Effect of Relationship Benefits on Satisfaction with an E-commerce Communication Tool

Economic Management Journal February 2016, Volume 5, Issue 1, PP.1-8

Effect of relationship benefits on satisfaction with an e-commerce communication tool Yuhua Cui 1, Jishun Niu, Mengqi Yu School of Business, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, 100020, China

Abstract This study focuses on Ali Trademanager (阿里旺旺), an e-commerce communication tool, to analyze the relationship between the concept of interests developed by Gwinner et. al. (1998), who proposed a paradigm as a starting point for domestic and foreign scholars to assess the relationship between the interests of customer satisfaction. This study also intends to organize the relevant literature, draw the appropriate research, and combine the assumptions made regarding the characteristics and development of Ali Trademanager. It also uses customer interest in the social dimension, which adds another benefit as a function of two factors that affect customer satisfaction. Consequently, customer satisfaction as a result of a variable construct is a theoretical research model in this study.

The design and distribution of the questionnaire, as well as data collection, were performed through various social networking platforms, such as micro-channel, micro-channel circle of friends, Sina Weibo, Tencent QQ, and QQ space. SPSS statistical software was employed for data analysis to build a test model used in this study to assess the degree of influence of customer interest in social and functional differences in the degree of efficiency and customer satisfaction. In terms of social and functional benefits, empirical results indicate that customer interest positively influences positive customer satisfaction, including the social influence of customer satisfaction and the greatest explanatory power. The social and functional benefits have been determined to have a significant positive correlation.

Based on the results and the current status of the development of the e-commerce industry, the electricity suppliers improve customer perception of relational benefits, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction. The study suggests recommendations, including maintaining long-term relationships with customers.

Keywords: Ali Trademanager (阿 里 旺 旺); E-commerce communication tool; Relationship benefits; Satisfaction with communication tool

1

INTRODUCTION

E-commerce and online shopping have rapidly become important concepts in recent years, which coincided with the popularity of the Internet. Consequently, online shopping has emerged as one of the leading global consumer trends.

With the popularity of the Internet, e-commerce has also become an important economic field in the 21st century, as 1

Email: cuiyuhua@snu.ac.kr, corresponding author Foundation 1: Science and Technology Development Project of Beijing Education Commission, 2015 (Study on Consuming Behavior Data Mining and Application Key Technology under Fashion Electronic Commerce).

Project Number: KYJH02150201/021/001 Foundation 2: Reform in Education Team Building Project of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, 2014 (Electronic Commerce Data Analyst Courses Team Building).

Project Number: JXTD-1403 Foundation 3: The Project of Construction of Innovative Teams and Selection and Development of Excellent Talents for Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology (PTTBIFT) -1http://www.emj-journal.org/

well as an indispensable part of life. Online and offline shopping experiences considerably differ. The most prominent difference is that offline stores enable customers to experience (i.e., observe, touch, feel, etc.) the actual products and provide professional shopping guide. Consumers can personally select the actual items and they can even seek assistance from the store staff members while shopping. These advantages of shopping in an actual store have become a disadvantage for the online shopping experience. Consequently, many consumers have become more inclined to shop in brick-and-mortar stores. However, online shopping has also managed to provide numerous advantages, such as eliminating actual travel and cutting down on other expenses related to the purchase. Thus, online items that are also sold on physical stores have become more affordable, which has attracted many consumers.

Nevertheless, online shoppers need to interact and communicate freely with the merchants, which can be achieved through online instant messaging software. Popular instant messaging softwares that are currently being used in the market include QQ, Fetion, and Ali Trademanager.

Ali Trademanager is a second-generation instant messaging software used in a rapidly growing market. In 2007, this instant messaging system entered the domestic market and has since remained in the top three, behind only QQ and MSN. To date, Ali Trademanager exceeded one million simultaneous online users, and user coverage also increased rapidly to 30%. The success of Ali Trademanager was primarily attributed to the fast development of personal online trading platforms such as Taobao. For example, Taobao users either buy or sell items; thus, a timely and convenient communication system provided by Ali Trademanager provides better protection for the trading interests of online users. The use of Ali Trademanager in e-commerce has transformed it into a primary instant messaging software. Its market and trading performance has been exceptional. The further integration of blogs and community functions with Ali Trademanager has effectively expanded the company’s business and enhanced user experience. This study on consumer awareness of online business communication will use Ali Trademanager as the starting point to analyze the functional and social benefits for employee satisfaction.

2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 E-commerce Communication Tool Online communication is one of the major applications of the Internet. Various forms of Internet communication include e-mails, forums, blogs/personal space, instant messaging systems, microblogging sites, and social networking sites. Based on the “29th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China,” released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in December 2011, the instant messaging subscriber base in China had reached 415 million, with 80.9% of Internet users using instant messaging; the number of Weibo users was 250 million, an increase of 296% from the 2010 figures; Internet usage rate was 48.7%; and the number of social networking site users had reached 244 million, accounting for 47.6%. E-mail use was 47.9%, which was down 6.7 percentage points compared with 54.6% in 2010. Forum/bulletin board system (BBS) use was 28.2%, down 6.2 percentage points compared with 32.4% in 2010. The usage rate of blogs/personal space was 62.1%, down 2.3 percentage points compared with 64.4% in 2010. This data set shows a significant decline in the usage of traditional means of online communication, such as e-mails, blogs, personal space, and forums. The rapid rise of new forms of online communication saw instant messaging with the highest technology usage. Online communication is currently the consumers’ major method in using the Internet, which has considerably influenced the development of ecommerce. This influence can be particularly observed in the following aspects: (1) communication tools are extensively used in e-commerce and (2) social medium (e.g., social networking sites, microblogs, etc.) represent a new communication technology that can improve online communication processes (Lu, 2013).

E-commerce communication tools are also called instant messaging software, which enables people to use online chat tools. Online communication tools can be divided into two architecture categories, namely, client/server architecture (C/S) and browser/server architecture (B/S). Ali Trademanager exists in the form of architecture, client software, and Web version. This structure has enabled Ali Trademanager to become the most rapidly growing second-generation instant messaging software in the domestic market. The popularity of e-commerce has guided Taobao, the leading e-commerce company in China, in developing the Taobao Ali Trademanager for convenient communication.

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2.2 Relationship Benefits Reynolds and Gutman (1984) explained that the concept of consumers’ interest in their choice of products or services is expected to generate benefits. Morgan and Hunt (1994) considered the interests of all stakeholders to maintain long-term relationships. The present study on the relationship between the interests of most of the earlier studies from the business viewpoint discusses long-term relationships for the benefit of enterprises (Reynolds & Beatty, 1999). Research in this area in recent years has progressed from simple attention to the enterprise’s long-term relationship interest to the benefits of long-term relationships with customers (Gwinner et al., 1998; Thurau et al., 2002).

Gwinner et al. (1998) first conducted an empirical study on the interests of all systems (Gwinner et al., 1998). Their findings in this field are collectively called GGB paradigm, which defines interest as keeping with the long-term business partnership in the process of removing the core interests outside and beyond, as well as bringing other benefits to the customers. This paradigm has become extensively cited and recognized. The GGB paradigm groups the relationship between the interests into three categories, namely, functional benefits, social benefits, and treatment of special interests. The function of interest refers to the feeling of comfort and security of customers and the service provider after developing a relationship, which can reduce the anxiety and uncertainty, as well as develop confidence for the product or service provided by the service provider. Social interest relates to the emotional part of the customer and employee relations; customers enjoy a positive relationship with the employee, similar to a relationship between friends. Special treatment in the form of interest includes customer relations to obtain price concessions, faster service, or for personal additional services. A series of studies by scholars in this field intend to deepen the understanding of the relationship for the benefit and in the concept of relationship marketing in the position (Reynolds & Gutman, 1984).

1) Functional Benefit Function is an attribute that is used to achieve certain objectives, such as meeting the actual needs of users, satisfying the potential needs of users, or fulfilling the needs of the scope of any property belonging to the user function. In ecommerce, functionality is embodied in effective communication between electricity suppliers and customers.

Functionality includes exchanges between the electricity supplier and customer effectiveness, timeliness, speed, and convenience, among others. Interest refers to everything that meets the desires of customers. Functional benefit implies that the e-commerce communication tool provides a timely, effective, efficient, and convenient means of communication between the electricity supplier and customer e-commerce aspirations of an object, namely, software performance itself that reflects the interest. For example, Ali Trademanager employs the B/S and C/S architecture formats in building a digital network that connects customers and electricity suppliers. This process of building a relatively realistic “bridge” allows the customers to experience a similar process of face-to-face communication.

Thus, Ali Trademanager’s core services through online communication enable the customers to understand the products they want from the electricity providers. This condition demonstrates the functional benefits of Ali Trademanager.

2) Social Benefit Social benefits primarily refer to the time between the customer and the enterprise exchanges, through which the emotional part of the relationship between the customer and company employees is generated. The resulting social interests of customers include intimacy between the customer and the service provider, which the latter recognizes and further develops into friendship (Gwinner et al., 1998). Several scholars have confirmed the existence of social benefit, including Berry (1995), who argued that social benefit is common between customer and service provider and plays an important role. Gwinner et al. (1998) explained that social benefits include the interaction between the customer and service provider, feeling of friendliness, and development of a friend-like relationship.

3

SATISFACTION WITH THE E-COMMERCE COMMUNICATION TOOL

Satisfaction in e-commerce pertains to the degree of pleasure that online shopping customers obtain in the course of a transaction. For example, we often learn that many customers leave the same comments when we read the item -3http://www.emj-journal.org/

reviews, that is, inexpensive (5 points Likert scale), shopping is very pleasant, and so on. “Inexpensive” means that the customers only need five minutes in the online shop to have a highly pleasant shopping experience and considerable satisfaction in this activity. This situation is called the “five-minute satisfaction.”

E-commerce involves the online shop clerk and offline clerk. Online shop refers to the e-commerce communication tool, whereas the offline staff member denotes the operating software for the online and offline business communication service personnel. Clerk pertains to the line staff member. Employee satisfaction is obtained from the customer service offered by the service providers, in which a sense of joy is experienced by the customer. Clerk satisfaction is represented by the number of clerks who provide customer satisfaction. When the customers receive service from a service provider that closely caters to the customers’ psychology and standards, customer satisfaction with the service provider increases.

E-commerce communication tool plays an important role for the online customer service clerk. In the virtual network, only the e-commerce communication tool can be more efficient, convenient, and timely in establishing communication between the customers and the electricity supplier. The customer reviews of the clerks initially involve a direct evaluation of the clerk for the line; thereafter, such evaluation includes an integrated assessment of both online and offline shop clerks. Assuming that an e-commerce communication tool is lacking, an offline staff member will assist customers in a timely manner to build bridges; thus, the customer can experience a convenient, rapid, and timely service. This development will considerably affect the customer’s desire to purchase. Hence, using an e-commerce communication tool will ensure the completion of the customer experience; thus, the electricity providers will obtain more benefits in return. Therefore, the e-commerce communication tool is an undoubtedly part of the clerk.

E-commerce communication tool refers to customer satisfaction in the process of receiving services, using an ecommerce communication tool, to experience the feeling of pleasure. Satisfaction with the e-commerce communication tool is manifested through the extent of digital pleasure. Comments in the Taobao website are occasionally similar; thus, a timely customer service response will resolve problems immediately (5 Lickert scale).

In such a review, in which the customer service personnel promptly responds, the immediate comment is that the line staff presents a considerably timely reply.

4

PRESEARCH DESIGN

4.1 Research Framework This study aims to analyze the functional and social benefits of e-commerce communication tool satisfaction (see Fig. 1).

Functional benefit Relationship benefits

Social benefit

Satisfaction with the e-commerce communication tool

FIG. 1. RESEARCH MODEL

4.2 Data Collection Data used in this study are divided and distributed into two parts (a total of 215 copies): one part is the paper version of the questionnaire survey, which was conducted in public institutions; the other part is the electronic version of the questionnaire and distributed through micro-channel, micro-channel circle of friends, Tencent QQ, Tencent Space, Sina Weibo, and other social networking platforms.

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4.3 Measures This study involves three latent variables, the measurements of which are from previous literature and were adjusted based on the actual situation of Chinese enterprises. Measuring the relationship between the interests of customers draws (Gwinner et al., 1998) developed scales; measuring customer satisfaction borrowed (Oliver, 1980) scales; and measuring customer commitment draws (Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Gwinner et al., 1998). To achieve the objective of the current study, the paper questionnaire survey was divided into three parts. The first part entails that the respondents answer a few questions related to the functions of Ali Trade manager, such as convenience, time saving, and other features of the relationship between the interests and social benefits. The second part involves Ali Trade manager measuring satisfaction. The third part asks the respondents regarding their personal information, such as age, gender, education, and so on. The questionnaire used a five-point Likert scale, with 1 denoting strongly disagree and 5 strongly agree.

5

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

5.1 Sample Five people comprise the respondents who are 19 years old, accounting for 2.3% of the total number of respondents; 141 are 20 to 29 years old (65.6%); 27 are 30 to 39 years old (12.6%); 28 are 40 to 49 years old (13.0%); and 14 are 50 years old and above (6.5%).

Seventy-nine males (36.7% of the total number of respondents) and 136 females (63.3%) were surveyed. A total of 134 respondents are unmarried and 81 are married.

Forty-two respondents are high school graduates (19.5%); 85 are from the University of Reading (39.5%); 76 people are college graduates (35.3%).

Eighty-nine respondents are students (41.4%); 43 are staff members (20.0%); 36 are technical staff members (16.7%); 20 are service personnel (9.3%); 10 are professionals (4.7%); 9 are housewives (4.2%); and 8 belong to other professions (8.7%).

A total of 116 respondents (54%) have an average monthly household income of 10,000 yuan or less; 59 (27.4%) have between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan; 13 (6.0%) have between 20,000 yuan and 30,000; 4 (1.9%) have between 30,000 and 40,000 yuan; 7 (3.3%) have 50,000 yuan; and 16 (7.4%) have more than 50,000 yuan.

5.2 Reliability and Validity Assessments TABLE 1. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY Factor

Measurement Item Ali Trademanager can give me convenience.

Functional benefit

Social benefit

Satisfaction with communication tool

Factor loading 0.899

Ali Trademanager can help me save time.

0.911

Ali Trademanager can give me good suggestion.

Ali Trademanager can let me buy the right products.

Accompanied by Ali Trademanager, I feel friendly.

Accompanied by Ali Trademanager, I enjoy shopping.

Accompanied by Ali Trademanager, I feel kind.

Accompanied by Ali Trademanager, I will like the brand.

Ali Trademanager makes me very satisfied.

0.888

Ali Trademanager makes me very happy.

0.941

Ali Trademanager makes me feel at easy.

0.911

Ali Trademanager makes me very pleasure.

0.949

Eigen value

Variance %

Cronbach’s ι

3.198

79.956

0.916

3.412

85.288

0.942

3.457

86.435

0.947

0.879 0.896 0.923 0.939 0.934 0.917

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The commonly used indicators are Cronbach’s α reliability coefficient and composite reliability (CR) value. The data used in this study were analyzed using SPSS20.0. Cronbach’s α coefficients of all of the variables were greater than 0.9, indicating the reliability of the study measurements of various structural variables.

The measurement of the variables of this study was the mature reference scale that foreign scholars have been employed; thus, this scale has good content validity. In terms of convergent validity tests, SPSS20.0 software measurement model in this study performed confirmatory factor analysis. Results indicate that all factor loading values were greater than 0.8 and were statistically significant. These results suggest that each statement has a high measure convergent validity on the measured variable, as well as demonstrates the relationship between the interests.

The relationships have good discriminant validity between the various dimensions of quality.

5.3 Correlation Analysis Correlation analysis involves testing between two variables or the degree of correlation between two more variables.

This study examines the degree of correlation of functional benefits, social benefits, and customer satisfaction in three variables.

The degree of correlation between variables is measured by the correlation coefficient. “In the correlation analysis, the correlation coefficient used mainly simple correlation coefficient Pearson, Spearman rank correlation coefficient, and Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient and partial correlation coefficient” (Chen, 2010). The current study uses Pearson coefficient to measure the degree of correlation between any two variables. The overall correlation coefficient ρ, with the correlation of samples is represented by г. The maximum likelihood estimator for the overall sample correlation is the coefficient г of correlation ρ, where ˗1 ≤ г ≤ 1; a higher absolute value indicates that the degree of correlation between the two variables is stronger. г value greater than 0 indicates that a positive correlation exists between the two variables. If г = 1, then a completely positive correlation exists between the variables. If the г time value is less than 0, then a negative correlation exists between the two variables. г = ˗1 indicates that a full variable is present between the negative correlation. If г = 0, then a linear correlation is lacking between the two variables.

As can be seen from the preceding section, the functional and social benefits are proof of the existence of a positive relationship between satisfaction and customer. Table 2 shows that the strongest correlation is between social variables and customer satisfaction at 0.882. This result indicates that the social benefits of online shopping for customers are key factors that influence their satisfaction.

TABLE 2. CORRELATION ANALYSIS AMONG THE FUNCTIONAL BENEFITS, SOCIAL BENEFITS, AND SATISFACTION WITH THE ECOMMERCE COMMUNICATION TOOL

Variable Functional benefit Social benefit Satisfaction with The communication tool Note: **p < 0.01(2-tailed)

M 3.743 3.530 3.598

SD 0.8743 0.9321 0.9025

1 1 0.788** 0.802**

2

3

1 0.882**

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5.4 Effect of Relationship Benefits on Satisfaction with the E-commerce Communication Tool The satisfaction impact analysis of the relationship between the interests of the customer and customer satisfaction is the dependent variable, and the relationship between the interests of all the dimensions is the independent variable.

Through multiple linear regression analysis, the regression equation is Y = β1 X1 + β2 X2, where Y represents customer satisfaction, X1 is the functional benefit, X2 represents society’s interests, and β1 represents the regression coefficients. Table 3 shows the fitting results of the overall satisfaction output of the multiple linear regression models. The customer satisfaction output multiple linear regression analysis demonstrates the functional and social benefits of these two dimensions, the functional effective β1 more significant regression coefficients, regression coefficient β2 followed by social benefits. This result indicates the functional and social benefits influence customer satisfaction. The social regression coefficient of β2 > function represents an effective regression coefficient β1; Thus, a more significant social influence is noted on customer satisfaction.

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TABLE 3. REGRESSION ANALYSIS Independent variable Constant X1 Functional benefits X2 Social benefits

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Unstandardized coefficients B Standard error 0.500 0.162

Standardized coefficients β

t

Sig.

3.079

0.002

0.825

0.042

0.802

19.600

0.000

0.854

0.031

0.882

27.364

0.000

CONCLUSION

We present the conclusion of this study, which uses the e-commerce communication tool Ali Trademanager as an example to analyze the influence of customer interest on online communication tool satisfaction, in three parts as follows. (1) In the functional and social benefits of these two dimensions, the social dimension influence of customer satisfaction is the largest, its explanatory power is the strongest, and it is the most important customer benefit factor.

Therefore, social factor is the most important for customers in many industries, and customer satisfaction has a considerably active role. (2) Compared with social benefits, the functional benefits of customer satisfaction demonstrate a low influence; nevertheless, functional benefits have a certain role in improving customer satisfaction.

(3) A significant positive correlation exists between social and functional benefits. The social and functional benefits of customer perceptions have positive effects on each other. Given that both dimensions have a certain influence on customer satisfaction and explanatory power, the business should also recognize the positive role of both factors in the interests of customer satisfaction.

In summary, this study presents the following conclusions. First, the relationship between social interests has a significant positive effect on customer satisfaction. Second, functional benefits have a significant positive influence on customer satisfaction. Finally, the effect of social benefit influence on customer satisfaction is bigger than functional effects.

6.1 Implications Based on the results of this study, along with the rapid development of the e-commerce industry, the core products and services being provided have become significantly more homogeneous. In this case, the customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perception of the relationship between interests will affect their choices. Functional benefits can increase the trust between customers and electricity suppliers; social benefits allow customers to feel respected and recognized. These positive perceptions will improve customer satisfaction, thus ensuring a relatively stable long-term relationship between the customer and the electricity supplier.

The findings demonstrate that the relationship between the interests of customer satisfaction has a significant positive effect on customer-perceived interests, thus increasing customer satisfaction. E-commerce businesses should be completely aware of the importance of the relationship between the interests of customers, develop appropriate strategies, and improve customer satisfaction. Nevertheless, varied interests have different influences on customer satisfaction; thus, a targeted relational benefits policy must be implemented.

If the influence of social benefits on customer satisfaction is higher, then businesses should focus on social benefits.

Maintaining long-term customer relationships with service providers will boost the confidence in the service providers, thereby reducing the perceived risks. Companies can improve the quality of the services themselves to obtain customer confidence in their services. This objective can be achieved through various approaches, such as the development of standardized service processes. Service personnel, as the provider of such services, directly affect the customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perceived overall service quality. Therefore, companies should also focus on staff training to improve the quality of service so that customers will trust the service personnel.

6.2 Limitations This study has a few limitations. First, data were collected through surveys using social platforms. The social activities are focused on Beijing, where the respondents aged 20 and above are mostly from. Although different -7http://www.emj-journal.org/

forwarding ages and various regions were included in the investigation, such data sources inevitably have a certain geographical and age limitations. Future studies can include more cities and regions in the data collection. An extensive range of ages of respondents and further comparative analysis of other factors could affect the relationship between the interests of the loyalty effect differences. Another limitation concerns the selection of variables. The theoretical model constructed in this study disregarded the influence on the satisfaction of other variables, such as the particularity of interests, economic interests, and other factors.

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