Submitted by:
DIPAK KUMAR

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TITLE OF THE PROJECT
"A Study on e-loyalty at e-bay India operations and effects of brand loyalty"
“As customers embrace e-commerce they have escalated expectations about service and support to enable them to shop online. Customer service applications in electronic commerce (Online customer service) are more critical than in conventional sales, since customers and merchants do not meet face-to-face. A click of a mouse is enough for an online customer to select a new provider.”
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND PROBLEM STATEMENT
E-loyalty can be defined as feelings or attitudes that incline a customer to re-visit a website for information, communication or entertainment purposes, or to re-purchase a particular product or service from an online business. While many online business models exist, e-loyalty is critical to business success and profitability.
E-loyalty is determined by a number of factors including content (which needs to be kept fresh, relevant and meticulously updated), relationship strength, perceived alternatives and critical episodes.
Customer’s loyalty is one of the biggest concerns by companies today. Most companies are trying to create and keep customer’s loyalty. With the development of the Internet, more and more companies are finding new ways to do business. The concept of e-loyalty has been an area of growing interest by both companies and in the scholarly literature. How to build e-loyalty; (i.e. loyalty to the websites, that organizations develop) has become the focus of this study.
This thesis is based on the topic purpose of gaining a better understanding of online customer service in building e-loyalty. A qualitative, case study approach is used to investigate two websites. Research questions related to the online environment as well as the organization’s customer service and response to inquiry were stated. My findings show that an online environment as well as how a customer is handled (and responded to) is of key importance in building e-loyalty.
Building and maintaining customer relationships are the key to success in e-commerce, which depends on maintaining effective customer service. They also suggest that in e-commerce unless service is maintained, customer loss may result more than offsetting any cost-efficiencies due to the introduction of e-commerce technology. Relationships in the business-to-business environment are based heavily on information exchange, which has a fundamental effect on market growth and structure. In B2C e-commerce Singh et al. suggest that effective customer support and services are vital to encourage customer’s to shop online as it is a lonely experience, does not allow touch and feel and has a high degree of concern regarding security and privacy of information., when a network links supplier and customer, in each of these functions information is entered, used, generated, and transmitted by internal information systems, which potentially may be shared between the parties. In each function there are opportunities to gather information during customer procurement activities, and to use this information to improve the possibility of continuing a profitable relationship between partners. Information is integrated to improve service, save customers' time and ease frustration.
Electronic commerce is exponentially increasing the availability of information, giving customers access to more knowledge of better quality and faster than before. Businesses online provide an information-rich environment by which competitors can identify, match and improve product innovation. A company that can respond to the needs of customers, accommodate their requests promptly and support their buying decisions creates value and wins customer’s patronage and e-loyalty .
In order to achieve optimum customer service, most industry is now realizing the need to provide online customer support called web-based customer service. The goal of web-based customer service is to give customer’s 24/7 access to easy, cost-effective online self-service. Moving routine interactions online saves. For example, Cisco Systems saves nearly $270 million annually, with increased customer satisfaction. Today over 80 percent of all Cisco customer support questions are answered by Web self-service, vaporizing an estimated 75,000 phone calls per month. Customers can even take delivery of software online.
Online customers expect fast, friendly and high quality service. They want choice, convenience and a responsive service with a personal touch In the electronic commerce environment clients are more discerning with increased options and solutions available to them. The increased information available to marketers and advertisers, the streamlined supply chain, and the new retail channel, made possible by electronic commerce, significantly affect the satisfaction of customers, whether they are individual consumers or in other businesses. In electronic commerce all potential Internet users are potential customers. For businesses to win these potential customers and to convert them into real ones depends on effective customer relationship management.
OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED STUDY
1. A Study on e-loyalty at e-bay India operations and effects of brand loyalty.
2. How online environment (i.e. website design) helps in attracting more customers.
3. Web-based customer service and response to customer inquiry are part of each other
4. From a social-psychological perspective, the research will examine how trust and e-loyalty are built in online environments.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methodology choices in this study gave guidelines for how I should gather information for the research and how to process it. The research purpose is the first topic discussed followed by the research approach and strategy. Then I will review the data collection, sample selection, analysis method, and the quality criteria
1. Research Purpose
There are many ways to carry out research. Most types of research can be classified according to how much the researcher knows about the problem before starting the investigation. According to Yin and Wiedersheim-Paul & Eriksson there are three classifications of research available when dealing with a research problem: exploratory, descriptive, or causal.
2. Research Approach
The research approach is often either quantitative or qualitative. Selectivity and distance to the object of research characterize a quantitative approach whereas a qualitative approach is characterized by nearness to the object of research. Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses and neither one of the approaches can be held better than the other one. The best research method to use for a study depends on that study’s research purpose and the accompanying research questions.
Two types of data can be collected, primary and secondary data.
(1)Primary Data: Primary data is recognized as data that is gathered for a specific research in response to a particular problem through, e.g., interviews, questionnaires, or observations.
(2)Secondary Data: Whereas secondary data information can be obtained through various kinds of documents, e.g., research reports, annual reports, books, and articles.
Content analysis
Business content analysis is a major Website issue because the quality of presentation and usefulness of the content determine whether a potential customer will be attracted to, or driven away, from the site. Recommended remedies are as follows:
Use clear and concise text with proper spelling and grammar to describe the business
This is by far the most commonly prescribed recommendation in the literature. Too often business Websites are ambiguous – one has no clue as to what the business is really about, what the company sells, or what its services are. An example is carleson.com, which presents too many companies, including major travel services, but you cannot even make a reservation.
Analysis Pattern
The ultimate goal of analyzing data is to treat the evidence fairly, to produce compelling analytical conclusions and to rule out alternative interpretations. Data analysis involves turning a series of recorded observations into descriptive statements. Before data actually can be analyzed, the researcher(s) carrying out a case study can choose between two general analytical strategies: relying on theoretical propositions or developing a case description