An investigation of alignment of time-to-ship offerings and consumer value in ecommerce
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Date
2018-05
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
Ecommerce businesses are racing to offer competitive delivery times to meet consumer demand under the assumption that shorter delivery time is better for consumers. The fundamental question of this study is whether consumers are receiving ecommerce items when they most value them. The studies of Chou (2014) have confirmed, in agreement with Zeithaml et al. (1996), Ruyter et al. (1998), Wong and Sohal (2003), and Aydin and Özer (2005), that service quality positively influences customer loyalty. This past research has further shown that customers prefer home-delivery options, which increase likelihood for repeated consumption, with the range of service offerings ranked as the most important factor in service quality. This study aims to expand upon previous findings by finding the degree to which customer planning horizons and expectations align with time-to-ship offerings, and how this impacts overall satisfaction. To assess consumer value, participants completed an online survey that distinguishes between routine and time-critical purchases in order to define their shopping intents. Participants then answered questions related to their satisfaction levels given specific planned, expected, and actual times-to-ship under each purchasing scenario. This research team hypothesizes that routine online purchases are made with a planning horizon sooner than their actual intended use, and thus are being delivered before consumers most value them. Additionally, it predicts that time-sensitive items are most commonly purchased later than the planning horizon related to actual intended use, and thus are delivered either at or later than customers most value them. The practical use of this comes in the value online retailers can derive from a more accurate understanding of consumer value of the time-to-ship. These results might provide online retailers that sell both routine and time-sensitive purchases the basis on which to differentiate shipping options between the two categories.
Description
Denman Undergraduate Research Forum Second Place in Business Solutions for a Global Economy
Keywords
Ecommerce, Delivery, Shipping, Parcel, Customer Satisfaction