Web Systems Design and Online Consumer Behavior [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Conclusion

In practice, it is advantageous for the Web sites to offer some form of support for
personalization or virtual community as this makes the Web site to be perceived as more adaptive.
This will facilitate better communication between the Web site and the shoppers, thus leading to
higher levels of customer loyalty. Companies do understand that in practical terms it takes a lot
more money and effort to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing customer and arguments
presented in this chapter throws new light on the role of support for personalization and consumer
reviews in increasing customer loyalty.

Good personalization systems can be very expensive to set up. Enabling an e-commerce Web site
with the necessary tools to build a vibrant community costs little (especially when compared to
personalization systems), as the community members provide the content. The results of the study
offer evidence that Web sites by providing support for consumer reviews could reap the benefits in
terms of increased adaptiveness despite offering very little personalization. However, the ways and
means of implementing support for personalization and virtual communities deserve further research.
Future research should examine the implementation of these features in finer detail. This will help
the organizations understand more in depth the trade-offs involved in providing different types and
levels of personalization and virtual communities.