Customer relationship management and the impact of e-coupons on B2C retail markets

Abstract

As retail consumers are using mobile devices to access the internet for information and actual purchases, retails are trying to create promotional campaigns that take advantage of this trend by offering digital coupons. However, there are a number of consumer preferences that marketers need to understand when creating marketing strategies. A survey addressed five factors that could affect a customer's likelihood of utilising e-coupons. It was hypothesised that customers will consider themselves loyal customers, but will change their purchase habits for retail (e.g., clothing and accessory purchases) and electronic goods due to an e-coupon offer. Customers disliked e-coupons with threshold values regardless of their annual income. Customers will consider coupon misredemption fraud as an issue for businesses in a negative light, but will admit to searching for coupon codes online. Most of the hypotheses were found to be statistically significant, suggesting management may need to re-evaluate its strategy the B2C retail industry and change how retailers implement e-coupon campaigns as a vehicle to drive CRM initiatives.