Abstract
The main focus of this research is to examine how context unaware mobile applications that deal with experiential products/services should be designed in order to improve the service quality. Electronic service quality in m-commerce is the extent to which a mobile application is designed to facilitate an efficient, effective shopping, purchasing and delivery process.
The ESQUAL model of Parasuraman et al. (2005) is used as the basis for this research. The original model is adjusted and after extensive literature review new items were added in order to measure the items of service quality for designing experiential product/services applications. The original ESQUAL model consists of seven dimensions implemented in a basic model (efficiency, fulfillment, system availability and privacy) and in E-RecS-QUAL, the sub model (responsiveness, compensation and contact). Furthermore two dimensions were implemented in the model; personalization and enjoyment. In total 46 items have been used for measurement. Thirty applications were assessed, divided into experiential product and experiential service retailers. A result of the study is that items in the four dimensions of the basic model score higher than those of the sub model. This result is visible in both experiential products and services.
Main differences between the two product types are that experiential product providers score almost twenty percent higher in items of the E-RecS-QUAL dimension compared with experiential service providers. This difference is also visible in the two added dimensions; personalization and enjoyment.
Items of these two dimensions score higher for experiential products than for experiential services.
Keywords: m-commerce, experiential product/service, service quality, context unawareness
Acknowledgements
Completing this master thesis is the final step of completing the master’s program at the University of Groningen. The corresponding master is Msc Business Administration, specialization Strategic Innovation Management. The subject of this research is fully in line with my interest in technology and especially mobile devices and therefore the writing of the thesis has moved fast.
After five years living, studying, partying in Groningen there are a few people that I would like to thank starting with my supervisors Dr. Chee-Wee Tan and Eric Lim. You guys ensured that I remained on track. I remember a meeting in the middle of April when I considered to quit with the thesis. In our spontaneous held meeting you guys convinced however to continue by providing me the necessary feedback and put me on the right track. I really liked your unique way of cooperation and hopefully we’ll meet again one day!
Second, I would like to thank my roommates of the ‘Plezierweg’. Living with you guys was awesome and my student years just flew by. I learned a lot from all of you and I’ll come back occasionally to grab a beer!
Furthermore I would like to thank my girlfriend Ester. You taught me how to work in a disciplined matter and supported me all these years. It’s time to go to South America!
Finally I would thank my parents and brother. I am very grateful that my parents offered me the opportunity to study. The three of you constantly supported and motivated me, something I will never forget!
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ... 6
1.1BACKGROUND INFORMATION ... 6
1.2VALUE OF M-COMMERCE ... 6
1.3PURPOSE OF THE STUDY ... 7
1.4SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: ... 8
1.5APPLICATION AREA:EXPERIENTIAL PRODUCT/SERVICE APPLICATIONS ... 8
1.6OUTLINE OF THE RESEARCH ... 9
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ... 10
2.1SERVICE QUALITY ... 10
2.2DEFINING ELECTRONIC SERVICE QUALITY ... 10
2.3ELECTRONIC SERVICE QUALITY MODELS ... 11
2.4PRODUCT/SERVICE TYPE: EXPERIENTIAL ... 13
2.5CONTEXT UNAWARENESS ... 13
2.6JUSTIFYING THE MODEL ... 13
2.7NEW DIMENSIONS ... 15
2.8CONCLUSION ... 16
3. METHODOLOGY ... 17
3.1OPERATIONALIZATION ... 17
3.2THE FINAL MODEL ... 18
3.3DISCUSSING THE MEASURES ... 23
3.4TESTED SAMPLE & PROCEDURE ... 29
3.5OBSERVATION EXAMPLES ... 31
4. APPLICATION FINDINGS... 33
4.1DIMENSION LEVEL ITEMS SCORES ... 33
4.2MEASURING THE RESULTS ON ITEM LEVEL ... 34
5. DISCUSSING THE FINDINGS ... 42
5.1DIMENSION LEVEL ... 42
5.2INDIVIDUAL LEVEL ... 43
5.3CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEORY AND PRACTICE ... 44
5.4LIMITATIONS... 45
5.5DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ... 46
6. CONCLUSION ... 47
REFERENCES ... 48
APPENDIX 1: SCREENSHOTS OF OBSERVATIONS ... 49 APPENDIX 2 SUMMARY OF EXTANT LITERATURE ON E-SERVICE QUALITY ... FOUT! BLADWIJZER NIET GEDEFINIEERD.
1. Introduction
1.1 Background information
Smartphones are now part of the daily life. People use smartphones mainly for eight different functions; calling, texting, location based activities, internet, music, gaming, social networking and e- mail (TNS Nipo, 2011). The research of Experian Marketing Services (2013) show that Americans spend 58 minutes of their day on using the smart phone and that this usage time continues to grow.
People cannot live without a smartphone anymore. This is remarkable while Nokia introduced the first smart phone only in 1996. This introduction was the beginning of a smartphone revolution. According to the strategy analysts of Bloomberg (2012) it has taken the smart phone industry 16 years to top the 1 billion mark and they expect that this will approximately two billion in 2015. The value of this smartphone market is emphasized by the study of Yang (2012). His study showed that the estimated value of the smartphone market was $219 billion in 2011. Expected is that this amount will grow to almost 260 billion dollars (MarketsandMarkets, 2011).
The actual value that smartphone users yield is examined by the study of comScore (2012). Their research showed that 85,9 million American (18 years and older) accessed retail content via mobile applications or mobile browser. These 85,9 million users have spent 9,86 billion dollars on m- commerce sales in 2012 compared with 7,50 billion in 2011. The m-commerce sales will continue to increase and reach an amount of 24 billion in 2016 (eMarketer, 2013). According to Deloitte (2012) the worldwide impact of smartphone usage on retail purchase will increase from $ 159 billion to $ 689 billion by 2016. Logical consequence of these increasing expenditures is that retailers should anticipate on these developments and therefore Deloitte advises companies to understand how mobile devices users interact with providers. Deloitte advises to focus on the experiences/needs of the shoppers. By doing this the providers is able to meet the customer demands.
Closer home, a similar pattern is visible. Also in the Netherlands the smartphone market continues to grow. This statement is supported by the research of Blauw Research (2012) that showed that in 2010 600.000 Dutch consumers purchased products via their mobile devices. Only one year later this number increased to more than one million buyers.
The foregoing paragraphs show the increasing importance of smart phones. In the sections below the specific value of the smartphone applications is described, the purpose and significance of this study and the reason why this research focuses on the design of experiential product/service smartphone applications in a context unaware setting.
1.2 Value of m-commerce
In order to determine the value of m-commerce defining the term is crucial. One of the first definitions of m-commerce was of Clark (2001). Clark (2001:41) defined m-commerce as: ‘the ability to purchase goods anywhere through a wireless Internet enabled device’. Yan (2013:523) updated this definition and described m-commerce as ‘the buying and selling of goods and services through wireless
handheld devices’. The earlier mentioned studies of Bloomberg (2012) and Deloitte (2012) showed the impact that buying and selling goods via smart phones has and the amount of money involved.
These increasing expenditures via mobile devices are the main reason that the traditional way of retailing has been changed. According to the research of Blauw Research (2012) in 2012 there were more than one million Dutch customers that acquired products or services via their mobile device. In 2011 there were only 600.000 which means an increase of almost seventy percent. Due to these development retailers such as Amazon.com and Bol.com anticipated in on early stage on this emerging trend. These two retailers were able to build mobile applications and an m-commerce website in an early stage that allowed customers to purchase products via their mobile devices.
Expected is that this trend of purchasing items via mobile devices continues. This is emphasized by the statement of the managing director of Bol.com, Rogers (2010). He said that in 2010 Bol.com decided to invest heavily in their mobile website and application. The sales result of this expensive investment decisions were above expectation. Within a six months period (August 2010 till December) their online sales volume increased by two hundred percent!
The success of Bol.com is to al a large extent determined by the fact that the retailer is able to constantly monitor changing customer preferences and thus is able to improve their service quality through this new way of delivering products.
Although retailers benefit considerably from the emergence of e-commerce, there is another party that benefits from the introduction of smartphone application and m-commerce. The other party that benefits of purchasing product/services via mobile devices are the smartphone users. The value for them is that they are able to access information and perform transaction at anytime, at any location (Yeo & Huang, 2003). Clark (2001) describes this accessing of information anytime, anyplace as
‘value for time’. According to Mahatanankoon et al. (2005) there are five main advantages of m- commerce; ‘always on’ (conduct transactions with a service provider while doing something else, for instance travelling), location centric (providers of m-commerce are better able to send location specific information), convenience (time, place constraint disappears, more efficient shopping which is similar to the value for time argument of Clark (2001), customization (customize information provision to specific preferences of customers) and identifiability (smartphone is personal, while pc usage is anonymous and thus provider is able to personalize the messages for smartphone users). These advantages ensure that if the experiential product/service retailer is able to meet the customer expectations it leads to service quality.
Context awareness is ubiquitous in the mobile applications. Dey & Abowd, 1999:6) describe a system context aware if ‘it uses context to provide relevant information and/or services to the user, where relevancy depends on the user’s task’. The study of Gellersen et al. (2002) specifically examines context awareness in an m-commerce setting. Within their research they distinguish between direct and indirect awareness of context. Direct awareness means that that the mobile device is
independent, can obtain the context autonomously while by indirect awareness the processing is rigid, and fixed. By implementing context awareness within applications providers are able to build
interactive applications (Dey & Abowd, 1999). By doing this the provider is able to offer customized product/services to the customer. This research is base on context unawareness, thus the location centric advantage of m-commerce is not considered as a factor in this research.
The introduction describes the emergence of the smart phones, the associated amount of money, the value of m-commerce for both retailer and customer and the context awareness of the mobile
application. The m-commerce market is dynamic and therefore retailers should be aware of the changing demands, and thus monitor these changes carefully. In order to anticipate on this retailer should carefully consider the design of their mobile application. Within this research the mobile application design is examined from the experiential product/service perspective in a context unaware setting. Main reason for this focal point is that experiential products/services have specific
characteristics; taste sensitive (Mudambi & Schuff, 2009), difficult to evaluate prior to purchase (Jian et al., 2010) that cause that the ‘traditional’ mobile applications design functions do not comply.
Main reason for studying this specific perspective is that in the recent years customers demand higher quality products more than ever before (Leonard & Sasser, 1982). A consequence of this development is that retailers must respond to these needs in order to fulfill the expectations of the customers.
Especially within the context of this study, experiential product retail, where the taste of the customer plays a large role (Mudambi & Schuff, 2009) meeting individual customer expectations is extremely difficult. Reason for this is that within experiential product/service retail the quality of the offered product/service cannot be inspected before purchasing the item (Li & Hitt, 2008). Since the diversity of customer requirements and tastes, there is no consensus reached about a specific standard for measuring the design features for such applications. Evaluation the delivered service/product is personal and thus very subjective (Mudambi & Schuff, 2009). In contrast to conventional products that focus on the tangible benefits the experiential perspective focuses on elegance, sociability and/or cheerfulness which are ‘symbolic meanings of more subjective characteristics’ Holbrook, Hirschman, 1982:132). A consequence of these specific characteristics is that the conventional models;
SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1985), eTailQ (Wolfinbarger & Gilly, 2003) or SERVPERF (Cronin & Taylor, 1992) cannot directly be applied to evaluate the service quality experiential products or services. The measurement items of these models simply do not conform at experiential product services.
1.3 Purpose of the study
The goal of this study is to establish a standard design format for mobile application developers that develop applications for experiential product/service providers. After examining fifteen experiential product and fifteen experiential services applications the author is able to come up with a list of items, implemented within nine different dimensions that are key aspects in the design of experiential product/service applications in a context unaware setting.
1.4 Significance of the study:
In times of economic difficulty retailers carefully consider the expenditures and cut where necessary.
The expenditures on IT however are expected to grow. According to Blehm (March, 2013) the IT budgets within the United States rises with a rate of 6% during 2013 and reaches more than 274 billion dollar. The reason why the IT expenditures keep rising is because they are part of the core business. It is a strategic asset for organizations to achieve objectives for the business (Rosenberg, 2011). The development costs of an application are part of the IT budget. The development of an average applications cost approximately $6453 (Ahlund, 2010). The research of Angeles (2012) however distinguishes between certain types of applications. A ‘simple’ application for instance costs between $1500 and $4000 dollar while building a database app costs between $8000 and $50000.
For the premium applications the costs exceed the $50000. Within this context it is likely that the provider has to pay the premium price while experiential product/service applications have design functions such as item customization which causes that it is most likely that the development costs exceed the $50000. Because of this the retailer should carefully consider how much of the IT budget is reserved for application development.
The most common service quality models (ESQUAL of Parasuraman et al., 2005 and eTailQ of Wolfinbarger & Gilly, 2003) are applicable to e-commerce. They are used to examine the factors (for instance in eTailQ; web design, fulfillment/reliability, privacy/security and customer services) that are used as predictors for service quality. The models cannot directly be applied to m-commerce due to the differences between m-and e-commerce as explained in paragraph 1.2. The models of e-service quality can however serve as a foundation for developing a framework for the design of experiential product/service applications. Items of the e-commerce frameworks can be made applicable for m- commerce so that retailers are able to develop application that fit to the customer needs today and in the future. The framework established in this thesis could serve as a standard for experiential
product/service mobile applications developers and therefore the research question of this master thesis is:
How should context-unaware mobile-commerce applications that deal with experiential retail products be designed to improve service quality for customers?
Sub questions:
What are, after the examination of the thirty selected applications the most pronounced design features for mobile applications that deal with experiential product/service retail?
What are, if they are present the main differences in terms of service quality design between experiential products and services?
1.5 Application area: Experiential product/service applications
The aspect of service quality has been studied extensively especially within e-commerce context (Wolfinbarger & Gilly 2003, Cox 1991, Wang 2003). Within this e-commerce context many researchers focus on electronic service quality in a specific context such as retailing (Zeithaml, Parasuraman &
Malhotra, 2002). Others look at whether the geography within a country influences shopping behavior (Farag, Weltevreden, Rietbergen & Dijst, 2006). The advantage of examining a specific industry is that the authors are able to develop a standard that is applicable to all the retailers within the industry because all factors that could influence the quality are equal.
Currently however much research is been done in service quality in the m-commerce (Stiakakis &
Geogiadis 2011, Peng & Lai 2009) context because these research areas show much similarities, there is only a difference in access and the transaction (Stafford and Gillenson, 2003).
The application area of this research therefore is mobile applications of experiential service or product retailers in a context unaware setting. The sample size consists of the most freely downloadable and highest user rated applications within the lifestyle and travel and local category. The reason for
selecting these two categories is that they are determining the quality is very subjective and the quality of the categories can only be determined after the purchase or use of the application. Another
requirement is that all the applications should be available for the Android platform. Reason for doing this is the dominant position of this Android within the smart phone market (Appbrain, 2013). A detailed description of the selection process can be found within the paragraph ‘tested sample and procedure’.
1.6 Outline of the research
The research is structured as follows; the first step is defining all the concepts. The emphasis is on service quality in general, service quality in e- and m-commerce. After defining the specific setting of this research; experiential products/services in a context unaware setting the focus is on explaining the quality models which have emerged from the literature. Hereafter the ESQUAL model will be explained and the updated ESQUAL model will be operationalized based on the basis of the literature of the past five years. After explaining the tested sample and procedure the findings of this research will be presented and discussed.
2. Literature Review
The next paragraphs are used to explain the key concepts of this literature review. The key concepts of this research; service quality, experiential product/services and context-unawareness will be described. Most literature is extracted out four journals; MIS Quarterly, Information System Research, Journal of Management Information Systems and the Journal of the Association for Information Systems. Main reason for selecting these journals as the basis is that all the articles have a special focus on e-commerce/ m-commerce, electronic service quality and technology adoption. Out of these journals mainly articles from 2008 up till now are selected, the main reason for doing this is that this way the research consists of up to date information. All the articles selected are accessed via EBSCO host which is an online premium research database which can be consulted by logging in with the RUG student account.
Within this research there are three main components and they will described in detail:
E(m)-service quality
Product/service type; experiential
Awareness (context (un)aware)
2.1 Service Quality
In order to examine how experiential product/service design mobile applications should be designed the first step is to define what the term service quality actually means and examine what the benefits of service quality delivering are. The term service quality is extensively described within the literature.
Parasuraman et al. (1985) were one of the first that examined service quality and defined the term as the customers’ judgment about the overall evaluation and judgment he receives. More recently Caruana (2002:813) states that ‘service quality is the result of the comparison that customers make between their expectations about a service and their perception of the way the service has been performed’ while according to DeLone & McClean (2003) service quality is the extent to which service provider delivers overall support. The definition of Cenfetelli et al. (2008:163) summarizes the different definitions by stating that service quality is ‘a customer’s global subjective assessment of the excellence of her interaction with a vendor and how well her service needs have been met’. The next paragraph describes the benefits of delivering value to the customers.
Value of service quality:
The value of service quality is examined from different perspectives. Parasuraman et al. (1985) found out that there is a significant relationship between the extent to which the customer would recommend the company and his perceptions of whether service quality was achieved. Other authors such as Gale (1992) examined the direct impact of service quality. He found out that there is a direct link between repurchase intentions and service quality levels. All authors agree that delivering service quality influences potential customer behavior. The research Parasuraman et al. (1996) emphasizes the importance of service quality delivering by calling it a key factor in order to survive in today’s competitive environment. More recent studies showed that the delivering of service quality stimulates customer loyalty and retention (Imrie, Durden & Cadogan, 2000). This outcome is supported by the research of Gefen (2002) who found out that the delivering of service quality leads to customer loyalty.
2.2 Defining electronic service quality
The paragraph ‘value of service quality’ emphasizes the importance of delivering service quality to the customers. Within the context of this research; m-commerce the traditional service quality definitions do not comply because within m-commerce there are other requirements for service quality than in the offline world. Parasuraman et al. (2005) posits that the perception of quality differs in a web based setting from quality in a non web based setting while customers have different beliefs about the usage of the technologies. The research of Collier and Bienstock (2006) elaborates on these differences by examining factors such as load time errors and/or connections problems that are unique for the online context while offline services are unaffected by these actors.
Several authors focused on service quality in an e-commerce setting such as Zeithaml et al. (2002) that developed a conceptual framework to define e-service quality. Their framework can be considered as the basis for the measurement of electronic service quality. They define e-service quality of websites as the extent to which the website facilitates the shopping, purchasing and delivering of products or services in an efficient, effective manner. Focal point in the study of Fassnacht & Koese (2006) was e-commerce and in their study they developed a hierarchical service quality model with the basic assumption that e-service quality is the extent to which an online service provider is able to meet the customer requirement in an efficient and effective manner. The e-service quality definition of Santos (2003:235) is consistent while her definition is that ‘service quality is the consumers’ overall evaluation and judgment of the excellence and quality of e-service offerings in the virtual market place.
Within this research however the service quality should be measured in the m-commerce context because of the unique features it possesses. Within the research of Siau & Shen (2003) m-commerce is considered as a subset of e-commerce although there are a few differences. These differences are highlighted by the research of Siau, Lim and Shen (2001:6) who state that mobile devices have the following unique features; small screens and small multifunction key pads, less computational power, limited memory and disk capacity, shorter battery life, complicated text input mechanisms, higher risk of data storage and transaction errors, lower display resolution, less surfability, unfriendly user- interfaces and graphical limitations. Because of these unique features the e-service quality should be adjusted and be applied to m-commerce. Therefore the definition used within this research is;
electronic service quality is the extent to which a mobile application is designed to facilitate an efficient, effective shopping, purchasing and delivery process.
2.3 Electronic service quality models
The section below describes the main concepts of the research and their relationship with the context of this study. The reason for selecting these concepts and models is that they are closely related to the three main components of this research; e-or m-commerce service quality, experiential
product/service type and context (un)awareness. The rest of the consulted literature of the four journals (MIS Quarterly, Information System Research, Journal of Management Information Systems and the Journal of the Association for Information Systems) is included in the appendix. After linking the key concepts with the known service quality models the author explains the reasoning for choosing the ESQUAL model as the foundation for this research. The main concepts that have emerged from the literature are;
M-commerce;
Central component within this research and therefore it is crucial to examine different dimensions and specific features of m-commerce. M-commerce is described in section 2.1 and has to do with the buying and selling of goods via wireless handheld devices.
(End user) satisfaction;
Satisfaction is related to service quality. The link between satisfaction and e-service quality is examined by the research of Au et al. (2008). Within their research they examined the value of design characteristics of an e-commerce system and link this with customer satisfaction.
Within their research they distinguished between two component of quality that lead to satisfaction; information and system support quality. Luo et al. (2012) more specifically examined how the retail characteristics website design, customer service and pricing are helpful to alleviate the effect on satisfaction. This research has similarities with the studies above while it examines the most pronounced design features for mobile applications that deal with experiential product/services.
Product reviews/personalized product recommendations;
Within the research of Zhang et al. (2011) the relationship between product recommendations and loyalty is examined. The extent to which the provider is able to match the consumer preferences determines the quality and ensures loyal customers. The study of Mudambi &
Schuff (2009) examines the impact of reviews in the purchasing process. Within this context personalized product reviews are important while in experiential product retail personalization customers are looking for an experience (Bassi, 2010). If the provider is able to provide this experience by recommending exactly the product/service the customer it leads to satisfied customers.
Trust;
Trust is a key concept for long term successful e-commerce relationships (Kim et al., 2009).
According to Cyr (2008) trust, satisfaction and e-loyalty are related to three components of website design; information, navigation en visual design while Vance et al. (2008) examines the effect of culture and system quality on trust. Trust is a consequence of the delivering of service quality and therefore is important within this context.
Product type;
The product type has effect on the information provision (Mudambi & Schuff, 2009) and the role of online product reviews (Li & Hitt, 2008). Product type is furthermore important while in the research of Luo et al. (2012) the website design is moderated by the type of product. The product types examined within this research are experience goods and services. The specific characteristics of experiential product/services while be highlighted in section 2.4.
Customer loyalty;
Customers loyalty is related to customer satisfaction and trust as Cyr (2008) showed. Xu et al.
(2011) examined the relationship between product knowledge and customer loyalty while Zhang et al. (2011) examined the relationship between retailer learning, the quality of product recommendations and customer loyalty. Within this context loyalty is important while they become only loyal is service quality is achieved.
The key concepts highlighted above serve as the basis for selecting service quality models.Based on recent literature and know service quality models the author selected the models below as the most appropriate for this research. The known service quality models are the following:
eTailQ; The eTailQ model of Wolfinbarger & Gilly (2003) is used to measure the etail quality.
The model measures the quality of websites during the whole process. By the whole process is meant the start up time of the website till the actual ordering process. The model consists of four actors (fulfilment/reliability, website design, privacy/security and customer service) that lead to e-service quality. The eTailQ model uses, after refinement 14 items to measure the service quality of a website.
WebQual; established by Barnes & Vidgen (2002). The model is used to assess the quality of websites. The authors constantly refined their e-commerce service quality model and applied it to different domains; auction houses, small companies, business schools and business stores. The e-commerce quality is measured by three different areas which are service interaction, the website usability and the information quality.
WEBQUAL; Developed by Loiacono, Watson & Goodhue (2002). The model uses a different perspective by using the theoretical frames of Theory of Reasoned Action and the Technology Acceptance Model as the basis. The updated model of Coicana et al. (2002:3) consists of ‘12 core dimensions; informational fit-to task, tailored communications, trust, response time, emotional appeal, consistent image, online completeness, relative advantage’.
E-SQUAL- model; The model used for this research is of Parasuraman et al. (2005) which is derived of the e-SERVQUAL model of Zeithaml et al. (2000). The model uses seven
dimensions to measure the service quality for websites. Within this model there is a distinction between the basic model consisting of the dimensions efficiency, reliability, fulfilment and privacy and three dimensions in the sub model. These dimensions are responsiveness, compensation and contact and are only relevant if customer encounters problems within for instance the ordering process. The seven dimensions together determine the extent to which a website is able to facilitate efficient, effective shopping, purchasing and delivering process.
In the foregoing paragraphs the key concepts of this research and the applicable service quality models are highlighted. There are however two other components relevant for this research in order to determine which service quality model is the most applicable to serve as a foundation for this
research. These actors are experiential product retail and context (un)awareness which is briefly described within the introduction. In order to be able to justify the selected model these components will be described.
2.4 Product/service type: experiential
Within this research the focus is on experiential product/services. Experiential products and services have specific features and therefore examining and defining these features is crucial in order to design applications that comply to these features. By examining the specific characteristics the author is able to justify the reasoning behind selecting the ESQUAL model. Within experiential products customers are looking for and trying to find an experience instead of accepting only the standard functional characteristics of the product (Bassi, 2010). The study of Bassi (2010) uses the research of Cooper- Martin (1991) as the basis by examining a typical example of experiential products; movies. Cooper- Martin (1991 define experiential products as those which consumers can choose to feel a good experience or a sense of enjoyment. The research of Jian, Chan, Tan & Chua (2010:38) is consisted with the work of Cooper-Martin (1991) but they define experiential products as feel products that are
‘subjective to affective motives’. Rational this means that evaluating is difficult while the quality of the delivered product service is dependent on the taste of the customer (Mudambi & Schuff, 2009).
Furthermore obtaining information regarding the quality prior to the purchase is difficult and costly.
However if the product/service provider is able to deliver superior quality he or she can feel a sense of pleasure or fun (Venkatesh, Thon & Xu, 2012). Because of the unique features of experiential
products the model should be dynamic and be adjusted in order to make it applicable for experiential products/services. The last main component that determines which model is the most appropriate for experiential products/services is context-awareness.
2.5 Context unawareness
The last component this research should take into account is the context unawareness. The research on context awareness is ongoing. For instance Bhaskar & Govindarajulu (2008) linked context awareness with mobile learning systems development while Raento et al. (2005) developed a prototyping platform for context aware mobile applications and Dey, et al (2001) established a conceptual framework for context aware applications. Rational context awareness means that within the context there is some extent of interaction between the computing systems and the users (Chen &
Kotz, 2000). According to the research of Dey & Abowd (2000) context awareness has to do with relevant information provision to users. The relevancy of this information depends on the task of the user. From literature it can be concluded that awareness is ubiquitous in m-commerce (Gellersen et al.
2002, Raento et al. 2005, Dey et al. 2001) and thus this component should be implemented within a service quality model in order to able to answer the research question. In this research the focus is on context unawareness and thus the location or the context in which the user is located does not matter.
The customer is able to interact with the mobile application 24/7.
2.6 Justifying the model
The four electronic service quality models highlighted could serve as a foundation for this research.
The eTailQ model was according to Caruana & Ewing (2006:357) ‘the first psychometrically robust instrument that focused specifically on service quality’. The model served as the basis for the service quality models but has a major drawback while it only focuses on tangible products (Caruana & Ewing, 2006) while this research distinguishes between experiential products and services. The eTailQ model explicitly excluded participants that purchased services on the website. The updated WEBQUAL model of Loiacono et al. (2002) focuses on the interface design of website so that web designers are able to improve the quality. The model has the advantage while it includes emotional appeal within the framework. Emotional appeal is a key dimension within experiential product retail while the customer is able to perceive a sense of enjoyment if the expectations are fulfilled (Venkatesh et al., 2012).
Disadvantage of the research however is that during the sample process the participants did not actually have to made a purchase at the corresponding website. This way they were not able to examine the entire purchasing process and thus were not able to identify delivery or customer service issues (Wolfinbarger & Gilly, 2003).Identifying this process is crucial while in case of service failure the extent to which the provider is able to solve the problems determines the service quality (Parasuraman et al., 2005). The updated WebQual model of Barnes & Vidgen (2002) could be used as a foundation while it has been applied in several industries (UK business schools, auction houses, small companies and bookstores) and thus can be used to examine differences. Disadvantage of the model is that it is originally generated by six graduate students and this is ‘too narrow base for establishing content validity’ (Loiacono et al. 2002:8). They furthermore state that another disadvantage is that the WebQual model used variety in sample size, respectively 46, 54 and 39. Due to this the factor structure varies across the versions. Major advantage of the ESQUAL model of Parasuraman et al.
(2005) is that it has been applied in different product categories (books, CDs, computer software and hardware, groceries, toys, electronics and apparel). Especially CDs and apparel are typical examples
of experiential products (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982) and therefore the model is applicable to serve as a foundation for this research. Another advantage of the ESQUAL model is that it distinguishes between a ‘basic’ model and a sub model. This sub model consists of dimensions that are relevant if the customer encounters any problems during visiting the website. This handling of problems and service inquiries is important while the quality of experiential product/services cannot determined before purchase (Li & Hitt, 2008) and thus service failure occurs more frequently. Other main advantage of the ESQUAL model of Parasuraman et al. (2005) is that it is used to generate
information for designers instead of measuring the extent to which service quality is perceived by the customers. This is consistent with the current research that tries to endeavour to arrive at design features of service quality that are most pronounced for mobile applications that deal with experiential product/service retail. The assumption is that the ESQUAL model is dynamic in nature and therefore the dimensions should be adjusted in order to make them applicable to examine the dimensions and corresponding items of experiential mobile applications in a context unaware setting. By doing this the author is able to answer the research question: ‘How can context-unaware m-commerce applications that deal with retail of experiential product be designed to improve service quality for customers?
In the paragraphs below the original ESQUAL model of Parasurman et al. (2005) is explained and the reasoning behind the added dimension. The ESQUAL model consists of a ‘basic model’ and a sub model. The basic ESQUAL model of Parasuraman et al. (2005) consists of four dimensions. These dimensions and the corresponding definitions are depicted in table 1.
Table 1: ESQUAL
Dimensions Definition of Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005) 1. Efficiency The ease and speed of accessing and using the site
2. Fulfillment The extent to which the site’s promises about order delivery and item availability are fulfilled
3. System
availability The correct technical functioning of the site
4. Privacy The degree to which the site is safe and protects customer information The EQUAL model however has a sub model; the E-RecS-QUAL model which contains ‘items
focusing on handling service problems and inquiries, and being salient only to customers who had non routine encounters with the sites’ (Parasuraman et al, 2005:17). The three sub model dimensions and definitions are depicted in table 2. The E-RecS-QUAL model is especially important within this context within experiential product/service retail the quality cannot be inspected in advance (Li & Hitt, 2008) and thus service failure occurs more frequently.
Table 2: E-RecS-QUAL
Dimension Definition of Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005) 5. Responsiveness Effective handling of problems and returns through the site
6. Compensation The degree to which the site compensates customers for problems 7. Contact The availability of assistance through telephone or online
representatives
The dimensions mentioned in table 1 and 2 are used to measure electronic service quality. This research however uses ESQUAL model as a starting point and modifies the model to make it applicable for the m-commerce context. The dimensions that can be applied are the following:
1. Efficiency; in e-commerce is defined as the ‘ease and speed of accessing and using the site’
(Parasuraman et al, 2005:9). The context of this study is m-commerce and therefore the original definition that focuses on websites does not comply. Within this context, the accessed mobile
applications texts, pictures and images should fit, automatically adjust to the screen size (Fassnacht &
Kroese, 2006). Within the mobile application context it means that the application should be accessible and user-friendly.
2. Fulfillment; within the e-commerce context fulfilment is according to Parasuraman et al. (2005:9)
‘the extent to which the site’s promises about order delivery and item availability are fulfilled’. This original dimension of service quality can directly be applied to m-commerce; the only difference is the context. Thus the original definition can be adjusted to the extent to which the mobile application provider promises about order delivery and item availability are fulfilled.
3. System availability; the system availability dimension of Parasuraman et al. (2005) is relevant for the mobile commerce context while perfect technically functioning of a mobile application is one aspect of service quality.
4. Privacy Trust; The arrow between privacy and trust indicates that the dimension privacy is replaced by trust. Trust is ‘a user’s beliefs about the reliability, credibility, and accuracy of information gathered’ (Choudhury & Karahanna, 2008:184) Main reason for replacing this dimension is that within e-commerce privacy deals with the ‘degree to which the site is safe and protects customer information’
(Parasuraman et al, 2005:9). Within m-commerce however not only privacy protecting is important but the extent in which the customer trusts the applications, believes that using it is safe and customer information is protected. Therefore the dimension is modified and items applicable for m-commerce were included.
5. Responsiveness; Responsiveness is a dimension of the E-RecS-QUAL that deals with the effective handling of problems and returns via de website. Rationalizing this for m-commerce means the effective handling of problems and returns via the application. The importance of this dimension is emphasized by the research of Griffith and Krampf (1998) who found out that customers perceive a lack of prompt responsiveness as the most negative phenomenon in e-commerce.
6. Compensation; this e-commerce dimension is applicable to m-commerce. The importance of compensation is emphasized by the study of Goodwin & Ross (1992). They found out that customers feel that they should be equitably compensated in case of inconvenience. Within this context for mobile applications providers it is important that customers should get compensated for problems that occurred during for example the delivering process.
7. Contact; ‘the availability of assistance through telephone or online representatives’ (Parasuraman et al, 2005:9). Contact dimension applicable and valuable for customer because they need to able to contact the provider of the application.
2.7 New dimensions
The main focus in this research is on experiential product/service retail and in order to examine the unique aspects that lead to service quality the original ESQUAL model is modified an two dimensions were added; personalization and enjoyment to measure specific items of experiential product/services.
8. Personalization; the personalization dimension is added to the ESQUAL model because customer should be able to customize the product/services to their own specific preferences. Within this process the quality of personalized product recommendations is the extent in which the provider is able to match customer preferences with the recommended products within the application (Zhang, Agarwal &
Lucas, 2011). Furthermore the study of Sheng, Nah & Siau (2008) emphasizes the importance of personalization by naming it the key for successful transactions. Within m-commerce personalization means thus, that a customer is able to alter the products to their own specific preferences. This could be the room size in experiential services or for example the clothing size in fashion.
9. Enjoyment; within experiential product retail customers ‘choose, acquire and use experiential products solely to experience them and enjoy them (Cooper-Martin, 1991:372). Feeling a sense of enjoyment within this context means that the provider should includes video, games and or music within the application so that consumers feel pleasured a sense of from using the technology (Venkatesh et al., 2012). According to Kamis et al. (2008) customer can perceive a sense of enjoyment in the provider is able to fulfil the demands of the customers. Within m-commerce enjoyment is defined as the extent to which customers perceive that using the mobile application is fun, enjoyable.
Table 3 summarizes all the dimensions the have been used in order to examine the service quality in experiential product/service retail.
Table 3: ESQUAL 2.0
Dimension Definition
1. Efficiency The ease and speed of accessing and using the mobile application.
2. Fulfillment The extent to which the mobile application promises about order delivery and item availability are fulfilled.
3. System availability
The correct technical functioning of the mobile application.
4. Trust The degree to which the customer trust the mobile application, believes that it is safe, protects the customer information.
5. Responsiveness The effective handling of problems and returns via the mobile application.
6. Compensation The degree to which the mobile application provider compensates customers for problems.
7. Contact The extent in which the consumers can contact the provider via the mobile application.
8. Personalization To extent in which the consumer can adapt the mobile application to his or hers own preferences.
9. Enjoyment To what extent does the consumer perceive that using the mobile application is fun, enjoyable.
2.8 Conclusion
After examination of the (quality) models and defining the corresponding literature it became clear that the ESQUAL model of Parasuraman et al. (2005) is the most applicable for examining the design of experiential product/services in a context unaware setting. The original ESQUAL model is adjusted so it can be applied to experiential products/services. The major changes are that the privacy dimension is replaced by a trust dimension and two new dimensions are included; personalization and
enjoyment. Each dimension consists of several items which can be found in the literature.
3. Methodology
The first step in the methodology chapter is to operationalize all the selected dimensions. The next step is to include the final model and discuss each measurement item individually. The last step is to explain the tested sample and procedure.
3.1 Operationalization
The first step in operationalization is to adjust the traditional ESQUAL into a new model with nine instead of seven dimensions. Reason for this adjustment is that experiential product/services have specific characteristics. These characteristics are described in detail within the literature review.
Design features of experiential product/services cannot be measured without adjusting the original ESQUAL model. Within the ESQUAL model the privacy dimensions is adjusted into trust and two dimensions were added in order to sufficiently cover the context of this research; personalization and enjoyment. In order to endeavor to arrive at design features of service quality that are most
pronounced for mobile applications dealing with product/service retail this research examines thirty applications. The applications are conducted via a smartphone and its content is measured by examining whether the 46 design features that have emerged from the literature are present or not.
The traditional ESQUAL model consisted of 32 items. After adjusting the original model eleven items out turned out to be applicable in the m-commerce context. Their applicability was determined after examining literature related to m-commerce, service quality, experiential product/services and context unawareness. The other 35 items were mainly derived of other frequently cited studies of service quality within the e- and m-commerce.
The items within the final model must comply with a number of requirements. For instance in order to evaluate the value of each item the authors examines whether the feature is presence or absence within the mobile application. Furthermore each item should be unique, in order to avoid overlap. The total of 46 items should cover the dimensions as good possible. On the basis of this the author is able to examine whether there are differences between design features in experiential product/service apps and which design features are the most pronounced.
The final model is presented on the pages below. The model consists of nine dimensions that cover a total of 46 different items. Each dimension and the corresponding items are extensively described.
3.2 The final model
Table 4: Measurement items:
In the table below the measurement items of each dimension are given and the corresponding literature.
Dimensions: Definition for m- commerce; derived of traditional ESQUAL model of Parasuraman et al.
(2005)
Items + description. References
1. Efficiency The ease and speed of accessing and using the mobile application.
1.1 Start up time; starting up the application takes less than 9,5 seconds
1.2 Graphic quality/visual design; text within the mobile application readable and images automatically fit to the screen.
1.3 Organized product categories; main categories always visible, logically organized.
1.4 Hand movement gestures; is it possible to scroll or use hand movements to navigate within the application.
1.5 Search function; search function is available within the application.
1.6 Filler interface; within the application a filler item is available that shows whether page is loading or not.
1.7 Navigation bar; within the application a navigation bar is visible that returns the customer to the homepage with pressing one button.
1.8 Store locator/ hotel nearby locator; whether customer have the possibility to locate stores or hotels nearby their current location
Gomez (2010), Zoompf (2013)
Fassnacht & Koese (2006) Cyr (2008)
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005) Luo, Ba & Zhang, (2012)
Vance, Elie-Dit-Cosaque & Straub (2008) Lee, Shin & Lee (2009)
Luo, Ba & Zhang, (2012) Wolfinbarger & Gilly (2003) Lee, Chen & Illie (2012)
Cyr (2008)
2. Fulfillment The extent to which the mobile application promises about order delivery and item availability are fulfilled.
2.1 Product/service availability; within the mobile application information is given whether the product/service is available or not.
2.2 Delivery time information; delivery time clearly mentioned in the application/notification for the remaining confirmation time of the hotel booking.
2.3 Product/service pictures available; whether in the application a product demonstration is included.
2.4 Product/service specifications; within the mobile application products specifications are available.
2.5 Order tracking; customer is able to track the status of the order.
2.6 Direct online payment; customer can purchase the products via several payment methods.
2.7 Ordering; is it possible for customers to order/book via the mobile application
2.8 Product/service reviews; possibility of checking product/service reviews within the application.
2.9 Rating of product/service reviews; possibility of rating other customers’ product reviews.
2.10 QR code; possibility for scanning QR codes within the application.
Luo, Ba & Zhang (2012)
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005)
Luo, Ba & Zhang (2012
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005)
Dimoka, Hong & Pavlou (2012)
Zhang, Agarwal & Lucas (2011) Luo, Ba & Zhang (2012)
Luo, Ba & Zhang (2012)
Tan, Benbasat & Cenfetelli (2013)
Cenfetelli, Benbasat & Al-Natour (2008)
Mudambi & Schuff (2009) Li & Hitt (2008)
Dimoka, Hong & Pavlou (2012)
3. System availability
The correct technical functioning of the mobile application.
3.1 System availability; mobile application is always available for business.
3.2 Application load; application starts up without errors, does not crash.
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005) Lee, Shin & Lee (2009)
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005) 4. Trust The degree to which
the customer trust the mobile application, believes that it is safe, protects the customer information.
4.1 Cookies; The application provides information for the user about their use of cookies.
4.2 Information guarantee seal; information protection of the customer verified by a guarantee seal.
4.3 Transaction security seal; transaction with the provider verified by using a security seal.
4.4 Privacy policy; refers to the presence of a privacy page within the application.
4.5 Ordering without registering; possibility of buying the product or service without registering to the provider.
4.6 Seller reputation; is it possible for customers to share their experiences with the seller.
Bortz, Barth & Czeskis (2011)
Tan, Benbasat & Cenfetelli, 2013 Xia & Benbasat (2011)
Head & Hassanein (2002) Pavlou & Gefen (2004)
Wells, Parboteeah & Valacich (2011)
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005) Kim & Benbasat (2010)
Ghose (2009)
Dimoka, Hong & Pavlou (2012) 5.
Responsivenes s
The effective handling of problems and returns via the mobile application.
5.1 FAQ; page for frequently asked questions.
5.2 Return/cancellation policy; application clearly describes the return policy within in the application.
5.3 Feedback form; possibility for the customer to feedback the provider.
Palmer (2002
Tan, Benbasat & Cenfetelli (2013)
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005)
Palmer (2002)
Tan & Benbasat (2009)
6.
Compensation
The degree to which the mobile application provider
compensates customers for problems.
6.1 Delay/missing/damaged compensation; section in the application is devoted what the customer should do when the products are delayed/missing or damaged or the service will not be available for that period of time.
6.2 Resolution centre; application offers the customer a page with solutions for resolving problems.
6.3 Reseller function; is there a possibility of reselling products/services.
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005)
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005)
7. Contact The extent in which the customer can contact the provider via the mobile application.
7.1 Live help technology; application offers live technology to the customers.
7.2 Mail helpdesk; is there an e-mail contact available within the application.
7.3 Phone helpdesk; is it possible to contact the provider by phone in the application; i.e. phone number visible or direct call function.
7.4 Basic contact information; application offers a page with an overview of contact details of the provider.
Xu, Benbasat & Cenfetelli (2011) Al-Natour & Benbasat (2009) Zhu, Benbasat & Jiang (2010)
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005)
Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005)
8.
Personalization
To extent in which the customer can adapt the mobile application to his or hers own preferences.
8.1 Personalized product recommendations; does the application provide recommended products to the customer that match individual customer preferences.
8.2 Item customization; within the mobile application it is possible to tailor the products to your own specific preferences.
8.3 Customer recognition; application recognizes (preferences of) the returning customer by its next visit.
Zhang, Agarwal & Lucas(2011)
Sheng, Nah, Siau (2008)
Cenfetelli, Benbasat & Al-Natour (2008) Vance, Elie-Dit-Cosaque & Straub (2008)
8.4 Interface customization; does the application adapt to personal preferences/ possible to adapt the interface.
8.5 Push notifications; is it possible for the customer to receive push notifications
8.6 Wish list; is it possible for customer to keep a wish list/favourites.
Tan, Benbasat & Confetelli (2013) Jian, Chan, Tan & Chua (2010)
9. Enjoyment To what extent does the customer perceive that using the mobile application is fun, enjoyable.
9.1 Games; is it possible to play games within the mobile application.
9.2 Video; inspiration videos can be consulted within the mobile application.
9.3 Music; music is available within the mobile application in order to enhance the experience.
9.4 Sharing options; is it possible to share the purchased items via social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter)
Barnes (2002)
Dini, Paternò & Santoro (2007)
Barnes (2002)
Barnes (2002)
3.3 Discussing the measures
In the section below the nine dimensions and their corresponding 46 items will be discussed. The tables listed below include references for the items and a short description to make the measurement applicable for mobile commerce. As can be seen in the table two items were added to the original coding item list. The reason for this inclusion is that the author identified these two measures in almost all the applications and therefore they could not be neglected. The two items are the following;
- in the efficiency dimension: store locator/ hotel nearby locator; whether customer have the possibility to locate stores or hotels nearby their current location.
- in the fulfilment dimension; QR code; after observation it appeared that this item only was relevant experiential products.
Table 5: Efficiency dimension
1. Description efficiency :
The ease and speed of accessing and using the mobile application.
Measures: Description and motivation:
1.1 Start up time According to Zoompf (2013) the average load time of a webpage is 9,5 seconds. This 9,5 seconds is the golden standard in this research while Gomez (2009) found out that 58% of the mobile users expected downloading a website on a mobile application should be as quickly as on their home computers. This standard of 9,5 seconds is applied for measuring the start up time for mobile applications.
1.2 Graphic quality/visual design
Cyr (2008:53) describes visual design as the 'uniformity of the website overall graphic look'. While Fassnacht & Kroese (2006) describe graphic quality as the extent to which text and pictures/images fit to the screen. Within mobile applications this uniformity means that there is balance in shape/colours and font and that all the pictures automatically fit to the screen size. This
automatically adjustment helps customers while they can consult all the pages within the application directly instead of having to zoom or tipping the screen.
1.3 Organized product categories
Measuring organized product categories is done according to Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra (2005) & Luo, Ba & Zhang (2012) who describe the extent to which information (categories) on the site is organized and how easily the products were found within the mobile application. Within the coding the item is positive valued if the organized categories are visible on the home screen and ordered in a hierarchical manner. By doing this the customers can directly visit the products he is looking for instead of browsing through all the categories.
1.4 Hand movement gestures
The effectiveness in navigating between screens is examined by Lee, Shin &
Lee (2009) while Vance, Elie-Dit-Cosaque & Straub (2008) describe the extent in which the site facilitates browsing. Applying this to mobile applications means whether customer has the possibility of using scroll or hand movement gestures to navigate.
1.5 Search function
The utility of the search function has been studied by Wolfinbarger and Gily (2003. A search function is important while it ensures that a customer is easily able to find the product he is looking for within the application (Luo, Ba &
Zhang, 2012). Implementing this design features saves the customer considerable time. Instead of random browsing the customers is able to search for the product/service he wants directly. Rational, in this research it means whether the mobile application has a working search function or not.
1.6 Filler interface A filler can 'fill' the time between the search of a user and the outcome (Lee, Chen & Illie, 2012). It is an item that shows whether the page is loading or not.
The value of a filler interface is emphasized by the research of Maister (1985).
According to his research people perceive waiting more frustrating if their waiting time is not filled. They are more aware their situation which leads to more frustration. Adding a filler interface provides distraction. For this research it means whether there is a filler interface during the loading of a page or not.
1.7 Navigation bar Whether or not the customer is able to use a navigation bar to return to the homepage when accessing different pages is examined by Cyr (2008). By adding a navigation bar within the mobile application the customer is able to navigate faster. Instead of pressing the return button several times the customer can return to the home screen by pressing one button. The value of this item is that it increases the user friendliness while customers are able to
‘start over again’ by simply pressing one button. Rational within this research it means whether the customer is able to return to the homepage by pressing the home button.
1.8 Store locator/
hotel nearby locator
After coding the first ten applications a similarity was identified. It appeared that all applications included a function in which the location of nearby
hotels/stores could be seen. The value of this item is that customer are able to see where the nearest product/service providers are located and thus in case they feel the need could physically visit the product/services provider. The store locator/ hotel nearby locator item is measured by whether customer have the possibility to locate stores/hotels nearby their current location.
The second dimension within this research is fulfilment. The dimension only includes items that can be measured by observing.
Table 6: Fulfilment dimension:
2. Fulfilment The extent to which the mobile application promises about order delivery and item availability are fulfilled.
Measures: Description and motivation:
2.1 Product availability
The original definition of Parasuraman et al. (2005) is whether the provider has the items in stock it claims. In a more recent article Luo, Ba & Zhang (2012) describe product availability as whether the product you wanted is available.
Applying this to mobile applications means whether the application provides information regarding to availability. For instance a status as; in stock or sold out.
2.2 Delivery time information
Delivery time is a crucial item in the fulfilment item while it determines in great extent whether the customer is willing to purchase the product/service of not.
Delivery time is measured by whether the application provides the customer with an accurate delivery time. Delivery item is extensively examined by inter alia, Parasuraman et al. (2005) en Luo et al. (2012)
2.3 Product
pictures available Product pictures are an important part of the product/service description.
Dimoka, Hong & Pavlou (2012) emphasize the importance of pictures by stating that the strength of pictures cannot be expressed in words. Within this research each product/service should have at least one picture near the product/service description.
2.4 Product specifications
Luo, Ba & Zhang (2012) examined how understandable product specifications were on websites while Zhang, Agarwal & Lucas (2011) examined the extent to which product information quality affect consumers in efficiency. Applying this research to mobile applications means that the product/service should have a title and clearly describe the specifications of the product/service.
2.5 Order tracking Nowadays the customer wants to know whether the product/service is delivered in short term. The study of Luo, Ba & Zhang listed order tracking as one of the items that lead to customer satisfaction. Rational, order tracking means whether the customer is able to track the status of the order.
2.6 Direct online payment
Tan, Benbasat & Cenfetelli (2013) found that online payment is a construct of service quality. Within this research direct online payment means that the customer is able to purchase the product/service via several payment methods (PayPal, IDEAL etc.)
2.7 Ordering The research of Cenfetelli, Benbasat & Al-Natour (2008) emphasizes the importance of the ordering process. Ration it means that customer should be able to order products/services directly via the mobile application.
