Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

Over the last few years, the concept of online loyalty has been examined extensively in the literature, and it remains a topic of constant inquiry for both academics and marketing managers. The tremendous development of the Internet for both marketing and e-commerce settings, in conjunction with the growing desire of consumers to purchase online, has promoted two main outcomes: (a) increasing numbers of Business-to-Customer companies running businesses online and (b) the development of a variety of different e-loyalty research models. However, current research lacks a systematic review of the literature that provides a general conceptual framework on e-loyalty, which would help managers understand their customers better, take advantage of industry-related factors, and improve their service quality. The present study is an attempt to critically synthesize results from multiple empirical studies on e-loyalty. Our findings illustrate that 62 instruments for measuring e-loyalty–with two or more items—are currently in use, influenced predominantly by Zeithaml et al. (J. Marketing 60(2):31–46, 1996) and Oliver (Satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill, 1997). Additionally, we propose a new general conceptual framework, which leads to e-loyalty dividing antecedents into prepurchase, during-purchase and after-purchase factors, based on the act of purchase. To conclude, a number of managerial implementations are suggested in order to help marketing managers increase their customers’ e-loyalty by making crucial changes in each purchase stage.