How the characteristics of an online shop affect the consumer satisfaction and loyalty of Finnish and Chinese consumers : Moomin online shop

The growth of e-commerce has created a shift in the way people consume. Further, e-commerce has created opportunities for businesses to grow internationally. Previous research states that culture effects consumer behavior and specifically, consumer behavior online. This can be seen through the differences between the characteristics of online shops in different cultures. This research compares the differences between the Finnish and Chinese cultures and examines the way in which these differences affect the responses towards the characteristics of two culturally accustomed online shops, the Finnish Moomin shop and the Chinese Tmall Moomin shop. The study compares the characteristics of the two online shops and analyzes the satisfaction and loyalty of consumers from Finnish and Chinese cultures towards both shops. Further, the literature review introduces insight into cross-cultural consumer behavior online, internationalizing through e-commerce, and the effect of culture on online shop designs. This research aims to get an understanding of differences between the two pages and how it affects consumers from both cultures. The research was conducted through secondary sources and in-depth interviews, where five Finnish and five Chinese participants were interviewed. Quantitative research was also conducted to support the findings from qualitative data. Data from interviews was transcribed and categorized into themes to gain a deeper understanding of results. The results showed that the Finnish and Chinese online shop pages differed in the amount of information displayed, the layout of the pages, the colors used, and the number of pictures used. Finnish consumers are more satisfied with the simplicity and the ease of finding information on the Finnish Moomin shop page, which is why they are more likely to trust and purchase from the Finnish shop. On the other hand, Chinese consumers are more satisfied with the amount of information and visual characteristics on the Chinese page, which is why they are more likely to ...