RETAINING CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN ONLINE SHOPPING. A COMPARISON OF UK WITH RUSSIA

This study examines the retention of customer loyalty in online shopping and provides information on the UK and Russian markets and explains the differences between them. First, it gives an overview of the whole process of investigation. Secondly, it examines the customer loyalty concept in online shopping. Next, it reviews the profiles of the UK and Russia and their online markets. A quantitative research in the form of the email questionnaire for each country was conducted and the results are analysed. Finally, the conclusions of the study are reported with reference to each objective. This is followed by the limitations, and concludes with some suggestions for further research. The survey provided 109 usable results which were statistically analysed. The results showed that, in general, UK consumers were loyal but still paid attention to other websites offers. In contrast, Russian consumers were found to be not loyal. It was suggested that this could be due to the yet undeveloped online market in Russia. Furthermore, the study also showed that there were no significant differences between UK and Russia in terms of the importance of antecedents of customer loyalty. Therefore, the findings of this study agreed with the academic literature by proving the importance of antecedents of e-loyalty. Furthermore, the study also proved that countrys culture influenced the customer loyalty in online shopping. The recommendation for the online market in both countries is to provide excellent customer service in order to meet all the requirements of customers. Extra services such as customization, outlook of the website, cultivation, community, choice, convenience, security and a well-known brand should be also considered