Factors influencing consumers’ repurchase behavior on fresh food e-commerce platforms: An empirical study

Abstract

The e-commerce of fresh commodities keeps being adaptive to the change of consumer consumption attitudes and behavior in the current era of global economy. In the fierce competition of the industry, how to attract and retain customers more efficiently and increase consumer repurchase behavior is a long-term concern for fresh food e-commerce platforms. This research aims to focus on how the fresh e-commerce platforms can reduce consumer conversion to other forms of purchase and increase consumer repurchase. In this paper a research model is constructed whereby a set of perceived value scales is generated to evaluate consumer repurchase behavior. Data from a sample of 515 consumers is collected through a web-based questionnaire, and structural equation modeling is used to test the research hypotheses and empirically investigate the factors and internal mechanisms influencing repurchase behavior on fresh e-commerce platforms. Results from the analysis show that the product quality and product price from the product-side, perceived ease of use, reliability, response speed and convenience from the service-side, and subjective norms of the consumer personal factors impose significant effects on consumer satisfaction. consumer satisfaction plays a key mediating role in consumer repurchase behavior. Guidance and suggestions for the operation processes of e-commerce platforms are developed based on these key factors to cultivate customer loyalty and attract potential customers more specifically. Moreover, the examination of the factors from the three dimensions promotes the e-commerce platforms to raise their service level by enhancing their supply chain as the bottom rocks of the platform enterprises.