Study On The Factors Affecting Customer Retention In The Context Of B2C Online Shopping

During the past years, with the rapid expansion of the population of netizens and drastic development of online shopping markets, the utilization rate of online shopping has occupied 33.8% and the number of online shopping users has reached 142 million. In the earlier researches on online shopping consumer behavior, most studies have merely focused on the manner used by consumers on online shopping and the relationship between online shopping intention and online shopping behavior. These studies, however, were not sufficient to explain some practical problems, i.e. why some customers who were satisfied with one dealer chose another next time; why some unsatisfied customers, purchased at the same store repeatedly, etc. Therefore, on the basis of previous research, this study has selected consumer retention behavior in the context of B2C online shopping as the research object, focusing on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention, and variables associated with this relationship. The main purpose of this study is to better explain the consumer behavior in the context of B2C online shopping, predict changes in consumer psychology, and provide some guidance for enterprises'marketing practices.Based on the previous theoretical results and observations of consumer behavior in real life, this study has built a conceptual model and proposed some associated assumptions about the relationships among the customer expectation, perceived value, customer satisfaction, switching barriers, trust propensity and customer retention. And then, resorted to previous research results, the study has designed the questionnaire with variables. Consequently, a consumer behavior questionnaire survey through the network has been performed, which obtained 294 valid questionnaires. By means of SPSS17.0, AMOS17.0, the obtained data have been analyzed and processed through structural equation modeling and hierarchical multiple regression method.Results show that the questionnaire has good reliability and validity. In the context of B2C online shopping, trust propensity is significantly correlated with customer expectations, perceived value and customer satisfaction. Switching barriers which consumers perceived play their regulatory roles in the relationship between satisfaction and retention. These switching barriers may come from the time, energy, economic costs required for replacement of business, technical difficulties, some resources owned by existing enterprises which consumers don't have, or worrying about whether other enterprises will provide better products or services. Customer satisfaction not only has a direct impact on customer retention, but also plays an intermediary role between customer expectation and customer retention. Thus it can be seen, as the previous researches focused on customer satisfaction as the key antecedents of customer retention, this study has established a more complete theoretical framework.Due to various constraints, this study still remains some limitations, which were discussed in the last part of this paper. With reference to these limitations, further research directions have also been presented.