A Reexamination and Extension of Customer Bonding Tactics in B2C E-Commerce Industry

This paper reexamines and extends customer bonding tactics in B2C e-commerce environment in China. Findings indicate that B2C e-commerce firms retain customers through financial, social and structural means. Financial bonding tactics can be categorized into two sub-tactics: "saving money "and "gift with purchase". Social bonding tactics consist of "customer focus" and "creating community". Structural bonding tactics include "convenient to use", "responsiveness", and "risk reduction". Structural bonding tactics are more important than other bonding tactics, followed by social and financial bonding tactics. In seven dimensions, "risk reduction" is most important, followed by "convenient to use", "responsiveness", "gift with purchase", "creating community", "customer focus" and "saving money". Finally, implications, limitations and future researches are discussed.