V3I6P34

A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND TRUST: ONLINE VS. OFFLINE FESTIVE SHOPPING EXPERIENCES

Gururaj Murme^1*, Ganapati B Sinnoor²

Abstract

Festive seasons are the most retail heavy seasons across every country across the world, with the consumer turn ,over soaring to exponentially high levels in both the stores and websites. An increase in the number of e-commerce websites around the world along with increased foot, traffic in the stores around Festive seasons like Diwali, Christmas, Eid and Sale seasons has made the relative analysis of these two mediums of shopping a area of much research interest for academics and managers alike.

This thesis aims to be an online quantitative comparative research of the customer satisfaction and trust levels of the consumers who shop in both the channels during the festive seasons. As a part of this research, primary data has been gathered from 51 individual responses through a structured questionnaire distributed via a Google, Docs Form. The sample comprises mostly of students pursuing undergraduate and post, graduate studies (98%), the majority of whom consider themselves to be festive season shoppers in both the traditional and online formats.

The results paint a complex and multidimensional picture of consumer perspective. Online shopping shines in the pricing dimension, with 66.7% deeming online channels as cost, effective; offline feels more reliable, with 64.7% perceiving tactile product evaluation, direct interaction with sales men and accessibility as added advantages. Amazon leads the online platform chart, while Flipkart was positioned at second; Meesho and others seem to trail behind in general. Drawing on the Expectancy, Disconfirmation Theory of consumer satisfaction and the Trust, Commitment Theory of relational marketing, the research revealed gap, where online channel activation builds transactional satisfaction, while offline activation builds relational trust; online inefficiency in product quality and delivery lead time triggered dissatisfaction, which was magnified in the holiday rush.

The research ends with strategic recommendations for retailers interested in optimising their omnichannel festive strategies such as AR investments for tactile online simulation, BOPIS models and revised aftersales service recovery standards. Suggestions for future extensions of the research such as AI festive personalisation & future consumer trust recalibration are also proposed.