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Using the means-end framework as a theoretical foundation, this article conceptualizes, constructs, refines, and tests a multiple-item scale (E-S-QUAL) for measuring the service quality delivered by Web sites on which customers shop online. Two stages of empirical data collection revealed that two different scales were necessary for capturing electronic service quality. The basic E-S-QUAL scale developed in the research is a 22-item scale of four dimensions: efficiency, fulfillment, system availability, and privacy. The second scale, E-RecS-QUAL, is salient only to customers who had nonroutine encounters with the sites and contains 11 items in three dimensions: responsiveness, compensation, and contact. Both scales demonstrate good psychometric properties based on findings from a variety of reliability and validity tests and build on the research already conducted on the topic. Directions for further research on electronic service quality are offered. Managerial implications stemming from the empirical findings about E-S-QUAL are also discussed.
Keywords: e-service quality; online stores; customer service; scale development
Although no longer believed to be the revolution previously conceived, the Internet remains a critical channel for selling most goods and services. Companies such as Amazon distribute products and services solely through Web channels, and virtually all companies are creating Web channels as sources for prepurchase information (cars), alternative ways to buy products (retailers such as GAP, Talbot's, and Eddie Bauer), approaches to expand services (industrial products), and ways to capture time-conscious and upscale consumers (online banking). If these channels are to be viable, they must be perceived by consumers as effective and efficient.
Even though low price and Web presence were initially thought to be the drivers of success, service quality issues soon became pivotal. When consumers could not complete transactions, products were not delivered on time or at all, e-mails were not answered, and desired information could not be accessed, the viability of Web channels was jeopardized. Mounting business and academic evidence demonstrated a widespread lack of adequate service quality delivered through the Internet (Ahmad 2002; Lennon and Harris 2002; LoCascio 2000; Pastore 2001). This problem still persists (Cox 2002; Gaudin 2003; InternetNewsBureau 2003). If Web channels are to be accepted by consumers, companies must shift the focus of e-business from e-commerce-the transactions-to e-service-all cues and encounters that occur before, during, and after the transactions.