DETERMINANTS OF E-COMMERCE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, TRUST, AND LOYALTY IN SAUDI ARABIA

Managing customer trust, satisfaction, and loyalty attitudes of e-commerce services is very important for the long-term growth of many businesses. Previous research has shown that e-retailers experience difficulty maintaining customer loyalty despite the recent rapid growth in Business to Customer (B2C) e-commerce applications. Numerous studies have empirically examined B2C e-commerce customer trust, satisfaction, and loyalty attitudes in various countries. Nevertheless, empirical research on these key constructs of e-commerce in developing Arab countries is generally limited. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the extent to which Saudi consumers trust, are satisfied with, and are loyal towards B2C e-commerce. This study draws on previous research to build a conceptual framework which hypothesizes relationships between these three e-commerce constructs and their antecedents. A survey was conducted among B2C e-commerce customers in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia using a structured self-administered questionnaire. The findings of this study show that B2C e-commerce customer loyalty in Saudi Arabia is strongly influenced by customer satisfaction but weakly influenced by customer trust. The study limitations, implications, along with directions for further research are discussed. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]