Factors affecting customer satisfaction on online shopping holiday

Abstract

PurposeSingles' Day (SD) in China is the world's biggest online shopping event while consumer dissatisfaction is also on the rise. Both theory and practice need sharper insights to foster consumer satisfaction, but such knowledge remains sparse in the literature. The current study addresses this void by assessing the effects of online and offline retail service features on consumer satisfaction with SD.Design/methodology/approachA two-phase survey was implemented before and after the SD online shopping holiday, with 594 participants in China. Respondents were randomly selected from unique proprietary databases of merchants in the top-five online product categories in China.FindingsThe findings show that information quality, product quality and savings improve, but product return worsens, customer satisfaction with the online shopping holiday. However, good after-sale service can ease the product return process thereby boosting customer satisfaction.Originality/valueThis paper addresses a research void by studying effectiveness of retail service features on consumer satisfaction with online shopping festivals.