience as a result of the intermediate influence of last mile delivery in the context of e-retail sign options related to the online shopping experience as well as the carrier's logistics This factor will promote the improvement of customer satisfaction, creating conditions and opportunities for retailers to exploit more demand to be able to satisfy customer satisfaction From the perspective of the consumer experience, both kinds of e-retail actors provide significant touchpoints to the e-retail customer journey Targeting the touchpoint will be a key to helping retailers turn consumers into loyal customers (Lemon, K N., and P C Verhoef., 2016) contend that partner-owned touchpoints are difficult to regulate or impossible to manage effectively However, co-creation of e-commerce tactics that allow for indirect control over partners' touchpoints is required given the evidence for the major impact of last mile delivery mediation on the relationship between consumer pleasure and the experience of shopping online We believe that companion touchpoints need some level of supervision, in contrast to (Lemon, K N., and P C Verhoef., 2016) suggestion that effects can be applied at touchpoints owed by other e-retail players, such as customer-owned and social/external touchpoints Identifying the touchpoints clients experience through the use of an efficient customer journey mapping technique (Maechler, 2016)The aim is to make sure that customers' interactions with the business or brand across a variety of touchpoints are frictionless, integrated, and seamless (Capozzi, 2018; Richardson, 2010)
In term of the service delivery network viewpoint (Tax, S S., D McCutcheon, and I F Wilkinson., 2013), in which two or more businesses are jointly accountable for the provision of the holistic experience, e-retail customers view the online and delivery stages from a shared holistic point of view A replacement effect suggests that strong holistic brand quality reduces the impact of experience cues on customer happiness if views of holistic brand quality attenuate the attribute-satisfaction link (Ruth N Bolton, Anders Gustafsson, Crina O Tarasi, Lars Witell, 2022) Last but not least, approaching the new era in competition in the logistics market, as customers increasingly turning to online shopping, especially after the Covid 19 era, the service delivery network as well as product suppliers will play an extremely important role in being a bridge for trust between sellers and customers, and helping customers to embrace a phase of online shopping and receiving goods with a holistic experience In order to implement the expanded e-retail experience model, engage to a accommodating strategy for e-retail user experience design, and integrate their efforts with matching partners, managers must acknowledge these theoretical concepts E retailer need to expand new concepts of e- retail experience, need to be flexible in approach to the times Participants in such projects among non-integrated supply management operators may be capable of coping with the intense competitive pressure For example, Amazon has climbed to the top of the industry not only through economic competitiveness and accessibility to attempting to cut performance tools, but also as a result of their capacity to plan and manage nearly the whole e-retail customer journey.
L IMITATIONS AND FUTURE STUDY
This research and its design are conducted under some inevitable limitations, which are expected to be the directions for future studies, notwithstanding their contribution to the in teraction of marketing and shippment procedure The chosen methodology by utilizing Google Form questionnaires could not fulfill its potential due to the lack of accessibility to the diverse participant groups, which is the first and foremost limitation A restricted participant sample provides incomprehensive findings resulting in the gap between theoretical conclusions and practical situations These constraints include certain geographic areas that only took place in the vicinity of Ho Chi Minh city, the difference in online purchasing habits by a variety of age groups, and other demographic data such as current income, and educational level In light of this, it is born in our mind that we should propose the current research as the initial foundation for further studies in the defined setting Furthermore, the validity of our research’s variables was put in doubt to some extent, since the participants may have the tendency to give negative responses due to the correlation between feedback and social acceptance (Susanne Schwab, 2022) A developed method in researching, which is the consideration for future use, is required to add the depth and rigor into the feedback process assisted by the mercy of research supervision
Second, language has created a great barrier between the researchers and participants
As our questionnaire was first introduced in English, then translated into Vietnamese, it could not clarify precisely the question provided Some participants, who mostly are Vietnamese, responded that the questions were similar to some extent, making them go into a dilemma when filling in the Google Form Therefore, we need to address this problem in future research in order to give a fully comprehensive understanding, which is the foundation for enhancing the accuracy of the results The solution might involve paying attention to the subject such as an individual, a group of people, a certain nation, or humanity in general (Abduraximovna, Ismoilova Marxabo Oscar P ublishing Services, 2022) Additionally, due to lack of practical experience and appropriate skills, the authors have met a myriad of difficulties when processing the database Some of these are the way to collect the data, how to use the software to calculate the numbers and so on, which prevent us from deeper and more accurate outcomes In the future, upcoming studies should be conducted more meticulously and carefully, as we now have known the way to pick up and handle the database
Third, there is an underlying limitation in providing exhaustive customer e-retail experience insights, regardless of how the current understanding of last mile delivery was thoroughly explained or not Future studies should develop, examine and take advantage of conventional dependent variables, includingcustomer faithfulness, the proportion of repurchasing a specific product or at a store, as well as numerous potentially significant aspects that have not yet been identified; however, the recent marketing models and theories are required to be kept in line While this paper was carried out with only a limitation in number of linear routes, it is feasible that new correlations among the identified variables can be found between the potential model extension and detailed analyses of last-mile delivery in the base of online retailing context Furthermore, demographic variables need to be focused on thoroughly and intentionally, such as shopping frequency, e-purchasing platforms, technology involvement, cultural and linguistic diversities (Susanne Schwab, Stefan Markus, Sepideh Hassani, 2022) and other demographic indicators, as future study can gain benefits from controlling and analyzing the most widely accepted data
Last but not least, further study should be encouraged to concentrate on the elements affecting customer experience that closely related to last mile delivery while there were several control variables took the duties of measurement that were initially believed to be relevant, but were later revealed to have little or no significant impact; hence, their names did not appear in the final model Furthermore, low factor loading, which is an important measurement for relevance among different samples, drived to the exclusion of several items from the former model; therefore, instead of taking them for granted, further research should pay more attention on these items There were various obstacles during the investigation process due to the lack of appropriate measurements in drawing conclusions even though tremendous effort was made As a result, we suggest that further studies’ dataset should develop these removed elements in order to reconfirm the relations of last mile delivery and online customer experience With the base form the pioneers that has been shown in the study, customer satisfaction is predicted to rise whenever there is an enhancement of service quality and customer experience management, which would become a magnificent milestone if future research can address the challenge of the developed variables’ influence on customer satisfaction This is a considerable incentive for other studies in the future to clarify the effect of last mile delivery on purchaser experience Consequently, outcomes of these research can make great contributions for building a solid foundation by providing more and more comprehensive knowledge, and expanding its scope for future applications
First, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Ton Duc Thang University for introducing the subject Business Research Method to the curriculum In particular, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the subject lecturer – Mr Nguyen Trung Tin for teaching and imparting valuable knowledge to me during the past study period During the time we attended your class, we gained a lot of useful knowledge, an effective and serious study spirit This will definitely be valuable knowledge, a luggage for me to be able to step firmly in the future
Business Research Method has taught us many knowledges about how to identify, describe, explain and analyze a survey We would like to thank the research participants and the faculty who supported us throughout the data collection process and the completion of the report We ư\ensure to provide enough knowledge, associated with the practical needs of students However, due to limited knowledge and ability to absorb reality, there are still many surprises Although we have tried my best, but surely the essay is hard to avoid errors and many inaccuracies, we hope you will consider and give suggestions to improve our essay
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