Service quality of online apparel retailers and its impact on customer satisfaction, customer trust and customer loyalty

The rapid growth of Internet market and customers' increased savviness in using information technology have significantly changed the landscape of retail business. Customers are inclined to accept the changes and keep their eyes on the benefits they can obtain from these creative online service platforms. Apparel product, an important category in offline retailing, has also become a more and more active sector in the online market. There is a need for both practitioners and academics to understand what are the antecedent factors of service quality which consumers perceived and how the perceptions of service quality influences customers' satisfaction, trust, and loyalty.; In order to detect the complicated relationships between the antecedents of service quality, service quality, and consumers' behavioral attitudes and intentions (namely customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty), this dissertation developed an integrative Quality-Trust-Satisfaction-Loyalty model based on an extensive literature review. An empirical investigation was conducted through a survey using a combined sample of students and consumers who have registered in some retail Web sites. Structural equation modeling techniques were employed to test the model and hypotheses.; Overall, the results supported most of the proposed hypotheses and the model. The development of a reliable and valid instrument for measuring online apparel retail service quality results in a better understanding of some important consumer behavioral concepts, namely customer satisfaction, customer trust, and customer loyalty. The theoretical implication of the research is that online service quality instrument should combine the dimensions (namely usefulness, ease of use/convenience, and enjoyment) from the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and five dimensions (namely tangibles, assurance, responsiveness, reliability, and empathy) from Service Quality Model (SERVQUAL), and that the components of the service quality instrument in the online apparel retailing setting maybe different from those in other settings and may change over time. In addition, the bridges between the antecedents of service quality, service quality, customer satisfaction, customer trust, and customer loyalty were also mapped out in the integrative model. Some managerial implications were further demonstrated.