Usability and emotional attachment in the formation of loyalty in retail websites

The increasing competitiveness in online retailing business has aroused interest among different researchers to determine the key factors of online customer loyalty. Customer loyalty, in the context of this study, is measured as the re-visits, re-purchases and positive word-of-mouth of customers. Most studies have examined interface design features and satisfaction as the key determinants of loyalty. However, several studies discovered that satisfaction is not enough to assess customer loyalty. In this study, a new variable called emotional attachment is introduced and proposed to be the missing antecedent to loyalty comes after both the satisfaction and trust of online customers. Emotional attachment is the effective relationship of a customer towards a retailer that is reflected by their connectedness and passion towards it which leads to greater customer loyalty. This study incorporates usability, satisfaction trust and emotional attachments into one conceptual model establishing online customer loyalty. Furthermore, since there is no existing measure of emotional attachment in the context of online retailing, this study has also formulated and validated the measure for such construct. In order to validate the conceptual model proposed, an experiment was performed wherein subjects were asked to choose two retail websites to evaluate, perform online tasks and complete questionnaires consisting of the measures for each construct in the model. Prior to the actual experimentation, a pilot-test was performed to see whether the methodology initially developed is effective. From the pilot-test, several insights were gained which were helpful in finalizing the methodology. A backyard-approach, in terms of determining the key antecedents of loyalty, is used in this experiment wherein the criteria for the subjects required them to be initially emotionally attached to at least one retail website. Respondents were from ages 18-35 years old, all of them having past shopping experiences with at least two retail websites. The data obtained from the experiment were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Results of the data analysis has proven the following hypotheses: (1) usability, in terms of ease of navigation, information content and interactivity, positively influences satisfaction, (2) usability, in terms of interactivity and error-frequency, positively influences emotional attachment, (3) satisfaction positively influences trust, (4) trust positively influences emotional attachment, (5) trust positively influences loyalty, and most importantly, (6) emotional attachment positively influences loyalty. Lastly, several conclusions, practical implications and future research lines are also presented