Abstract:

Retail customers’ tendencies to switch or not to switch have been extensively examined in the traditional (offline) context, both conceptually and empirically, and in the fields of marketing, economics and psychology. However, research into online retail switching tendencies is a fairly recent development and is comparatively limited with little empirical work examining the presence, frequency or impact of switching barriers and inducements, especially in an online services context. There is some research that suggests that it is both crucial and more difficult to manage customer retention online. Reasons posited for this difference include: low to non-existent switching costs; low search costs; availability of online alternatives; advent of shopbots; etc. However, there is empirical evidence suggesting that there is a stickiness to online customers and that they do less comparative shopping than might be expected.