Volume 11 Issue 1

The goal of this paper was to investigate the effectiveness of e-marketplaces for Cape Town's Small and Medium Retailers (SMRs). With the rise of e-commerce, small and medium retailers (SMRs) must find ways to stay connected to customers; geographical barriers should not be an impediment to their relationship with customers. The problem is that many South African small and medium enterprises (SMRs) have a difficult time adopting effective e-commerce trading platforms. Within a South African context, literature does not distinguish between e-commerce and e-marketplaces for SMRs. SMRs have been slow to adopt e-commerce, and an alternative to help SMRs take advantage of e-marketplaces has not been fully explored. The use of electronic marketplaces (EMs) is regarded as an easy and viable way for small and medium retailers to connect with customers and suppliers. The innovation diffusion theory (IDT) or diffusion of innovation (DOI) was used for this study. The effectiveness of electronic marketplaces as a trading platform is discussed and analysed in the literature review. In this study, a qualitative research approach was used. Based on the study's findings, analysis, and review of the literature, a framework for SMRs to evaluate the effectiveness of EMs as trading platforms was proposed. Furthermore, implementing the proposed framework necessitates a customized approach because no two SMRs are exactly alike and have different expectations from EM platforms. The study reached the conclusion that EMs are effective as trading platforms for SMRs in Cape Town.

In today's modern society, the multitude of technological advancements are encouraging an increasing number of people to utilize online shopping platforms. However, from the literature it has been noted that a large portion of consumers who add items to their virtual cart eventually abandon their shopping carts, and this behavior is related to several factors. The study aims to investigate the factors that influence online shopping cart abandonment, namely hedonic purposes, perceived transaction convenience, and organization and research within the South African context. A total of 247 responses were gathered by means of self-administered online questionnaires from South Africans over the age of 18 who had shopped online in the past. The results indicate that for both hedonic purposes and organisation and research, there is a positive statistically significant relationship with online shopping cart abandonment, yet no positive statistically significant relationship with online shopping cart abandonment, yet no positive relationship for perceived transaction inconvenience exists. For an online business to be successful, the above factors need to be taken into consideration when taking managerial decisions, which can lead to business implementing the necessary changes to maximise their online sales.

This study determines the attributes that are important in shopping centre selection in South Africa. In it, the researcher determined if shopping centre attributes are influenced by demographic factors. South Africa has witnessed an explosion of shopping centre development, including in rural areas. A survey was conducted in a shopping centre in Venda, South Africa, targeting shoppers who visited the mall at the time of data collection. Regression analysis was used to test the relationships between the constructs and to test the hypotheses. The results of this study showed that price, merchandise and social influence are the most important attributes for shopping centre patronage. The shopping centre attributes was found to be influenced by gender, age and frequency of shopping. The results of this study are important for managers to sustain their shopping centres in a highly competitive environment.

Through information technology, the world is moving towards the digital economy, giving rise to social commerce. This type of marketing be considered a new form of e-commerce that incorporates a holistic approach to social media with the aim of helping users buy and sell products and services online. This empirical research aims to estimate the effects of the cognitive and emotional mechanisms of consumer trust and intimacy on repurchase in social commerce platforms. Thus, it aims to analyze in detail the behavior of consumers based on satisfaction and user-generated content, focusing on the moderating role of the buying habit between trust and repurchase, intimacy and repurchase. In this research, a quantitative study was conducted, targeting Morocco in order to analyze the effects of cognitive and emotional mechanisms on consumers' repurchase intention regarding social commerce platforms. Based on this, we studied the behavior of 3,854 social media users, 2,251 of whom have already made purchase on social commerce platforms. We employed econometric modeling using partial least squares-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results of the structural equation estimation on all individuals who have already purchased on online sales platforms (2,251), showed firstly that there is a significant and positive relationship between the cognitive factors (Satisfaction and Confidence) on the intention and the repurchase behavior. As for the emotional factors (UGC and Intimacy), the relationship between these two constructs was found to be non-significant. However, intimacy was found to positively impact repurchase intention and behavior under moderation of buying habits.

During the pandemic, smartphone sales in Indonesia increased, especially for companies that continued to innovate, emphasize product quality, and develop creative products. This research aims to examine whether brand image, product quality, and lifestyle affect iPhone purchasing decisions. The method used in this study is a quantitative research method using primary data, conducted through surveys by distributing questionnaires in Yogyakarta Special Region Province, Indonesia. Respondents in this research are iPhone users in Indonesia, and the sampling method in this research involved purposive sampling. After passing the test phase, and through validity and reliability tests, 200 responses were collected. Data analysis tool uses multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that product quality and lifestyle had positive and significant effect on purchase decision, but brand image does not influence purchase decision. In this case, brand image does not have an influence on consumers from Indonesia when buying a smartphone.

This study describes motorists' expectations and perceived performance regarding Traffic Police Departments' service quality in South Africa and Thailand. It tests correlational and predictive relationships between SERVQUAL dimensions, biographical characteristics, and motorists' reported level of satisfaction with service quality of traffic police departments adopting an expectancy-disconfirmation model approach. Survey data of respondents from South Africa and Thailand were analysed as overall dataset as well as separately from one another to get insights. Results is intended for re-strategizing the way traffic related services are rendered to overturn motorists' expressed lack of trust in Traffic Police Departments. The tetrachoric and Pearson correlations and ordinary least square tests performed indicated that age correlated positively and significantly with empathy, while level of education showed a negatively significant correlation with reliability, promptitude and empathy. All six SERVQUAL dimensions and level of satisfaction correlated positively and significantly with each other. Furthermore, only two factors significantly predicted motorists' level of satisfaction with traffic police departments: tangibility and responsiveness. Although results of analyses performed at country level followed mostly that of the overall dataset, some differences observed are pointed out like no predictive variable of level of satisfaction was found from Thailand sample while only responsiveness significantly explained it. Recommendations are made to empower traffic police officers to deliver an “ideal” service for motorists and to investigate the aforementioned relationships using three other alternative models that are performance, rational, and expectations-artefact models. Lastly, consideration to expanding the model to more behavioural and situational factors is recommended.

The South African retail apparel industry has and continues to undergo major digitisation. This movement better known as e-tailing has pioneered over the years and proven to be a lucrative way of trading. As a developing market, e-tailing has seen increased growth with great potential for new entrants to thrive. Only a small number of e-tailers were dominating the South African online apparel industry. In order to understand and further promote success in e-tailing, the researchers identified the need to determine the critical success factors of leading apparel e-tailers in South Africa. Identifying the CSFs proved to be an integral part of successful e-tailer survival. The objective of this study was, therefore, to establish and delve into the CSFs of both leading pure-play online apparel e-tailers and omnichannel or hybrid retailers based in Cape Town, South Africa. The study adopted a multiple case study approach and a qualitative methodology was used by employing an interpretive philosophical perspective. An exploratory design was appropriate for the study and an Inductive reasoning is a theory-building method which best explained the phenomena that are the subject of this study. The research paper further incorporated an empirical approach and the data comprised of four organisations primarily collected through semi-structured interviews from individuals that were connected to the organisations. The findings of the study revealed the most fundamental CSFs which consisted of five CSF groups, namely, 1) Business Intelligence, 2) Operations, 3) Organisational culture, 4) Business model and 5) Strategic modelling. Ultimately, the study recommended an effective growth and development framework for apparel e-tailers in Cape Town.