| In recent years, with the rapid development of information technology, e-business has also been developing rapidly. Hence scholars start a craze for researching consumer behavior in online shopping. Previous studies in the'bricks and mortar'environment have found that brand image and customer loyalty has a significant positive role in promoting. Then whether this rule also applies in the virtual shopping environment is subject to be verified. Therefore, the overall objective of this paper is to research the relation between brand image of online stores and customer loyalty.This paper is based on concluding previous studies. By the means of interviews, this paper advances a six-dimensional model of online brand image measurement, including category image, quality image, service image, security image, promotion image and website image. Meanwhile, the research carries out 17 item measure. On these bases, this paper also surveys 345 online customers by the means of empirical research. The result shows that, as same as physical environment, there is direct relation between online brand image and customer loyalty as well as significantly indirect relation between these two (using customer satisfaction as the intermediary).However, in the online virtual shopping environment, some differences of relation among the dimensions of brand image, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty still exist. Among them, the relation between the two dimensions (the quality and promotion images of online brand image) and customer loyalty are partly affected by customer satisfaction, while the website image that is unique in online shopping environment completely influences customer loyalty through customer satisfaction. Interestingly, the research finds that another two dimensions (the category and service image), do not have significant positive influences on customer loyalty as that in physical environment. I think this is caused by specific characters of online shopping, such as the autonomy and convenience. |
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