Online shopping has been one of the most active platforms through which e-commerce is known for popularly. The number of companies that are offering the products online through online malls and online company sales website suggests this with the increased numbers. Arguably, the position that this literature describes is that the paradigm shift in shopping that has been one of the major progress that has been made in E-commerce, and it is seen as inevitable (Flint, Blocker and Boutin, 2011). Reading from the suggestions of Klumpp and Jasper (2008), online shopping has materially been identified with the fastest growing markets in the current decade. This report focuses on the turnover sales that the online retail platforms have managed to move in the last 10 years. Klumpp and Jasper (2008) goes ahead to suggest that the frenzy on using and accessing online shopping has been aggressive based on the differences that it offers to the clients. Additionally, these differences are inclusive of the speeds of delivery compared to the conventional placing of orders through the telephones and fax invoicing. The virtual stores are identified with conveniences, as they let customer to buy what they see. This has redefined the shopping experience (Dawkins and Reichheld, 2011).
Looking at the transformation that the E-commerce platform has had, the majority of the traditional setups have been selectively choosing to present themselves as shifting and incorporating the use of the online system. These traditional markets have identified with the intentions of having to present themselves as competitive or miss the market share that is quickly being occupied by online shopping. Such a case is signaled with the changes in the U.S postal services (Carey, 2014). Suggesting from the shift that must be seen to have happened rather late when survival in the telecommunication industry was hard, Fornell and Johnson (2010), suggest that with reference to the past and the current fears, there are security concerns that limit, and, therefore, provide room for the traditional methods of commerce to exist. These are the security concerns posed by hacking, phishing, the fidelity issues that surround some rouge online shopping companies, time issues, reliability, and the likelihood of poor quality on deliveries (Jiang, Yang and Jun, 2013).
Looking at the census data that the center for the retail department has provided, the online retail market has been identified as the fastest growing, cutting across the continents of North America and Europe in the year 2014. This is to suggest that the link that the online shopping has provided is more aggressive with the developed countries making them more of the movers and shakers of this industry. Online shopping is not only limited to the retail considerations of the position of having tangible goods, but the services industry has also captured their fraction of the online shopping market (Fornell and Johnson, 2010). Among the leading movers in this sector are the financial and banking institutions. However, the banking solution has been noted to be having the highest degree of security when it comes to the needs to have online retail shopping assessed. Security concerns among consumers detail with the issues of phishing of client information and the security in the modes of payment (Jiang, Yang and Jun, 2013).
According to Dai, Forsythe and Kwon (2014), the number of attacks have also increased with the increased use of online shopping. Hacking is gaining momentum based on the spoils that are attached to it. The financial gain is attached to the position that hackers have in diverting funds meant for payment on the online platforms to their own accounts. This has been very eminent with the customer cases increasing in number according to Dai, Forsythe and Kwon (2014). It materially seems to infer the online security is one of the main reasons why the traditional market is still preferred by a few.
The basic identification on online shopping as noted earlier is with the shipping of items bought online. No longer do the customers have to burden themselves with the physical dimension of having to carry their own shopping. This is established as an advantage that the online shopping has managed to center and capitalize on. This tends to scare and limit the customer loyalty that the online shopping tends to attract. With newer players in the market, the position of interest that is made develops and identifies with the efforts of client acquisition and client retention. Client retention according to Verhoef (2007) suggests that the effort revolves around the strategies and the techniques that the companies will be using in getting new clients.
Additionally, Dawkins and Reichheld (2011) suggest that acquisition might be challenging, but identifying with customer retention is much harder. Customer retention on the online e-commerce platforms develops with the customer experiences (Kacen, et.al, 2013). The interesting thing is that majority of the online shopping websites tend to have their reviews online. This provides for the customer to provide ratings on the user experience that they have had with the sites. The position that these feedbacks have, suggestively holds the future for the online shopping and e-commerce in general.
One will note that majority of the online shopping websites will tend to have a customer administrator within the same context. This is to provide responsible responses in a timely manner such that the consumers feel the presence of the company and the business with the online interaction (Einav, et.al, 2014). Such virtual interaction will go a long way in building the confidence that the client will be having based on the ability that the responses have in either answering inquiries or settling disputes (Jiang, Yang and Jun, 2013). The trend is, however, receiving a new shift with the development of marketing for the customer loyalty and the social media marketing. The common position that is currently seen with these online shopping companies is that they tend to have socials media pages such that they interact with the communities that they serve more with the interest of driving traffic to their websites. Reading some of the customer reviews, one company seems to be the most agitating and aggressive. This is based on responses for timely deliveries. In fact, reading on one of the largest online marketplace, Amazon, the companies and the product critics come from all directions similar to the compliment and approval of deliveries. Nonetheless, the complaints tend to focus more on the late deliveries that online shopping has been known to have.
Reading into the findings of Kim et al., (2013), the online shopping companies have been blaming the system failure in executing orders on their end. This challenge makes the lapse of times between order and delivery time increase. In addition, the interest that is attached to deliveries is that majority of them take an average of 24 to 72 hours after placement of an order. In this case, one will in most cases have effected payment depending on the nature of the purchase. In light of the online shops not having enough stocks in place, some have been playing safe with inventories; therefore, acts intermediaries, which in the event of getting orders tend to place their interest on other suppliers. It leaves them exposed to the lack of control on the delivery time for the clients.
References
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