THE IMPACT OF ONLINE PRE-SALES CUSTOMER SERVICE ON PURCHASE CONVERSION

Abstract

In the context of the booming e-commerce industry, the competition among e-commerce enterprises is not simply about category or logistics, but about service quality, which is the key to the development of enterprises. In this paper, we established a model from two perspectives of online customer service usage and purchase conversion, then took into account the self-selection problem due to users' conscious non-use of customer service. By building a treatment effect model, we explored the impact of online pre-sales customer service on purchase conversion from the perspective of the actual business of enterprises. The study finds these factors, e.g. urgency, uncertainty, demand, are positively correlated with the possibility of using pre-sales customer service system, and knowledge factor is negatively correlated with the possibility using pre-sales customer service system. At the same time, the use of online pre-sales customer service has a positive effect on purchase conversion. These results are helpful for enterprises to improve the utilization rate of online customer service and purchase conversation.