An e-retailing assessment of perceived website-service innovativeness: Implications for website quality evaluations, trust, loyalty and word of mouth

This paper examines the role of consumer perceptions of a website’s innovativeness as a factor influencing their evaluations of website-service quality, development of trust in the website, loyalty to the website and word-of-mouth behaviours toward the website. A self-administered online questionnaire was used to collect data through an online panel of a market research firm. Participants were asked to recall a recent encounter with their preferred e-retailer and focus on that website when responding. Data were gathered from 370 Australian consumers who shopped at a variety of e-retailers across product various categories. The variables under investigation in the study were measured using established scales from the marketing literature and adapted to the context of the study. The results indicate that when an e-retail website is perceived to deliver an innovative experience this evaluation influences more positive overall e-service quality perceptions, higher trust levels, as well as website loyalty and positive word-of-mouth behaviour. The sample of the study is restricted to consumer evaluations within a specific country context; Australian e-retail consumers. The empirical relationships between perceived website-service innovativeness, overall e-service quality, trust, website loyalty and word of mouth reported in the study are tentative in the sense that they are based on cross-sectional data. The study provides important implications for e-service delivery and online branding, especially for e-retailers. The paper contributes to the literature by investigating the relationship between perceived website-service innovativeness and consequent outcomes arising from consumers’ experiences of e-retail websites. Little research has addressed perceived website-service innovativeness, and its effect on quality and trust perceptions and website-related loyalty intentions in e-retailing.