The Effect of Service Quality and Consumer Trust on Retail Website Loyalty

This paper considers the effect of service quality on retail web site loyalty and the role that consumer trust has on this relationship. The concepts of service quality, site loyalty and consumer trust are first explored and a mediation hypothesis is formulated where consumer trust is suggested to mediate the effect of service quality on retail site loyalty. Research is conducted via the internet among a sample of customers of an internet service provider in Malta that report having purchased an item over the internet during the four weeks preceding the survey date. Results indicate a situation of partial mediation. The implications of the results are discussed, limitations are noted and directions for future research are indicated.