Content area
Full text
Introduction
As the online shopping channel begins to mature and growth slows ([50] Ross, 2010), the intensity of competition for online retailers will continue to increase. Such a competitive environment, coupled with the increase in numbers and diversity of e-consumers, has made the issue of understanding key factors that drive consumers to shop online increasingly important. Despite the growing interest among researchers and retail marketers, still, there is a general lack of research on, and a need to extend knowledge about the drivers of consumer e-shopping behavior.
Effectively managing online stores that induce customer satisfaction is a critical factor underlying sustained growth, not only for pure e-tailers but also for multi-channel retailers because of the reciprocal effects across channels ([59] Venkatesan et al. , 2007). A satisfactory experience with an online store is desirable since it can lead to positive outcomes such as customer trust ([19] Fassnacht and Köse, 2007), customer retention and referral, online conversion, and e-shopping stickiness ([6] Bansal et al. , 2004) and online loyalty ([4] Anderson and Srinivasan, 2003; [12] Chiou et al. , 2009; [19] Fassnacht and Köse, 2007; [49] Rodgers et al. , 2005). Noting the importance of cross-channel effects, [58] van Birgelen et al. (2006) reveal that customer online satisfaction and offline satisfaction (e.g. employee performance and offline area performance) interact to influence customer behavioral intentions. Similarly, customers who have a bad online experience appear to be reluctant to shop through the retailer's other channels ([20] Finn, 2008), raising a question regarding what matters for online shopping satisfaction.
In particular, industry observers call for better understanding of the effects of online shopping quality features on customer satisfaction and subsequent behaviors while taking consumer characteristics into account ([50] Ross, 2010). Gaining full understanding of online shopping quality also enables e-tailers to monitor and improve their store operations to maximize performance. In response, a number of studies have developed scales for measuring online service quality in a variety of industry and product settings ([22] Francis, 2009; [34] Loiacono et al. , 2007; [44] Parasuraman et al. , 2005; [65] Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2003; [66] Yoo and Donthu, 2001; [67] Zeithaml et al. , 2000). Accordingly, it seems timely to re-examine current e-shopping quality scales in an online retail operation setting.