Online Customer Experiences

Have you ever been online shopping and a website is just not easy to use? Or it keeps lagging, or simply just isn’t working properly? It’s annoying, right?!

This blog post will evaluate online customer experiences and explore the characteristics of customer behaviors in the digital marketplace.

“Understanding the individual nature of customers is fundamental to marketing practice and planning” (Chaffey et al, 2016)

There are multiple variables that influence the consumer online experience, and by studying them ‘it becomes possible to analyse their future intentions to continue to use digital services and to shop online’ (Wolfinbarger and Gilly in Chaffey et al, 2016).

2 consumer variables include –

1. Demographic Variable – These are personal attributes, such as age, gender, income, education or race (Chaffey et al, 2016).For example, using my demographics - I am casually employed and studying at Uni. Therefore, I don’t exactly have the income to be shopping at high-end stores such as Chanel. In turn, it would be silly of Chanel to target 18 – 24-year-old female Uni students in their ad campaigns.

2. Psychographic and Behavioural Variables – This refers to consumer’s perceptions, beliefs and attitudes that influence their online behaviors (Chaffey et al, 2016). For example, consumers who work 9 – 5 daily, don’t have the time to go shopping. Therefore, its more convenient to shop online in the evening or at work. Alternatively, the older generation are not necessarily tech-savvy and prefer the more traditional method of going into a store. Therefore, you don’t find many online stores targeted at people aged 65+.

‘Customer interactions with an organisation’s website creates opportunities for positive experiences that can lead to long-term relationship building’ (Rose and Hair in Chaffey et al, 2016). This statement is accurate, as I personally, continue to use online websites that are smooth and convenient. There are also websites that I love, so much so, I follow them on social media and check them regularly. This is helping me build a relationship with that brand.

The Framework for understanding online customer experiences is split into 3 sections –

Antecedents: This is the background to the online experience (Chaffey et al, 2016). For example, When I go online shopping it is generally because I have a perceived ‘want’ or ‘need’ for that item. It might be that I have a party coming up and need a dress. Or it could simply be that I’m bored, and get enjoyment from looking online.

Experience: Next up is the experience had online(Chaffey et al, 2016).The antecedents mentioned previously influence this stage, as it can be split into two groups. They will influence the cognitivestate, how a person thinks. Or, it will influence the affectionatestate, how someone feels. For example, I found a dress I like on a shop I haven’t used before, however I buy the dress anyway. When it arrives, it doesn’t look nice and they don’t do refunds. This means I have had a negative experience, resulting in negative feelings toward the shop. 

(Cheezburger, 2018)

Consequence: The third and final section is the consequence. If you had a positive experience with your online shop, you will be satisfied and has positive repurchase intensions (Chaffey et al, 2016). Alternatively, you had a bad experience and will not have intentions to repurchase from that site. For example, I had a bad experience with a shop I haven’t used before. Therefore, I won’t be in a hurry to use that shop again.

These are the kind of behaviours and characteristics that organisations want to understand about their consumers, to ensure they have a positive online experience and keep coming back as a loyal customer.

(Unknown, 2018)

References-

Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016). Digital marketing. 6th ed. Harlow (GB): Pearson. Cheezburger. (2018). When You Order Something Online VS When It Arrives. [online] Available at: https://cheezburger.com/2843397/when-you-order-something-online-vs-when-it-arrives [Accessed 29 Aug. 2018].

Unknown, (2018) , 22 Shopping Memes[online] Available at - https://sayingimages.com/shopping-memes/ [Accessed 29 August, 2018]