Another important area where e-retail image could be built is through the user interface of the website. The thing of foremost importance to the consumer is easy navigability through the website. As surveys have repeatedly shown the process of information search within the website should be quick, accurate and reliable. These days customers have come to expect ‘personalization’ or ‘customization’ of the website according to their individual needs. This usually means giving regular customers username and password and allow them to change the settings as per their preferences. Such privileges can also help retail companies in gathering consumer data, which can come handy in devising future marketing strategies. (Yang & Jun, 2008)
Studies have also shown that online customers expect prompt and proper customer support. They also expect to have choices in the form of availing telephone hotlines, online chat support, email support, etc. And the customer support personnel have to be polite, respectful, willing to help and assist. He/she should also have adequate knowledge of the e-retailing processes adopted by the company so that customers’ queries can be answered. (Bharadwaj et, al., 2007)
And online retailing companies will do well to devise strategies to widen their market. As scholarly literature on the subject shows, customers who shop online on a regular basis are comfortable with what this medium offers and are likely to be loyal, long term customers. The most difficult part is establishing that loyalty. That is why separate efforts have to be made to woo potential customers. It should be remembered that the criteria for evaluation of service quality can be different for existing and potential customers, with the latter expecting more. But irrespective of which category of customers the company is trying to cater to, the following set of six underlying service quality attributes is imperative:
“These are identified as: reliability, access, ease of use, personalization, credibility, and security. Seven dimensions were uncovered for the Internet non-purchasers (potential customers): security, responsiveness, ease of use, availability, reliability, personalization, and access. Upon close examination of these factors, it can be inferred that the two groups share much common ground considering the dimensions of reliability, personalization, security and access are important attributes. As predicted, there still exists several different attributes perceived by the two groups, except for the slightly different content for each similar dimension, two dimensions, availability and responsiveness are unique to Internet non-purchasers.” (Dennis & Fenech, 2004)
If all these criteria are met then the retailing websites will retail existing customer s and add new ones. The efforts made to satisfy customers increases their loyalty and helps in retaining them. As mentioned before, the realities of e-commerce industry are emergent and as a result the criteria for evaluation service quality also tends to be ephemeral. Moreover, studies conducted so far have been quite generic, in that they do not distinguish between segments within the retail industry. For example, the shopping experience with online book retailer www.amazon.com would be quite different from other speciality websites. And what is an advantage with respect to one domain can be a disadvantage when it comes to another. For example, one of the reason clothing stores have not taken off in the Internet is because women want to feel and try out the clothes that they are purchasing, which is not possible through the Internet. On the other hand, for a book retailer like Amazon, the Internet business model works perfectly, as it is the content of the book and not its physical and aesthetic appeal that is most important. In this context, websites should be specialized while at the same time adhering to core service quality values. In other words,