Product Category and Shopping Options of Logistic Service Quality

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of interaction between product category (fresh vs. indulgent product) and shopping options (shipping charge and delivery time) on customer satisfaction and purchase intent in an e-commerce context. When ordering groceries online, consumers begin to allocate a larger share of their grocery budget toward product categories that generally contain healthier items at the expense of product categories that generally contain more indulgent products. Moreover, customers are extremely sensitive to shipping options such as shipping charges and delivery time. Therefore, this research investigates the issue at a more segmented level to focus on the impact that one dimension of logistics service quality - product category, shipping charge, and delivery time have on customer satisfaction and purchase intent. Research design, data, and methodology: To test the theoretically derived priori hypotheses concerning product category, shipping charges, delivery time, satisfaction, and purchase intent, this research presented a scenario-based experiment. Eight treatment groups were assigned by the method of product category (fresh produce vs. indulgent product), shipping charge (free vs. paid), and delivery time (one-day vs. two to three days). A total of 240 subjects were divided into groups and exposed to one of the eight scenarios. Participant’s purchase intention was the dependent variable, and ANOVA and L-matrix were used to analyze for main and interactive effects between factors. Conclusions: Results indicated that in tests 1 and 2, free shipping and fast delivery time increased consumer satisfaction as well as purchase intent, and fast delivery moderated the impact of free shipping on consumer satisfaction and purchase intent. Test 3 showed that the effect of free shipping on consumer satisfaction and purchase intent moderated by fast delivery for indulgent products. In contrast, fast delivery for fresh products mode