CRITERIA OF MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS OF ONLINE STORES IN RUSSIA

The marketing activity of any modern company impacts on its overall financial performance (average check, sales, profit) through non-financial indicators such as name recognition, customer satisfaction and loyalty. If the influence of the marketing activity on the name recognition and customer satisfaction is measured quite frequently, the interrelation of these indicators with the financial performance is assessed rather seldom and not properly for a number of reasons. Meanwhile, in periods of economic instability such measurement can become quite urgent for a company; therefore this study focuses on the analysis of the relationships between the customer satisfaction and loyalty indices and the financial performance of companies. The purpose of the research was to assess the impact of customer satisfaction on the marketing effectiveness of Russian online stores. A 5-year database needed for the analysis was collected from the internal information systems of stores and an online customer survey. The main methods used for the investigation were the correlation and regression analysis methods. Based on the data of more than 1600 online store customers, a significant positive relationship was found between the customer satisfaction and the financial performance of the store. The research also revealed and explained some particular characteristics of online stores that have a significant impact on the financial performance: the sample range and the payment terms. Recommendations for companies of the type under survey regarding the performance maximization through marketing indices are given. The research findings confirm the conclusions of foreign researchers: customer satisfaction indices on the Russian market like those abroad have a significant positive effect on the financial performance of companies (average check, frequency of purchases, customer loyalty). Therefore, the results obtained can be useful not only to researchers studying the marketing effectiveness and its factors, but also to business practitioners seeking ways to improve financial performance. Despite some limitations of the research, the problems and hypotheses raised in it can be further tested on other markets, respondents, companies as the relevance and novelty of the declared subject for the Russian market is evident.

RFM-анализ, customer satisfaction, loyalty, financial performance, RFM-analysis, online stores

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