Essential factors for building customer relationships on Facebook: Evidence from the Czech Republic

Abstract

E-commerce has become an integral part of the modern age. The behaviour of e-commerce customers has some specifics, which is useful for firms to understand. As customers??? trust and willingness to accept risk influence the decision to buy a product in e-commerce, it is evident that some unique factors must be in e-commerce which is needed to pay attention to be a successful seller. One of the trends affecting how to manage relations with customers is the use of firm profiles on social networks. This paper identifies factors related to the company???s Facebook profile that influence customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in e-commerce. Furthermore, non-traditional factors such as Self-efficacy or Data security are used. The study provides a primary basis for further research in this area. Data collection was done among e-commerce customers using a questionnaire survey (n = 602). For data analysis, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used. The determined construct contained a total of 9 variables. The findings confirmed that the following factors affect customer satisfaction and loyalty: the perceived usefulness and the amount of information on the Facebook company profile, the perceived Credibility of information given on this profile, the Data security offered by the social network, customer Self-efficacy and Ease of use of the given social network. The results supported the idea that it is possible to build relationships with customers in e-commerce via social networks. To offer credible information in an adequate frequency on the company profile is essential. Furthermore, it is helpful to consider customers??? perceived safety and Self-efficacy, which have also proven to be important in the online environment. These results can serve business practice.