Does Online Convenience Drive Brand Equity for E-Retailers? Understanding the Factors Influencing Convenience and the Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

Convenience is a central tenet for businesses as consumers desire to reduce decision-making time and effort burdens. This article investigates the influence of online convenience on brand equity in the context of e-commerce businesses in a South Asian emerging nation, Bangladesh. The article also discusses the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the relationship between online convenience and brand equity. In addition, the study examines website attributes, namely, navigational, interactive, and information design, driving online convenience. We conducted an online survey for data collection, performed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate the measurement model, and undertook a structural equation model (SEM) to evaluate the hypotheses. While this study validates the online convenience framework, it contributes to the existing literature by providing evidence that online convenience drives brand equity. Moreover, the article demonstrates that customer satisfaction partially mediates the stated relationship. Another contribution is that this study highlights that the website attributes- navigational, interactive, and information design- are critical for online convenience. Finally, we observe that in a developing country context, search and evaluation are the critical-most dimensions of convenience.