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DISSERTATIONS REPORT

“What Makes A Customer Loyal?”- Case study on customer behaviour at Amazon India.

Submitted by:

Arjun Sharma

A0101919253

MBA Class of 2021

Under the Supervision of

Dr. Teena Bagga

Professor

Department of Information Technology

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Business Administration
(General)

AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL


AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH SECTOR 125, NOIDA - 201303, UTTAR
PRADESH, INDIA

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DECLARATION

Title of Dissertation

“What Makes A Customer Loyal?”- Case study on customer behaviour at Amazon India.

I declare that

(a) The work presented for assessment in this Dissertation Report is my original work, that it has not

previously been presented for any other assessment and that my debts (for words, data, arguments

and ideas) have been appropriately acknowledged

(b) work conforms to the guidelines laid by the University

(c) Plagiarism for this report has been checked using DrillBit software and is 10 %.

The summary of report is attached along with for reference.

Date: 31st March 2021 Arjun Sharma

A0101919253

MBA(G)
(class of 2021)

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CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Arjun Sharma student of Masters of Business Administration – MBA(General) at
Amity Business School, Amity University Uttar Pradesh has completed the Dissertation Report on
“What Makes A Customer Loyal?”- Case study on customer behaviour at Amazon India. , in
Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Business Administration –
MBA (General)under my guidance.

The report has been checked for the plagiarism and it is acceptable.

Dr. Teena Bagga

Professor

Department of Information Technology.

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Declaration by the student

I, Arjun Sharma, student of MBA (General) hereby declare that the dissertation titled
“What Makes A Customer Loyal?”- Case study on customer behavior at Amazon
India.” which is submitted by me to Department of Amity Business School, Amity
University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, in partial fulfillment of requirement for the award of the
degree of Masters of Business Administration with specialization in Marketing and Sales,
has not been previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or other
similar title or recognition.
The Author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copy righted
material appearing in the Dissertation report other than brief excerpts requiring only
proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing and all such use is acknowledged.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I am grateful to Amity Business School, AUUP, for providing me with such an
opportunity to work on this project. Working on this project has been very informative.
I had a great learning experience in the entire project.
I wish to express my gratitude and regards to my guide Dr. Teena Bagga Amity Business
School, for his exemplary monitoring, guidance and constant encouragement in making
this project.
In the end, I would like to thank my parents and my friends for their support and belief in
me which has motivated me to work hard and be a better person in life.

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ABSTRACT
Jeff Bezos, founded an American company on July5,1994 which is based in Seattle, Washington
and is a e-commerce and cloud computing company named as Amazon.com, Inc and running its
businesses as popularly known as Amazon.

The study is made to understand the impact of various factors on the online purchasing behavior
of the customers and the affecting customer loyalty in the environment. The need of this study is
Amazon wants to maintain customer loyalty. There are many competitors in the market so that
customer can switch to their competitors. Primary data and secondary data collected from
questionnaires and newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and the Internet, respectively. The
measurement of loyalty based on these Factors-Involvement, Functional value, Price worthless,
Emotional value, Social Value, Brand trust Satisfaction, Satisfaction, Commitment, Repeat
Purchase. This study, however, faced a limitation that some customers were not interested to fill
the questionnaire. For measuring the loyalty of customers, the data might on get collected. Data
is analyzed from graph that which factors can more influence the purchase behavior of customer.

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CONTENTS OF THE PROJECT REPORT

1.INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the organization 8

1.2 Industry Profile 9-13


1.3 Introduction of the study 14

1.4 Theoretical Background 15-22


1.5 Objective of the study 23

1.6 Need for the project 24

1.7 Scope of the project 24

2.METHODOLOGY
2.1 Research Design 26

2.2 Review of Literature 27-31

2.3 Data collection method 32

2.4 Analysis technique 33

2.5 Sampling Plan 33

2.6 Limitation of the study 33

3.FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS


3.1 Data analysis and interpretation 35-52

3.2 Findings 53

4.CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATION
4.1 Brief Summary of the project 55

4.2 Major finding from the study 56

4.3 Conclusion and Recommendation 57

5.BIBLIOGRAPHY 58

QUESTIONNAIRE 59-60

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CHAPTER: -1
INTRODUCTION
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1.1 BACKGROUND
ABOUT
The renowned technical biggie is the largest internet retailer in world when compared in terms of
revenue generation and market capitalization/coverage, just after Alibaba group which is second
in position as compared to total sales. Amazon.com, when commenced its operations, come out
as an online bookstore and diversified to downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming,
audio, books, downloads/streaming and then started to diversify in various variety of products in
every genre, such as video games, jewelry, apparel, software, food, etc. The company also
produces consumer electronics- Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo and is the
world’s largest provider of cloud infra structure services. Amazon also sells certain low-end
products to in brand house products.

But the differentiating factor in Amazon’s growth of profits worth61 billion dollars and
97,000 employees in 2012 is because of the customer experience they deliver. Jeff Bezos’
masterstroke was in cutting down on marketing expenses and invest the same in customer’s
satisfaction. By axing the advertising expenses, Amazon was able to provide shipping free for
the customers. Free shipping and the lowest prices on the planet ultimately made Amazon an
irresistible shopping platform. A huge population globally was lured to shopping from
Amazon. But the secret to the success of Amazon is how they maintained their relationship
with the customer.

Walmart was known as the most valuable and largest retailer in US around 2015, which was
surpassed by the Amazon. Amazon growth was so magnificent that it occupied a large part of revenue
of the market and became the largest internet e-commerce company and 4th most valuable and, eighth
largest employer in US. In 2017, Amazon acquired a great share of food market which was around
$13.4 billion, and made an immense growth which was interpreted as an attempt to challenge
Walmart’s traditional retail stores.
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1.2 INDUSTRY PROFILE


E-commerce is the use of electronic communication and digital information processing
technology in business transactions to transform, redefine and create relationships for value
creation between or among organizations, and between organizations and individuals.

In other words, electronic commerce consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling,
marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and
other computer networks. The information technology industry might see it as an electronic
business application aimed at commercial transactions. It can involve electronic funds transfer,
supply chain management, e- marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing,
electronic data interchange (EDI), automated inventory management systems, and automated
data collection systems. It typically uses electronic communications technology such as the
internet, extranets, email, e-books, databases, and mobile phones.

FUNCTIONS OF E-COMMERCE

The four functions of e-commerce are:

• Communication-Aimed at the delivery of information and/or documents to facilitate


business transactions. E.g., Email
• Process Management-Covers the automation & improvement of business processes E.g.,
networking two computers together.
• Service management- Application of technology to improve the quality of service. E.g.,
Federal Express website-to track shipments &schedule.
• Transaction’s capabilities- Provides the ability to buy/sell on the Internet or some other
online services, e.g.Amazon.com.

E-RETAIL ACROSS THE GLOBE:

Around the globe, despite a less-than-robust economic climate in most parts of the continues
to be ample evidence that e-retailing is alive and well. A rapidly growing number of
consumers is online and while there, many are shopping and buying. Even so, the sentiment
surrounding e-retailing has gone from one of all blue skies and unlimited possibly to one that
may more accurately reflect the
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Business realities of e-retailing’s future. E-retailing has become an accepted mode of


retailing –albeit one that will ultimately capture a very small share of total retail sales- in
most of the developed world.

Inreviewingthecurrentstateofe-retailingacrosstheglobeandemergingtrends:

• E-commerce, including e-retailing, is growing rapidly worldwide. Worldwide e-


commerce revenues are escalating year by year.
• Internet-based commerce will not look the same from country to country, especially
in terms of mode of access. For example, in the U.S. and Canada, it seems that PC-
Internet access is likely to be the preferred mode.
• As on land, there is only room for a few retailers online to operate profitably in each
merchandise category. Shakeout is likely to continue to occur among players as each
market develops. Already, acquisition and business failures are amongst the causes of
rationalization of e-retailers.
• Telecommunications costs are likely to continue to fall as competition increases and
government/consumer pressure mount. Lower costs of telecommunications will likely
improve the level of online penetration and/or the frequency and length of online
visits.
• Similarly, the development of e-commerce will force countries to further deregulate
their retail markets.
• E-retailers will continue to stimulate further development of value- oriented retailing
in many regions of the world. Online retailers are offering bargain-basement prices to
build their customer bases, oft combines with generous shipping and handling
promotions. And, pricing across retailers will become more transparent as consumers
can check prices online quickly and easily. Shopping comparison sites are providing
assistance in this area as well.
• Change comes quickly. High-profile players can vanish overnight. Technologies that
seem advanced now will soon be eclipsed by competitors’ new developments,
businesses, and governments to boost the economy through ongoing e-business
progress.
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ABOUT E-RETAILING COMPANIES: -

Amazon.in
The world's largest e-commerce company is Amazon from the (USA)United States of America.
Its Indian subsidiary Amazon.in is also a leading shopping website for e-commerce in the
country. It was started in 1994 in Washington as a book seller, which later spread its business to
segments like Blu-rays, CDs, DVDs, MP3-MP4 downloading/streaming, electronics, video
games, software, food, furniture, apparels, jewelry, toys and so on. Amazon.in is India's biggest
online shopping portal.

Alibaba.com
Alibaba.com is a Chinese online retail shopping site, which is one of the world's biggest e-
commerce outlets. It was founded in 1999 by its present Chairman Jack Ma. The business was
commenced as a business-to-business web portal as a connecting means between foreign
investors and Chinese manufacturers. Today, it has its businesses running on the consumer-to-
business, consumer-to-consumer and business-to- business bases. This particular online portal
offers almost every sellable product to its customers.

Junglee.com

This online shopping retail giant was born recently in 2012 and has grown to be one of the top
retailers so far as e-commerce is concerned. It belongs to Amazon of America, which acquired it
in 1998 and launched it in India as an online shopping portal in 2012. The retailer offers a wide
range of products including electronics, apparels, jewelry, toys, appliances and many more
through millions of sellers. This is where the buyers meet sellers and vice-verse.

Flipkart.com
Flipkart is an Indian online retail shopping web portal founded by Binny and Sachin Bansal in
2007. It is based in Bengaluru but registered in Singapore. The site was started as Flipkart Online
Services Private Limited. The book “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World” was the first ever
item sold by Flipkart. Today under the name 'Digi Flip', Flipkart sells a whole range of products
developed on its own including
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laptop bags, USBs and tablets. Flipkart has grown up to be one of the largest online shopping
outlets in a very short span of time.

Snapdeal.com
Snapdeal.com is one of the major players in the Indian retail e-commerce industry. It was
founded in 2010 by two brothers Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bahl and is based in New Delhi. It
started off as a dealing platform for buyers and sellers but became an online major marketplace
off late. It is amongst the fastest growing online retail companies in the country.

eBay.in
AU.S.-based multinational online marketing company, eBay. inwasfoundedin1995 and has its
businesses spread over 30 countries today. It is one of the important online platforms where
people and business units buy and sell products and services. Items from across all categories
including apparels; electronics such as cell phones,
cameras,computers,etc.;jewelry;homeappliances;andautomobileproductscanbe sold and bought at
ebay.in. It is giving online majors like Amazon, Alibaba and Flipkart tough competition.

Jabong.com
An Indian lifestyle and fashion online major, Jabong.com was founded in 2012 and is
headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana. It provides a variety of lifestyle and branded fashion
products and its ems to its customers, which includes shoes, clothes, watches, cell phones, home
decoration products and so on. Today, it is one of the top e- commerce companies in India.

Shopclues.com
Shopclues.com is the Indian subsidiary of Clues Network Inc., an American company. The
Indian unit was started in 2011 and is based in Gurgaon, Haryana. It is amongst the top e-
commerce companies in India. It was founded by Sandeep Aggarwal, a Washington University
alumnus, and Sanjay Sethi, ex-Global Product Head of eBay. Shop clues has been able to create
its private space and has reached the pinnacle in the Indian online shopping industry in a less
time.
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Myntra.com
Based in Bengaluru, the state capital of Karnataka, Myntra is an Indian online fashion and
lifestyle web portal. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumnus Mukesh Bansal, Vineet Saxena
and Ashutosh Lawania founded Myntra in 2007. It startedoffasapersonalizedgiftitems-
orientedmarketplacebutlaterturneditsfocus to online trading in the Indian retail sector, selling
branded products. Today, Myntra is one of the highest most preferred shopping through internet
destinations for Indian consumers, especially for youth.
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1.3 INTRODUCTION OF THESTUDY


Brand consciousness and purchase behavior of a consumer is viewed as customer loyalty and is
an important force to drive the subject. But it is said to be used in excess in business today. The
longevity of customer’s loyalty tends to gain profit, hence in terms of business environment it
can be used as link towards profit. In economic view loyalty is necessity and a competitive
necessity the relationship that leads to understanding between the shopping behavior and
spending pattern of a customer with a brand is known as loyalty. It is very important for
customers to be satisfied for long term agenda and the result of the behavior of customer and
loyalty satisfaction.

For competing in the market, in the competition phase by the enterprises for long term profit is
based on the market competition on the basis of customer loyalty. According to the study it is
said that the loyalty of customers is more appreciated than the measurement of customer market
share. As, a result the management team for companies are paying great attention towards
enhancing customer loyalty functions, so that the competitor advantage and gain in profitability
can be acknowledged in between heavy competition.

According to the study made by some economists on the TOP500 enterprises, the results shows
that the customers who are loyal to the company are making the purchases regularly from the
brand which in turn will save cost of marketing and advertising for the company and would also
do some mouth publicity which in turn will encourage their friends and family to buy the same
products and benefits the company. Therefore, this pattern of customer becomes an important
factor or source for enterprise. This with the customer loyalty the growth and profitability of the
enterprise is increased with a higher growth in sales, increase in revenue, market share and
lowering marketing/ advertising expenses, thus low costs and high rewards.
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1.4 THEORETICALBACKGROUND
Customer loyalty – the term is defined as a system in the which the enterprises focus more
on giving value consistently to its customers and delivering superior value to reinforce the
quality and delivering best always.

Customer loyalty can be said to have occurred if people choose to use a particular shop or
buy one particular product, rather than use other shops or buy products made by other
companies.

According to (Anders,2000) these 3 measures of customer loyalty are advised:

• Primary customer’s behavior –quantity of purchase, number of times purchased and recent effects;

• Secondary customer’s behavior -monthly publicity, transferring, and quality spreading in


world;

• Customer's need to repurchase– By this the behavior of the customer is noticed that when will
they be repurchasing the products and their need towards it. Customer’s loyalty is an important
attribute to contribute for the pecuniary progress of the enterprise which in turn is will encourage
the value, market share, profitability, revenue, win customer support and acquire best customer
support. All the benefits will go up and new customer goes down.
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(Christopher et al.)
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FACTORS AFFECTING CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Jacoby and Chestnut (1978) suggested that the role played by belief, attitude, and conative
structure of the customer’s orientation of the focal brand in determining his loyalty gained
importance and led to the three stages of Loyalty formation:

• Cognitive
• Affective, and
• Conative
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Customer Loyalty is a relatively new concept as compared to Brand Loyalty.

Brand loyalty is a consumer’s preference to buy a particular brand in a product category. It


occurs when consumers perceive that the offerings of the Brand the right product features,
images or level of quality at the right price. This perception may translate into repeat purchase
resulting in loyalty. Brand Loyalty is therefore related to a customer’s preference and attachment
to a brand.

David A. Aaker defines brand loyalty as the measure of attachment that a consumer has to ward
as brand. Brand loyal type him reflect show likely a consumer will be to switched brands when
that brand makes a product change either in price or product features.
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Typology proposed by Dick and Basu (1994), that depicts loyalty as a two-dimensional construct
involving relative attitude and repeat patronage, is a widely cited model of customer loyalty.
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Customer loyalty program


A loyalty program is a commitment to better customer experience and continuously growing
customer loyalty. Amazon Prime is one of the world's best customer loyalty programs.

Objectives of loyalty programs: -

Reward loyal customers

Most retailers implicitly suggest that the aim of their scheme is to reward repeat purchasing. This
is achieved through a combination of discounts and other “rewards”. Consumers are motivated to
participate in such schemes because, fundamentally, most people like to get something for
nothing

To generate information

“Knowing who the best customers are, what they buy, and how often provides a secret weapon”

Manipulate consumer behavior

Although the stated aim of most schemes is to reward loyal customers, the fundamental aim of
most schemes is to manipulate consumer behavior within a sophisticated system, where
incentives and coupons can be individually targeted, in order to encourage customers to try new
products or brands; increase multi-pack purchases; pay premium prices, and/or use the brand for
increasingly diverse offerings. For the latter, some supermarkets have successfully persuaded
customers to purchase pharmaceuticals, petrol, wine and more recently even banking services.
Thus, one of the most successful applications of the loyalty scheme may be in terms of reducing
the risk inherent in diversifying.
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Loyalty programs based on the following parameters:

Goals: -

The ultimate goal of any loyalty program is to increase revenue, profit, and the organization’s
market share. But the primary purpose of any customer loyalty program is building of better
relations with customer and enhancing them further by retaining loyal customers on a long-term
basis.

The second goal is attracting new customers through loyalty programs. It can only be possible by
satisfying the members of the loyalty program and by their word-of- mouth publicity.

The third goal is the creation of database which is maintained regularly with up-to- date
information such as sales, advertising with response, direct mails, etc.

Target group: -

The target groups for a loyalty program include those customers with whom the company intends
to develop its long-term relationship. It is a very important concern because it is directly linked
to the type of benefits to be offered by the organization for the program.
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Types: -

After selecting the target group, the company has to opt for either an open or limited loyalty
program. In the open loyalty program, membership is open to anybody but in the limited loyalty
program, membership is curtailed by certain terms and conditions.
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1.5 OBJECTIVES OF THESTUDY


• To know what might affect the online shopping behavior of the customers.
• To know the factors that impact the loyalty of the customer in an online shopping
environment.
• To make suggestions for enhancing the customer loyalty.
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1.6 NEED OF THESTUDY


This study is aimed to study that how many customers are loyal towards Amazon in India. Thus,
we can able to understand the factor influencing loyalty of customer. The major problems for this
study are to understand level of satisfaction that leads to customer loyalty. This study helps to
understand the online purchase behavior of customers.

1.7 SCOPE OF THEPROJECT


ThisstudyisfocusedoncustomerloyaltyofAmazon.Therearesomeconstructsare using to measure
this loyalty -Involvement, Functional value, Price worthiness, Emotional Value, Social Value,
Brand trust, Satisfaction, commitment, Repeat purchase. The objective of this study is to find the
main factors that reflects on the loyalty of customers. This study is conducted in Amity Business
School. The collection of data from questionnaire that is primary research and collected through
secondary data also. The tool percentage analysis is used for analysis.
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CHAPTER: -2
METHODOLOGY
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2.1 RESEARCHDESIGN
Descriptive research is used for research design. Descriptive research studies ae those studies
which are concerned with describing the characteristics of particular individual, regroup. The
Research focuses attention on the factors like formulating the object, designing methods,
selecting the samples, collecting, processing and analyzing the data and report the findings.
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2.2 REVIEW OFLITERATURE


JacobyandChestnut,1978“CustomerLoyaltyandConsciousness”. The purpose of the subject is
definite on those detections is;(1) To examine deeply the basic studies of loyalty literature that
dominate marketing literature, (2) To make detections for the problematic situation tried to be
explained and (3) for the origin of the problem.

Within this framework, in the study based on theoretical literature review and the assessment of
literature the creation of loyalty literature is examined deeply and loyalty and consciousness
discussion were made on the basis of consciousness, characteristics attributed to loyal customers,
customer satisfaction and the value offered to the customer and inertia.

Conclusion-

• The assessments on the basis of loyalty and consciousness deviated in time and the
conceptual infrastructure of the tenet that loyalty is akin to conscious and no loyalty is an
unconscious attitude and/or behavior corrupted.
• The theory that the responsibility of loyalty on the organization providing products and
services and the responsibility of no loyalty on customer and unconsciousness of the
customer is both a glib and problematic understanding focused on the company/brand
rather than the customer.
• The most significant indicator that reveals that loyalty and consciousness assessment is
problematic and that what the consciousness which shall affect loyalty has not been
defined.

Dick and Basu, (1994) provide a key contribution to the “loyalty measurement” study by
relying their research on the relative attitude of customer (the degree to which the consumer’s
evaluation of one alternative brand dominates over another), and the moderators of the relative
attitude to repeated behavior (based on social norms and situational factors). Thus, the authors
conceptualize brand loyalty as the relationship between the frequency of relativeness and its
attitude towards an entity (brand/service/store/vendor) and patronage behavior, true loyalty only
existing when repeat patronage coexists with high relative attitude. As an interaction of attitude
and behavior, loyalty is determined by the intensity of the affiliation between relative attitude
and repeated behavior.
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Payne (1994) examines the progress of consumers up or along the rungs of a so called “loyalty
ladder” from prospects, to customers, clients, supporters, advocates and, eventually, partners.
After converting a prospect into a customer, the next marketing task is to generate repeat
patronage from that customer. At this point, the customer becomes a client who is neutral,
positive or even negative towards the brand. When the client's attitude towards the brand
becomes positive, the client becomes a supporter, who is typically passive (not outspoken). At
the next level, an advocateissomeonewhoissopleasedwiththebrandthattheyfrequentlyrecommend
it to others. The final step on the (partner) represents a situation where a very close and long-
term relationship is developed between the brand and customer, based on satisfaction of mutual
needs, this last step being particularly especially applicable to business-to-business relationships.
According to the author, this evolution requires increased dialogue between exchange parties,
commitment and trust, which develops within a consumer’s attitude.

Baldinger and Rubinson(1996) bring new insights regarding the “measurement


ofbrandloyalty”,proposinganattitude-behaviorcompositeapproach,investigating the predictive
ability of behavioral and attitudinal data towards customer loyalty across five sectors and 27
brands. The authors propose and validate a loyalty-based model, after re-contacted respondents
from five different studies a year after they were originally interviewed. All of the key
information on behavior and attitudes were recorded from the same customers at both stages of
the scenario, while market shares were also gathered on all investigated brands, at each stage.
Loyalty was calculated for each respondent, across each brand, at each stage, so that movement
across loyalty groups could also be measured. Eventually, each respondent was classified by
attitude toward the brand, and the conversion and retention of behavioral and attitudinal loyalty
groups was tracked, thus allowing for the calculation of whether attitude affects actual behavior.
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Jones et al. (2000) observe that although numerous studies support the importance of customer
satisfaction in the retention process, “the relationship between these variables often evidences
considerable variability”. Presuming that such variability highlights the possibility that “retention
may depend on additional factors such as switching barriers”, and that the process between
satisfaction and retention may be contingent on switching. barriers, Jonesetal. (2000) develop
and tests a model of customer retention that incorporates such contingencies between customer
satisfaction and switching barriers, by surveying actual customers about a current provider of
either banking services. In order to evaluate brand loyalty, the authors use a measurement battery
comprising several items grouped as follows: repurchase intentions (unlikely/likely, very un-
probable/very probable, impossible/possible, no chance/certain) - measured using a ten-point
semantic differential; core-service satisfaction (very displeased/very pleased, very
unfavorable/very favorable, disgusted with/contented with, very dissatisfied/very satisfied with,
unhappy with/happy with) - measured using a ten-point semantic differential; attractiveness of
alternatives(e.g. "If I needed to change...,there are other good...to choose from")
- measured using seven-point Likert items anchored by strongly disagree/strongly agree; length
of patronage:" Approximately how long have you used...?"(measured in number of years).

Loyalty is a very complex construct (Javalgi and Moberg, 1997), defining the concept being an
extremely difficult task. However, the American Marketing Association over-simplifies the
concept by defining it as the situation in which a consumer generally buys the same
manufacturer-originated product or service repeatedly over time rather than buying from multiple
suppliers within the category (Moisescu and Vũ, 2011). Moreover, Aaker (1991) defines brand
loyalty as a reflection of how likely a consumer is to switch to another brand, especially when
that brand makes a change in price, product features, communication, or distribution programs.
Nevertheless, loyalty is much more than just repeat purchases, as a consumer who keeps buying
a certain brand may be doing it because of inertia, indifference, switch or exit barriers and other
motives, rather than actual loyalty (Reichheld,2003).
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One essential contribution to the literature regarding brand loyalty was that of Jacoby and
Chesnut (1978) who classified the approaches regarding brand loyalty into three categories:
behavioral, psychological commitment, and composite. Their definition sees brand loyalty as
“the biased behavioral response expressed overtime by some decision-making unit with respect
to one or more alternative brands out of a set of brands and is a function of psychological
processes” (Jacoby and Chesnut, 1978). This definition, firstly proposed by Jacoby in 1971, is
based on a composite approach of the concept (Rundle-ThieleandBennett,2001), and it covers the
most important aspects of brand loyalty (Mellens et al, 1996), enjoying widespread support in the
marketing literature, and being the most often used in brand loyalty research (Rundle-Thiele and
Bennett, 2001; Mellens et al,1996).

Jacoby’s definition suggests that there must be a systematic tendency to buy a certain brand or
group of brands, and points out the fact that, during a period of time, both the quantity a brand is
purchased and the purchase pattern over successive buying occasions are important. As a matter
of fact, considering a purchase sequence for two brands (A and B), Brown (1952) distinguishes
between four groups of buyers: hard-core loyal, who buy the same brand over a given period of
time (AAAA), split loyal, who are loyal to more punctuality, reservation information and
facilities, and affective items such as enjoyment, loyalty and
recommendation),priceloyaltyvulnerabilities(includingprice-relateditemssuchas bargain hunting
and value for money), and service loyalty vulnerabilities (e.g. the challenge posed by a new
competing service or service brand)

Bandyopadhyay and Martell (2007) extend the work done by Dick and Basu (1994) by
introducing a new segment of non-users, and by offering a unique way to measure attitudinal
loyalty, using a unique survey data with a large sample of 1800 respondents that includes both
behavioral (purchase) patterns and attitudes of the respondents for all major brands of tooth
paste, to demonstrate that behavioral loyalty is influenced by attitudinal loyalty across many
brands of the toothpaste category. The authors suggest that true loyalty should be seen as
comprising a favorable repeat purchase(behavioral)pattern, and a favorable disposition(attitude)
towards the brand. To operationalize behavioral pattern, respondents are grouped into three
behavioral categories: single users (highest level of behavioral loyalty, purchasing only a single
brand on every purchase occasion), multiple users (an intermediate behavioral loyalty), and non-
users (the least amount of behavioral
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loyalty is shown by those respondents who do not use the brand even once over the study). The
survey includes eight behavioral questions to measure the respondents’ usage patterns and their
satisfaction towards various brands over a period of six months. Attitudinal loyalty is
operationalized by measuring consumer perceptions of the overall rating of the brand (30 attribute-
related questions on respondents’ beliefs about these brands), being reflected by the number of
positive attributes (or attribute score) associated with the brand.

Dick&Basu (1994) developed a conceptual framework of “brand loyalty basedon relative


attitude and repeated patronage”. According to them, attitude used to evaluate an object/bran
position on a continuum favorable, so brand attitude ranges from high to low. An individual
customer may have a positive or negative attitude toward a brand, but in rare. A consumer might
have a high or a low altitude to a brand, however situation might affect attitude. Even if
customers have high attitude, they might not buy the brand because comparatively great attitude
for other brands Attitude, as a concept, is comparative and not objective. The relative attitude
combines with the attitudinal differentiation of a brand gives more indications of brand patronage
than relative attitude in isolation According to them brand loyalty is the result of relatively high
altitude and high repeat patronage.
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2.3 DATA COLLECTIONMETHOD


It is a method of collecting information through which various methods are defined such a s
telephonic, personal interview, e-mails and through internet. Depending on the paper of
questionnaire, the various methods are used combined and individually(data). According to the
quantitative and qualitative research methods the survey methods are used to enhance various
enquiry and promote good practice.

According to a research which was based on an e-commerce company, the result showed that
feelings of customers are most important. Therefore, the questionnaires will be sent for survey to
those who know about Amazon.com.

Primary Data Collection

The initial step towards primary data collection is to design a sample questionnaire for suitable
research paper. In accordance to a research, there are 85 samples of questionnaires which has
been produced.

Secondary data collection

The Internet is very useful for data collection, in particular, some professional websites. The data
which is collected from the sources such as books, internet, magazines, newspaper, etc. are used in
support for the initial research data of our research company literature review.
27

2.4 ANALYSISTECHNIQUES
Percentage Analysis is used for analyzing the data.

2.5 SAMPLINGPLAN
For the purpose of ensuring the suitability of the data collected is in accordance to our research
paper, primary data is collected in which questionnaire is designed accordingly, there are 85
samples designed in the form of questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of 31 questions. Thus,
the following information which is obtained from the questionnaire is useful for our research.
The type of questions include in the questionnaire are closed-ended question.

2.6 LIMITATION OF THESTUDY


• The results cannot be considered for the long-term process.
• The view and preferences of the people may change from time to time, so it cannot be
considered for long run.
• The new customer opinion may not consistent for future.
28

CHAPTER 3: -
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
29

3.1 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

The pie charts represents that the number of male contenders is greater in number than female
respondents.

The contenders of the age of 19-25 are more in number and contenders are above 35 are
comparatively less.
30

The pie chart represents that the respondent who has less income means they are students are
more.

More respondents are PG College students.


31

1 - Strongly Disagree; 2-Disagree; 3-Neutral; 4-Agree; 5-Strongly Agree

52% of contenders are accepting that Amazon is a highly reliable site for online purchase.

55% of respondents agreed that Amazon has an acceptable standard of service. 5% of


respondents strongly disagree for this statement.
32

42.4% of the respondents like the design and layout of website.23.5% of


respondersintenselyagreedthatthedesignandlayoutofwebsiteisgoodand app of Amazon is user
friendly.

Most of the respondents in the research were vehement that Amazon offers variety of product
mix. And only 5.9% strongly agree with this statement.
33

40% of respondents agreed that customer care always resolve the issues promptly. And only
1.2% of respondents strongly agree with this statement.

41.2% respondents agree that Behavior of delivery men is always modest.28.2% neither agree nor
disagree with this statement.
34

40% respondents believe that return of the products is convenient. Andonly3.5% respondents do not
satisfy with the services.

29.4%ofrespondentsneitheragreenordisagreewiththestatementthatAmazon prime membership offers


various privileges.
35

43.5% of respondents agree that Amazon offers value for money. Only 1.2% do not agree or intensely
disagree with the afore stated fact.

More number of respondents agree that products of Amazon are reasonably priced.7% people don’t
believe that product of Amazon are reasonably priced.
36

More number of respondents are neutral in their response.

More number of respondents feel good for the services of Amazon.


37

34% of respondents are satisfied with the shopping experience.40% of respondents neither agree
nor disagree with the statement.

33% of respondents neither agree nor disagree with the statement that being an Amazon customer
as a status symbol.
38

More number of the respondents are neutral with this statement.

30% respondents agree that Amazon is always sincere and honest.


39

35% of respondents agree that service of Amazon never appoints. Less number of respondents do not
agree with the statement.

More number of respondents believe that Amazon meets their expectations. None of respondents
strongly disagree with this statement.
40

Most of respondents agree that banking transactions are safe with Amazon.

31% of respondents rely on Amazon. Only 1% respondent disagree with this statement.
41

30.6% respondents agree that Amazon is their choice automatically for online purchase. And
30.6% contenders are neutral about the statement they can choose other website for online
purchase.

Most of the people are satisfied with the services of amazon. Only few respondents are not
satisfied with the services.
42

34% of contenders agree that they have strong preference foe Amazon. 15% of
respondentsstronglyagreefortheirpreferenceforAmazon.And36.5%respondents are neutral means
they can prefer another site also.

More number of respondents are neutral with this statement so that they can change their
preferences.
43

39% of the respondents neither agree nor disagree with this statement that means they can
change their preferences willingly. 24.7% respondents agree with this statement.

25% of respondents agree and 7% of respondents strongly agree that they are committed to
Amazon. 40% of contenders are neither agree nor disagree with this statement.
44

30% respondents agree that they have been buying on Amazon ever since they started of
online purchase. 12% strongly disagree with the statement. And 40% of respondents are
neutral.

More number of respondents are neutral means they neither agree nor disagree with the
statement that they consider themselves to be loyal to Amazon.
45

23.5% respondents agree that they recommend online purchase only by Amazon to my friends
and family,11.8% strongly agree and 41.2% are neutral.

More number of respondents neither agree nor disagree with the statement that if amazon site is
down rather they will wait for sometime to recover than purchase from elsewhere.
46

34.1 % of respondents agree that they intend to keep buying from Amazon in future. 18.8%
strongly agree and 34.1% of respondents are neutral with this statement.
47

3.2 FINDINGS
Consumers are fully satisfied with the functions of Amazon. They believe that Amazon offers
variety of product mix. The findings of the functions of amazon show customer satisfaction.
According to the results of questionnaire, the low cost and safe payment method become the
strong point that will draw customers towards Amazon.com. and many other points for
customer benefits. Most of customers prefer amazon as a first choice for online shopping. It
has been found that some customers are not committed to the Amazon means they can
choose other website for online shopping also. Most of
thecustomersbelievethatAmazonmeetstheirexpectation.Customersarehappy with customer
care service. Customers agree that returning of product is convenient.
48

CHAPTER: -4
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
49

4.1 BRIEF SUMMARY OF THEPROJECT


The objective of this study is measuring the loyalty of customer of Amazon. I collected the data
from various resources the secondary data I have collected through internet and textbook. The
primary data is collected through the method of questionnaire. The sample size of questionnaire
is 85 which is based on the different factors which influence the customer purchase behavior.
The factors are Involvement, Functional Value, Price worthiness, Emotional value, Social Value,
Brand trust, Satisfaction, Commitment, Repeat Purchase. The purpose of this is that to analyze
the customer satisfaction and loyalty of customer, and relate the questionnaire to find out ways for
improvement in relation to loyalty of customer to Amazon.com. Through the analysis I made a conclusion
that there are many factors to become the reason for customer to choose such as prices are low,
payment options are safe and good services like shipment of product is free and convenience for
customer at door step and fast delivery.
50

4.2 MAJOR FINDING FROM STUDY


After completing the research, it has been observed that in order to hold and keep more
consumer many other factors are need to be focused upon. There is safe payment system, prices
are less, the services and quality of the products are worked upon properly and so on. The online
shopping customers are focusing on all these factors. By the knowledge of such factors, the
enterprise can do better by improving all for customers loyalty and thus make a relationship that
lasts for long term with customers. By this the needs and demands of customers would be clearly
stated. Since Amaozn.com is business-to-consumer website, the web B2C is initiated to bring a
balance between business and customer and among customers too. So that loyal customers
remain important. Therefore, for more loyal customer all these factors along with quality is
promoted through marketing.
51

4.3 CONCLUSION ANDRECOMMENDATION


This after making the whole research study it is assumed and noted that customer focus more on
safe payment options, the low price of products and quality of products, the satisfactory services
and feedback. Hence, Amazon should work on its shortcomings and keep up its strength.
There are some suggestions to improve the customer loyalty: -

• Increasetheemployee’sawarenessandprovideprofessionalskillssothatthey provide best


services to customer.

• A feedback forum is initiated to improve after sales services to customer to maintain the
relationship with customers.
• A greater attention on website design and marketing creativeness is required.
5

CHAPTER 5: - BIBLOGRAPHY

Anders, G. J., (2000). Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit, New York:
McGraw-Hill

nd
Bryman, A. & Bell. E., (2007). Business research methods. 2 ed, Oxford New York.
Donaldson, B. & O’Toole, T., (2007). Strategic market relationships: from strategy to

implementation, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Chichester, England Maxwell, J. A.,
(1992). Understanding and validity in qualitative research, US,

Harvard Educational Review. Nykamp, M., (2001). The customer differential: the complete
guide to implementing
customer relationship management, Melinda Nykamp. p.cm. Includes index. Reichardt, C.S. &
Cook, T.D., (1979). Qualitative versus quantitative methods in

evaluation research., NewYork: McGraw-Hill Reichheld, F. F., (2001), Loyalty Rules! How
today’s leaders build lasting

relationships, Oxford University Press, UK. Robson, C., (2002). Real world research: A
resource for social scientists and practitioner- researchers (2nd Ed.), Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Sallberg, H., (2004). On the Value of Customer Loyalty Programs: A Study of Point Programs and
Switching Costs, New York: McGraw-Hill
Shaw, C., (2000). The DNA of Customer Experience: How Emotions Drive Value,

Oxford University Press, UK Sterne, J., (2000). Customer Service on the Internet: Building
Relationships,

Increasing Loyalty, and Staying Competitive, NewYork: McGraw-Hill Wilson, A., Zeithaml, V.
A., Bitner, M, J. & Gremler, D.D., (2008). Service Marketing,
53

London McGraw-Hill coop

APPENDIX

QUESTIONNAIRE

Rating scale

1 - Strongly Disagree; 2-Disagree; 3-Neutral; 4-Agree; 5-Strongly Agree

1. Amazon is a highly reliable site for online purchase.

2. Amazon has an acceptable standard of service quality.


3. I like the design and layout of website and app of Amazon which are user friendly.
4. Amazon offers variety of product mix.
5. Customer Care always resolve the issues promptly.
6. Behavior of delivery men is always modest.

7. Returning of the products is convenient.


8. Amazon prime membership offers various privileges.

9. Amazon offers value for money.


10. Products of Amazon are reason ably priced.

11. It is economical.
12. Amazon makes me feelgood.

13. Shopping experience with Amazon gives me pleasure.


14. I consider being an amazon customer as a status symbol.

15. I feel proud of being the consumer of Amazon.


16. Amazon is always sincere and honest.

17. The service of Amazon never disappoints me.


18. I believe Amazon meets my expectations.
53
19. I feel banking transactions are safe with Amazon.

20. I rely on Amazon.


21. Amazon is my first choice automatically for online purchase.

22. Amazon has successfully satisfied me with its services.


23. I have strong preference for Amazon.

24. My preference for Amazon would not willingly change.


25. Even if close friends recommend another online site, I would not change my preference
26. I am committed to the product of Amazon.
27.I have been buying on Amazon ever since I started of online purchase.
28. I consider myself to be loyal to Amazon.
29. I recommend to online purchase only by Amazon to my friends and family.
30. If amazon site is down rather, I will wait for some time to recover than purchase from
elsewhere.

31. I intend to keep buying from Amazon in future.


54

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