Innovation and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth

Customer feedback in B2C e-shops

Petra Solarová, The Institute of Technology and Business in eské Bud jovice,
Department of Tourism and Marketing, Okružní 517/10, 370 01 eské Bud jovice, Czech Republic;
E-mail: petrasolarova@gmail.com

Abstract

For every business organisation, customer feedback means a usable source for further development and
improvement of its offer (in general for its business activities). The obtained feedback can have
the character of an opinion, a suggestion, an evaluation, a comment or a complaint. This paper deals with
customer feedback in B2C e-shops because e-shops have nowadays become more and more important
in consumers' everyday lives. The aim is to identify how selective e-shops obtain customer feedback in
a direct way (i.e. customers send his/her opinion directly to the particular e-shop). As a result, some
schematic depictions are in this paper presented. These depictions can be used in business practice
as inspiration for implementing methods that lead to obtaining customer feedback.

Keywords: customer feedback; e-shops; B2C; retail industry

1 Introduction

This section contains brief definitions of the basic terms mentioned in the title of the paper (i.e. “customer
feedback” and “B2C e-shops”). After this section, there are presented the aim and the corresponding
methods that lead to fulfilling the specified aim. The next section with results summarises empirical data
through some schematic depictions.

1.1 Customer feedback

The phrase customer feedback is defined e.g. by Sampson (1999, p. 65) who says it is “any solicited or
unsolicited information received from customer during or after the delivery of a service or product”.
In marketing, the base for the satisfaction of customers' wants and needs is information about them and
one of the available information sources is just their feedback. It means that obtaining the customer
feedback is basically the application of the marketing principles.

For every business organisation, the feedback expressed by its customers is a usable source for further
development and improvement of its offer. Fundin and Bergman (2003, p. 55) express this idea through
the question: “How can we meet our present and future customers' expectations, if we do not have
a feedback process that handles available information?”

The obtained feedback can have the character of an opinion, a suggestion, an evaluation, a comment or
a complaint. It is highly important not to take customer feedback personally; this is valid especially in the
cases of negative customer feedback (Yahalom, 2010, para. 6).

It is essential to highlight that customer feedback in the online environment has a certain particularity:
so-called review sites do not usually allow deleting negative customer feedback. The only way how to
cope with it is writing a professional and polite response and publishing it as soon as possible. It means

321
 Innovation and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth

that it is necessary to monitor online comments regarding the own business company. (Bohen, 2015,
p. 16) For the purposes of online monitoring, there are available several useful tools. For instance, the
service called “Google Alerts” is considered as basic service (Joyner, 2010, p. 64).

1.2 B2C e-shops

B2C e-shops are a part of the retail industry. The retail industry comprises of business organisations that
offer their goods to the so-called end-customers who buy for their own needs, not for resale (Farfan, n.d.,
para. 1).

E-shops have become more and more important and popular in consumers' everyday lives. There are still
certain fears of possible risks (in comparison with brick-and-mortar stores) but the today's growth of
online shopping is indisputable. (WWW Metrics, n.d., para. 1-2)

For the year 2016, it is estimated that the growth of global retail sales will be 3.2 % and the growth of
global sales in B2C e-shops will be 13.1 % (Statista, 2015a, 2015b). This estimate means that the B2C
e-shops will apparently grow to the expense of brick-and-mortar stores. It means that management of
e-shops will be a really significant topic in the future.

2 Aim and methods

The aim of this research paper is to identify how selective e-shops obtain customer feedback; i.e. which
opportunities in this field they provide to their customers.

From the methodological point of view, two Czech e-shops from the area of B2C were chosen (the
previous exploratory research showed that B2C e-shops within the market in the Czech Republic use
similar ways of obtaining customer feedback). Subsequently, two separate case studies were created. The
chosen e-shops offer so called FMCG, i.e. fast moving consumer goods that are “typically non-durable
products that are consumed over a short period of time after which they would need to be replaced”
(Pillay, 2007, p. 34). Shortly said, typical examples of FMCG are bread, soap or lemonade.

In this paper, the case study is considered as a research strategy (according to Saunders, Lewis and
Thornhill, 2009, p. 160). Necessary data for the case studies were collected through own e-mail
communication with managers of the chosen e-shops and also through own analysis of relevant websites
(especially e-shop's official websites) in the period of June and July 2015. For purposes of this paper, the
chosen e-shops are anonymised. These case studies were analysed, compared and finally, some schematic
depictions of obtaining customer feedback are presented.

3 Results
3.1 Case study 1
3.1.1 Concise introduction of the business company
The business company is a specialist in the sale of branded wines and liquors (i.e. FMCG). It operates
within the market in the Czech market through its e-shop and two brick-and-mortar stores, located in the
capital of the Czech Republic. This case study deals only with the mentioned e-shop.

322
 Innovation and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth

3.1.2 Obtaining the customer feedback

According to the e-shop manager, customers use for giving their feedback a contact form available on the
e-shop's websites, they also send a separate e-mail message, call, write comments on Facebook and
respond to the sent newsletter by means of the e-mail message. The e-shop manager also mentioned that
a special kind of customer feedback is the customer evaluations of the offered products. Customers can
express their opinion directly on e-shop's websites: they can write this to detail information concerning
a particular product.

The e-shop manager pointed out that customers use very often the contact form available on the websites.
Customers also like responding to the sent newsletter.

The obtained customer feedback concerns mostly logistic issues. The result of the obtained suggestions is
the realisation of particular changes. Focusing on logistics in customers' suggestions is probably
connected with the offered article that is wrapped in fragile packing (glass). So the analysed e-shop is
solving via customers' suggestions how to pack the goods well and how to organise all relevant logistic
processes really best.

Besides the above introduced possibilities, customers can give their opinions through Twitter, YouTube,
Pinterest (the analysed e-shop has its own profiles here) and also through the comparative portal
Heureka.cz.

The analysed e-shop does not create any own official statistics (i.e. register) that would summarise the
obtained customer feedback. Such details are not considered as very important; it is only observed
whether the customer feedback has a positive or negative meaning.

Contact form on the e-shop's websites

The contact form consists of three columns – all these columns it is necessary to fill in, only then the form
will be closed and the customer's message will be sent. The headline of the each column has a star (*); its
meaning is explained at the end of the form: “Columns that are marked with a star (*) are compulsory”.
Compulsory columns in the form are following:
− name and surname,
− e-mail address and
− text of the message that the customer wants to send off.

Separate e-mail message and phone contact

There is available an e-mail address (in the general form “info@xxxxxxx.cz”). This kind of
communication is designed for those customers who prefer to communicate from their own e-mail boxes.
Besides the above mentioned general e-mail address, there are other e-mail addresses to particular
workers who take care of e-shop's administration and management (e.g. invoicing and logistics).
As a supplement to these e-mail contacts to particular workers, there are available phone numbers.
An illustrative preview to a visual presentation of contact information with a particular worker is
presented in Fig. 1.

323
 Innovation and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth

Fig. 1: Illustrative preview to visual presentation of contact information

Source: Own processing (websites of the analysed e-shop served as a template; the added icon of
a woman: Milovanderlinden, 2010).
Note: The here mentioned name and contact information is completely illustrative; any sameness is only
accidental.

Profile on Facebook
The business company has on social net Facebook nearly eight thousand fans (found out on June 29,
2015). However, its fans are not very visible – they only sometimes write public accessible comments.
They rather respond to company's posts through marking these contributions with “I like it”.

Profile on Twitter
Since 2013 the business company has been registered on the social net Twitter. Comments on this profile
are inserted by the company. Users do not directly react to them; they show their interest through
becoming a so-called follower. The profile has over twenty followers (found out on June 29, 2015).

Profile on YouTube
The business company has had its own channel on YouTube since 2011. In this channel, there are videos
aimed at the offered products that are presented by company's sommeliers. The videos have educational
character. Users have the opportunity to write their comments and opinion concerning the single videos.
But this opportunity is used only rarely. The channel has nearly eighty subscribers (found out on June 29,
2015).

Profile on Pinterest
The company's profile consists of eleven so-called notice-boards that divide published photos to groups.
Published photos are aimed at the topic about wines and liquors. For instance, photos show details of
wine bottles. The profile has more than eighty fans (found out on June 29, 2015). Being a fan means
a way how customer feedback on the presentation on Pinterest is expressed.

The comparative portal Heureka.cz

On the e-shop's website, there is explicit expressed the connection to the comparative portal Heureka.cz
through the statement “How do our customers evaluate us”. The business company has over one thousand
and seven hundred reviews that wrote so-called verified customers (i.e. customers who really made their
purchase). In these reviews, customers write pros and cons of the analysed e-shop and they comment their
satisfaction of delivery time, clear arrangement of e-shop's websites and quality of communication. As
a result, 99 % of customers recommend the analysed e-shop as a good place for shopping (found out on
June 29, 2015).

Respond to the sent newsletter

According to the words of the e-shop's manager, this can be also considered as one kind of customer
feedback.

324
 Innovation and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth

The newsletters are for the most part (90 %) created as action offers (i.e. they concern some chosen
offered products). In this sense, their success is allegedly observed through the tool “Google Analytics”
and as a result, it is measured through the volume of orders.
If the newsletter has informative character, customers simply react to it through responding the e-mail
message that contained the newsletter. It means that the customer feedback has a form of the reply to the
sent electronic newsletter.

Evaluation of the offered products

Customers registered in the loyalty programme have the opportunity to insert their own comment about
every single product and they receive points for these comments (within the loyalty programme). In
practice, the customer clicks on a particular product and after that, there is detailed information about
product's attributes. There is also a section called “Evaluations and comments” where it is possible to find
customer opinions about the particular product. Unfortunately, some products have not been evaluated
yet.

3.1.3 Stimulation of the customers in order to get their feedback

Customers are rewarded for their feedback within the loyalty programme. The rules are following:
− if a customer writes a comment about a product = 10 points,
− if a verified customer writes a comment about a product = 20 points (a verified customer is
a customer who has really made a purchase in this e-shop).

It is interesting to mention that points in this loyalty programme are called “grapes” (probably because of
specific character of the offered goods: simply said, wine is made just from grapes).

Besides collecting points for writing the feedback, customers get points for realised purchases – that
corresponds to the common settings of any loyalty programmes. According to the manager's estimation,
points obtained for writing comments mean max. 15 % from the total sum of points, the rest of points is
obtained for realised purchases (it is generalised to an average customer).

3.2 Case study 2

3.2.1 Concise introduction of the business company
The business company runs an e-shop and also a brick-and-mortar-store. The business company focuses
on natural cosmetics (i.e. FMCG). It operates within the market in the Czech Republic. This case study
deals only with the mentioned e-shop.

3.2.2 Obtaining the customer feedback

If customers want to tell their opinion, there are several opportunities for these purposes. Customers can
fill in a contact form that is available on the websites of this e shop, or they can send an electronic
message from their own e-mail box. Customers can also leave a post on company's profile on the social
net called Facebook, make a phone call or use the classic postal service. Besides these possibilities that
are to a certain extent considered as a “standard”, customers can insert their opinion after their realised
purchase by means of the comparative portal Heureka.cz. All the mentioned possibilities are described in
detail hereinafter.

From the expense point of view, obtaining the customer feedback is fundamentally connected with zero
costs. The obtained customer feedback usually bears on the satisfaction with the e shop functioning.
The analysed e-shop does not create any statistics or other internal notes about obtaining the customer
feedback. The business company that runs the analysed e-shop is a small family company and allegedly
only big companies create such statistics. In the case of the analysed e-shop, time and effort are more

325
 Innovation and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth

likely devoted to the development and cultivating the current business activity rather than to creating
reports about customer feedback.

In general, customers are not stimulated to provide their feedback (with the exception of automatically
sent questionnaires by the comparative portal Heureka.cz).

Contact form on the e-shop's websites

If the customer clicks on item “Contacts”, he/she will be redirected to a special site where the contact
form is available. The form has a title “Write us” and contains several columns for the subject of the
message, the e-mail address and phone number of the sender and for the text of the message. At the end
there is a checking question – it is a simple arithmetic operation that changes with every website
reloading. This control question should distinct real users from robots.

Electronic message from customer's e-mail box

Customers have the use of three separate e-mail contacts: one of them has a general format like
info@xxxxxxx.cz and the others are contacts aimed directly at particular persons.

Phone and postal contact

The phone contact has the character of the mobile phone number – it is not a toll-free customer hotline.
On the e-shop's websites, there is presented the postal address. Customers can use it if they want to turn in
a written way to tell the e-shop something. However, customers do not send their feedback in this way.

E-shop's profile at Facebook

E-shop's profile on this social net has nearly six hundred fans (found out on July 2, 2015). Customers are
here active in two different ways: firstly, they mark contributions with “I like it” and secondly, they write
short comments.

The customer feedback is officially concentrated in a separate section called “Evaluation”. To the date of
the empirical survey (July 2, 2015), there were four single evaluations by engaged users and each of them
was maximal (i.e. five stars). Besides these simple evaluations, graphically expressed with the number of
stars, customers wrote also verbal evaluations that concerned mostly the availability of the spot where the
ordered goods can be picked up and the staff on this spot as well, then the delivery speed of the ordered
goods and also giving information about the state of order.

Communication in the sense of the reactions to customers' comments is not very prompt. For instance,
a complimentary evaluation written by a satisfied customer was commented by e shop roughly after five
months from the day when the evaluation was inserted.

Comparative portal Heureka.cz

From all above mentioned possibilities for obtaining customer feedback in this case study, questionnaires
about satisfaction sent by Heureka.cz are the most popular way in the practice of the analysed e-shop.
Customers of this e-shop apparently like filling such questionnaires that they receive directly in their
e-mail boxes after a realised purchase.

The analysed e-shop has its own site on the portal Heureka.cz that can be described as a kind of public
profile. There is over two hundred customer reviews (found out on July 2, 2015) and absolutely all
customers who gave reviews recommend this e-shop. Some of them even wrote their own verbal
comments. If these verbal comments contain a rebuke or negative customer experience, the analysed
e-shop publishes its view that is written in a very friendly and quite informal way with an obvious effort
to remedy the situation.

326
 Innovation and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth

The analysed e-shop decided to involve in the comparative portal Heureka.cz because it was an existential
necessity for the e-shop. The reason for it is the fact that up-to-date people are accustomed to using
comparative portals if they buy online: they want to find easily which e shop offers the chosen product for
the lowest price and optimally even with a delivery that is free of charge.

3.2.3 Realisation of changes initiated by customer feedback

New items of goods are often added in the offer just on the grounds of impulses by customers.
A particular example is the feedback by one customer who gave his/her opinion by means of the
comparative portal Heureka.cz. This customer suggested that e-shop's offer could be broader than it is
now. Although it was only a general suggestion the analysed e shop considered it seriously and replied
that it is intensively dealing with a broadening its offer and mentioned particular brands of products that
have been included in the offer recently. The reply contained also a call for other customers: they can
write their suggestions what other brands of product miss in the contemporary e-shop's offer.

Virtually, the e-shop has obtained roughly ten tips from its customers and two brands from the obtained
tips are nowadays in its offer. The process of broadening e-shop's offer is very slow because it is
necessary to take into consideration the not very big size of the company that runs the analysed e-shop.
If the company includes one new item of goods in the offer, it will mean a significant investment in the
stock that has to be really well considered.

Another kind of customer feedback that leads to changes, are customers' suggestions about
well-arrangement of information on e-shop's websites.

3.2.4 Difficulties with customer feedback obtaining

Obtaining the customer feedback is not a priority for the analysed e-shop. The consequence is that the
e shop does not think about prospective problems and difficulties.

3.2.5 Usual reality of customer feedback on the analysed e-shop

Customers have made them heard about a problem about twenty times since the e shop was “opened”.
These problems have almost concerned the quality of delivery (e.g. a wrong notification from the post
service provider, loss of a parcel, damage of a parcel etc.). Besides these problems, caused by third
persons, there have been several mistakes caused by the analysed e-shop: packaging a different product
than a customer ordered, confusing addresses or desired methods of delivery.

The mentioned errors are solved with customers and the aim is to achieve their satisfaction. According to
experience of the analysed e-shop is valid that if customers can see the e-shop's willingness and readiness
to solve the matter dispassionately, it is from the customer's point of view all in order.

It is possible to end this case study with the statement that the best customer feedback has a form of the
lasting and returning customers.

3.3 Schematic depictions of obtaining customer feedback in e-shops

The two above presented case studies were analysed and compared, relevant findings were derived from
them and these findings were expressed in the form of some schematic depictions.

Fig. 2 shows the first schematic depiction that demonstrates the general process how customers get the
experience of a particular e-shop, i.e. on what basis customer opinion about the particular e-shop is
formed and simultaneously shows, what are the most common opportunities that the customer can use
to direct expressing his/her opinion to the e-shop directly.

327
 Innovation and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth

Fig. 2: General process of creating the customer feedback in e-shops

Source: Own processing (the added icons: shopping basket – Wakro, 2011; shopper – Shokunin, 2010).

The e-shop influences what experience and impression the customer will have. The basic elements of
such influence are mainly:
− e-shop's websites,
− e-shop's offer (i.e. offered products),
− e-shop's services (i.e. services connected with the sale of goods, especially carrying out
customers' orders).

Customer forms his/her opinion that is based on his/her own experience. If the customer decides to share
his/her opinion with the e-shop, it means that he/he will give a so called customer feedback. This
customer feedback can be expressed as a suggestion for improvement, an evaluation, a comment or
a complaint. E-shops usually set up some opportunities that customers can use to the direct expression of
their feedback (in this paper, the direct expression means that customers tell their opinions directly to the
e-shop and they use for it channels that were established by the e-shop). To the most common
opportunities belong:
− a contact form on the e-shop's websites,
− an e-mail contact = address (to sending a separate e-mail message),
− a phone number,
− a profile on social net (e.g. Facebook).

It is also possible to distinguish between several kinds of opportunities that serve for direct expression of
customer feedback to the e-shop. Fig. 3 presents two kinds of them.

328
 Innovation and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth

Fig. 3: Direct expressions of customer feedback to the e-shop

Source: Own processing.

Firstly, customer feedback can be verbal (in the conditions of e-shops, it is especially done in writing) or
it can be expressed through a specific activity (such as becoming a fan on Facebook, a follower on
Twitter or a subscriber to an e-shop's newsletter). The specific activity can be also e.g. marking the
e-shop's contributions on Facebook with “I like it”. All these activities indicate what customers think
about a particular e-shop and its offer.

Secondly, customers can give their feedback privately, i.e. anyone else except the particular e-shop
cannot see the given feedback. The other possibility is that customers publish their feedback and anyone
can see and read it.

3 Conclusion

To be able to form a customer feedback to a particular e-shop, it is necessary to deliver experience,

especially through e-shop's websites, e-shop's offer and e-shop's services. Customers are influenced of it
and form their opinions that can be expressed as suggestions for improvement, evaluations, comments or
even complaints. E-shops usually set up some opportunities that customers can use to the direct
expressions of their feedback (the direct expression means that customers tell their opinions right to the
e-shop). To the most common opportunities belong a contact form on the e-shop's websites, an e-mail
address, a phone number and a profile on social net (e.g. Facebook).

It is also possible to distinguish between several kinds of opportunities that are designed for direct
expression of customer feedback to the e-shop. The first type is customer feedback expressed either
verbal or through a specific activity (e.g. becoming a fan or marking an e-shop's contribution on
Facebook). The second type means distinguishing between customer feedbacks that can be given
privately or in public.

5 References
Bohen, C. (2015). 'Is the customer always right? How to handle online reviews,' Dance Magazine,
Aug2015 Supplement, 16-17.

329
 Innovation and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth

Farfan, B. (n.d.). 'Retail definition – What is the meaning and how to define the term “retail”,' [Online],
[Retrieved July 29, 2015], http://retailindustry.about.com/od/glossary/g/retailterminolo.htm.

Fundin, A. P., and Bergman, B. L. S. (2003). 'Exploring the customer feedback process,' Measuring
Business Excellence, 7(2), 55-65.

Joyner, A. (2010). 'Who's talking about you?' Inc., 32(7), 63-64.

Milovanderlinden [nickname] (2010, January 18). 'Woman', [Online], [Retrieved August 11, 2015],
http://openclipart.org/detail/28947/woman.

Pillay, P. (2007, December). 'The importance of branding fast moving consumer goods in retail chain
stores: consumers & marketers perceptions in South Africa', [Online], [Retrieved August 6, 2015],
http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/1044/Pillay_Pragasen_2007.pdf?sequence
=3.

Sampson, S. E. (1999). 'An empirically defined framework for designing customer feedback systems,'
Quality Management Journal, 6(3), 64-80.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., and Thornhill, A. (2009). Research methods for business students (5th ed.), New
York, Prentice Hall.

Shokunin [nickname] (2010, August 4). 'Shopper', [Online], [Retrieved August 12, 2015],
http://openclipart.org/detail/77239/shopper.

Statista (2015a). 'Annual B2C e-commerce sales growth worldwide from 2012 to 2018', [Online],
[Retrieved July 29, 2015], http://www.statista.com/statistics/288487/forecast-of-global-b2c-e-commerce-
growt/.

Statista (2015b). 'Forecast for global retail sales growth from 2008 to 2018', [Online], [Retrieved July
29, 2015], http://www.statista.com/statistics/232347/forecast-of-global-retail-sales-growth/.

Wakro [nickname] (2011, September 29). 'Shopping basket blue', [Online], [Retrieved August 12, 201],
http://openclipart.org/detail/162253/shopping-basket-blue.

WWW Metrics (n.d.). 'The growth of online shopping', [Online], [Retrieved July 29, 2015],
http://www.wwwmetrics.com/shopping.htm.

Yahalom, T. (2010, April 28). 'How to handle customer complaints.' [Online], [Retrieved July 31, 2015],
http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/04/handling-customer-complaints.html.

330