Research Proposal

Research Project

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................1
Research Aim & Objective................................................................................................................1
Research objectives...........................................................................................................................1
Research Questions...........................................................................................................................2
Critical review of key references.......................................................................................................2
Customer loyalty............................................................................................................................2
Importance of consumer loyalty within the online retailing segment.............................................2
Factors affecting customer Loyalty in Online Retail.....................................................................3
Plan and Procedure............................................................................................................................5
Matching of resources....................................................................................................................6
Questionnaire survey.........................................................................................................................7
Research Limitation...........................................................................................................................8
Use appropriate research evaluation techniques................................................................................8
Research Approach........................................................................................................................8
Research Philosophy.....................................................................................................................8
Research Design............................................................................................................................8
Data Collection.............................................................................................................................8
Sampling........................................................................................................................................9
Data Analysis................................................................................................................................9
Interpretation and analysis of data.....................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................13
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Consumers are considered as a most important part of any organization. It is quite
essential for companies to motivate their workers in order to perform well. This is the best
way through which they can provide high quality services to all their customers. Within the
area of online retailing there are several factors which affect the buying decisions of
customers such as visibility of website, price, quality of services, delivery etc (Torres and
Kline, 2013). These are some of the most common ways which highly affects the loyalty of
customers. Before several decades a retail store is the only shop from where consumers buy
several products on daily basis. This is not the case anymore. Nowadays, people are highly
attracted towards the online shopping as they can buy everything from here on a short time
period. With having several positive factors there are some negative factors which highly
affect the decisions of customers (Christodoulides and de, Chernatony, 2010). Each and every
online retailer tries to attract customers by satisfying their needs and making the right product
available for its customers. It also helps in making right product choice for their customers
and motivating them to go through the making of appropriate purchase decision.
The present research is based on the case study of Ocado Company which is British
online supermarkets and has been voted as best online supermarkets of UK. The main aim of
this study is to evaluate all those factors which affect the consumer loyalty within the online
retailing segment which affects the customer loyalty. According to Heinonen (2010) being a
loyal customer, consumer always expect quality services from company. Due to this factor,
company should take several steps by which all their workers feels motivated and give
advanced services to their customers.
Research Aim & Objective
To identify the factors that affects the customer loyalty in online retailing in the
UK: Case study of Ocado
Research objectives
 To identify the importance of consumer loyalty within the online retailing segment
Ocado.
 To evaluate the current trends prevailing in online retailing segment
 To analyse different factor that affects the consumer loyalty in Ocado
 To provide different recommendations in order to gain consumer loyalty within the
Ocado online retailing company.
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Research Questions
What are the various factors which majorly affects the loyalty of customer within the
online retailing segment?
Critical review of key references
This is the most important sections of any research under which researcher can fill all
the prevailing gaps of existing literatures. Further, this section gives appropriate information
about the consumer loyalty as well as factors which affects them.
Customer loyalty
It is considered as a most important concern in which companies need to maintain
their service quality in order to maintain consumer loyalty. According to (Dick and Basu,
2004) customer loyalty is both attitudinal as well as behavioural tendency through which they
can favour only one brand over all others. It is highly linked with the satisfaction with
product as well as convenience, performance and familiarity and comfort. Loyalty is the only
factor which encourages customers to shop more consistently and also feel positive about
shopping experience. In this competitive environment it is becoming quite difficult for
companies to develop several strategies through which they can attract more number of
people. Hsin Chang and Wang (2011) stated that it is the result of consistently positive
emotional experience as well as perceived value of an experience which includes the products
and services. Liu, Guo and Lee (2011) in his article defines that retaining customer is quite
difficult than acquiring new one. There is a consumer experience management which is the
most cost effective way to drive customer satisfaction and customer retention. With the help
of this company can gain higher competitive advantage as well as loyalty (Qureshi and et.al,
2009).
Importance of consumer loyalty within the online retailing segment
According to Bai, Law and Wen (2008) customer loyalty plays a critical role in an
organizations success. It is also considered as a main objective for strategic marketing
planning. It is the best way which secures the relationship between customers as well as
services. Shoham and Makovec (2003) defines that loyalty occurs when a customer buy a
product or service repeatedly. It clearly determines that there is a huge scope and source due
to which customers are attracted towards a single company or source. Moreover, clients are
loyal towards a brand based on their information on that brand. It defines that company needs
to provide right as well as appropriate information to their customers.
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