A Study on the Customer Satisfaction of the Internet Shopping --

Taiwan's Perspective
Sheng-Jie J. Hsu
Graduate School of Management, National Yunlin University of Science and
Technology;
Department of Information Management, Transworld Institute of Technology
1221, Zhen-Nan Road, Douliu, Yunlin 64005, Taiwan ROC
g9020816@yuntech.edu.tw
Min-Ya Tseng
Department of Business Administration, National Chung Cheng University;
Department of Marketing Management, Transworld Institute of Technology
Wuen-Fay Chang
Department of Information Management, Transworld Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT
For the reason that internet shopping has been becoming an important oncoming
approach for marketing, and along with the up raising of customer awareness, this
study intends to propose a framework for customer satisfaction in internet shopping.
After applying the methods such as questionnaire survey, factor analysis and path
analysis, we conducted the following results:
1. The stronger characteristics of internet buyers appear the higher customer
satisfaction and website service are expected.
2. The higher motive of internet shopping appears, the expected website service and
customer satisfaction will be raised.
3. The better the expected internet service appears the characteristics of internet
buyers, the motive of internet shopping and the customer satisfaction will be raised
co-responsively.
4. The rate of customer return is proportional to the scale of customer satisfaction.

Key Words: Customer Satisfaction, Internet Shopping

INTRODUCTION
Selling goods by internet can reduce the limits of distances, time, and positions
between the business and customers. (Quelch and Klein, 1996) Reichheld (Reichheld
et al., 2000) argued that the extent and profoundity of the relationship between
business and customers will decide the rate of profit. So, the scale of customer
satisfaction is very important for internet marketing.
Cardozo (1965) argued that the customer satisfaction will increase the re-
purchase behavior, and also for purchasing other products. Woodside (Woodside et al.,
1989) argued that the customer satisfaction is a kind of attitude after purchase. It is a
result of measurement after purchasing or serviced.
Varki (Varki and Colgate, 2001) found that different degree of customer
satisfaction make different post-purchasing behavior. For example, high degree of
customer satisfaction makes high degree of loyalty, high degree of allowance for
price, and re-purchases aspiration.

QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
For understanding the customer satisfaction of internet shopping buyers, this
article provided a investigate structure which includes four dimensions:
Characteristics of internet buyers, Motive of internet shopping, Expected service of
web-site, and Customer satisfaction. Which are shown as Figure 1.

Characteris
Figure 1 Questionnaire's Structure

The variables of the four dimensions are shown as Table 2. Those variables

internet b
using the Likert's five-point rating scale: "very agree (5 points)", "agree (4 points)",
"no comment (3 point3)", "not agree (2 points)", and "very not agree (1 point)".

Form the Figure 1, we build six alternative hypothesis:

H1: Assume "Characteristics of internet buyers" is related to "Motive of internet
shopping".
H2: Assume "Characteristics of internet buyers" is related to "Expected service of
web-site".
H3: Assume "Characteristics of internet buyers" is related to "Customer satisfaction".
H4: Assume "Motive of internet shopping" is related to "Expected service of web-
site".
H5: Assume "Motive of internet shopping" is related to "Customer satisfaction".
H6: Assume "Expected service of web-site" is related to "Customer satisfaction".

SAMPLING PLAN
We select the tester who has internet shopping's experience by convenient
sampling. There are 100 testers in this study. Since we retrieve the questionnaire by
field work, there are 100 efficacious questionnaires.

DATA ANALYSIS
Reliability and Validity
This questionnaire used the Cronbach's α coefficient to test the internal
consistency. The reliability value of all variables is 0.8594, and the corresponding
reliability values of each dimension are among 0.8378 to 0.6618 which shown at
Table 1. However, the reliability of this questionnaire is good.
In the validity phase, since all variables were surveyed the related literatures, the
questionnaire posses content validity. Also, in the construct validity, almost of the
factor-loadings are beyound 0.5, shown at Table 2.
Combine the above mentions, it shows the reliability and validity of this
questionnaire are good.
 Table 1 the Cronbach's α coefficient of each dimension
Dimension Cronbach's α
Characteristics of internet buyers 0.7034
Motive of internet shopping 0.7531
Expected service of web-site 0.6618
Customer satisfaction 0.8378

Table 2 the factor-loadings of variables

Dimension Variable Factor-Loadings
Characteristics Before internet shopping, I will consider, 0.714905
of internet study, and compare goods studiously.
buyers In the shopping websites, I will buy the goods 0.681872
right now if it's practical and cheap.
In the shopping websites, I will buy the goods 0.832107
right now if it's unusual.
In the shopping websites, I will buy the goods 0.786478
right now if I like the brand.
In the shopping websites, I will buy the goods 0.713436
if I like it. And don't care about the price and
brand.
Motive of The images of the shopping websites will 0.479195
internet affect my desire to buy its goods.
shopping The goods in the shopping websites are 0.716827
cheaper.
It is easy to find cheaper goods in the 0.762354
shopping websites.
Internet shopping can reduce the money and 0.660329
energy for searching the goods' information.
There is no traffic problem for internet 0.729764
shopping.
There is no time limit for browsing goods in 0.688607
the internet shopping.
I cannot affect by the clerk in the internet 0.656339
shopping.
Expected There is more selectiveness for payment in 0.782341
service of web- the internet shopping.
site I can obtain aplenty information about goods 0.768791
in the shopping websites.
The convenient and quickness of shopping 0.517182
websites make me like to expend.
The shopping websites provide a variety of 0.444187
goods.
Among the shopping websites, it is easy for 0.490023
me to compare the price for the same goods.
The payment processes of internet shopping 0.671324
are more insecurity.
The shopping websites are more untrammeled 0.720718
than traditional stores.
There is precise juristic protection when the 0.687237
Dimension Variable Factor-Loadings
disputes were occurred in the internet
shopping.
The personal data are easy to embezzle in the 0.804361
internet shopping.
I cannot know the quality of goods in the 0.576866
internet shopping before I receive it.
Customer I will buy goods cause the good contents and 0.493368
satisfaction well-design of the web-pages for the shopping
websites.
I can save much time through the internet 0.449581
shopping.
I am satisfied for the speed of networks for 0.651171
the shopping websites.
I am satisfied for the exchange enactments for 0.707465
the internet shopping at present.
Although I don't understand the shopping 0.648249
websites, I am willing buy goods in the
shopping websites.
Although I cannot receive the goods right 0.79272
now, I am willing buy goods in the shopping
websites.
Although the personal data may be steal, I am 0.635589
willing buy goods in the shopping websites.
In summary, I am willing buy goods in the 0.737215
shopping websites, and I will recommend to
my friends.

Correlation Analysis
This section will test the correlation between "Characteristics of internet buyers",
"Motive of internet shopping", "Expected service of web-site", and "Customer
satisfaction", pair-wised. And the results are shown as Table 3.

Table 3 The correlation between pair-wised dimensions

Characteristics Motive of Expected Customer
of internet internet service of satisfaction
buyers shopping web-site
Characteristics of -
internet buyers
Motive of internet 0.038 -
shopping
Expected service of 0.255* 0.593** -
web-site
Customer satisfaction 0.320** 0.480** 0.405* -

Note: **: P<0.01; *: P<0.05

1. Characteristics of internet buyers
From Table 3, we have: the higher "Characteristics of internet buyers" makes the
higher "Expected service of web-site" and "Customer satisfaction", which display
the positive correlation with significance effect.
2. Motive of internet shopping
From Table 3, we have: the higher "Motive of internet shopping" makes the higher
"Expected service of web-site" and "Customer satisfaction", which also display the
positive correlation with significance effect.
3. Expected service of web-site
From Table 3, we have: the higher "Expected service of web-site" makes the higher
"Characteristics of internet buyers", "Motive of internet shopping", and "Customer
satisfaction", which also display the positive correlation with significance effect.
4. Customer satisfaction
From Table 3, we have: the higher "Customer satisfaction" makes the higher
"Characteristics of internet buyers", "Motive of internet shopping", and "Expected
service of web-site", which also display the positive correlation with significance
effect.

Path Analysis
For discuss the fitness of our study structure, this article use path analysis to test
the four dimensions. The results are shown as Figure 2.

Characteris
Figure 2 The results of Path Analysis

1. In the path analysis, there is only one path cannot accomplish significance level

internet b
0.05: "Characteristics of internet buyers" vs. "Motive of internet shopping". Other
paths accomplish significance level 0.05, which shows the fitness between structure
and physical data.
2. The corresponding path coefficients of "Expected service of web-site" vs.
"Characteristics of internet buyers" and vs. "Motive of internet shopping" are 0.055
and 0.345. It shows that "Motive of internet shopping" is more effect to "Expected
service of web-site" than "Characteristics of internet buyers".
3. The corresponding path coefficients of "Customer satisfaction" vs. "Characteristics
of internet buyers", and vs. "Expected service of web-site", and vs. "Motive of
internet shopping" are 0.093, 0.156, and 0.223. It shows that "Motive of internet
shopping" is more effect to "Customer satisfaction" than "Characteristics of internet
buyers", and "Expected service of web-site".
 CONCLUSIONS
This article provided that there is high positive correlation between
"Characteristics of internet buyers", "Motive of internet shopping", "Expected service
of web-site", and "Customer satisfaction", pair-wised. Also, by path analysis, we have
the following four results:
1. The stronger characteristics of internet buyers appear the higher customer
satisfaction and website service are expected.
2. The higher motive of internet shopping appears, the expected website service and
customer satisfaction will be raised.
3. The better the expected internet service appears the characteristics of internet
buyers, the motive of internet shopping and the customer satisfaction will be raised
co-responsively.
4. The rate of customer return is proportional to the scale of customer satisfaction.

REFERENCES
Cardozo. 1965. An Experimental Study of Customer Effort, Expectation and
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Compeau, D.R. & Higgins, C.A. 1995. Application of Social Cognitive Theory to
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Quelch, J.A. & Klein, L.R. 1996. The Internet and International Marketing, Sloan
Management Review, 37(3), Spring, 60-75.
Reichheld, F.F. & Schefter, P. 2000. E-Loyalty, Harvard Business Review, July-
August, 105-113.
Varki, S. & Colgate, M. 2001. The Role of Price Perceptions in an Integrated Model
of Behavioral Intention, Journal of Service Research, (3), 232-240.
Woodside, A.G., Frey, L. & Daly, R.T. 1989. Linking Service Quality, Customer
Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intention, Journal of Care Marking, 5-17.