What do Amazon customers value in terms of their online transactions?
Abstract
The title of the project is “What do Amazon Customers value in terms of their online transactions?” The research aim is to find out the value searched by the customers during their online transactions. The research follows mixed method and the data is collected through both the primary and the secondary sources. A questionnaire is designed to know the experiences, views and opinions of the targeted population in the UK. 100 responses were gathered and in order to analyse 10 samples are taken out and evaluation is also made on the basis of findings, recommendations are given.
Acknowledgement
I am very thankful to all those who helped me in completing my research project. First of all, I express my heartily thanks and gratitude to my teachers and professors who helped me and guided me at every step of my project. They encouraged me to complete my project successfully.
I am very thankful to my parents who supported at every stage of this project. I also acknowledge my friends, the school staff which were surveyed and all others who gave their support in completing this research completely.
Contents
Abstract
Acknowledgement
Task 1
1 A. Introduction
1 B. Literature review
1 C. Methodology
Task 2A Implementation of Research Project
Undertake the proposed research investigation in accordance with the agreed specification and procedures
Record and collate relevant data where appropriate
Task 2 B Evaluation of the research
Application of appropriate research evaluation techniques
Interpretations and analysis of the results: -
Findings & recommendations
Findings
Recommendations
Conclusion
References
Task 1
1 A. Introduction
The section will provide a detail about the selected topic which is “research title” and the review of its literature will be done along with the discussion of factors which are responsible for the selection of a research topic. An action plan will be prepared which will showcase the time taken by each activity in the research.
There is effective development is made in the technology and with this effect there is adequate increase in the internet usage. Along with this there is effective increment is noted down in the Globalisation with this effect most of the organisation shift their business from the offline platform to online platform in order to increase their market share and target new customers. With the use of the internet they become able to do so and in this Amazon become effective as it provide adequate level of platform to the organisation where they sell out their products (Chen, 2015).
Amazon is the effective platform where numerous of vendor sell out their products whether it is electronics or fashion brands or sports equipment and many more. Everything is getting sold out at the Amazon platform. Amazon made tie-ups with different brands and stores in order to make sales of their products over their platform and with this effect they become successful to render variety of products to the customers from where they can choose their desired products (Chen, 2015).
There are various competitors are available in the market for the Amazon but then also they are performing well. They set their vision as they are focusing over getting customer experience and for this purpose they offer products at low prices along with wide range of selection to their respective customers. Their vision is to become the brand which provide “Earth’s biggest selection and to be Earth’s most customer centric company.” As per their statement “We work to earn repeat purchases by providing easy-to-use functionality, fast and reliable fulfilment, timely customer service, feature rich content and a trusted transaction environment.”(Golden, 2013)
This statement get verified as their customers are highly satisfied by their services rendered as they deliver the product within 2-3 days and having secure payment systems. These two features are showing customer oriented approach as they don’t want to lose even single customer due to these factors. Amazon having three set of customers such as customers, seller customers and developer customers and they are trying their level best in order to satisfy the need of all three customers’ sets.
(Golden, 2013)
Research Title: What do Amazon Customers value in terms of their online transactions?
Research Aim:
The aim of research study to evaluate the customer’s value in terms of their online transactions over the Amazon
Research objectives:
There are few objectives need to be attained so that research aim can easily attained. Objectives are:
- Evaluate the factors considered by customers while making online transactions?
- Evaluate the need and wants of customers before making online transactions? (Bauer, 2013)
Research questions:
Following are the research questions which are to be answered by using the information collected through Primary and Secondary sources:
- Amazon renders adequate products and services to their customers?
- Why customers make purchases over the Amazon?
- Evaluate the values considered by the customers during their online transactions? (Bauer, 2013)
Action plan or Research Planning: This includes the plan for completing the research. Time will be allocated for completing each activity carried out in the research and it will be shown graphically too.
Analysis: The analysis of the data collected will be done with the help of charts and graphs which will make easy for the user to understand. It will also help in making the final conclusion of the research.
Findings and conclusion: After the analysis of the data collected, the findings will be drawn which will be used to make collusion and to give the recommendations for the study.
Bibliography: This section contains the sources which are referred to collect the data and to complete the research according to the specific criteria and formats (Linton, 2011).
Presentation: This is the section where the research will be presented with the analysis and findings in the form of graphs and charts in power point presentation.
1 B. Literature review
The relevant literature will be discussed over here which contains the knowledge about the title of the project. The literature will support the title of the research project. As the research study is performed over the value considered by the customers during online transactions over Amazon. As Amazon already provide better level of services and after sales service, along with this they provide low prices and quality products (Linton, 2011).
There are various values which can be considered by the customers such as selection, price and availability of the products, convenience, product related information, discovery, brand recognition, personalised services, adequate level of customers services (after sales services), reliability, ease of use, speed of fulfilment and overall experience.
Amazon was started in the year 1994 in United States and they were dealing in online bookstore, alter on diversify their business as they start selling DVDs, Blu-rays, software, video games, electronics, fashion brand and many more items. As the time passes their category list is enhancing and soon become world’s largest provider of cloud infrastructure services. In order to enhance their services for their customers they introduce separate retail websites for many countries such as United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, Mexico, India, China, Japan, Brazil, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands and Australia. They also provide shipping facility over various products in order to enhance the customer’s experience (Simchi-Levi, 2010). There are few aims of the Amazon in order to enhance their market share such as:
- They want to increase the customer traffic over their website as the time passes
- They always try their level best in order to aware their customers about their products and services
- They tries to promote repeat purchases
- They always tries to develop incremental products and services in order to attain the revenue opportunities
- With the help of their service level they try to strengthen and broaden their Brand name Amazon.com in the whole world (Simchi-Levi, 2010).
Most of the major values are discounts, offers, cash-back offers; sales, etc. are considered by the customers while doing online transaction over the Amazon. Amazon promotes the online transactions as they render low price and high quality products to their customers over their platform. Most of the customers get satisfied with the level of services rendered by them as their after sales services are effective which is also termed as the “value” considered by the customers at the time of online transactions. Amazon is highly focused over the customer centricity approach and tries to satisfy their customers in an effective manner.
Most of the time they provide free-shipping facility to their customers and the duration of delivery is 2-3 days after placing orders whereas their competitors also render free delivery option but the delivery duration is varies a lot because they took almost one week to deliver their product to the customers. Due to this effective service Amazon get the competitive advantage over their competitors. They open customer service stations at different places in order to facilitate their customers and enhance their customer services. They make calls in order to get the customer feedbacks. They effectively value even single customer in order to promote the repeat purchases and get the growth at rapid pace as compare to their competitors (Treanor, 2010).
1 C. Methodology
This section contains the methods adopted to carry out the research and the information about the sources which are been used to collect the data for the purpose of conducting the research. Information can be collected through questionnaires, personal interviews, observations or through existing researched material (Kumar, 2014).
Research Methods
Mixed method will be adopted for carrying out the research in which both qualitative and quantitative data will be used (Kumar, 2014).
Data collection
Data will be collected through primary and secondary sources. The methods which will be used are questionnaire, observation, interviews and the data will also be collected from the websites, journals and books.
Ethical consideration
All the ethics will be considered while conducting research. No individual will be harmed and valid permissions are taken from the legal authorities in order to get the information from different secondary sources (Bellamy, 2012).
Limitations
Every research project has certain limitations which are to be faced by the researcher. The limitations could be the shortage of time or resources for carrying out the research. The limitations of this research is the shortage of time as there is less time available for completing the whole project (Bellamy, 2012).
Action Plan
Activity / Description / Time IntervalA / Selection of topic and preparation of the base of research / 2 weeks
B / Collection of data / 4 weeks
C / Evaluation and analysis / 4 weeks
D / Presentation of the data / 1 week
E / Final conclusion and recommendations / 2 weeks
(Mackey & Gass, 2015)
Gantt chart
(Mackey & Gass, 2015)
Task 2A Implementation of Research Project
Undertake the proposed research investigation in accordance with the agreed specification and procedures
The proposed research investigation will be carried out by following the measures which includes the use of Primary Data as well as Secondary Data:
Primary data:
Primary data is the data which is collected first handed by the researcher. This data is not used previously by anyone else and collected first time through the primary sources of data which are interviews, survey questionnaires, observation, etc. In this research the Primary data is collected from the public. Interviews are conducted with the individuals. The questionnaire contains 10 questions and is distributed among the targeted population in United Kingdom which are selected randomly from all the available population in United Kingdom. These questionnaires are given to 100 individuals who are selected randomly and the questionnaire is collected once it is filled by the respondents (Noble & Bestley, 2011).
Once the questionnaire are collected, it will be evaluated and analysed with the help of statistical tolls and will be presented with the help of charts and graphs so that the results can be shown to the user in the best possible understandable manner. After analysing, the findings are received which will be used in making up the final conclusion and at last in making recommendations.
Secondary Data:
The secondary data is the one which has already been collected from someone else earlier and it is now used by others for the purpose of completing the research. Secondary data can be collected through Internet websites, journals, previous research papers, etc. For the purpose of this research the secondary data is been collected from Internet websites and journals. The researches which are already done will be referred to solve out the questions of this research. This will provide a complete idea about the topic to the researcher (Noble & Bestley, 2011).
Record and collate relevant data where appropriate
This is the data collection section where the data for the purpose of research is been collected by using various methods and this data will be used for making findings of the research.
Sampling: random sampling is been used for selecting the respondents of the survey for this research. The research is conducted over 100 individuals in the United Kingdom.
The results derived from the questionnaire are used for findings and then the final conclusions are drawn. The questionnaire is for the purpose of collecting information and the details of the respondents will be kept confidential (Habib, et. al., 2014).
Questionnaire: -
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Profession:
S. No. / Questions / Highly agree / Agree / Neutral / Disagree / Highly Disagree1. / Online market is growing rapidly which increases the ratio of online shopping
2. / Online presence signifies that you are an updated and advanced user
3. / Amazon is a great platform to buy and sell things and services
4. / Online market has lots of pros and cons in it which need to evaluated by the customers only at the time of purchasing
5. / The greatest drawback of the online market is you cannot touch the items you want to purchase
6. / Amazon provide lots of variety in different sections to make online purchases
7. / Quality of products sold over Amazon is not meeting the quality standards.
8. / Amazon renders adequate after sales service and their customers are highly satisfied with their services.
9. / The products sold over Amazon are outdated or having low expiry date.
10. / Services of Amazon are better than its competitors.
(Habib, et. al., 2014)
Task 2 B Evaluation of the research
Application of appropriate research evaluation techniques
Research Evaluation technique:
Research is the process to answer certain questions and research methods are used to evaluate the results for the research topic which is “research title”. There are many methods and techniques by which the research can be evaluated. These different techniques are discussed as under:
Peer review: This is a systematic evaluation method which plays a very important role in the evaluation of data. It validates the research and this method is broadly accepted. It consumes a lot of time (Kuada, 2012).
Analysis of Case study: It is the tool which evaluates the problem of the research in depth and this method is also accepted widely by many researchers. It is resource intensive type of technique to evaluate research.
Biliometric Analysis: This is the analysis which is done to measure the quantitative data of the research; it shows the quality of output. It shows that what is the current global trend but do not evaluate the future potential. Comparisons are made between journal and other references but for that the data should be normalised (Kuada, 2012).
Surveys: Surveys are used to identify the outputs of the research. The effectiveness of the particular program is measured through surveys. This evaluates quantitative data.
In this research, the survey evaluation technique is used to evaluate the data which has been gathered through survey questionnaire designed. This technique of evaluation has a benefit that it does not consumes more time and provides quantitative as well as qualitative technique which will be easily accepted and understood by the users. A lot of attention to be paid on the validity and genuineness on the results of the survey to avoid any biasness (Kuada, 2012)
The respondents should be promised that their confidentiality will be maintained and the data received should be protected accurately with the help of passwords so that no unauthorised person can make access.
Interpretations and analysis of the results: -
The researcher has conducted a survey and the questionnaire has been designed with the questions which contain questions to evaluate their experiences, views and opinions. The survey is conducted over the 100 individuals in order to get the information out of which only 10 Reponses are utilised for evaluation purpose. The analysis of questionnaire will help in making the findings of the research and finally help in giving the recommendations (Kuada, 2012). The analysis is done with the help of tables and charts which are given below:
Table 1: Online market is growing rapidly which increases the ratio of online shopping