MSc Dissertation Research- Please Help! (5 minutes maximum)

kiwichick

All done, hope you get the numbers you are hoping for

catch_me_if_you_can

all done. Being a cheapskate though, I tend to get my books from the library

CDs have generally come from tesco when they have bonus points.

All the best

peterl152003

Hi guys,

First of all, thank you to everyone that replied!

I'll try to answer all of the comments people have left as best I can:

-Sheila54- That's a great point. Whereas local businesses used to compete against one or two chainstores/supermarkets, nowadays there are hundreds of competitors on the web selling the same type of products. It is difficult to support your local shops when online retailers are cheaper and often more convenient, but I think people still put a high value on friendly, local service so this is the best way for such businesses to compete.

-Rainey LB & Secret Lady- good point about removing my e-mail address- I did think about it but it has to be attached to the survey itself (University policy) so there wasn't much point removing it. Luckily I haven't been contacted by any strange people yet, but I'll let you know if I do!!

-Horsechestnut- I love the bookpeople, I used to do half of my Christmas shopping from their catalogues! Have you ever tried websites like Amazon instead? Is there a reason you just use the one site? It sounds like they must be doing something right, I'm sure a lot of other companies would love to have customers as loyal as you!

-Debt Free Dreamer- After four years of University I shop in a similar way to you. Do you think that you would stay loyal to one company (perhaps Tesco?) in the future or would you always hunt around for the best offer?

-Carol money saving newbie- That's a really interesting response, the total opposite of Horsechestnut; is there anything a company could do to make you buy from them 100% of the time? Research seems to find that once customers become accustomed to hunting around, the most important thing is the quality of the offer made by the retailer.

-Steve821- Good question. Unfortunately I don't have long enough to look into other types of goods, but I assume there are some big differences. For example, while I might try out a new website to buy a £5 book, there's no way I'd buy a washing machine from a brand I didn't recognise. When I bought my last laptop I went to EBuyer.com because the price was so good, but I would have been happy to pay an extra £20-30 to get it from PCWorld or another major brand. I'd be very interested to hear what others have to say??

-Catch me if you can- another person loving Tesco points! Tesco really are at the top of the class when it comes to customer loyalty. The most important thing for them is the clubcard because it stores so much data on every customer but its a win-win situation- they get your custom, and in return you get special offers, cashback etc etc. Going back to Sheila54's comment- what would make you buy from a local shop instead?