The Moderating Role of Gender and the Choice of E-Retailer and the Mediating role of E-Customer Satisfaction in E-Loyalty Formation Process

Abstract

Current enterprises recognize both service quality and customer loyalty as critical factors to maintain the competency for business development. However, surveys of online customers continue to indicate that many customers remain unsatisfied with their online shopping purchase experience. Therefore, more research is required to better understand about the factors affecting customers' evaluation of their online shopping experiences. The current study proposed that e-service quality dimensions are causally linked with loyalty and customer satisfaction plays a mediating role between the relationship of the two. The study also proposed that there is a moderating effect of the gender and choice of e-retailer on the relationship of dimensions of e-service quality and e-loyalty. For the purpose of the study, a target sample consisted young population i.e. up to the age of 35 years living in National Capital Region (NCR), who had successfully completed at least one online transaction recently from any online retailer was collected. The instrument used for the study consists of three dimensions to evaluate the online service quality. The scale used is based on the previous studies. The convenience cum snowball sampling has been used for the study. The resulting sample comprised of 155 valid questionnaires. The results of the study revealed that there is strong positive relationship between information quality and privacy factors in loyalty. Also at construct level, no significant gender-specific and e-retailer-specific differences are found among online shoppers.