What is Wrong with Private Shopping Sites - Evidence from Turkey

Abstract

Since 2008, private shopping sites have been amongst the leading business models in the world. However, with the growing number of these companies, there are some problems which are declared by the customers through online platforms. Hence, this study provides evidence from Turkey through the examination of the customer complaints from the leading private shopping sites. In this regard, 1,014 customer complaints were analyzed for the period of three months (April, May and June 2013) from the popular online platform "sikayetvar.com". The findings reveal that private shopping sites have same types of customer complaints which occur mainly due to problems in the logistics capabilities of the companies. However, number of complaints differs significantly according to private shopping sites and months. This study contributes to literature through identification of variations in the number and category of complaints across months and among private shopping sites. Additionally, it provides managerial implications for private shopping sites to improve the logistics capabilities and other facilities 1.INTRODUCTIONThe term retailing covers all business processes which involve the sale of goods and services to consumers for personal, family or household use (Berman and Evans, 2004). Retailing is a key driver of global economy, where the total sales generated by the world's ten largest retail companies were $1.25 trillion in 2012 (Deloitte 2014). In retailing, emerging research issues have been identified as growth of the internet and e-commerce, branding and customer loyalty, service success strategies, and behavioral issues in pricing and patronage (Grewal and Levy, 2009). With the adaptation to new digital age, the consumption choices, tremendous increase in the numbers of internet shoppers and the acceleration of social media platform have caused significant changes in physical retailing model (Türkiye Perakendecilik Meclisi Sektör Raporu, 2012). Therefore, development in direct marketing and technology has enabled retailers to reach customers through different distribution channels. For instance, catalog shopping and pioneering approaches such as television infomercials have created new business models, and later paved the way for e-retailing. This has enabled significant growth in e-retailing and e-retailers.

Online Alışveriş Hizmetlerinin Müşteri Memnuniyeti Üzerindeki Etkisi: İade Yönetiminin Aracılık Rolü

“…Patil and Divekar (2014) stated that customer satisfaction levels would increase with better inventory management. In their studies, Boruhan et al (2015) investigated the managerial effects of private shopping sites that would enable them to improve their logistics capacities to solve customer complaints caused by deficiencies in logistics capabilities. Huang and Yin (2015) stated that 3PL providers should improve their logistics capacity and logistics service features since it is important for business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce businesses to evaluate the logistics capacity of third party logistics (3PL) providers.…”