CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS ON SERVICE GUARANTEES IN E-COMMERCE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY IN THE FREE MARKET

Abstract

This study investigates Brazilian consumers’ perceptions of the Service Guarantees (SGs) offered by Mercado Livre, the leading Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) e-commerce platform in Latin America, focusing on the Compra Garantida program. Using a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive approach, the research analyzes how users perceive SGs based on the five characteristics proposed by Hart (1988): unconditionality, meaningfulness, ease of understanding, ease of requesting, and easy and fast refunds. Data collection involved structured interviews with 14 regular users of the platform, selected by convenience, with theoretical saturation achieved. Data were analyzed through Content Analysis, categorizing perceptions into Hart’s five dimensions. The results indicate that Compra Garantida partially meets these characteristics, with strengths in unconditionality (ample refunds) and meaningfulness (financial compensations), but faces challenges in ease of requesting, due to bureaucracy with sellers, and in speed of refunds, due to long deadlines in complex disputes. The findings corroborate Hart's theory, highlighting the importance of clear and accessible GSs to reduce perceived risks and increase trust in e-commerce. The study offers theoretical contributions, by corroborating Hart's model applied in a Brazilian context, and managerial contributions, proposing actions such as simplifying clauses, improving communication and automating processes to enhance the consumer experience. Future quantitative research is suggested to explore the relationship between GSs, trust and loyalty, as well as comparisons with other C2C platforms.