E-commerce - Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Chapter 2: Uterature review Page 33
associated with Internet shopping, ranging from confusing information, long
upload sessions, and payment difficulty (Ryan & Valverde, 2003). Internet
holiday shoppers have also reported myriad problems including late delivery,
paying extra shipping costs for products to arrive on time, receiving partial
orders, and receiving damaged merchandise (Zemke & Connellan, 2001).
Despite the recognition of the fact the service problems are relatively
widespread in the e-commerce sector to date, research on service failure and
recovery issues has focused almost exclusively on failure and recovery in the
context of interpersonal service encounters. That is, service situations in
which the service customer and provider interact with each other in order to
consummate the service transaction (Smith & Bolton, 2002).
To comprehend the impact of customer disappointment, it is important to
know what consumers consider to be bad experiences and how those
experiences will impact in their future actions. When experienced shoppers
were asked which barriers, if any, might prevent them from making more
online purchases in the near future, the need to touch, feel, and try on
products was the most common response as shown in figure 2.3 (see
questionnaire analysis: Appendix C). Internet retailers choosing to carry high­
involvement products will continue to struggle with the consumer's need to
experience these types of products in future years (Windham & Orton, 2000).
Windham and Orton (2000) further illustrates that these high-involvement
retailers should seek ways to provide target customers with the required
tactile information to overcome the barriers to the sale. Whether addressed
through the use of better graphics technology and higher bandwidth or
through, multichannel alternatives, the issue must be addressed to break
through current barriers.