An empirical study of online shopping customer satisfaction in China: a holistic perspective

• Published in: International journal of retail & distribution management 2008-10, Vol.36 (11), p.919-940
• Main Authors: Liu, Xia, He, Mengqiao, Gao, Fang, Xie, Peihong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: China; Consumer behavior; Consumers; Culture; Customer satisfaction; Customer services; Customers; Electronic commerce; Hypotheses; Internet; Literature reviews; Purchasing; Retail stores; Shopping; Studies; User satisfaction; Web site design
• ISSN: 0959-0552; 1758-6690
• DOI: 10.1108/09590550810911683

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to identify factors that may influence Chinese customers' online shopping satisfaction, including those which are ignored by prior studies, from the perspective of total online shopping experience.Design methodology approach - In this paper, the authors propose a model of the satisfaction process in the e-commerce environment, identifying key constructs proposed by prior studies and developing hypotheses about which dimensions of online retailer constructs are significant predictors of online shopper satisfaction. The authors test the hypotheses through multiple regression analysis based on a survey of 1,001 online customers.Findings - The analysis suggests that eight constructs - information quality, web site design, merchandise attributes, transaction capability, security privacy, payment, delivery, and customer service - are strongly predictive of online shopping customer satisfaction, while the effect of response time is not significant.Research limitations implications - This study does not control the differences across product categories; the use of self-reported scales to measure both independent and dependent variables may imply the possibility of a common method bias for the results.Originality value - This research contributes to the study of online shopping customer satisfaction by: developing a model of the satisfaction process in the e-commerce environment, and identifying factors that may influence Chinese customers' online shopping satisfaction including those which are ignored by prior studies.