The mediating role of trust in consumers' service quality perceptions and loyalty towards online service providers

Abstract

The research focused on the online retailing industry in the context of South Africa. It determined the perceptions of service quality and the consequential effect of the construct and dimensions on loyalty and trust. A quantitative study was conducted in the form of an electronic survey using existing scales. The final sample that was suitable for analysis comprised of 109 respondents of whom 63 were younger than 40 years. The percentage distribution of lower and middle- income, and high income was almost equal. The population representation was: 66.1% White, 19.3% Indian/ Asian, and 12.8% Black. The results based on exploratory factor analysis, internal consistencies, t-tests and regression analyses indicated that customers of online retailers in South Africa are generally satisfied with the service quality of online retailers and are therefore loyal towards the online retailers that they patronise. The study also confirmed previous research, in that trust in a retailer mediates consumers’ service quality perceptions and eventual loyalty towards the retailer(s). Contrary to other research, conducted elsewhere, the demographic characteristics of the consumers were found to be insignificant in their perceptions of service quality. Considering all the influential factors, ”Support” was identified as the dimension of online retailers’ service offering that customers were the least satisfied with and it was evident both in the results of the assessment of service quality and service recovery. Therefore, in order to augment their service offering, online retailers need to devote more attention to how problems that are encountered are attended to, including promptness of attention and empathy demonstrated during the process of redress.