SIMS

Service quality in e-commerce and strategic advantage:

An empirical assessment
A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of
Master of Business Administration

Submitted By:
Ankit Rai
B-8
Rohit Ashok Kumar B - 37
Rooma Sinha
B - 38
Ruchika Adhikari
B - 39

Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies

Symbiosis International University, Pune

September 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the people who have been instrumental in
the successful completion of this project.
We are extremely thankful to Professor Dr. Asha Nagendra, the guide of this project. She has
guided us on this research, correcting various documents and amending them with attention
and care. She has taken pains to go through the project and make necessary corrections as and
when required at each and every step.
We express our thanks to the Director of Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune
for extending his support.
We would also like to show great appreciation for the support extended to us by the
respondents, which was vital for the success of the project.
We would also like to thank our parents, friends and colleagues for helping us.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. No.

Chapters

Page No.

1.

Introduction

2.

Literature Review

2-3

3.

Methodology

4-5

4.

Data Analysis

6-13

5.

Summary

14-16

6.

Conclusion and Recommendations

17

7.

References

18

8.

Appendix

19-22

LIST OF TABLES

S. No.

Table Name

Page No.

1.

General information of the respondents

2.

Favourite e-commerce website for shopping:

3.

Purpose for using e-commerce websites

4.

Major types of products that are bought online

5.

General feedback on website and its marketing

6.

Level of competitiveness of price of products as

compared to retail stores
Experience in terms of merchandise quality and
delivery time
Views on the level of after-sales or general customer
support

7.
8.

9
10

9.

Rating of the quality of packaging of the product

11

10.

Average time taken by e-commerce companies to cater

to services

12

11.

Preference for shopping

12

12.

Specific problems faced while shopping online

12

LIST OF FIGURES

S. No.

Figure Name

Page No.

1.

General feedback on website and its marketing

2.

Experience in terms of merchandise quality and delivery

time

3.

Views on the level of after-sales or general customer

support

10

4.

Specific problems faced while shopping online

13

Service quality in e-commerce and strategic advantage: An

empirical assessment

Abstract
In order to study the service quality offered by e-commerce websites, an
explorative study was conducted on 100 respondents of different profiles and
age groups which varied from college-goers to the married working
professionals. The focus of the study was to understand the quality of services
rendered by e-commerce websites to their customers and whether they are able
to satisfy their desires in order to have an edge over offline retail stores.
Different factors like age, gender, profession, annual income, and preferred ecommerce websites were considered to study the impact of e-commerce stores
on the lives of the respondents. Based on these factors a questionnaire was
prepared and floated amongst youth and working professionals and their
responses were recorded. It was observed that with the new technological
advancement in the internet and the opening up of various e-commerce
websites, which are available for easy access, people these days are excessively
dependant on the internet as a source of information as well as to carry out
different routine activities, a majority of these being online shopping. The study
highlighted that the customers find the service quality offered by e-commerce
websites to be satisfactory and also that there is uniformity between services
rendered by e-commerce websites and the customers experienced service. The
study also revealed some problems faced by the customers while shopping
online like untimely delivery of goods, defects in packaging, delay in
confirmation of orders and slow websites.
Keywords: e-commerce, service quality, online shopping