Bonding Tactic Sets of On-Line Stores: An Empirical Study

It is critical for on-line stores as well as off-line firms to build and maintain lasting relationships with customers. Research has stated that bonding tactics help to build and maintain relationships. The existence of stores only on-line is a new business paradigm, and on-line shopping is a new behaviour mode for consumers. The on-line bonding tactics are not the same as with off-line firms. This paper presents a new set of bonding tactics, including financial bonding, social bonding, experience bonding and purchasing process bonding based on existing literature, on-line shopper reviews, and a questionnaire survey. Among these bonding tactics, experience bonding and purchasing process bonding are the new bonding tactics for on-line stores. The results enrich the research in relationship marketing, and provide on-line stores with guidance for putting bonding tactics into practice.