Antecedents of Brand Loyalty in Online and Offline Retailing: A Conceptual Framework

 

Shanul Gawshinde¹*, Dr. Jyoti Vyas Bajpai²

¹Doctoral Scholar, Academic Associate, IIM, Devi Ahiliya Vishwavidhyalaya, Indore

²Faculty, Symbiosis University of Applied Sciences, Indore

 

ABSTRACT:

Purpose : The purpose of this paper is to build a comprehensive conceptual framework of Antecedents of Brand Loyalty, to demarcate this field from online and offline retailing and to develop an updated definition of Brand Loyalty that incorporates the findings of the literature review and emerging views in branding.

Methodology/Design/Approach : This research conducts a systematic review of the Brand Loyalty and its antecedents and online/offline retailing literature following previously established procedures.

Findings : The major finding’s of this research are that Brand Loyalty comprises five key components within a supportive, namely, Satisfaction, perceived Quality, Commitment, Trust, Experience/perceived Quality and that in the context on the online retailing and offline retailing. The discoveries show that brand and brand loyalty are imperative means on the exercises of today organizations in online and offline retailing. They ought to be considered completely and exactly in developed as well as on developing countries and in various division of the economy. Brand Loyalty ought to be connected legitimately keeping in mind the end goal to gain profitability.

Research Limitation/ Implication : This research highlights areas for future research within Brand Loyalty, including the need for further research on Retailing and how brands can effect it on online and offline retailing.

Practical Implementation/ Limitation : This paper gives a structure that helps researchers and marketers to comprehend the antecedents of online and offline Brand Loyalty. In this manner, it is proposed that the empirical research ought to be directed utilizing these antecedents so as to recognize their significance and their association. Additionally, research is expected to figure out which of the antecedents in our study have the most noteworthy effect on the Brand loyalty on the internet shopping condition. A limitation of our paper is that it is completely theoretical, based on detailed literature review and requires empirical support.

Originality/value: This study provides the first systematic review to identify and evaluate the current Anteceents of Brand Loyalty in the context of Online and Offline Retailing literature. The review identifies the key literature related to loyalty branding, provides an overview of past research and identifies emerging research issues to be addressed in future research.

 

 

 

1. INTRODUCTION:

India is one of the fastest developing, growing markets for online shopping over the long time.  E-commerce is presently leaning on Internet and many are trying hard to capture the market with numerous attractive schemes. Granting to the Internet and Mobile Association of India Research Report (2014): In countries like China and US e-commerce has taken significant strides to reach sales of over 150 billion USD in revenue, while, the industry in India is still in its early childhood. Yet, over the past few years, the sector has raised by nearly 35% CAGR from 3.8 billion USD in 2009 to an estimated 12.6 billion USD in 2013.

 

As per the Euromonitor report (Jan 2015), Brand loyalty towards any particular retailer in 2015 was low amongst consumers. Consumers are open to the thought of experimenting with new retailers, based on reviews online. This is a Comparatively new course; since consumers until 2014 were still skeptical about the channel and new retailers. However, statistics from 2015 show that consumers were more open to experimenting with newer retailers.

 

The rapid growth of electronic commerce provides a challenge for marketers because "...as consumers adopt new technologies, their behaviours change" (Zinkhan and Watson, 1998). It is widely recognized by academics and practitioners that transacting through a virtual medium is different from traditional shopping environments (Alba et al., 1997). Some key differences include

·         the means of obtaining product information,

·         the greater perceived risk and

·         the ability for consumers to repurchase the same product through the use of a saveable personal shopping list.

 

It is particularly important for managers to be able to determine how these differences influence the consumer brand choice because this would ultimately impact brand loyalty and in turn the profitability (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1998; Kapferer, 1998).

 

Be that as it may, in late showcasing literature, true and spurious brand loyalties are as yet the most perceived measurements. This examination paper goes for concentrating on the effect that brand experience and commitment has on genuine brand loyalty. The thought of brand loyalty as a two-part structure is as yet considered as being profoundly proper among researchers. Additionally, recent reviews have seen brand loyalty as a multi-dimensional build, and in that capacity, it need multivariate estimations (Punniyamoorthy and Raj, 2011).

 

2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND FRAMEWORK:

2.1 Brand Loyalty:

The concept of brand loyalty has been perceived as vital construct in the marketing literature for no less than four decades (Howard and Sheth, 1969), and most researchers agree that brand loyalty can make firm advantages such as

·         Reduced marketing costs (Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001),

·         Positive word of mouth (Sutikno, 2011),

·         Business profitability (Kabiraj and Shanmugan, 2011),

·         Increased market share (Gounaris and Stathakopoulos, 2004) and

·         Competitive advantage in the market (Iglesias et al, 2011).

 

These benefits clearly reveal the positive effect that brand loyalty can have on companies. Khan and Mahmood (2012, p. 33) reflected these benefits in an efficient manner, by stating that “brand loyalty can be defined as the customer’s unconditional commitment and a strong relationship with the brand, which is not likely to be affected under normal circumstances”.

 

In malice of the fact that there ia a mutual understanding between researchers regarding the benefits that follow brand loyalty, marketing practitioners and students have yet to harmonize on a definition of the concept. However, the literature still reveals some common denominators, as most researchers agrees that brand loyalty can be either true or spurious (Day, 1996; Lin, 2010; Iglesias et al, 2011; Kumar and Advani, 2005). While spurious loyalty is driven by situational circumstances, such as price and convenience (Iglesias et al, 2011), true brand loyalty holds some indicator of old psychological and affective attachment to the brand (Lin, 2010). In addition to true and spurious loyalty, other scholars have suggested that brand loyalty holds several other dimensions in terms of online shopping.

 

2.2 Satisfaction:

Customer satisfaction is the focal point of the web based shopping research (Chen, Ling, Ying, and Meng, 2012). Satisfaction is the main reason behind creating organization's income (Lin and Lekhawipat, 2014). Satisfaction is significant for building a deep connection with the customers (Rezaei, Amin, and Ismail, 2014; Khalifa, Limayem, and Liu, 2002). As suggested by Oliver (1981), satisfaction is the assessment of the product purchase and/or consumption experience and it depends on the contrast between what a customer needs and what he or she gets (Flavián, Guinalíu, and Gurrea, 2006). Jaiswal, Niraj, and Venugopal (2010) termed customer satisfaction as the state of contentment. Hsin Chang and Wang (2011) characterized consumer satisfaction as the overall positive or negative emotion of their shopping experience. The feel of satisfaction or dissatisfaction comes by analyzing the effectiveness of a product or service to its anticipated level (Chen 2012). Satisfaction is formed throughout the customers' post-purchase review (Taylor and Strutton, 2010) and it is an extremely important antecedent to future purchases and loyalty behavior (Taylor and Strutton, 2010).

 

As per Szymanski and Hise (2000), online satisfaction is the blend of shopping convenience, merchandising, site design, and financial security. Online satisfaction is reported as an emotional response to the whole online buying experience (Rodgers, Negash, and Suk, 2005; Liu, He, Gao, and Xie, 2008) and is depicted as the happiness of the customer in regard to his or her previous shopping experience (Anderson and Srinivasan, 2003; Ha, 2006). Online satisfaction is associated with the fulfillment of the shopper's wants and anticipations (Cyr et al., 2008). A customer's choice to remian or depart with the online retailer relies on upon the customer’s general fulfillment or disappointment with the online retailer (Collier and Beinstock, 2006).

 

2.3 Percevied Value:

In simple, perceived value implies what is gotten and what is given (Zeithaml, 1988). Perceived value is the bargain of additions and relinquishes in the internet purchasing process (Hsin Chang, and Wang, 2011). The achievement of an online business relies on upon how customers perceive its value (Torkzadeh and Dhillon, 2002). Perceived value is the decisive factor of the online customer loyalty (Yang and Peterson, 2004; Taylor and Strutton, 2010) in light of the fact that in contrasted with the conventional store the price and the product comparison are very bare and easy on the web based shopping sites (Anderson and Srinivasan, 2003). A customer's purchasing aim, is based upon the evaluation of the general net estimation of a product or service (C. Kim, Galliers, Shin, Ryoo, and J. Kim, 2012). The buyers would repurchase in future if a buy contributed of significant worth (Har Lee, Cyril Eze, and Oly Ndubisi, 2011).

 

2.4 Commitment:

As indicated by Newman and Werbel (1973; refered to in Kabiraj and Shanmugan, 2011, p. 289), brand commitment is a substantial brand loyalty measure. As reflected in the writing, brand commitment is conceptualized as the purchaser's yearning to keep up an association with the brand, which affects their hesitance to switch brands. In view of the writing, the review tries to determine out the effect of full of affective and continuance commitment on brand loyalty. Be that as it may, these are later builds and along these lines under-looked into (Iglesias et al., 2011), particularly viewing commitment as an interceding develop amongst loyalty and experience, as it is seen in this examination paper. The writing has uncovered that there is an absence of assention among researchers, both concerning brand loyalty definitions and ideas with regards to web based shopping.

2.5 Trust:

Trust is considered as a aggregation of distinct beliefs such as benevolence, competence, and honesty of another party (Chiu et al., 2009). Fassnacht and Köse (2007) depicted trust as a customer's inspirational demeanor toward the web-based service. Online trust is characterized as the level of certainty the customers have in online exchanges (Ribbink, Van Riel, Liljander, and Streukens, 2004). The growth of online exchange has supported the shoppers' trust in online shopping (Kim, Xu, and Gupta, 2012). The part of trust is critical for online business achievement due to risk and vulnerabilities identified with the online exchanges (Wen et al., 2011; Gotzamani and Tzavlopoulos, 2009; Shin et al., 2013).

 

Trust is significant for monetary exchanges (Elliott and Speck, 2005) on the grounds that the absence of trust would lessen the customers' interest in the web based shopping process (Har Lee et al., 2011). The benefit or loss of online organizations is related to the trust (Prasad and Aryasri, 2009). Trust owns a vitial role to work in finding customers' purchasing (Wu, 2013). As indicated by Weisberg, Te'eni, and Arman (2011) trust speaks to a noteworthy part in characterizing shoppers' expectations and conduct. Online trust assumes a crucial function in the customer buy/repurchase goal (Zhou, Lu, and Wang, 2009; Thamizhvanan and Xavier, 2013). 

 

2.6 Experience/Percevied Quality:

Perceived service quality defined as a universal view, or attitude, associating to the excellence of the service (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1988; Jun, Yang, and Kim, 2004). Service quality is described as the buyers' total assessment of the quality of service offerings in the online shopping site (Santos, 2003). Internet-based service quality as determined as the customer's evaluation of the service from the point of consumers' total requirements fulfillment (Fassnacht and Köse, 2007; Tsai and Huang, 2007). Service quality includes all the facets of a customer's communications and experience with a website that happen at the beginning, throughout, and at the end of the online shopping process (Hsu, 2008). Customers that encounter superior service quality expected to remain loyal to the company (Boyer and Hult, 2006).

 

Parasuraman et al. (1988) used tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy dimensions for measuring service quality in the SERVQUAL scale. Tangibles not included in our study because it is not possible to touch and feel the product in the online shopping context.

 

 

 

2.6.1. Reliability:

Reliability is the most important variable of the service quality (Bauer et al., 2006). Reliability is portrayed as the correct portrayal and data of an item so the customers get the very same that is appearing on the site (Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2003; Jaiswal et al. 2010). Reliability is characterized as the ability to convey the concurred benefit precisely and accurately (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Gefen, 2002; Santos, 2003; Jun et al., 2004; Fassnacht and Köse, 2006; Zhou et al., 2009). The reliability is a critical predictor of overall service quality and online purchase intentions (Lee and Lin, 2005).

 

2.6.2. Responsiveness:

Responsiveness is one of the essential measurements of service quality. Responsiveness demonstrate the excitement to help and convey quick services to the customers (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Gefen, 2002; Zhou et al., 2009). Responsiveness are depicted as the effective method for investigating the issues in web based shopping process (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Malhotra, 2005; M. Kim, J. Kim, and Lennon, 2006; Chiu et al., 2009; Mummalaneni and Meng, 2009). Responsiveness impacts online customer loyalty (Ribbink et al., 2004).

 

2.6.3. Assurance:

Assurance is another part of service quality. Assurance shows the comprehension and regard of employees and their ability to evelate trust and dependence (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Gefen, 2002; Zhou et al., 2009). Online endeavors must ensure that their operators are very much educated about their administration, well mannered in their answers, and prepared to impart and offer support to the buyers (Madu and Madu, 2002). Assurance impacts online customer loyalty (Semeijn et al., 2005; Ribbink et al., 2004).

 

2.6.4. Empathy:

Empathy is one of the vital measurements of service quality. Empathy implies the customized care given to the shoppers by the organization (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Gefen, 2002; Madu and Madu, 2002; Zhou et al., 2009). Empathy impacts online customer loyalty

 

From the review of literature, we have developed a conceptual framework of the antecedents of online Brand loyalty (Figure 1). The five powerful constructs: Commitment, Satisfaction, Perceived Value, Trust, Experience/Percevied Service quality directly influence the online and offline Brand Loyalty (Figure 1).

Figure 1. A conceptual framework of the antecedents of online and offline Brand Loyalty

 

3. DISCUSSION AND IMPLIMENTATION:

This study suggests two approaches for e-retailers looking to improve online business performance and store loyalty. One approach concerns the way that managers can maintain loyalty in their satisfied customers, while the other pays attention to the influence of commitment, involvement, perceived value and trust on satisfied customers in their formation of loyalty to the store. This study suggests that, for managers, achieving customer satisfaction is an essential ingredient of customer e-loyalty. In particular, this review with the assistance of the writing, it proposes that online consumer satisfaction can be accomplished through general consumer loyalty, customer expectations and the shopping experience. When clients are loyal, they demonstrate their loyalty toward the e-retailer in various psychological and behavioural measurements. For instance, clients demonstrate their best decision demeanor to, and carry on as an incessant customer towards, the e-retailer. All things considered, the intervening parts of commitment, trust, involvement and perceived value are clear in the review. This recommends mangers need to consider different components to accomplish consumer loyalty keeping in mind the end goal to play it safe against conceivable impacts on, or fortify the quality of, the linkage between consumer loyalty and e-loyalty.

 

Additionally, observational proof of the intercession of commitment, trust, involvement and perceived value an incentive in the arrangement of e-unwaveringness from the viewpoint of fulfilled clients proposes to supervisors the strategies to choose dealers that are fitting for the attributes of the web closeout webpage. This will enhance their online business execution. Supervisors ought to consider the effect of these middle people while overseeing consumer loyalty for client reliability so as to enhance the execution of their web sell off webpage. managers need to reinforce client commitment. The moves that chiefs can make to build client responsibility are those that reinforce clients' mental connection to, and recognizable proof with, the e-retailer, expanding their sympathy toward the future welfare of the e-retailer and their loyalty. Also, client confide in the e-retailer ought to be perceived by administrators while framing client unwaveringness, without depending on interpersonal ties. This review proposes that directors must focus on the steadfastness, competency and uprightness of the e-store window, and performing mindfully as far as client criticism. Managers ought to likewise consider the compelling variable of involvement. Managers ought to know about the significance of on-line shopping in focusing on fulfilled clients and taking activities to perceive and highlight client interests. Also, it is vital for managers to see how customers perceive value, then embracing their perspective in making and additionally conveying on the online services.

 

4. CONCLUSION:

The constructs analyzed in this paper are considered important elements of marketing research, and they have gained much attention in the marketing literature, in the last decades. The critical analysis of the literature suggests that Brand Loyalty is one significant elements of the everyday focus of marketers. Companies worldwide are striving to create and develop strong brands which will lead to higher profitability. The advantages of the brand mixed with the advantages of brand loyalty have provided businesses with powerful competitive advantages.

Because of the many benefits customers, but especially businesses gain from the implementation of these constructs much attention is dedicated to loyalty features and the profitability they generate for the business. These factors have formed the groundwork of the competitive strategies businesses use to share with the rough competition of the global markets today. Many studies have aimed on theoretical and empirical investigation of brand loyalty and its antecedents. They scream for the execution of other works on these constructs in order to deliver a thoroughly conceptualization of them. The aim is to have more useful information and knowledge for the proper application of the marketing.

 

5. LIMITATIONS:

We require an extremely extensive way to deal with the online customer loyalty. Since the online customer loyalty is just not based on a single construct. There is the total effect of all the constructs in online and offline Brand Loyalty. If the online marketers only focus on the few constructs then they may not be able to keep the customer loyal for a long time. Then the online retailers require a full-scale operation to build a loyal customer base and as per the literature it has to entail for the offline customers too for the particular brand.

 

This paper gives a structure that helps researchers and marketers to comprehend the antecedents of online and offline Brand Loyalty. In this manner, it is proposed that the empirical research ought to be directed utilizing these antecedents so as to recognize their significance and their association. Additionally, research is expected to figure out which of the antecedents in our study have the most noteworthy effect on the Brand loyalty on the internet shopping condition. A limitation of our paper is that it is completely theoretical, based on detailed literature review and requires empirical support.

 

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