Redress procedures expected by consumers during a business-to-consumer e-commerce dispute

Consumers expect an immediately accessible and responsive redress from merchants.Accessible and responsive redress has an important role when problems occur, mostly for product prices.Accessible and responsive redress becomes an issue when the consumer wants compensation.Traditional litigation to seek redress is neither appropriate nor necessary. Redress is concerned with internal complaint-handling procedures through which consumers seek compensation or to rectify the problems that occur during e-commerce transactions. It also serves as an important determinant of consumer confidence and trust. Studies of redress have received much attention, where the focus is largely in the context of traditional litigation procedures in offline business. This paper focuses on the types of redress procedures consumers expected in response to B2C e-commerce complaints, by analysing the experiences and viewpoint of a select group of online consumers and merchants located in Melbourne, Australia. The research reveals that when problems occur in B2C e-commerce transactions, consumers require and expect an immediate accessible and responsive redress procedure from merchants. This suggests that traditional litigation to seek redress is impractical and not a favourable option for consumers or merchants.

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