Customer e-Loyalty in Online Retailing: Testing a Measurement Scale

Research aim: In recent years, the interest for the activities aimed to nurture a strong relationship among retailers and their customers have increasingly intensified, especially in digital environments. Recently those activities have seen their relevance increased by the growing positive impact of COVID-19 pandemic on online retailing. Working on existing customers rather than capturing new ones is the new imperative for retailers, even if we refer to online platforms, obviously without underestimating the acquisition attempts of new customers. The aim of this study is to test a conceptual model of measurement for Customers e-Loyalty (CeL) in digital context in order to evaluate its impacts on digital retailers (e-commerce retailers, e-banking retailers, e-service providers). Methodology: it has been adopted a component-based Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) on a sample of Italian digital users, who makes online purchases prevalently on Amazon in order to test the CeL scale of measurement as a conceptual (meta) model. A structured questionnaire has been administered online to the consumers through Google Forms. Findings: The study has permitted to get some counterintuitive evidence related to the process of formation of customer loyalty in digital context. The trust isn’t a determinant of CeL and the affective loyalty doesn’t impact any of the elementary dimension of CeL, nor impacts on conative loyalty. Finally, the model has been able to better capture the impact of the individual dimensions of CeL on its outcomes (price sensitiveness, intentional SOW, e-WOM). Theoretical implication and originality: Propose a reliable customer e-loyalty measurement scale in online retailing. The statistical assessment of this conceptual model will permit, in the middle term, also to measure the CeL in several other retailing industries. Furthermore, in a next step, this investigation, could be extended to other geographical settings. Managerial Implication: the better understanding of the relationships among the latent variables and outcomes in the model might encourage the online retailers to figure out appropriate course of actions to win customers’ commitment and satisfaction and to provide better services in order to create a loyal customer base in a digital context.