Determinants of Courier Service Quality in e-Commerce from Customers’ Perspective

Abstract

Purpose: In recent years, the increasing popularity of e-commerce has become a driving force behind the development of courier service both in Poland and worldwide. In order to face growing competition on courier market and meet clients’ expectations, one of the crucial strategic goal of courier operators is to provide high quality service. The aim of the article is to identify and classify the key factors which determine the perception of courier service quality by customers shopping online. Methodology/Approach: The first part of paper is focused on the literature review concerning the determinants of courier service quality from customers’ perspective. Next, a survey method was used to collect data among customers using courier service while shopping online in Poland. Finally, the exploratory factor analysis was used to indicate the key dimensions and factors effecting the courier service quality perceived by customers. Findings: The article presents the complex review of literature concerning determinants of courier service and the original scale, which can be used to measure courier service quality. The results of author’s empirical research indicated that, the key dimensions effecting courier service quality from the customers point of view were: Reliability, Visual Identification, Service Complexity, Relational Capital, Social Responsibility, Responsiveness, Technical Quality. Research Limitation/implication: As the reseach aim was to develop the scale of courier service quality, in future research the CFA method (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) should be used to verify the scale. The main limitation of this research concerned a perspective of one stakeholder participating in the process of courier service – e-clients. The further research would be focused on identification of determinants of courier service quality in opinion of online shops and courier companies and development of models resenting the relations between them. Originality/Value of paper: This paper presents the original research that provides new knowledge about determinants of courier service quality in e-commerce. The literature analysis has shown that the previous research were often fragmentary and situational, but also did not take into account the specificity of e-commerce branch.