Customer interface quality, perceived security, and customer loyalty are critical factors for success of an e-commerce website; however, the relationships among them are not fully understood. We proposed a model for testing the relationships among them and the important outcomes of the site: switching costs and customer loyalty. Data was collected to test the model using a web-based survey, and empirical analyses were performed using SEM. The analytical results demonstrated that customer interface quality and perceived security positively affected customer satisfaction and switching costs, and thus customer loyalty to an e-commerce website. Specifically, our study showed that switching costs positively moderated the effect of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty; this moderating effect is discussed.
It is difficult to build customer loyalty in e-commerce transaction primarily because of the low switching costs when competition is only a click away. Hence, online companies have been eager to launch loyalty programs whereby customers obtain benefits by conducting most of their online shopping at one website, creating positive lock-in.
Marketers have attempted to discover the major factors leading to customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction is obviously one, and although many studies have identified other factors [10], the impact of the customer interface and its perceived security on customer loyalty has generally been ignored.
In real-world commerce, salespeople influence customer satisfaction, but in the context of e-commerce, they are replaced by a customer interface, which provides information to prospective customers and helps to counter the disadvantages of impersonal websites. Consequently, the quality of the customer interface can influence consumers’ purchase intentions and, thus, the financial performance of the e-business. Moreover, consumer attitudes and beliefs about security have significant effects on the intention to purchase online. This is possibly because customers no longer interact with a salesperson and must rely on electronic payment methods, which increases their perceived risk. Hence, lack of security, as perceived by online consumers, is one of the main obstacles to the development of e-commerce, and studies [14] have recognized perceived security as being important in online purchase decisions. However, despite the recognition of a need to build a perception of security, little effort has been made to investigate the factors that affect it in an online shopping context.
Furthermore, while customer interface quality and perceived security have been recognized as critical factors for success, few studies have examined whether they affect customer satisfaction and switching costs, and in turn, influence customer loyalty. Therefore, in order to understand the relationships among customer interface quality, perceived security, customer satisfaction, switching costs, and customer loyalty, we developed a research model to examine the relationships among these constructs in the context of e-commerce.
Customer interface quality can increase customer perceptions of security. Our study examined the influence of customer interface quality and perceived security on customer loyalty, as well as the mediating roles of customer satisfaction and switching costs based on the cognition–affect–behavior model. Our empirical results confirmed that customer interface quality and perceived security positively affected customer satisfaction and switching costs, and consequently customer loyalty.
Building customer loyalty in e-commerce is difficult; it requires online companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Practitioners should consider focusing more on customer interface design as a marketing strategy, particularly in improving customer convenience, interactivity, customization, and character.
