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Contemporary Logistics 06 (2012) 1838-739X
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Contemporary Logistics
Journal homepage: www.seiofbluemountain.com
The Researches on Optimizing Path of Virtual Experience in
Online Shopping Based on the Perspective of Customer
Satisfaction
Ping SONG1,*, Hongwei LI2, Xunguo YIN3
1,2. School of Economics and Management, Shandong University of Science and Technology, 266590, P.R. China
3. Business School, Renmin University of China, 100862, P.R. China
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Virtual experiential,
Experiential marketing,
Consumer satisfaction,
Online shopping
With the rapid development of network economy, customer virtual experience has been
considered to be a key concept in experience marketing. Consumer behavior, services
marketing and other underlying logic and managerial rationale for experience marketing is
well established in the marketing literature. However, both academics and practitioners on
this topic yet pay scant attention to the contributions of academics in the virtual experience
in online shopping based on the perspective of customer satisfaction. The purpose of this
paper is to review the extant work on experience marketing and then introduce ACSI model,
the relationship between the virtual experience and the consumer satisfaction is also
discussed. And, four implications for practitioners and academics are suggested.
© ST. PLUM-BLOSSOM PRESS PTY LTD
1 Introduction
Over the last twenty-seven years, experience marketing had been a topical issue. Ever since Holbrook and Hirschman first introduced
the influential idea that consumer behavior has an experiential dimension (Holbrook and Hirschman 1982; Hirschman and Holbrook
1982) and postulated the experiential perspective as an alternative to the hegemonic information processing view to understanding
consumer behavior, there has been an increasing recognition amongst academics and practitioners of the need for marketers to have a
deeper understanding of the role of customer experiences in influencing customers behave, particularly in a service marketing or
retailing context.
In their influential paper, Pine and Gilmore (1998, p.98) stated that an experience occurs “when a company intentionally uses
services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event”. This view fixes
the experience firmly in the practitioners’ domain but also includes the customer. More recently practitioners have explicitly included
web-based interactive media alongside this as an economical, accessible and effective tool for creating and staging experiences
(Smilansky 2009; Jack Morton Worldwide 2007) and thus incorporating the virtual world’s mediated experiences along with the real
world’s lived experiences as part of experience marketing. Experience marketing mix should include five factors: experience, price,
environment, interaction and reputation. The success of the experience marketing implementation should be successful through the
*
Corresponding author.
Email: [email protected]
English edition copyright © ST. PLUM-BLOSSOM PRESS PTY LTD
DOI: 10.5503/J.CL.2012.06.016
93
EPSIW factor utilization (Guo Guoqing, 2008).
Nevertheless, the gulf between academics and practitioners in this area is now as wide as ever, since many of the bestselling titles on
experience marketing written by and for practitioners remain rich in examples and step-by-step guides to managerial success yet pay
scant attention to the contributions of academics to developing knowledge and understanding of experience marketing (Holbrook
2006b, 2007a, b and c). Indeed this unusually consistent and growing level of attention and convergence on a particular aspect of
marketing and consumption by so many groups of researchers and practitioners places this topic at the focal point of interest of all
parts of the academy and, as such, confirms that this topic warrants a review.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the extant work on experience marketing in order to establish ways of bridging
the divide between theory and practice in this respect. This exercise may be considered timely. The paper proceeds first by
acknowledging the lack of clarity in the marketing literature with regard to what exactly constitutes an experience and the conflation
of terms associated with experience marketing. Next, a summary of key academic contributions on experience marketing is followed
by the application of ACSI model in Chinese online shopping, before discussing how to create unforgettable virtual experiences and
emphasize the active role of customers in co-creating a valuable holistic experience of the service as opposed to products and
services. Finally, it is proposed that this new research paradigm could potentially help to bridge the divide between theory and
practice in experiential marketing.
In recent years, network shopping market is booming, either in the user scale or in the amount of online shopping, showing its huge
developing advantages and market potential. In 2011, Cnnic’s Report demonstrates that China's online shopping market development
is full of opportunities and challenges.
2 Virtual Experience: The Theme of Experiential Marketing in the Era of
Network Economy
Virtual experience is a mental state of consumer to interact with the commodity in the virtual environment (Li, 2001), including
website browsing experience and the process of shopping experience. In the era of the Web2.0, surfing on line becomes a lifestyle.
Consumers spend more and more time to learn, entertain and emotional sustenance in the virtual community. The interest in
experience marketing rise continuously in part due to the current challenges faced by marketing practitioners: the recognition of the
importance of customer experiences in the development of customer advocacy (Allen, Reichheld and Hamilton 2005) and the drive
to achieve competitive advantage (Gentile, Spiller and Noci 2007) while simultaneously achieving a reduction in the costs of
production interactions (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004), which is even more pertinent in the current recession. Active and pleasure
seeking consumers look for “fantasy, feelings and fun” through consumption (Holbrook and Hirschman 1982) which has served to
popularize experience marketing as it has given rise to the need to entertain, stimulate and emotionally affect consumers through the
consumption experience (Schmitt 1999a). Many websites also gradually realize that consumers rely on the network, began to provide
customers with a variety of network virtual experience: virtual goods, virtual service and experience. New technology has facilitated
both the real and virtual world interaction which enables experience marketing for consumers, many of whom are now members of
brand communities who “act as the living manifestation of the brand’s personality and relationship with consumers” (McWilliam
2000, p. 54). Consumer’s online shopping satisfaction will become an important factor to network consumption permeability. The
recognition of the importance of customer advocacy and the wide-scale adoption of the Net Promoter measure (Tiltman 2007;
Reichheld 2006) has motivated the adoption of experience marketing as personally relevant marketing experiences can generate
brand advocacy, loyalty and word of mouth (Smilansky 2009; Blazinstar 2007).
However, the internet is virtual so that consumers can not contact the real commodity, and the electronic business Service enterprises
are unable to stimulate Consumer's visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory and other sensory organs to make consumers get the
full experience, some scholars and enterprises have suspicion or even negative attitudes towards marketing experience under the
environment of internet. But with relatively cheap, available enabling technology, texts, pictures, sounds, images and other
information symbols can be integrated, customers can experience pleasure over functional benefits under more realistic environment.
(Li Haifeng, 2005).
The shopping network virtual experiential marketing to achieve the technical premise basically is to rely on "virtual reality" ( referred
to as Net Worked Virtual Environment, net-VE ), is a kind of virtual reality system based on network. It provides a shared virtual
space, so that geographically dispersed worldwide users for real-time interaction.
Compared to the reality experience marketing, virtual marketing experience has its unique advantages: Time and space without
restriction, convinient, more goods choice, competitive price, rich goods information, personalized products and customized products,
enjoyment and entertainment, etc. The realization of it will be objective factors, sensory factors, perceived factors, stimulus response
factors, cognitive and emotional factors, relative factors and encounter factors ( David, 1996).
3 ACSI Model in the Application of Virtual Experience in Online Shopping of
China
ACSI model shows that customer satisfaction (CS) has three premises (figure 3.1): customer expectation (CE), perceived quality (PQ)
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and perceived value (PV). It also associated with customer loyalty (CL) and customer complaints (CC). In the CNNIC’s report, virtue
experience of online shopping gets a higher overall satisfaction degree. Consumer satisfaction of C2C shopping website was lower
than B2C shopping website. The virtual experience of website, goods, service of post-purchasing and logistics is contributed to CS,
while payment experience to the satisfaction effect is not statistically significant (Figure 3.2, 2011.02).
CE
CL
PV
CS
CC
PQ
Figure 3.1 ACSI
Factors of CS
Factors dis-cs
1
2
Convenient
convenient
payment
search
The quality of
Service
goods
post-purchasing
Web
of
3
4
Site running
Useful
fast
information
privacy of
Logistics
information
Note: Rewriting According to the report of CNNIC, 2011.02
Figure 3.2 Factors of CS and dis-CS in China
Why customers are not satisfy with their virtual shopping experence? Why are they complaint on the online shopping? Why are they
reluctant to be involved in online shopping again? The main reason is commodity quality, such as, goods are not match to pictures,
fake commodity, inferior and damaged goods. The logistics problem is one of reasons: the delivery time is too long, the courier ’s
service attitude is not good, and has high freight.
The evaluation of customer satisfaction on various functions of the internet shopping site mainly comes from the previous
consumption experience. While on online shopping, customers gradually formed its own product or service cognitive, which is
perceptual slowly deepen, then performance with the product or service price comparison is the perceived value. The consumer
experience exists in each individual consumer with relatively hidden and overlooked, but it is real and gradually transformed to
customer expectations. Internet shoppers show high loyalty when they are satisfied with the experience.
4 The Optimization Measures
4.1 Provide more emotional interaction
Virtual community interaction, either information exchange or interpersonal interaction, will positively influence the flow experience
of virtual community members. (Hoffmna & Novak, 1996; Xu Chengli, 2002; Paee, 2004). It is anonymity, individual, freedom and
beyond time and space. Interaction allows marketers to more fully understand and better meet consumer demand. It also let the
brand and commodity information dissemination has a more diverse ways. BBS, instant messaging, user evaluation, E-mail and other
interactive technology may enhance the virtual experience.
4.2 Improve website characters, to bring customers the sensory shock and online attraction
Making their websites attractive must be one of the first priorities for these marketers. Thus, it is better for them to understand how
consumers evaluate the websites as well as their choices among the websites (Dallaert, 2000). A previous study finds: ① The factors
of entertainment, convenience, reliability, information quality and speed are important for choosing shopping sites. ② The factors of
entertainment, speed, information quality, and reliability are related to consumer satisfaction with Internet shopping. ③ The
entertainment factor must be combined with good information in order to satisfy customers in online shopping (Eroglu, Machleit and
Davis, 2001).
Experiential value perceptions are based upon interactions involving either direct usage or distanced appreciation of goods and
services. Thus, understanding consumers' responses to web sites is another important focus and issue for marketers. When marketers
design web interfaces in order to entice consumers, they are utilizing web atmospherics. A browsing and shopping experience on the
Internet may be enjoyable and stimulating itself, just as regular store shopping is to some consumers. Browsing on the Internet not
only provides cognitive and informational findings, but also provides a hedonic consumption experience. It is suggested some
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guidelines to improve websites for consumer shopping: 3D product display, friendly interface, rich information and so on.
4.3 Psychological positioning
4.4 Improve post-purchasing service to maintain online stickiness
From the preceding discussion, service level in post-purchasing is the most important. The marketers shall do a good job in the whole
process of Web services, to meet their demand for the full range of products and services, so as to get the maximum satisfaction
experience. Delivery, tracking service, efficient logistics, problem solving, complaint handling, and website provides full satisfaction
with the service. It can promote the online consumer long-term stickiness.
4.5 The security of online payment
Consumer most concerned about is the online payment security problem, and also hinder the development of online shopping. Such
as the user's privacy of personal information, transaction process bank account password, transfer the fund in the process safety
issues. Recently, there has been a growing new form of network crime is undoubtedly casts a shadow to it.
4.6 Shopping share
When buying a product under the internet virtual environment, consumers are increasingly inclined to someone they can trust and
other consumers to seek advice and guidance. Online Word of mouth can be transferred through various levels of transmission
network, and it consists of various forms: E-mail, BBS, blog, podcast, in which customer can actively participate (Guo guoqing, 2006.
09). They provide a shared virtual space, so that geographically dispersed users (worldwide) for real-time interaction.
5 Conclusion
Good experience is an important factor to determine the consumer online shopping satisfaction. Optimization of virtual experience is
complex system engineering. The enterprise should develop with network technology, regard virtual services as a platform and the
virtual goods as props, meet consumers’ demand, and make more true feelings to consumer. Once the consumer’s demand is satisfied,
the consumer’s shopping network degree of satisfaction will be enhanced.
In conclusion, this approach requires working with customers and members of an extended value creation network over a long time
to co-create complex value sources and not merely deliver an offer to them. It should be concerned with the new understandings of
the importance of customer experiences, and investigate problems encountered when creating virtue experiences in practice. Finally,
the research into the holistic consumption experience, and value creation processes in the value producing networks will be
conducted to fully understand the complex interactions in the actual contexts in which they occur.
References
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Psychology, 2003, 13 (4): 395-407.
[2]. Holbrook, M, and Hirschman, E. The experiential aspects of consumption: Consumer fantasies, feeling and fun [J]. Journal of
Consumer Research, 1982, 9 (2): 132-140.
[3]. GUO Guoqing, YANG Xuecheng. A Study of Word-of-Mouth Marketing and the Application Strategies in the Era of
Internet [J]. Journal of Finance and Economics, 2006, 09: 56-60. (in Chinese)
[4]. Pine II, B J, and Gilmore, J H. Welcome to the experience economy [J]. Harvard Business Review, 1998, 76 (4): 97-105.
[5]. Schmitt, B H. Experiential marketing [J]. Journal of Marketing Management, 1999, 15 (1): 53-67.
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