مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد کیفیت خدمات برای ارائه دهندگان محصولات – الزویر 2019

The aim of this study is to identify the service quality factors by which niche providers can differentiate themselves from market leaders in online shopping and successfully operate long term. After theoretical considerations, a research model was developed and empirically tested. The results show that there are differences in the preferences of niche providers and market leaders, such as importance of website features and the breadth and depth of a balanced product portfolio of customers. In addition, the study shows how individual factors can be analyzed in an online shop and which alternative courses of action can be derived.

Introduction

E-commerce has experienced enormous growth in recent years. In 2017, global retail e-commerce sales reached $2.304 trillion, an increase of 24.8% over the previous year. E-commerce’s share of global retail sales was 10.2% in 2017, up from 8.6% in 2016 (eMarketer, 2018). One retailer in particular stands for the epitome of e-commerce: Amazon, which is now the third most valuable company (Schept, 2018), and its founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world (Forbes, 2018). In 2017, Amazon’s worldwide turnover was around $178 billion (Amazon, 2018). The company achieved a turnover share of 13% in the United States (Statista, 2019a, 2019b) and 46% in Germany (IFH Cologne, 2018). Currently, it is hard to identify a product that cannot be purchased via Amazon or Amazon Marketplace, which leads to the guiding research question of this article: How can niche providers differentiate themselves from market leaders and achieve success, and what are the factors that influence customer satisfaction and loyalty of online customers? In this context, quantifiable differences between niche providers and market leaders need to be identified. Following the old testamentary story, the metaphorical question can therefore be posed: How can David stand up against Goliath? The literature contains a large number of studies dealing with purchasing behavior, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in ecommerce. Customer loyalty, in particular, is essential for the success of a company and plays a major role in e-commerce sales and satisfaction. However, as individualized contact with customers is challenging on many e-commerce platforms, other success factors are moving further into the foreground, including use of the technology acceptance model and the Technology Acceptance Model, utilitarian, hedonistic, and design characteristics of the website.