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Abstract

The increase in customer complaints on the reliability of 3PL services among online sellers has become prominent in the industry, as confirmed by 3PL service providers in Malaysia. The increase in customer complaints increases the tendency to switch to other 3PL service providers. As Asian markets lead the growth of e-commerce, covering approximately 50% of the global e-commerce market, whether the customer will continue to shop online or not is no longer the issue. Although having the proper logistics provider to support online sellers’ business is crucial, most studies have focused on the online shopper’s perspective and employ the service quality theory. Observably, the satisfaction and reuse intention of the 3PL from the online retailer’s perspective is largely neglected. This study identified the factors influencing the satisfaction and reuse intention of 3PL services among online sellers in Malaysia by employing and expanding the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) theory. A purposive sampling method was employed, and the data were gathered via an online survey among online sellers. Additionally, smart partial least squares (SmartPLS) was applied to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that reliability had a positive effect on satisfaction, and satisfaction had a positive relationship with the reuse intention of certain 3PL services. Moreover, satisfaction mediated the relationship between reliability and reuse intention, whereas price fairness strengthened the positive relationship between satisfaction and reuse intention. The findings enhance studies that employed the SOR theory, particularly relating to online sellers’ behaviour on 3PL services. The findings also benefit online sellers and 3PL service providers to create attractive marketing strategies for business sustainability.

۱٫ Introduction

Global courier, express, and parcel (CEP) delivery services are currently experiencing strong growth partly because of the developing e-commerce sector and increasing consumer demand for online shopping. Multiple logistic providers have attempted to provide firstclass services to enhance customer satisfaction [1] and the service reuse intention. Online sellers rely heavily on logistics capability to deliver products to various customer locations, which is considered as a backbone for the tremendous growing e-commerce [1,2]. Hence, the increase in e-commerce activities should be aligned with the capability of logistic providers.

In 2019, worldwide retail e-commerce sales reached USD 3.53 trillion and are anticipated to reach USD 6.54 trillion in 2022 [3] (Global Retail E-Commerce Sales 2014–۲۰۲۴, ۲۰۲۰). Moreover, the International Post Corporation predicted a surge in Asia–Pacific regional sales of up to two-thirds of the global e-commerce by 2021 [4]. Along with government intervention, Malaysia’s industry could achieve more than 20 per cent growth, equivalent to more than RM 170 billion in 2020. Thus, the reliability of the service providers is one crucial factor to be considered by e-commerce retailers to ensure the goods are delivered at the right time, in good condition, and at competitive prices.