The importance of feedback in an omni channel environment

Abstract

M.Com. (Information Technology Management)Abstract: Online shopping has become popular in the 21st century. Consumers often face extremely busy schedules. Some do not even have the time to stop at a physical retail store to purchase essentials. Many consumers prefer to purchase items online and have them delivered to them at their homes or at their places of work. Online shopping is a convenient, and sometimes more accessible method of purchasing goods. Consumers expect the same level of experience in both an online store and a physical retail store. It is important for online shoppers to have the same variety of options online as they would in a physical retail store. Therefore, the use of consumer feedback will assist an organisation to ensure that consumers are satisfied with the service they receive. It is important to ensure that consumers have an excellent experience while shopping online so that they can return to the online store and purchase more products. This will also allow the organisation to gain a competitive advantage in an Omni Channel environment. Most often, organisations have a primary focus which is to outclass their competitors by gaining more consumers. Attracting new consumers means that an organisation has the competitive edge which makes them unique and sets them apart from their competitors. In order to ensure that an organisation improves their consumer experience, it is recommended that they gather feedback from consumers on an annual basis. However, gathering consumer feedback has been a challenge for numerous organisations. In this study, the researcher investigates how an organisation can obtain consumer feedback to gain a competitive advantage; how an organisation can determine what consumer feedback will assist them in obtaining a competitive advantage; what the major factors are that affect a consumer’s experience while shopping online; and to determine if consumer feedback is necessary to improve the consumer’s experience. A mixed method approach will be used to obtain the necessary data. The researcher will make use of a qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured focus groups interviews at organisations who already gather data from their consumers. The quantitative approach will be conducted through structured questionnaires which will be distributed to consumers. Consumers who are part of this study support the organisations who were interviewed in the semi-structured focus groups. The data collected from both..