IMPACT FACTORS ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMERS ORDERING THROUGH SUPPLIERS' SELF-CONSTRUCTED E-PLATFORMS

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the rise of the Internet, many enterprises are now undertaking transactions through various e-platforms to reduce corporate transaction costs. Generally speaking, it is easier for customers to ask suppliers to conduct transactions on assigned transaction platforms since the customers have bargaining power. However, when suppliers ask customers to order products on assigned e-platforms, customers are usually not willing to do so unless it is sellers' market or the suppliers provide enough incentives. Thus, the benefits of online transactions undertaken via suppliers' e-platforms may not always be realized. To investigate what influences the decision of customers to place their orders on e-platforms constructed by the suppliers, this study undertakes both a literature review and expert interviews to develop a factor table for adopting the suppliers' e-platform with a three-level hierarchical structure, and then designs a pair-wise comparison questionnaire in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) format. This work collects the opinions of customers of a well-known, domestic paper company, some of whom have used its e-platform and some of whom have not used, and then calculates the weights of each factor by fuzzy AHP. Finally, this paper analyzes the degree of importance of each factor between customers, who have adopted and have not adopted the e-platform, and further provides some suggestions as references for suppliers as they develop strategies to increase customer acceptance of ordering through suppliers' self-constructed e-platforms.