An exploration of online shopping convenience dimensions and their associations with customer satisfaction

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to extend our understanding of shopping convenience and customer satisfaction in the context of online shopping. Employing the critical incident technique, the authors content-analyse 1,134 customer-generated reviews regarding 31 US online retailers’ service performance. This study uncovers 51 original categories and further refines them into nine dimensions of online shopping convenience: access, search, evaluation/selection, configuration/customisation, transaction, delivery, possession/in-use, service recovery, and post-purchase communication convenience. Our findings indicate that, of the nine service convenience dimensions, four dimensions, such as delivery, service recovery, transaction, and possession/in-use convenience, tend to be the main sources of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction.