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Varying degrees of Covid-19 lockdowns at different times in most countries worldwide during 2020-2021 affected diverse aspects of everyday life, communication, and global commerce, with profound and lasting impacts on customer behavior—particularly a significant rise in the volume and scope of e-commerce (Sahin, 2021). The closure of offline sales venues compelled retailers and customers to solely use e-commerce (where possible) (Vázquez-Martínez et al., 2021). This led to an intensification of e-commerce in developed countries with strong latent e-commerce infrastructure, and a rapid development of e-commerce capabilities in countries with hitherto negligible development, with a net dramatic increase in e-commerce and digital channels worldwide, and commensurate growth in the local and international online marketplaces (Rawash, 2021). This was accompanied by general awareness of the advanced communication abilities now available via social media and video conferencing, which were used for educational and professional communication in previously unimagined (or merely experimental) ways. Social media and e-commerce solutions—including Facebook and Instagram etc., and Amazon and eBay—showed their ability to transcend traditional physical and geographical barriers to communication (Berni & Borgianni, 2021), enabling communicative and commercial activities (including work) to continue when it would otherwise be impossible (Manuel et al., 2021).
Retailers of all sizes could benefit from this shift toward e-commerce, as they are already well-positioned to meet the growing demand for goods and services via online channels (Bozzi et al., 2021; Sahin, 2021). However, there are many challenges. If online channels cannot offer a competitive user experience there is a good chance they will fail to satisfy, attract, or retain customers (Rita et al., 2019). User experience (UX) refers to the quality of experience a person has when interacting with a specific design (Hassenzahl & Tractinsky, 2006). Online retailers must provide the best UX possible in order to satisfy and engage customers (Agustina, 2020; Berni & Borgianni, 2021). First, they need to be searchable when their customers want to make a purchase, and once customers are on the retailer’s point of entry, the used e-commerce framework needs to be responsive, meeting or exceeding customer expectations (KPMG, 2017). Online surfing is a type of interactional behavior, so usability can be seen as equal in importance across all e-commerce platforms (ECPs). Users’ tasks should be supported on efficient e-commerce frameworks where usability evaluation techniques are in place to evaluate whether a platform is usable or not (Babatunde et al., 2019).