Antecedents and Outcomes Of Customer Experience in Iran online Retailing

In competitive world of online retailing and with respect to the importance of gaining competitive advantages, the experience and approach of experiential marketing has received significant attention to achieve competitive advantages for retailers. However, the study of factors which are antecedents and outcomes of experience in online retailing has remained incomplete and has not evolved enough to reflect the whole system of experience in online retailing. In present paper, we conducted the mixed method research, with ultimate goal of designing a model for antecedents and outcomes of customer experience in Iran online retailing. Therefore, the qualitative phase and semi-structured interviews were applied with 15 experts in e-retailing field and the content analysis was performed in three steps and the original model was presented accordingly. In the quantitative phase, the model was analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling in PLS software. Data of quantitative phase was gathered through the 406 distributed and fully filled questionnaires. Ultimately, the final model of research was presented. Internet shopping as an Internet penetration has been dramatically increasing and has been able to create new online shopping opportunities, which means that it is no longer a matter of when and when consumers are able to find the organizations and the stores have been interacting greatly. By applying the right techniques to shape customer purchasing and consumption behavior in the online environment many gains in improving the performance of online businesses would be gained. Due to the development of online shopping in the country, the experiences of customers has become more important than ever, and has expanded this experience from face to face in traditional ways to customer experiences in the online communities. Since the researches in the area of customer experience and customer experience in Iran online retailing are in limit supply; it doubles the importance of studying in this area and researches in the field of customer experience and in particular the online shopping experience in a new and evolving world are obviously essential. Hence, in this research, the study of customer experience in Iran online retailing and designing a comprehensive model for online retailing in Iran is considered.
In present research, a sample of 15 experts in the online retailing was selected for the semi-structured interviews and for measuring the original model, participants were selected from 5 online retailers in Tehran. The participants were 406 customers who had at least a purchase experience from online retailing based in Tehran during last year. A mixed method research design was conducted. In the qualitative phase, the main components of original model were developed through in-depth interviews with the participants. The interviews were investigated by content analysis and the items were extracted. In the quantitative phase which was used for testing the developed model, the questionnaires were used for collecting data. It consisted of main components which were measured on five-point likert scale. The construct validity of the questionnaire was estimated through running Structural Equation Modeling using Smart PLS software. Furthermore, reliability of research instrument was also obtained larger than 0.07 using Cronbach’s Alpha Test, indicating high validity of the questionnaires. In the end, data was analyzed by Inferential Statistics through Structural Equation Modeling in PLS software. The purpose of this study was to design a model for the antecedents and outcomes of experience in Iran online retailing. The final result showed that the antecedents includes: factors associated with the organization, factors associated with the customer, factors associated with the website as well as identified micro and macro factors .In addition, two factors of loyalty to the online retailer and trust to the online retailer are also the outcomes of customer experience in Iran e-retailing. As we observed in this study, the role of antecedents of experience in Iran e-retailing is significant and should not be disregarded. Especially, it should be highlighted that still macro and micro factors are affecting the experience which are out of the hands of the organization. In addition, because they are playing a direct and also a mediating role in Iran e-retailing experience, they should be considered as well as other antecedents. Meanwhile, the loyalty and trust to the online retailing are the experience outcomes, which showed that the experience creation by e-retailing would be the key for achieving the competitive advantages and goals.