The development strategy of electronic commerce in China: New perspective and policy implications

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore e-commerce development strategy from the consumer loyalty perspective in a Chinese context and to examine the impact of some key factors that affect e-commerce development in China. The policy implications are also presented. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected by the wide surveying of trained MBAs with different professional backgrounds. Confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis were then used to explore whether the "7C" model of consumer loyalty in electronic commerce is acceptable. Findings - The results show that security and reputation have the most positive impact on consumer loyalty, and playfulness is not significantly related to the potential variable it belongs to. To those enterprises planning to implement e-business in China, some advice is given; such as increasing the security and reputation of web sites and enhancing communications between buyers and sellers. Practical implications - The paper gives directions to the e-commerce enterprises in developing countries about how to improve consumer loyalty and enhance business competence. Online enterprises can build consumer loyalty by improving their web sites and learning about consumers' behaviors to provide customized products and services. The specific policy measures in China are suggested. Originality/value - While it is known that consumer loyalty is critical to online enterprises' success, little is known about how to build and improve e-loyalty in the emerging markets. This paper tries to bridge this gap by examining what affects e-loyalty, to help better understand consumer loyalty in the emerging markets like China.