Online Customer Satisfaction at Point-of-Purchase and Post-Purchase Phases

Background

Although the rapid growth of e-retailing may reflect convincing advantages of shopping through the Internet versus at brick and mortar stores, consumers may sometimes become frustrated with e-shopping such as in online purchase of apparel items. Customers take a risk when purchasing apparel online because they cannot try on the garment to check fit, texture or colour and this may affect their level of satisfaction (Kim et al., 2006). To the vendor, there is a significant relationship between customer satisfaction and organizational performance. Understanding consumer satisfaction and behaviour is important for ensuring repeat purchase and sustaining market share (Garver & Gagnon, 2002; Kim & Stoel, 2004). The authors are of the view that it is imperative to consider the different phases in an online purchase process in order to better understand consumer satisfaction. Many of the prior service quality measures consider online purchase as a single process, even with after-purchase experience becoming embedded and somewhat obscure in this process (Suh & Han 2003; Muyllea et al., 2004; Parasuraman et al., 2005; Kim et al., 2006). Although Bauer et al. (2006) present a view of the four phases in the purchase process, they failed to demonstrate how satisfaction and value perceptions fit into each of the phases. There have been studies that considered customer satisfaction in the post-purchase phase but none in point-of-purchase and post-purchase for a purchase process. Customer satisfaction at point-of-purchase refers to customer level of approval towards an object (of evaluation) at the point when the customer makes an online payment for the purchase. Post-purchase, on the other hand, refers to the level of approval at the point when the customer has already received the product and experienced the services that follow the purchase. It is important that customers are satisfied with the post-purchase service. Otherwise, the business will lose repeat patronage from customers. Thus, this chapter aims to develop a meaningful framework for investigating customer’s overall satisfaction with online apparel dealing in Malaysia at the point-of-purchase and post-purchase phases. This framework also enables the identification of any differences in overall satisfaction items between the point-of-purchase and post-purchase phases.