Modern retailing is a highly competitive business with a large economic footprint. A key competitive advantage for retailers is the ability to identify and use the factors that provide customer satisfaction and loyalty when it comes to buying merchandise online or in-store.
A study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Collat School of Business shows that perceived overall quality and customer expectations are strong drivers of customer satisfaction during in-store purchases, while perceived value is a critical factor driving satisfaction in online purchases.
"The modern customer is perceptive and demanding, due in no small measure to the affordances offered by advances in technology," said Yufei Zhang, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAB Department of Marketing, Industrial Distribution and Economics. "As the recent bankruptcies of particular retailers aptly demonstrate, old assumptions about customer satisfaction and loyalty are no longer valid as competitors shift strategies using newer technologies, causing immense shifts in consumer buying behavior."
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