Domestic confinement crisis and its un-intensifying effect on service quality expectations towards e-stores: the case of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico

ABSTRACT Certain factors may exert un-intensifying effects on service performance expectations. In the pandemic crisis era of domestic confinement, as consumer shopping at physical stores is restricted, e-stores have become a useful source of goods. It is proposed that such a confinement crisis, as an extreme situational factor, can have a mitigating effect on the expectation level of service performance of e-stores. Hence, it is hypothesised that consumers may become more forgiving with e-suppliers, reporting a higher perceived performance under a confinement crisis than under normal social conditions. Two sets of data were compared for assessment, employing the same questionnaire to evaluate consumer opinions of service performance, brand perceptions, satisfaction, trust and intentions of e-stores. One set of data was collected under normal conditions, prior to domestic confinement being imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. The second set of data was collected during a high point of contagion of the COVID-19 emergency in Mexico. Results suggest that there are significant differences in some variables related to perceived service performance, brand perceptions and behavioural intentions between the two sets of data. Apparently, consumers tend to perceive, in some respects, a higher level of performance of e-stores under confinement conditions than under normal social conditions. This work aims to shed light on how such extreme situational factors can affect consumer expectations and perceptions.