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Exploring Foreigners’ Online Shopping Experience in China: A Case of Taobao

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Exploring Foreigners’ Online Shopping Experience in China: A Case of Taobao
European Journal of Business and Management
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.6, No.5, 2014

www.iiste.org

Exploring Foreigners’ Online Shopping Experience in China: A
Case of Taobao
Salimu Abushiri Jinyevu*, Nuran Ally Mwasha
School of Economics & Business Administration, Central China Normal University (CCNU),
152 Luoyu Avenue, Wuhan, Hubei, 430079, P.R. China
*Email of the corresponding author: salb90@yahoo.com
Abstract
This study is a result of the survey done amongst foreign students who study in different universities in Wuhan,
China. The names of two participated universities will not be mentioned since there were agreements between participants not to disclose some of their details including demographic information. The universities were labeled as U1 and U2. The objective of the survey is to explore general online shopping experience among foreign students in China taking Taobao website (www.taobao.cn) as a case study for the analysis. Data were collected from a total of 150 (out of 169 distributed) self monitored questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS software through descriptive statistics. The findings show that among other factors, Chinese language played a great role as an obstruction for Taobao usage amongst many foreigners and it was suggested that, Taobao has to acclimatize with multiple language versions in their website. However, other strategies to improve foreigners’ online shopping experience were also discussed so as to enhance customers’ loyalty and satisfaction
Keywords: online shopping, Taobao, internet, internet banking, foreign students
1. Introduction
China is one of the countries that have been experiencing rapid social and economic developments in an astonishing speed. This development goes concomitantly with high penetration and overwhelming revolution in online shopping that has compelled many companies to adopt it to sustain customers’ needs and wants. It eventually contributed much to


Links: makes it to become a discussion issue for many studies in electronic commerce like that of Elliot & Fewell, (2000) as were cited by Luo (2011). The security part for Taobao has been a fundamental issue as the emergence of the vast online theft. With reference to the Global Legal Post, (2013), the Taobao has been very keen in IP protection to ensure maximum part during the payment, whereas the seller will have to deliver the products to the buyer and after confirmation is when they will be paid (Luo, 2011). ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol.6, No.5, 2014
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