Impact Factors on Paid Subscription in E-commerce Market and Their Influence on Consumer Loyalty Development

This research examines the main factors in customer decision-making regarding paid streaming-media subscription services in the Russian e-commerce market and their impact on customer loyalty to a paid subscription provider. The relevance and actuality of the topic are confirmed by the fact that a subscription model is an increasingly growing way of purchasing both online services and physical goods. The subscription in the e-commerce market has rapidly increased by more than 100 per cent a year over the past five years. It is crucial for companies offering online subscription services to examine the factors that make subscription service worth paying for it and explore the opportunities which can improve the existing service. The research is devoted to the study of the most significant factors of subscription purchase decision in the streaming-media industry and the specific of loyalty formation in such market. The research question of this study is the following: How are relations between the factors influencing the purchase intention and loyalty to the subscription service built? The first part of the research contains qualitative analysis, based on 15 interviews with regular users of streaming-media subscription services. Insights from this analysis provide more detailed information on the impact of various factors on the purchase of a subscription. The second part of the research is based on the subscription intention, and loyalty hybrid model derived from the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and examined by the structural equation modelling (SEM). The data is sourced by a questionnaire, in which 384 respondents aged between 18 to 25 years old have participated. All calculations are evaluated in the Stata statistical software package. The result of the research represents that streaming-media services loyalty formation takes place before subscription intention and might be provided with high-quality service. This study also reveals a specific sequence of impact factors that will lead for a continuous purchase and emphasizes the importance of free trial system for streaming-media market. Scientific and managerial implementation in the paid subscription niche are provided as well. Keywords: paid subscription, online purchase intention, factors in e-loyalty, streaming-media services, e-loyalty.