Content area
Full text
1. Introduction
Technological development and the epidemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 disease have created conditions for further digitalisation of society and the development and consolidation of electronic commerce. According to Donthu and Gustafsson (2020), the impact of the pandemic on business and consumer behaviour has been significant. Digitalisation has changed consumption patterns and created new habits, also altering the act of purchasing, challenging companies to re-invent themselves to respond to these new consumers. However, of all the challenges faced by electronic commerce, the most complex and difficult to overcome, besides ensuring the sustainable growth of e-commerce after the pandemic, is making customers loyal to online shops.
Despite the incorporation in e-commerce websites of new advances in information technologies that aim to improve the quality of the online relationship with the customer, e-commerce continues to present some disadvantages compared to traditional commerce. For example, consumers cannot physically touch and experience products before making purchase decisions as they do in physical stores and do not receive or use the product immediately after completing the transaction (Klein, 1998). Further, there is a lack of interaction face-to-face with the contact collaborators (Song et al., 2007) and the security and privacy regarding the provision of personal and financial information, essential to generate trust. However, online stores have advantages when compared to physical stores, such as lower cost, better consistency in service, convenience and greater assortment (Lee and Turban, 2001).
The question that arises is whether these advantages of online stores concerning physical stores can be decisive in explaining the purchase intention to online stores. Thus, given the above, it is admitted that the determinants of loyalty to online stores are a topic far from being exhausted and understood, and this study can contribute to its theoretical development, from the perspective of customers, which at a practical level will help to improve the adequacy of marketing strategies.
Most studies related to consumer motivations for Internet purchases focus essentially on utilitarian motivations offering a rational shopping experience (Batra and Ahtola, 1991; To et al., 2007). Several authors argue that emotional satisfaction motivation should also be studied during the purchase process and should not be ignored (Batra and Ahtola, 1991; Babin et al., 1994; Roy, 1994; Wakefield and...