The Accessibility of the Internet

Abstract— The accessibility of the Internet and lower costs of

doing transactions have given rise in customers bargaining power and intense global competition. Although the Internet has great potential for consumer value reports indicate that consumers vary in their levels of Internet adoption. Among the factors causing consumers lack of adoption is perceived risk associated with online transactions.
This study explores the roles of perceived risk and user’s experience level in determining consumers’ adoption level. In addition, the effect of consumers’ level of experience on perceived risk is examined. Meanwhile, customers’ behaviours vary depending on several factors such as demographics, technology literacy and experience level and so forth which will then influence their assessment of service quality entailing brand loyalty. Based on the belief that marketing to well-defined segments of customers would improve the quality of services offered affording higher retention rates and at the same time increase firms’ profitability in the long run many companies have opted to implement customer relationship management (CRM) programs. Hence, this study also aims to understand the relationships between consumer’ behaviour and internet marketing programs. Findings from this study indicate that perceived risk does not influence the types of activities conducted on the Internet. In contrary, users’ experience level plays an important role in users’ level of Internet adoption. In addition, our findings also revealed that customers differ in their relationship decisions based on age, education and experience level. We discuss the implications to managers and future directions of research.

Keywords—Customer relationship behaviour, Internet adoption, retention.

marketing,