Coventry University

Assignment 1

Jeff Meyer Tioronto

G1725591L
Bachelor of Arts in Business and Marketing (Hons)
Digital Marketing
Ho Kai Joo Jason
 Executive Summary
Ubuy is an online store based on Kuwait, they provide services from North America until
South Africa. However, there are some evidence that Ubuy could still not be considered as a
good online service quality. Based on the research conducted, 3 of the many factors that affects a
store’s online service quality are reliability, website design, and responsiveness. Reliability refers
to the capability of a website to fulfill their services fast and accurate, website design refers to on
how a website is arranged and set up in order to attract customers, while responsiveness refers to
the prompt response a company do to a consumer’s problem and inquiries.

In the aspect of reliability, Ubuy still suffers on few aspects, such as on how their website
is not friendly and simple enough for consumers, this could be fix by minimalizing loading times
and enlarge. On the website design factor, Ubuy still has issues on color management and menu
arrangement of the website, however it could be improved by evaluation of design for Ubuy’s
website. Lastly, on the aspect of responsiveness, Ubuy still has some issues of communication
with consumers, such as on delays on delivery without any compensation, or no invoice delivery
towards customers, the most efficient solution for this is for Ubuy to partner with the best
logistics on the region, alongside improving contact alternatives for customers on the website.
1. Introduction
The company that would be discussed is the Ubuy store. Ubuy is an online store based on
Kuwait, which sells various types of products, from fashion and jewelry until pet supplies.
According to its website (Ubuy, n.d), the company stands for 7 moral values, with one of the
remarkable value is to execute the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious philosophy, which based on
the company, means to “differentiate yourself”, to always promote change and innovation. Ubuy
accepts consumers from numerous countries, ranging from the North America unto middle east
countries such as Lebanon or Egypt, and even South Africa.

2. Literature Review
In this section, the term of “online service quality” and the factors that affects it would be
discussed, according to researchers that has study in the field. On online service quality, there are
3 major factors that affect an online shop’s service online quality.

2.1. Reliability
Within an online service quality, reliability is a key-factor for customers’
satisfaction, it is one of the several key dimensions of online service quality. According to (Lee
and Lin, 2005), reliability refers to a representation of how a website could actually fulfill a
website’s task correctly, fast deliveries, and lastly could protect and keep customer’s private
information, such as payment credentials and contact numbers. (Parasuraman et al., 2005) stated
that reliability also means a correctly functional website alongside delivers accurate promises of
service, this means items that are been promoted are on stock, delivering customers on what has
been ordered accurately; with also accurate information of billing, and the product that is being
offered. (Lee and Lin, 2005) stated that a reliable online store would have a positive influence
towards overall of service quality, combined with an influence over customer’s satisfaction on
the web store. Moreover, reliability could also be associated with “accuracy”, especially on an
online service. Essentially, a website should be able to deliver its services fast, providing
numerous variation of service to the customers, and having ease of access on those services. A
research has been done on (Yang and Fang, 2004), with the result of 5 out of 16 studies has
uncovered that reliability is indeed a vital dimension of service quality.
 2.2. Website Design
The next vital factor of online service quality is the website design. Based on (Lee
and Lin, 2005), website design promotes the appeal of the website design towards the
consumers. According to the study researched, customer satisfaction could be measure with the
quality level of a website’s design, it affects how customers evaluate their decisions and the
loyalty to the online stores. Website design not only should be able to look appealing,
(Parasuraman et al.,2005) argues that website design also needs to be able to display detailed
information, that would help customers to understand quickly but still look attractive at the same
time. Designs should be able to deliver a personalized value towards the customers, that will give
customers’ a personal value to the online store’s brand. According to (Yang et al., 2004), there
are factors that website designs should have, such as the artistic value of it, the content and its
interface layout, usage of hyperlinks, and the naming of menus of the website, all of it which
were included in a study of one of the three “ease of use” dimensions; two of other dimensions
are portfolio of the product and security. Design could speak to consumers in a non-verbal way,
for example, how tidy was the menu being displayed on the website, or what colors does the
company decide to use. According to (Hendricks, 2015), colors could affect the perspective and
emotion of a consumer indirectly, such as how hot colors such as red are good for headlines
since it attracts attention, or how cool colors such as blue are important to display security and
trust, which are often being used by banks or financial firms. Alongside that, a good website
design would leave an impression for the company, if the website design looks professional and
modern, then the consumers would view the company as professional and modern, and vice
versa.
 2.3. Responsiveness
The third factor on online service quality would be the responsiveness of the
company towards the consumers. According to (Parasuraman et al., 2005), responsiveness refers
to the fast response and the ability to provide solution fast should there is a customer who are in
a problem or in a situation. According to (Yen and Lu, 2008), responsiveness, alongside contact,
fulfillment are the major influences on measuring a store’s online service quality. If a website
could respond to customers immediately, customers would surely have positive value towards
the company and their services. According to (Yang et al., 2004), responsiveness from a
company could range in many forms, such as fast responses to phone calls, fast confirmation of
orders, or the prompt execution of customers’ orders. Based on (Yen and Lu, 2008), in the event
of a problem occurred to a customer, how fast does a company could respond would hugely
impact on the customer’s long-term loyalty towards the company. It has been expected by
consumers for online stores to be able to respond to inquiries promptly; companies would be
deemed as irresponsible and inconsistent if they are unable to perform responsive problem
solving and informational retrieval.

3. Recommendations
 3.1. Reliability
Based on the home page alone, Ubuy’s website really tries to shove all the
products they could sell, which comes off as irritating, as there is too much pictures but little
information has been displayed. As can be seen, the website provides no information regarding
the products, even names and prices. In order for the information of the item to be displayed, the
image needs to be clicked to be redirected to its page, and that takes more time to load. Not only
does it take some time to load, the webpage also displays information with small sized
characters, that needs to pay close attention to be able to read it. Despite that, Ubuy informs the
consumers if a product is in or out of stock, and warns the consumer if a delay in shipping is a
possibility. Product page also provides specific information regarding the product, such as its
electrical components, estimated time of charging, and the features that is included within the
product. What could be improved from the website for its reliability is to be able to ease
customer browsing, such as providing highlighted information such as the name and the price
on-the-go on the homepage, it will let consumers to use less time in browsing products, which
lets consumers to be able to browse even more products. For their product page, a neater and tidy
arrangement of information, such as a more proper sized characters that would be readable in a
standard distance, alongside highlighting important information of products, either by changing
its font colors or enlarge the sentence of those information. Websites such as Gucci displays their
product name and price directly at their homepage, this way consumer would directly be
informed of the information without the need to waste a single more second.
 3.2. Website Design
Based on the picture above, the homepage menus are not sorted orderly, such as
how the categories of items are hidden inside the “shop by” button, and when the pointer hovers
it, it collapses into more semi-transparent menus, with the colorful background of the website,
causes unease to the eyes. No information is displayed besides the pictures of the product,
consumers would need to open more web page in order to find out even the name and the price
of the product. Some sections of the homepage are way too large, showing colorful banners and
promotions is a disturbance for the consumer. As been said before, sentences and information
displayed on the product page is too small and requires more attention to be able to read it. In the
aspect of website design, there are lots of factors that Ubuy could improve in, such as on how
Ubuy should arrange their menu in a way customers could see it instantly, for example, Ubuy
could place their range of product categories selections on the main menu bar, instead of the
store area selection. On the picture above, it can be seen that there are too many variety colors
that overlaps each other, this could cause unease for the customer viewing the website. Speaking
of which, Ubuy could use a single range of color for their website’s color, in order to leave an
impression towards the consumers on what could they remember on, such as how Amazon uses
the color orange for their theme, that way consumer would remember Amazon for their orange
color. Names of items on the homepage should be displayed, alongside it’s price, so that
customers won’t have to click more pages in order to find what they want.
 3.3. Responsiveness
In the aspect of responsiveness, Ubuy provides assistance through website
queries, phone calls, email, and even providing their office address. According to some reviews
(Blue, 2019), Ubuy has done mistakes such as forgetting to send payment emails towards
customers, providing no information on when was the customer has been charged. Some issues
are also where canceled product orders are still being charged of shipping charges. According to
(Asfour, 2018), Ubuy does not always guarantee expedited deliveries to always come on 3-6
business days, despite written at the website that it would come between those days. Not only the
deliveries went delayed, but Ubuy has done nothing to solve the problem, instead Ubuy request
to put down the customer’s review and only refund partial of the amount the customer has spent.
For their problem in the aspect of responsiveness, Ubuy should improve their connection towards
their own customers; one of the actions they could consider is installing a livechat feature on
their website, letting customers’ problems to be solved directly by customer service, without the
need of waiting of a response. As for their delivery issue, Ubuy should partner with more
trustworthy delivery companies, such as how Lazada uses Singpost or Courex, which are one of
the most well-known logistics company in Singapore. Ubuy should give proper compensation if
there is indeed a problem within the logistics, a partial refund would not be enough to satisfy the
consumers, an additional compensation should be provided, such as a voucher or a gift card for
the next Ubuy purchase.

4. Conclusion
In conclusion, Ubuy has issues based on the three factors of online service quality,
reliability, website design, and responsiveness. On reliability, Ubuy shoves every product that
they could promote to their homepage, giving little information regarding the products, this can
be solved by providing vital information of products on the home page, which leads to less
loading times for customers. While in the aspect of website design, the arrangement of menus on
their homepage could still be improved, such as placing category selection on the main bar of the
home page, instead of putting store region selection on the main bar. The last aspect, which is
responsiveness, is also something Ubuy still struggle with, there has been numerous complaints
on delivery delays with little compensation. Ubuy should give compensation with bonuses in
order to make up with consumers, alongside partnering with more trusted logistics companies
such as Singpost or Courex.

5. References
Asfour, Y. (2018). Yousuf Asfour gave Ubuy 1 star. Check out the full review.... [online] Trustpilot. Available at:
https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/5c2494489d37800b0409628b [Accessed 28 Jan. 2019].

Blue, D. (2019). Darius Blue gave Ubuy 1 star. Check out the full review.... [online] Trustpilot. Available at:
https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/5c39b3a89d378009a45b77d1 [Accessed 23 Jan. 2019].

Hendricks, D. (2015). Understanding The Full Impact Of Web Design On SEO, Branding, And More. [online]
Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2015/02/11/understanding-the-full-impact-of-
web-design-on-seo-branding-and-more/#1548139664fe [Accessed 16 Jan. 2019].

Lee, G. and Lin, H. (2005). Customer perceptions of e‐service quality in online shopping. International Journal of
Retail & Distribution Management, 33(2), pp.161-176.

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. and Malhotra, A. (2005). E-S-QUAL. Journal of Service Research, 7(3), pp.213-233.

Ubuy. (n.d.). About us. [online] Available at: https://www.ubuy.co.id/en/about-us [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].

Yang, Z. and Fang, X. (2004). Online service quality dimensions and their relationships with
satisfaction. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 15(3), pp.302-326.

Yang, Z., Jun, M. and Peterson, R. (2004). Measuring customer perceived online service quality. International
Journal of Operations & Production Management, 24(11), pp.1149-1174.

Yen, C. and Lu, H. (2008). Effects of e‐service quality on loyalty intention: an empirical study in online
auction. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 18(2), pp.127-146.