by Md. Naim Mostafiz
Abstract
The study was primarily undertaken for the researcher has personal interest in it due to his involvement in the e-tail sector. He seeks to find out the consumers’ expectation, experience and satisfaction regarding e-tail. The study is exploratory and descriptive in design. A survey with a sample size of 123 was conducted where the respondents were selected using random sampling technique. The questionnaire was structured and self-administered, containing both close and open-ended questions. Quantitative data were analyzed in SPSS 17 and presented both in descriptive and inferential manner. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis technique. The study found most of the user of e-tail is young, aged between 17 to 35 years. General perception of respondents regarding e-tail was mostly
positive though negative perceptions were found as well. However, it is quite interesting that nearly half of the non-users provided positive opinion on e-tail although they never had purchased online. They mentioned “lack of
trustworthiness”, “product quality/tangibility issues” and “access of Internet” as they reason why they do not use e-tail. Another important finding of the study was that more than one-third of the respondents prefers to shop from e-tail because of the convenience of shopping anytime from anywhere, ease of purchase and scope for exploring many different brand at the same place, scope for product quality and price comparison etc. This clearly indicates that the trend in shopping is changing. The study did also investigate regarding the source of knowledge about e-tail and
found that three-fourths of the respondents get to know about e-tail from online/offline advertisement and friends and family. The survey asked the respondents to rate their level of satisfaction regarding the services they receive
from e-tails and found that the consumers are not highly satisfied with the services provided by e-tails because they are having some negative experiences at times. Based on the findings, the researcher would like to recommend e-tails to be more careful about building a positive image by ensuring product quality/tangibility as friends and family plays in important role in their spread. Also, e-tails should develop better marketing strategies to attract people from all segments of the population.
Keywords: Bangladesh, e-commerce, e-tail, consumer perception
Download full-text here