Design Quality of Websites for Electronic Commerce: Fortune 1000

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CHANG LIU, KIRK P. ARNETT AND CHUCK LITECKY
INTRODUCTION
The importance of effective use of
Web technology for electronic commerce (EC) has been presented by
many researchers (e.g. Jarvenpaa and
Todd 1997; Komenar 1997; Garfinkel 1997; Pitkow 1997; Thornton
1997; Varney 1996; Wigand 1996).
EC continues to demonstrate promise
to help business organizations cut
costs, interact directly with customers,
run more smoothly and in a more
timely manner. More importantly, EC
may help an organization outperform
its competition. Consequently the results of at least one survey predicted a
300% jump in EC within the next two
years (Deloitte Consulting, 1998).
Although there has been significant
research on supporting EC, existing
empirical research focusing on the design quality of websites in the context
of EC is often anecdotal and exploratory in nature (see for instance Kirsner
1998). Most studies rarely involved
more than one or two factors in a
particular website design. Thus, while
it is reasonable that there should be a
considerable number and variety of
factors related to the design of websites to support EC, little knowledge
exists relative to the issues of effective
combinations of potential factors. In
addition, the preponderance of design
studies focuses on the issue of building security for on-line transactions
on the Web. As the Web moves into
commercial applications, concerns
about the security implications of
doing business on the Web have arisen (Marion 1995; Messmer 1995).
However, security is only a necessary
but not a sufficient condition of designing a successful website in the
context of electronic commerce. A
Web market must be secure, but a
secure Web market does not guarantee customers. Other factors also play
important roles in determining
whether customers shop on the Web.
The problems described above are
simple but do generate strong appeal
for studies of factors related to the
design of successful websites. Accordingly the objective of this paper is to
explore some of the factors that contribute to well designed websites for
electronic commerce.
A DEFINITION OF ‘WELL DESIGNED’
WEBSITES
A convenient starting point for this
exploratory research is to survey Webmasters on their perceptions of customers’ reactions to their websites.
Webmasters may only be considered
surrogates for the ultimate consumer,
but as a starting point for exploratory
research may be more professional,
better informed on web design issues,
have more experience and are inexpensively, reachable through their
published websites.
A
b
s
t
r
a
c
t
This article presents a study of Fortune
1000 webmasters’ perceptions of thirtyfive variables that support quality in
the design of consumer-oriented web
sites used for electronic commerce. The
study combines consumer marketing
constructs: Learning Capability, Playfulness, Service Quality with information
systems constructs of Information Quality, System Quality, and System Use.
The subjects have expert level knowledge related to quality issues in the
design of web sites. Eighteen percent
of the Webmasters responded to two
formats of an electronic survey. The
overall importance ratings correlated
positively and significantly with the
marketing and information systems research constructs, thus these constructs
were shown as significant to well
designed web sites for consumeroriented electronic commerce. Designers
of web sites might apply these results.
A
u
t
h
o
r
s
Chang Liu, DBA
(m10cx11@wpo.cso.niu.edu) is an
Assistant Professor of Management
Information Systems at Northen Illinois
University. His research interests are
electronic commerce and
telecommunications.
Kirk P. Arnett, DBA, CDP
(kpa1@ra.msstate.edu) is Professor of
Information Systems at Mississippi State
University. His research interest include
Electronic Commerce and IS SupplyDemand. He is a member of and faculty
advisor of the Association of
Information technology Professionals.
Chuck Litecky, Ph.D, CDP
(clitechy@cobilan.msstate.edu) is
Professor of Information Systems at
Mississippi State University. His
research interests are technology
assessment, software engineering, and
collaborative groupwork.
Copyright © 2000 Electronic Markets
Volume 10 (2): 120–129. www.electronicmarkets.org
Design Quality of Websites for
Electronic Commerce: Fortune 1000
Webmasters’ Evaluations
Keywords: design quality, EC websites, fortune 1000
RESEARCH
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Moreover if differences exist between Webmasters perceptions of web design quality and consumers, then it will
be important for later research to use the results of this
early study to assess the effects of those differences. So,
these results establish a base and provide an instrument
from which to conduct research with other groups.
The functions and features of companies’ websites can
be classified by three phases of marketing activities: presales, on-line sales, and after-sales (Liu, Arnett, Capella
and Betty 1997). The pre-sales phase includes a company’s
efforts to attract customers by advertising, public relations,
new product or service announcements, and other related
activities. Customers’ electronic purchasing activities occur
in the on-line sales where orders and charges are placed
electronically through the Web facilities. Kotler (1994)
stressed that trustworthiness, dependability, and reliability
are important characteristics in order for business transactions to occur. The after-sales phase includes customer
service, problem resolution, and the like. This later phase
should generate customer satisfaction by meeting customer demand and pleasing customers. Here, a well designed website for EC attracts customers and makes them
feel the site is reliable, dependable, and trustworthy along
with generating customer satisfaction.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Because website design is related to both information
systems and marketing, literature from both areas is
applicable for a research framework for this study. In
marketing, consumer information search strategies and
measuring service quality were considered. In information
systems, literature related to information quality, information system management, measuring information system
success, and end-user computing were considered.
Electronic Markets Vol. 10 No 2
An important characteristic of electronic commerce is the
interaction between customers and the business enterprise
(Bakos 1991). Many studies in the field of electronic
commerce have emphasized the importance of electronic
communication to support the interaction (e.g. Malone,
Yates and Benjamin 1987; Bakos 1991; Applegate and
Gogan 1995; Benjamin 1995). This two-way, on-line
communication between customers and firms will not only
facilitate building relational markets, but also increase the
customers’ abilities to browse and to find relevant information on the Web.
For many potential customers, using Web technology is a
new experience. Also since Web technology advances
rapidly and websites are updated frequently, providing
interactive learning tools is necessary, since consumers need
to develop and apply their abilities through exploratory
behavior (Webster et al. 1993). Thus, a positive relationship
between learning capability and a well designed website is
expected, which leads to the following hypothesis.
H2 : Learning capability is positively related to a well
designed website
Playfulness
Prior research has employed various measures of success
for information systems, including: user satisfaction (Ives
et al. 1983; Raymond 1985; Amoako and White 1993;
Guimaraes et al. 1996), business profitability (Barua 1995;
Mukhopadhyay 1995), improved decision quality and performance (Martin 1982; Rivard 1989; Pearson and Shim
1994; Wilson 1998), perceived benefits of information
systems (Davis 1989; DeLone 1992; King 1996; Purvis
1997), and the level of system usage (DeLone 1988,
1989). Each of these studies stressed that information
quality provided by a system cannot be ignored. Consequently a positive relationship between information quality
and website design quality was expected which leads to the
following hypothesis:
The importance of playfulness in websites has been emphasized by website designers. A recent study by Rice (1997)
suggests that an important factor to determine the likelihood of a repeat visit to a website is whether the visitors
found the visit enjoyable. A website should attract attention and provide features to allow customers to enjoy their
online shopping activities.
In marketing, the concept of hedonic value reflects
shopping’s potential entertainment and emotional worth
(Bellenger et al. 1976). A satisfied consumption activity
not only comes from an extrinsic reward of purchasing
products or services but also gains a more intrinsic,
personal, and emotional reward from purchasing, a derived
pleasure. On the Web, hedonic pleasure generally refers to
the degree of playfulness that consumers experienced
(Jarvenpaa and Todd 1997). This suggests that shopping
activities on the Web produce both hedonic and utilitarian
outcomes.
From the above, it follows that Web designers should
cultivate hedonic pleasure in site design by motivating
customers to participate, promoting customers excitement
and concentration, and including charming features to
attract customers and to help them enjoy their visit. This
will lead to increase customer information search activities
(Schmidt 1996). The related hypothesis is:
H1 : Information quality is positively related to a welldesigned website
H3 : Playfulness is positively related to a well designed
website
Information quality
121
Learning capability
H 4 : System quality is positively related to a well
designed website
System use
Customers’ usage of a website is another aspect on which
business organizations and website designers should focus. This is because the use of an information system is
often employed as a measure of the success of the system
(Ives et al. 1980). Also, system use is an important
determinant of user satisfaction (Baroudi et al. 1986).
Thus the hypothesis follows as:
H 5 : System use is positively related to a well designed
website
Service quality
Prior studies have stressed the importance of providing a
high quality of service in marketing activities (Teas 1994;
Zeuthaml et al. 1996). Business organizations and Web
designers should actively seek ways to improve service
quality provided through websites. Management and Web
designers should carefully consider how to arrange and
present service to their customers. This care is necessary
because of the absence of face-to-face contact in the service
encounter on a website. Thus, the following hypothesis:
H 6 : Service quality is positively related to a well
designed website
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The general methodology involved an electronic questionnaire survey of webmasters from Fortune 1000 Companies
MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES
Variables in the webmaster survey were elicited from a
seven-point Likert scale from (7) completely important to
(1) completely unimportant. Table 1 describes the research
factors, their measurement variables, and the internal
reliability assessment.
Information quality
From the literature review, the following variables were
adopted for measuring information quality: accuracy, timeliness, relevance (Ahituv 1980); flexible information presentation (Allen 1996); customized
information
presentation (Rousseau 1999); price information (Bakos
1991); product/service comparability, product/service differentiation, complete product/service description (Baty
Design Quality of Web Sites
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According to a recent survey conducted by the European
Electronic Messaging Association, more than 79% of
respondents said that the design quality, especially security,
is their top concern for electronic commerce activities
(Shankar 1996). However, security is only one aspect of
designing for system quality. Anderson and Bezuidenhoudt (1996) stressed that reliability is also needed for
high speed Web services so that websites can be used to
realize their full potential, especially in consumer electronic
markets. A reliable system should have quick error recovery and should ensure correct operation and computation
(Bailey and Pearson 1983). Obviously, the quality of the
system itself is an important indicator of whether the
design is successful. Thus, the following hypothesis:
(refer to Appendix A). Webmasters are typically responsible for managing websites or home pages. As a result, they
have a rich information base about their websites since
these websites are used as bridges to connect customers
and internal business organizations (Arnett and Liu 1996).
Large business organizations are known to provide leadership in the use of information technology (Li, McLeod
and Rogers 1993). Therefore, the use of the Fortune
1000 Companies as the target group seemed most appropriate. The mailing list for the webmasters was determined
by visiting each Fortune 1000 home page and recording
the webmaster’s e-mail address.
The research model shown in Figure 1 was derived from
the study of information systems and marketing literature.
Potential measurement variables were derived from key
word searches of electronic market, electronic commerce,
electronic transaction, and electronic marketplace in ABI/
INFORM, an on-line database marketed by University
Microfilms Inc. (UMI). The use of on-line databases, and
ABI/INFORM in particular, as a research tool has been
well established (Padgett 1991). The key word searches
yielded about 1000 relevant ‘hits’. These were scanned by
reading titles and abstracts.
Following the collection of measurement variables and
their incorporation in the questionnaire, the proposed
questionnaire was evaluated by six webmasters who are
considered to be content experts. The questionnaire was
also pre-tested for content and readability by using webmasters of the top 100 websites, which were identified by
PC Magazine (February 18, 1997). The purpose of this
pre-test was to further examine the content validity of the
questionnaire and to estimate the response rate for a large
sample survey. A low response rate of 5% from this pre-test
advised a need for a more appealing cover letter and a
need to send the electronic questionnaire individually to
each webmaster, rather than as a mail group. Both of these
changes were made for the final questionnaire mailing.
Liu, Arnett and Litecky
System quality
122
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Figure 1. Research framework
Electronic Markets Vol. 10 No 2
Table 1. Research factors, measurements, and reliability assessment
123
Hypothesis
number
Research construct
Measure component
Cronbach’s alpha
H1
Information quality
0.775
H2
Learning capability
H3
Playfulness
H4
System quality
H5
System use
H6
Service quality
relevant; accurate; timely information; flexible & customized
information presentation; products/services differentiation;
complete description of products/services; price information;
satisfying ethical standards; perceived products/services
quality; information to support business objectives
interactive function between customers and business
organization; well defined link; help function; customized
search engine
enjoyment; excitement; feeling of participation; charming;
excapsim
security; rapid accessing; quick error recovery; precise
operation and computation; balanced payment method
between security & ease of use; coordination
confidence; control; ease of use; track on-line order status;
privacy
quick responsiveness, assurance; empathy; following-up
service
and Lee 1995); perceived information quality on product/
service (Jarvenpaa and Todd 1997); satisfying ethical
standard (Laudon 1995); and support of business objectives (Niederman et al. 1991). The average score of these
variables is the measure of information quality. The internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) of these
items is 0.775, which showed that the items are internally
consistent.
0.551
0.829
0.747
0.926
0.863
Learning capability
Five variables were used to measure learning capability: well
organized hyperlink, help function (Varney 1996); customized search engine (Balderston 1996); interactive function between customers and businesses, and interactive
function among customers (Armstrong and Hagel 1996).
The Cronbach’s alpha of the five-item scale is 0.551.
Playfulness
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Five variables representing playfulness were adapted from
Babin et al. (1994). These variables are: enjoyment,
excitement, feeling of participation, escapism, and charming. Playfulness variables had a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.829.
A final questionnaire followed a pre-test of the instrument
with six webmasters and the survey of selected webmasters
of PC Magazine’s top 100 sites. The survey was e-mailed to
661 webmasters of the Fortune 1000 who showed a deliverable e-mail address. A total of 119 usable responses were
obtained from the webmasters. The responding webmasters
represent seven broad industry classifications as defined by
Fortune which indicates that the results can be used to
explain webmasters’ perceptions for design quality of electronic marketplaces on the Web across different industries.
To test the proposed hypotheses, mean values and a
matrix of intercorrelations among the research constructs
were calculated. The average response for the six-items of
attractiveness, dependable, reliable, trustworthy, meeting
customer demand, and pleasing customers is the measure
of the overall web design importance value. If the overall
importance mean value rating was correlated positively and
significantly with the six research constructs (information
quality, learning capability, playfulness, system quality,
system use, and service quality), the hypotheses could be
supported.
The means, standard deviations, and matrix of intercorrelations among the six research constructs are presented
in Table 2. The overall well design importance rating
correlated positively and significantly with all six independent constructs. The probabilities ( p values), which are
show in parentheses, are less than 0.01. Therefore,
research hypotheses H1 –H6 can be strongly supported.
System use
As discussed previously, the measurement variables of
system use are: customers’ control of the transaction
process, ease of use, confidence, tracking of the on-line
order status, and privacy. System use yielded a Cronbach’s
alpha of 0.926.
Service quality
The variables of quick responsiveness, assurance, reliability,
empathy, and follow-up service are used to measure service
quality. These measurements are well established in the
marketing literature. The Cronbach’s alpha for this scale is
0.863.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
When websites are used for EC activities, special concerns
are relevant to attracting customers, and getting customers
Table 2. Matrix of intercorrelations among study constructs (N = 119)
Construct
Mean S.D.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1. Well designed importance
5.90
0.74
2. Information quality
5.64
0.68
3. Learning capability
5.33
0.83
4. Playfulness
5.10
1.04
5. System quality
5.49
0.99
6. System use
5.47
1.39
7. Service quality
6.16
0.92
1.00
(0.0)
0.27
(0.0028)
0.26
(0.0041)
0.35
(0.0001)
0.31
(0.0006)
0.30
(0.0008)
0.42
(0.0001)
1.00
(0.0)
0.72
(0.0001)
0.37
(0.0001)
0.64
(0.0001)
0.50
(0.0001)
0.70
(0.0001)
1.00
(0.0)
0.36
(0.0001)
0.62
(0.0001)
0.53
(0.0001)
0.59
(0.0001)
1.00
(0.0)
0.30
(0.001)
0.21
(0.0189)
0.39
(0.0001)
1.00
(0.0)
0.69
(0.0001)
0.59
(0.0001)
1.00
(0.0)
0.53
(0.0001)
1.00
(0.0)
Design Quality of Web Sites
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This was measured by six items: rapid access, quick error
recovery, correct operation and computation (Bailey and
Pearson 1983); security (Bhimani 1996); balanced payment method between security and ease of use (Panurach
1996); and coordination to support all functional areas
(Mukhopadhyay et al. 1996). The Cronbach’s alpha of
these items is 0.747.
Liu, Arnett and Litecky
System quality
Note: (1) p values are in the ( ).
(2) The measurement scale of mean values is from 1 (completely unimportant) to 7 (completely important).
124
Electronic Markets Vol. 10 No 2
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125
to use the sites for purchases. Logical expectations are that
both the popular literature and professional Webmasters
from the Fortune 1000 companies will have considerable
insight into the most important factors. However, other
perspectives are relevant as well. As EC activities continue
to accelerate, there is an increasingly important need for
scholarly identification and analysis of the factors that can
be included in the design of a website to enhance the
quality of that site. The Webmasters who implement and
manage a website give one perspective related to the
quality in design of sites. An additional perspective can and
should be gathered from the consumers, or users, of the
website. The instrument presented in Appendix A can
serve as a base for that inquiry. When and if both perspectives are applied then we can expect to see a well-designed
website. The preceding sections have described two important findings: first, they have verified that factors that
have been significant for traditional information systems
are important here as well. While some of these findings
might be expected, there is a need to confirm that
literature-derived variables are indeed important in the
modern web-based context. Second, these six factors
showed a positive and significant correlation with a Webmaster-generated Web design importance measure. In this
second measure the Webmasters served as consumer
surrogates. The webmasters might not serve as a surrogate
for all consumer groups but they certainly represent a
substantial segment of B2C consumers.
The six factors that were identified in this study will
benefit businesses that are engaged in a design, or
continuing redesign of a website to be used for EC. While
it is easy to build a web site to announce a company’s
presence, it is an entirely different matter to build a
website that will attract customers and elicit purchase
transactions from them. Obviously the products and/or
services that are offered will have a bearing on the extent
of customer activity, but so too will the design of the
website. From this research, business managers and Web
designers should pay close attention to the features of
information quality, learning capability, playfulness, system
quality, system use, and service quality provided through
their websites. The variables that compose these factors
should prove fruitful to designers.
Because this study used Webmasters as customer surrogates to obtain a composite website design importance
rating, future research might obtain data from real customers using applicable parts of the survey instrument to
confirm research results from Webmasters. In addition, a
comparative study between large and small business enterprises on the perception of design quality of websites
are needed to establish an entire picture of critical success
factors of conducting electronic commerce activities on
websites.
Academicians might use these results as a scientifically
derived base for continuing assessment of website design
factors. As these factors were analyzed at one point in time
and only for designers of websites that are used in very large
businesses, there could be factors that have been omitted or
are more or less important in other EC contexts. Still, the
academic base of these factors that includes information
systems and marketing variables that have been found to be
important in systems design literature should be relevant as
a foundation in other studies.
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126
Appendix A: Webmaster Questionnaire
Please share your thoughts about the critical design factors of a website. This survey is completely voluntary and your
responses will be confidential. If you would like a copy of the results, please request by e-mail to cc2@cobilan.
msstate.edu.
Please rate the following in Section A, B, C, D, E, and F by checking the number that corresponds most closely to your
perception of its critical (importance) to the Web site design.
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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
ˆ
ˆ
ˆ
ˆ
ˆ
ˆ
ˆ
completely unimportant
moderately unimportant
somewhat unimportant
neither important/unimportant
somewhat important
moderately important
completely important
Electronic Markets Vol. 10 No 2
Section A: In order to attract customers, please consider indicators to enhance Information Quality of a website.
127
(1) flexible information presentation (appropriate
amounts of sound, graphic, text, image, animation
uses considering users’ hardware constraints)
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
(2) customized information presentation (provide different user interfaces for different types of customers)
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
(3) information that is relevant to the customer (such as
company, product, service information)
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
(4) provide a feature to compare products/services with
those of competitors
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
(5) provide a feature to differentiate products/services
with those of competitors
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
(6) provide accurate information
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
(7) provide price information
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
2
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(8) provide complete products/services descriptions
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(9) provide timely information
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(10) enhance perceived quality of products/services
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(11) meet ethical standards (such as no misleading or
deceptive info.)
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
(12) Provide information to support business objectives
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
2
2
2
2
2
Section B: In order to attract customers, please consider indicators to enhance Learning Component of a website.
(1) well organized hyperlinks
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(2) a help function
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(3) customized search functions
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(4) interactive feedback between customers and business 1
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(5) interactive communications among the customers
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
1
(1) user enjoyment during the Web site visit
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(2) user participation/interaction during the website
visit
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
(3) user excitement during the website visit
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(4) charming features to attract customers
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(5) capturing the user’s attention during the website
visit
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
Section D: In order to gain customers trust, please consider indicators to enhance System Quality of a website.
(1) provide security
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(2) design to include information on all functional areas
involved in the business process
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
(3) balanced security and ease of use payment methods
(such as credit card, cash, electronic check, etc.)
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
(4) high speed of accessing the web site
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(5) ease of correcting server’s errors such as run time
error, inability to connect, etc.
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Yes
No
(6) insure correct transactions
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
2
2
Design Quality of Web Sites
Overall, items in above sections represent the critical success factors for the design of a website to ATTRACT customers
completely disagree
completely agree
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Liu, Arnett and Litecky
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Section C: In order to attract customers, please consider indicators to enhance Playfulness of a website.
128
Section E: In order to gain customers trust, please consider indicators to enhance System Use of a website.
(1) customers control a transaction process
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(2) gaining customers confidence during the transaction 1
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(3) providing ease of use for the transaction
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(4) allowing customers to track-order status
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(5) keeping the customers information confidential
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
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Overall, items in sections D and E represent factors for a well designed website, to encourage customers to TRUST
on-line transactions.
(1) the site is reliable
completely disagree 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
completely agree
(2) the site is dependable
completely disagree
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
completely agree
(3) the site is trustworthy
completely disagree
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
completely agree
Section F: In order to obtain customer satisfaction, please consider indicators to enhance Service Quality of a
website.
(1) provide quick responsiveness to customers
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(2) provide assurance to solve customers’ problems
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(3) empathy to customers’ problems
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
(4) provide follow-up services to customers
Does your website incorporate this design factor?
1
2
3
Yes
4
No
5
6
7
Overall, items in sections F represent well-designed factors for a website to obtain CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION.
(1)
the site meets customer demands
completely disagree
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
completely agree
Electronic Markets Vol. 10 No 2
(2)
129
customer will be pleased for the service
completely disagree
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
completely agree
Overall, items in above sections provide an adequate representation of well-designed factors for an electronic
market on a website (for example, to attract customers on-line, make them trustfully purchase, and obtain
customer satisfaction)
completely disagree
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
completely agree
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