B2C Customers’ Perception of E-Commerce Technology Services: A Comparison of Germany and Korea

This paper takes a close look at technology related services of e-Commerce companies from the viewpoint of B2C customers. The goal is to determine at which specific points of the customer purchase journey changes should occur, to address consumers’ personal needs more effectively. All ten technologies examined fall into one of the following steps of the customer purchase journey: Decision Making, Payment Methods, and Delivery. AHP was utilized to clarify the preferences of millennials from Germany and Korea. The findings show that factors such as country of origin and gender had an impact on the preferences of the survey participants. In case of Germany, women replied that a change in Payment Methods would lead to significant enhancement of their shopping experiences, whereas men favored Decision Making. As for Korea, both genders stated that Decision Making should be the focus of marketers’ efforts. One of the main findings was that participants from Germany and Korea exhibited different tastes in the use of technologies. Germans preferred functional technologies, whereas Koreans favored technologies which are more engaging and entertaining.