Shopping is fun, not work

What is it about?

Existing e-service quality scales mainly focus on goal-oriented e-shopping behavior excluding hedonic quality aspects. As a consequence, these scales do not fully cover all aspects of consumer's quality evaluation. In order to integrate both utilitarian and hedonic e-service quality elements, we apply a transaction process model to electronic service encounters. Based on this general framework capturing all stages of the electronic service delivery process, we develop a transaction process-based scale for measuring service quality (eTransQual). After conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, we identify five discriminant quality dimensions: functionality/design, enjoyment, process, reliability and responsiveness. All extracted dimensions of eTransQual show a significant positive impact on important outcome variables like perceived value and customer satisfaction. Moreover, enjoyment is a dominant factor in influencing both relationship duration and repurchase intention as major drivers of customer lifetime value. As a result, we present conceptual and empirical evidence for the need to integrate both utilitarian and hedonic e-service quality elements into one measurement scale.

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Why is it important?

Unsatisfying service encounters cause annual Web sales losses of several billion dollars per year. Therefore, managing electronic service quality becomes an essential challenge for e-tailers. In order to establish a comprehensive and effective service quality management, this article applies a transaction process-based framework to electronic service encounters incorporating both utilitarian and hedonic e-service quality elements.

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