Impact of Brand Experience on Brand Equity of Online Shopping Portals: A Study of Select E-Commerce Sites in the State of Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

Brand equity is one of the prime and strategic assets for most of the contemporary business organizations. Companies are focusing on novel and innovative ways in order to build brand equity. Brand experience is one such construct which can be used by marketing managers in building and managing brand equity. Only a few studies have explored the relationship between brand experience and brand equity, particularly in the online shopping industry. This study was carried out in the State of Jammu and Kashmir to examine the influence of brand experience on brand equity. A multi-stage sampling method was employed to target 460 respondents which finally resulted in 403 functional responses. Exploratory Factor analysis (EFA) was conducted for both brand experience and brand equity followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for scale validation. The measurement scale was further subject to reliability and validity tests. Finally, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses formulated for the study. The results revealed that four dimensions of brand experience (sensory, affective, behavioural and intellectual) have a positive influence on all four dimensions of brand equity (brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, brand loyalty). The study findings have further reinforced the research domain in brand experience which implies that producing unique and pleasing brand experiences will lead to improved perception amongst online shopping consumers and thus, influence brand equity. In the light of growing importance of brand experience in marketing, this study is a significant contribution to existing literature. The findings from this research study will provide useful insights to both academicians and marketers. Future researchers can focus on extending this study to other industries and by including additional variables.