E-DISLOYALTY: UNDERSTANDING INDIAN CUSTOMERS’ UNCERTAINTY TO REPURCHASE ONLINE

Purpose- Brand loyalty is an important and widely researched topic for building a strong consumer base for fashion and lifestyle online stores. It however could be generating converse results. To study the behavior of people aware of the brand and possessing a negative attitude towards is just as important. “Disloyalty” in market research for the first time is termed as a state of “no loyalty” by Rowley & Dawes. In context of Indian consumer, this paper studies the term “disloyalty” and tries to bridge the literature gap. Design/methodology/approach- Both qualitative and quantitative approaches through content analysis and surveys have been used to explore “e-disloyalty”. Content analysis of 410 customer reviews derived from five online review websites and survey filled by 165 respondents led to the formation of four disloyalty factors. Findings- These factors represented a disloyalty scale consisting of 15 items. It was observed that 4 factors alone contribute for almost 64% of the variance in the items. Explaining almost 45% of the variance, “unreliability of the shopping portal” is observed to be one of the main governing reasons leading to customer disloyalty. Research limitations/implications- In this study the developed model is pertinent to the particular market of fashion and lifestyle. Nonetheless, the thrived factors can be used in online retailing for the measurement and development of other categories as well. Practical implications- The implications of the findings can be useful for a web portal as it might help in perceiving the obstacles which come in the path of an expanding consumer base and having a competitive edge Originality/value- This paper adds to the literature by providing insight to the concept of e-disloyalty with context to Indian consumer and how factors leading to edisloyalty may be looked as tools to manage consumer loyalty