Customer evaluations of e-shopping: The effects of quality-value perceptions and e-shopping satisfaction on e-shopping loyalty

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding of the relationships among quality, value, satisfaction, and loyalty when consumers choose to use technology-based retail formats such as online shopping. Three research objectives served to guide the development of an e-shopping loyalty model. The first objective was to investigate the extent to which the direct and indirect relationships among quality, value, satisfaction, and loyalty in technology-based retail environments parallel those that occur in traditional retail and service settings. The second research objective was to examine how the factors that predict quality-value perceptions for shopping online as compared to offline influence evaluations of e-shopping satisfaction and loyalty for an online merchant. The third objective was to investigate how a consumer's receptiveness to e-shopping technology influences evaluations of and loyalty to a merchant's website. There is a paucity of research regarding the interrelationships among these variables in technology-based consumption environments, therefore, the conceptual framework for the e-shopping model was drawn primarily from the relevant research in the retail and services literature. Data for the study was collected using a survey distributed by mail to the online apparel customers of a U.S. based company. The structural model employed to test the e-shopping loyalty model supported nine of the eleven hypothesized relationships. The links found in the causal model were reinterpreted as an Integrated Model of e-Shopping Loyalty. Findings suggest that online customer loyalty is less directly impacted by value-driven cognitions than by satisfactory shopping experiences. More specifically, perceptions of online shopping value impacted e-shopping loyalty only indirectly through the positive and direct effect of e-shopping satisfaction. Although cognitive assessments related to the merchandise offering played an important role in the evaluative process, shoppers' judgments of e-service quality were found to be more influential in affecting e-shopping loyalty. Additionally, shoppers appeared to be as concerned about the time and effort costs involved in online shopping as they were with the merchandise price. Finally, stronger feelings and beliefs about online shopping influenced consumers' evaluations of e-shopping primarily through their impact on perceptions of e-service quality.