Studying Customer E-loyalty to Online Intermediary: Case of Group Buying Site

The online intermediary connects merchants whose products and services it offers, and end-customers who do online shopping through the intermediary, but consume products and services traditionally. Specifically, this study focuses on two purchase processes, namely online transactions, and the retailer experience. Consequently, intermediaries need to know if e-loyalty can be threatened by poor service delivered by the merchants. Our goal is to identify and examine factors that determine e-loyalty towards a group-buying site as an intermediary. We developed an integrative theoretical model based on the expectation confirmation model positing that satisfaction with the intermediary’s e-service and merchants’ service has a significant positive impact on e-loyalty towards the intermediary. We use structural equation modelling for evaluating the satisfaction and intentions for loyalty to the intermediary, employing collected survey data of 2.691 responses from Grouper customers. We measure the intermediary’s e-service quality using IS scale and we add customer support as an important factor for e-loyalty. The findings suggested that satisfaction with e-service quality significantly affected customers’ e‐loyalty towards intermediaries. This study provides insights for intermediaries in identifying e‐loyalty drivers, understanding customers’ needs, and improving online performance to maintain satisfied customers who will continue using their services.