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MIP
39,4 Factors affecting customer
satisfaction on online
shopping holiday
516 Shian-Yang Tzeng
Cultural Creativity and Tourism School,
Received 29 July 2020
Revised 27 October 2020
Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangdong, China
20 November 2020
21 November 2020
Myriam Ertz
2 December 2020 LaboNFC, University of Quebec in Chicoutimi, Saguenay, Canada, and
Accepted 7 December 2020
Myung-Soo Jo and Emine Sarig€ollu
€
LaboNFC, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Abstract
Purpose – Singles’ Day (SD) in China is the world’s biggest online shopping event while consumer
dissatisfaction is also on the rise. Both theory and practice need sharper insights to foster consumer
satisfaction, but such knowledge remains sparse in the literature. The current study addresses this void by
assessing the effects of online and offline retail service features on consumer satisfaction with SD.
Design/methodology/approach – A two-phase survey was implemented before and after the SD online
shopping holiday, with 594 participants in China. Respondents were randomly selected from unique
proprietary databases of merchants in the top-five online product categories in China.
Findings – The findings show that information quality, product quality and savings improve, but product
return worsens, customer satisfaction with the online shopping holiday. However, good after-sale service can
ease the product return process thereby boosting customer satisfaction.
Originality/value – This paper addresses a research void by studying effectiveness of retail service features
on consumer satisfaction with online shopping festivals.
Keywords Online shopping, Singles’ Day, Online shopping holiday, China, Surveys, Product return
Paper type Research paper

Marketing Intelligence & Planning
Vol. 39 No. 4, 2021
pp. 516-532
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-4503
DOI 10.1108/MIP-08-2020-0346
1. Introduction
Online shopping holidays are becoming increasingly popular in many countries around the
world, including the USA (Black Friday and Cyber Monday), China (Singles’ Day), United
Kingdom (Boxing Day) and Mexico (El Buen Fin). The biggest of these events is the Singles’
Day (hereafter, SD). Its sales, mainly realized through Alibaba’s shopping platforms of
Taobao.com and Tmall.com, hit an all-time high of $38.40 bn in 2019, surpassing the sales of
Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined (Huy, 2019). Through dramatized promotions and
price cuts (Liu et al., 2020), retailers use online shopping holidays to increase sales as well as to
drive changes in consumer behavior toward membership, adoption and loyalty. For example,
Amazon’s Souq uses its White Friday event to encourage changes in behavior from
membership to application downloads and to credit card adoption. Recently, shopping
holidays have been expanding their global reach; for instance, SD, Black Friday and Cyber
Monday cross over into international markets beyond China and the United States,
respectively. Thus, shopping holidays are becoming popular for retailers to grow sales,
income and profitability. This premise however is contingent on consumers’ satisfaction with
the shopping holiday experience. This paper addresses this topic.
As online shopping holidays gain increasing popularity among consumers, numerous
problems have been emerging as well. China Consumers Association (2019)’s study dated
November 1–15, 2019, found more than 100,000 negative consumer messages regarding
delivery, after-sale service, pre-sale rules and promotion of SD festivities. Likewise, 35 percent
of Cyber Monday shoppers reported unsatisfactory experiences, and 18 percent of shoppers Factors
complained about online information search during the shopping holidays in the United affecting
States (Eptica, 2015). These unsatisfactory experiences could lead to a trade boycott. As a
case in point, 37 percent of US shoppers avoided purchase during the shopping holidays
customer
(Eptica, 2015). Consumer abstention from the shopping holidays will hurt retailers’ objectives satisfaction
of increased sales, share and profitability. It is thus pertinent to study consumer satisfaction
with shopping holidays.
The phenomenon of shopping holiday has drawn considerable research attention (Li et al., 517
2020; Chen and Li, 2019; Zhao et al., 2019; Yan et al., 2016). However, the literature is lacking
research which assesses customer satisfaction with online shopping holiday. This paper
addresses this gap. We examine how retail service features influence customer satisfaction
with the biggest online shopping festival, the SD in China. Given the increasing popularity of
online shopping holidays around the world, a close investigation of SD, the most popular
shopping holiday in the world, could provide insights which are generalizable to shopping
holidays in other countries. In particular, given the enormous popularity of SD in China,
findings of the current study could offer implications and suggestions for how to prepare for
other shopping holidays as they become popular in other countries. Regarding the
transferability and generalizability of results to other online shopping festivals, it is worth
mentioning that except for a few minor cultural specificities, e-commerce activities operate in
a relatively standardized and homogeneous fashion across the world. Thus, the results
pertaining to an e-commerce platform in China can be generalizable to many other platforms
in the framework of various other online shopping festivals across the world.
Promotion activities for SD in China have grown larger year after year stimulating
consumer enthusiasm (Chen and Li, 2020). Consequently, consumers’ expectations toward
products and services on SD shopping festivities have been constantly rising. Meeting the
expectations of SD shoppers can positively influence the perceptions on SD shopping, which
in turn leads to customer satisfaction and repeat participation (Li et al., 2020). By contrast,
unsatisfied SD shopping experiences might ruin customers’ expectations formed before the
purchase, which in turn increases the likelihood of customers’ switching intention and
nonparticipation in future SD festivities. Given the strategic importance of online shopping
holiday for retailers, it is essential to investigate the formation of after-sale customer
satisfaction. This paper addresses this need.
This study draws on the gap model in services research, which posits that knowledge of
customer satisfaction can be assessed based on the gap between customers’ presale
expectations and their postsale perceptions (Parasuraman et al., 1985). The gap between
customers’ expectations and perceptions needs to be closed or at least narrowed (Parasuraman
et al., 1985). To date, the gap model has been applied mostly in the context of conventional
services research. As such, the resulting insights may be nontransferable and ineffective for
online shopping festivals due to their unique characteristics, such as limited buying time,
detailed shopping plans and rituals shared with family and friends (Thomas and Peters, 2011).
Therefore, previous studies including those on traditional online shopping may not fully
explain online shopping holidays, such as the SD. Besides, as previously mentioned, the
literature fails to inform on the specific factors in which consumers form expectations and
compare delivered perceptions in the context of online promotion festivals, despite the
importance of such festivals for managers, decision-makers and overall economic growth. Lack
of such knowledge may limit the analysis of core value of holiday shopping for consumers. This
lack of knowledge may furthermore lead to decline or even failure of the e-commerce fiesta. This
study seeks to explore the gap model in the context of online promotion festivals.
To better understand consumer satisfaction with shopping holiday, this study surveys a
unique group of consumers drawn from proprietary databases of five merchants in the
top-five online product categories in China, in two phases: before and after SD, to investigate
MIP their actual purchase behavior and their satisfaction with retailers’ service outputs. The
39,4 purpose of this study is threefold: (1) to examine consumers’ behaviors to determine why they
would shop or not shop on SD; (2) to identify what service factors influence customers’
satisfaction and (3) to explore how product return and savings affect the relationships
between service factors and customer satisfaction.

518 2. Theory development and research hypotheses

2.1 The expectancy disconfirmation model
This study draws on the theoretical framework of the expectancy disconfirmation theory
(hereafter, EDT) to examine postpurchase satisfaction as a function of disconfirmation of
beliefs (Oliver, 1977, 1980).
One of the most well-known operationalization of the EDT is SERVQUAL, which is
recognized as the most effective method to measure service quality (Abu-El Samen et al., 2013;
Barabino et al., 2012). The SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al., 1985) represents service
quality as the discrepancy between a customer’s expectation of service offered and the
customer’s perception of the service received. To measure service quality, the gap between
quality perception (P) and quality expectation (E) is calculated for each service attribute.
When E > P, the gap is negative; the customer expects more than he/she perceives. The
customer experiences unacceptable service quality, and the perceived quality is less than
satisfactory. In contrast, E < P generates a positive gap; the customer expects less than he/she
perceives. With higher perception, service quality would be more satisfactory than expected.
Last, if E 5 P, consumers’ expectation has been met, and perceived quality is satisfactory
(Parasuraman et al., 1985). In practice, positive gaps imply expectations those are exceeded,
and then the particular service output can be retracted until E 5 P, while other
underperforming services can be improved with redeployed resources. Overall, managers
should make effort to minimize the negative gap between perceptions and expectations
(Barabino et al., 2012).
Based on the EDT, customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction results from the discrepancy
between expectations and perceived performance (Parasuraman et al., 1985). Positive
(negative) gaps satisfy (dissatisfy) consumers (Sengupta et al., 2015). Since disconfirmation is
a good predictor of overall satisfaction, this study will rely on the disconfirmation of all
quality factors to evaluate customer satisfaction on holiday shopping.

2.2 Quality factors of holiday online shopping

The quality of web systems is determined by three dimensions: system quality, information
quality and service quality (DeLone and McLean, 2003; Ahn et al., 2004). Past research on
offline features also revealed the dimensions of product quality and delivery service (Ahn
et al., 2004; Coughlan et al., 2006). Therefore, system quality, information quality, service
quality, product quality and delivery service are considered useful predictors of overall
customer satisfaction with online shopping holiday.
2.2.1 System quality. System quality indicates the technical level of e-commerce and
encompasses system security, as well as ease of use, functionality, reliability, flexibility, data
quality, portability, integration and importance of the system (DeLone and McLean, 2003).
The importance of system quality on users’ satisfaction has been confirmed in various
areas from education with e-learning systems (Dreheeb et al., 2016) to e-government with
online tax-filing systems (Chen, 2010). Likewise, system quality has also been empirically
confirmed as a critical antecedent to online customer satisfaction (Lin et al., 2011). Specifically,
Lin (2007) demonstrated that system quality, which incorporates website design and
interactivity, is a significant antecedent of customer satisfaction in the business to consumers
e-commerce context. During shopping holiday, shoppers may prefer to shop products online Factors
to avoid the bustles and hassles in the offline shopping environment (Oh and Kwon, 2009). affecting
Shopping holidays also offer consumers a better selection of gift choices, prices, delivery of
the gifts (Balasubramanian et al., 2005) and overall convenience in time and search (Swilley
customer
and Goldsmith, 2013). These perceived benefits are nonetheless highly contingent upon satisfaction
system quality because none of them may occur if the system defaults. Consumers should
therefore experience a positive disconfirmation of system quality on SD in order to be
satisfied with their shopping activity. Hence, the following hypothesis is stated: 519
H1. The disconfirmation of system quality expectations on SD specials is positively
related to overall satisfaction on SD shopping.
2.2.2 Information quality. Online store information refers to product information, such as
prices, product descriptions and evaluations, and service information, including ordering and
delivery information (Park and Kim, 2003). It is measured in terms of accuracy, timeliness,
completeness, relevance and consistency (DeLone and McLean, 2003). Due to these dynamic
and interactive characteristics of information in online settings, e-commerce retailers can
significantly support customers in making better decision while selecting products, which
can boost consumer trust and satisfaction with the website (Cyr, 2008). Early in the buying
process, prepurchase information search is considered an important behavior for shoppers.
Consumers make efforts before shopping holiday by reviewing and evaluating product
information online (Lennon et al., 2011). Xia et al. (2010) found that in order to prevent negative
perceptions of a promotion, retailers should provide necessary information to consumers,
such as the due date of a promotion. To enhance consumer satisfaction, all shopping
information provided should be up to date, sufficient, consistent and easy to understand
(Zhang et al., 2000).
Past research empirically confirmed the positive and significant effect of information
quality on user satisfaction (Lee and Kozar, 2006; Lin, 2007; Brown and Jayakody, 2008).
Lin et al. (2011) as well as Guo et al. (2012) replicated the relationship in the Asian context and
provided similar conclusions. As a specific dimension of information quality, information
availability also loaded significantly on customer satisfaction (Vasic et al., 2019). Extending
these findings to a new context, we hypothesize the following:
H2. The disconfirmation of information quality expectations on SD specials is positively
related to overall satisfaction on SD shopping.
2.2.3 Service quality. Service quality refers to the overall supporting services, offered by the
website providers (DeLone and McLean, 2003) in order to ease the shopping and purchase
process (Coughlan et al., 2006).
The positive impact of service quality on user satisfaction in online environment has been
empirically confirmed by Lin and Lee (2006), Lin (2007) and Khristianto et al. (2012). More
specifically, electronic service quality dimensions positively affect overall service quality,
which then improves customer satisfaction and loyalty. Ma Sabiote et al. (2012)’s piecemeal
approach to service quality, examining the influence of multiple dimensions of service quality
arrived at the same conclusions regarding the positive relationship between e-service quality,
as a whole, and e-satisfaction. Poor service quality, however, brings about negative emotions
and behaviors (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2009) and leads to customer loss (DeLone and McLean,
2003). Consumers’ negative emotions might be more pronounced on shopping holiday when
stores are packed with more people and products (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2009). Consumer
frustration on shopping holiday may result from the disconfirmation that retail scene is under
less control than expected (Namasivayam and Lin, 2005). Extending these past research
findings to the context of shopping holiday, we propose the following:
MIP H3. The disconfirmation of service quality expectations on SD specials is positively
39,4 related to overall satisfaction on SD shopping.
2.2.4 Product quality. Product quality is a group of features and characteristics of a salable
good that meets basic requirements, and it can be controlled by a manufacturer to meet the
consumer expectations. Early on, researchers proposed perceived product quality as one of
the most powerful antecedents of consumer satisfaction (Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1996),
520 including online environments (Keeney, 1999). Later, Schaupp and Belanger (2005) in Nisar
and Prabhakar (2017) reported that product quality is the most important attribute for
customers’ e-satisfaction after privacy. Empirical studies confirmed that enhanced product
quality would lead to more positive shopping outcomes such as better satisfaction. Nisar and
Prabhakar (2017) showed that product quality control from third-party merchants positively
influence satisfaction with e-retailers. Likewise, Guo et al. (2012) showed that product quality
is positively related to satisfaction toward e-shopping in China.
Consumers expect that goods sold online, especially on SD specials, should be the same
quality as those sold offline (Ahn et al., 2004). Sales’ promotions may enable consumers to
afford high-quality products at lower price, which motivate consumers to participate
(Chandon et al., 2000). However, if the quality of promoted products fails to meet expectations,
consumers might judge the promotion as unfair and become unsatisfied with the whole event.
Thus, the following hypothesis is stated:
H4. The disconfirmation of product quality expectations on the SD special is positively
related to overall satisfaction on SD shopping.
2.2.5 Delivery service. Delivery constitutes an essential part of service quality to the point that
it can impact all main components of the value proposition (Keeney, 1999). Delivery service
provides convenience and thus differentiates online shopping from offline (Swilley and
Goldsmith, 2013). Reliable and timely delivery is a basic expectation for online shoppers (Ahn
et al., 2004). Offline demands, such as quick delivery, order changes, cancellations, returns
and/or refunds, must be met satisfactorily because these services significantly affect
customers’ assessment of online shopping (Kim et al., 2012). Indeed, a number of researchers
have identified four key antecedents to customer satisfaction in online shopping
environments, with delivery and refund service quality appearing as the second most
important factor after website quality and before product information and product variety
(Chintagunta et al., 2012; Cao and Li, 2015). Accordingly, past research confirmed that
delivery quality is an important predictor of consumer satisfaction (Ahn et al., 2004; Lin et al.,
2011). Likewise, Vasic et al. (2019) demonstrated that the shipping construct – which they
conceptualized as akin to service quality – plays a pivotal role in influencing consumer
satisfaction.
Delivery plays a particularly critical role in online holiday shopping since the delivery time
is longer, and return rate is much higher due to the overload of orders (Bell, 2016; Mewati,
2014). Quick product delivery and ease of product return are expected to significantly affect
consumers’ positive experiences, which in turn enhance customer satisfaction and retention.
Thus, we propose the following:
H5. The disconfirmation of delivery service expectations on the SD special is positively
related to overall satisfaction on SD shopping.
Besides, savings from the SD special and product return, which consumers may encounter,
are likely to affect satisfaction significantly.
2.2.6 Savings. Price promotions, perceived as savings or loss reduction, are the most
common form of sales promotion (Chandon et al., 2000; Drake and Chung, 2005). Based on
Raghubir and Corfman (1999), monetary benefits provided by price promotions may consist
of the following: reduced price of a given quantity, increased volume for a given price, Factors
upgraded brands for the same price, additional product at a lower cost and lowered cost for affecting
trial opportunity.
The effects of price discounts have attracted substantial academic attention (Darke and
customer
Chung, 2005; Lee and Tsai, 2014; Shen et al., 2012). Some authors drew the price-quality satisfaction
inference and suggested that discounts might undermine the perceived quality of the items
(Darke and Chung, 2005; Raghubir and Corfman, 1999). However, later studies (Lee and Tsai,
2014; Shen et al., 2012) proposed a different perspective that consumers tend not to use price 521
as an indication of quality when they are familiar with, capable of judging the product quality
or possess an independent self-construal (Lalwani and Shavitt, 2013). The price-driven
consumption enjoyment may unconsciously weaken consumers’ judgments on product
quality or some other attributes of SD special due to their lower sunk-cost considerations
(Lee and Tsai, 2014).
In the context of SD special, shoppers are encouraged to purchase products available
within a designated time; savings, as opposed to other nonmonetary factors, often serve to
enhance the acquisition utility (Chandon et al., 2000; Simpson et al., 2011). When the perceived
discounts appear to be fair, consumers are likely to express higher purchase satisfaction and
evoke positive evaluations of the products (Naylor et al., 2006; Li et al., 2020). Besides, cost
savings further moderate the effect of consumers’ perceptions of the whole e-shopping
process and their satisfaction (Kohli et al., 2004). Consequently, promotion discounts could
strengthen the impact of the five online/offline factors on overall customer satisfaction (see
Figure 1). Thus, the following hypotheses are stated:
H6a. The savings perceptions on SD special positively affect customers’ overall
satisfaction on SD shopping.
H6b. The savings perceptions on SD positively moderate the relationship between the
five quality factors of disconfirmation and customers’ overall satisfaction on SD
shopping.
2.2.7 Product return. Product return can result from the following reasons: product misfit,
product defect, product unconformity to the consumers’ perception (Hsiao and Chen, 2011) or
fraudulent return (i.e. “deliberate return other than actual faults in the product” (Harris,
2008)). To reduce consumers’ perceived risk, most online retailers offer lenient return policies
since consumers are unable to see and inspect the products before making their purchase
decision (Hsiao and Chen, 2011). However, returning products involve a series of reverse

Disconfirmation of system H1
quality
Savings
Disconfirmation of H2
information quality H6a
H6b

Disconfirmation of service H3 Overall satisfaction on

quality Single’s Day shopping
H7b
Disconfirmation of H4 H7a
product quality
Product
return
Figure 1.
H5
The conceptual model
Disconfirmation of
delivery service
of the study
MIP logistics activities, such as shipping back, returning, reconditioning, refurbishing and

recycling of products and packaging (Alvarez-Gil et al., 2007), which may cost twice as much
39,4
as the value of the merchandise itself (Coughlan et al., 2006). Furthermore, when product
return happens, customer’s refund experience might influence the customer–retailer
relationship (Petersen and Kumar, 2009). Thus, understanding customers’ return behavior
is essential for the firm to avoid the loss of sales revenues (Min and Ko, 2008) and enhance
customer satisfaction and loyalty (Foscht et al., 2013).
522 The return rate is high in the SD special. Shopping holiday is likely to drive consumers to
purchase more products, including some which they do not usually purchase in the off-
season. Past research demonstrated that fair and moderate return policies (i.e. product return
options) have a positive impact on consumer characteristics including purchase behavior
(Bower and Maxham, 2012; Oghazi et al., 2018). The corollary being that consumers will have
a more positive evaluation of the whole shopping process if they are offered the “safety net” of
product return. Therefore, since product return involves a sequence of events, including
return request negotiation, refund permission, reimbursement, repackaging and reverse
shipment, all five online/offline quality factors will be affected in this return process. Under
the heavy workload on the SD special, all these activities might be less supported during the
return process, leading to customer dissatisfaction. Thus, we propose the following
hypotheses:
H7a. Product return negatively affects customer overall satisfaction on SD shopping.
H7b. Product return negatively moderates the relationship between the five quality
factors of disconfirmation and customer overall satisfaction on SD shopping.
The conceptual model is presented in Figure 1.

3. Research methodology
3.1 Questionnaire development
The study was conducted in two phases. The first questionnaire measures consumer
expectations of SD specials on: “savings” (α 5 0.89) (Chandon et al., 2000), “system quality”
(α 5 0.76) (Ahn et al., 2007), “information quality” (α 5 0.83) (Park and Kim, 2003), “service
quality” (α 5 0.88) (Lee and Johnson, 2002), “product quality” (α 5 0.87) (Bao et al., 2011) and
“delivery service” (α 5 0.78) (Ahn et al., 2004) with a five-point Likert scale (from 1 “strongly
disagree” to 5 “strongly agree”) (see Table A1). The second questionnaire measures shoppers’
perceptions after having actually shopped for SD specials, on the same set of questions as in
the first phase, to assess changes in how customers perceive their SD shopping experiences;
whether they had returned any goods purchased on SD specials and why and their overall
satisfaction with the recent SD shopping: “Overall, I felt that the shopping encounter(s) on SD
special were good,” “Overall, I was satisfied with the shopping experience on singles’ day
special” and “Overall, I was pleased with the service encounter(s) that I experienced on SD
special” (α 5 0.80).

3.2 Sampling and data collection

The study sample was randomly selected from proprietary data of merchants in the top-five
online product categories in China with one major retailer in each category: cell phone, men’s
apparel, women’s apparel, consumer electronics and home appliances and baby milk powder
(O’Reilly, 2014). In total, 50,000 customers’ email addresses were extracted from the Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) systems of these five selected retailers.
The first phase survey began three weeks before SD specials (November 11th, 2015) with
10,000 questionnaires sent to randomly selected respondents. A total of 1,504 responses were
received prior to the shopping festival (15.00% response rate). One week after November Factors
11th, the second-phase survey was initiated with those 1,504 respondents. After three weeks, affecting
594 responses were collected (39.40% response rate). Surveys with inconsistent or too many
missing data were suppressed, resulting in 583 useable observations.
customer
satisfaction
4. Data analysis and findings
4.1 Demographic profile 523
Gender was relatively and equally represented (males 5 48.60% and females 5 51.40%).
More than half of the respondents are aged under 23 (54.10%) and hold at least a college
degree (54.50%). In total, 88.00% of the respondents have more than two years of online
shopping experience. The majority of the SD holiday shoppers (72.80%) are single. Regarding
monthly personal income, 54.90% of respondents earn less than the equivalent of US$ 456 per
month (i.e. 3,000 RMB).

4.2 Gap analysis of shopping quality factors

The results of the gap analyses with paired t-tests show that all gaps, except for system
quality and savings, are positively disconfirmed (i.e. exceeding expectations) at the 0.05 level
(see Table 1), especially for delivery service (0.37), so that respondents experienced much
better delivery service than they had expected. In contrast, system quality presents a
negative gap inasmuch as bad system quality wasted their time and effort as they could not
readily find good bargains.

4.3 Hierarchical regression analysis

A three-step hierarchical analysis was conducted to test for moderating effects where the
independent variable(s), the moderator variable(s) and the multiplicative crossproduct terms
are entered sequentially. All predictors were mean centered before entering the regression
models, and their variance inflation factors (VIFs) for both hierarchical models turned out less
than ten, indicating absence of multicollinearity.
Only two main effects – the disconfirmation of information quality (β 5 0.10 and p < 0.01)
and product quality (β 5 0.10 and p < 0.01) – significantly affect customer satisfaction in
expected direction (see Table 2). This implies that respondents, who felt their perceptions for
information quality and product quality were higher than their expectations, are satisfied
with their SD shopping. Therefore, H2 and H4 were supported, whereas H1, H3 and H5
were not.
Second, savings interact significantly and positively with customer satisfaction (β 5 0.08
and p < 0.05). A greater discount can significantly enhance consumer satisfaction, supporting
H6a. However, the results indicate no moderating effects for savings (Change of F 5 1.99 and
p 5 0.08), which indicate that savings fail to significantly strengthen impact of the factors on

Gap analysis and paired t-tests for shopping quality factors on SD

Variables Perception (P) Expectation (E) Gap (P–E) t-value p-value
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD

System quality 3.30 0.76 3.47 0.90 0.17 1.02 3.18 0.00 Table 1.
Information quality 3.46 0.78 3.31 0.88 0.15 1.06 2.78 0.01 Gap analysis and
Service quality 2.73 0.88 2.48 0.84 0.25 1.14 4.17 0.00 paired t-tests for
Product quality 3.15 0.72 2.82 0.75 0.33 0.91 6.91 0.00 shopping quality
Delivery service 2.19 0.96 1.82 0.84 0.37 1.23 5.82 0.00 factors on SD
MIP Savings as a
39,4 moderator Return as a moderator
Variables in the model Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 2 Model 3

Disconfirmation
System quality 0.05 0.03 0.03 0.06 0.06
Information quality 0.10** 0.09** 0.10** 0.10*** 0.12***
524 Service quality 0.04 0.04 0.05 0.04 0.01
Product quality 0.10** 0.09** 0.08** 0.09* 0.07
Delivery quality 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.08**
Moderator
Savings/return 08* 0.08* 0.22** 0.19**
Interaction
Savings/return 3 system quality 0.02 0.01
Savings/return 3 information quality 0.02 0.05
Savings/return 3 service quality 0.07** 0.20**
Savings/return 3 product quality 0.07* 0.06
Savings/return 3 delivery service 0.01 0.23***
R-square 0.09 0.10 0.12 0.11 0.15
Change of R-square 0.09 0.02 0.03 0.02 0.04
Table 2. F-value 6.73 6.68 4.60 7.35 5.86
Hierarchical Change of F 6.73*** 5.99* 1.99 9.65** 3.74**
regression model Note(s): *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001

satisfaction. Thus, H6b is not supported. In sum, higher savings will not make up for bad
service quality, while excellent service quality can compensate for lower price savings.
Product return interacts significantly and negatively with customer satisfaction
(β 5 0.22 and p < 0.01), supporting H7a (see Table 2). The findings reveal a significant
moderating effect for return (Change of F 5 3.74 and p 5 0.00 in Table 2). More precisely,
although product return positively intensifies the relationship between the disconfirmation of
service quality and customer satisfaction (β 5 0.20, p < 0.01), it negatively interacts with the
disconfirmation of delivery service on customer satisfaction (β 5 0.23 and p < 0.001). Good
service can ease the refund process and provide better shopping experience. However, the
whole delivery procedure of reverse logistics might challenge shoppers’ patience and end up
with shopping displeasure. These results collectively support H7b.

5. Discussion and theoretical implications

The findings of this study pertain to SD in China but can be generalized to other online
shopping festivals due to their statistical significance. In addition, the generalizability of the
results is further strengthened because e-commerce platforms and e-business activities
operate relatively similarly across the world (Shim, 2005). Actually, the literature converged
on the fact that, with the exception of a few cultural peculiarities such as language and
cultural traditions (e.g. localization), e-commerce platforms have standardized layouts,
processes and shipping management systems (i.e. standardization) (Alhorr et al., 2010;
Benmamoun et al., 2020). Therefore, results for Chinese e-commerce platforms can be
generalized to most of the other platforms across the world and thus for other online shopping
festivals.
This study demonstrates that information and product quality are significant predictors
of postpurchase satisfaction with an online shopping festival, and the end product of the
festival matters significantly more than its overall process, which is in line with previous Factors
studies (Kim et al., 2012; Park and Kim, 2003). Strong support for information quality and affecting
product quality is the characteristic of the overall online setting, while being specific to
Chinese e-commerce, which has been fraught with untrue retailers’ promises or information
customer
regarding price or product quality (CCTV, 2015). The results of this study inform scholarly satisfaction
research that when both of these issues are addressed appropriately, consumers’
postpurchase satisfaction improves significantly. Peripheral factors, including system
quality, service quality or delivery service, that are more related to the online purchase 525
“process” appear less critical to forge consumers’ satisfaction. These results contradict the
findings of Kim et al. (2012). This may be further understood in light of the preceding
argument. In fact, once the excitement that is typical of promotions dissipates, “process-
related” factors may seem secondary to the end product obtained after the online promotion
euphoria. These results suggest that information accuracy and product soundness matter
most to consumer postpurchase satisfaction with the SD online shopping holiday. The
results regarding quality factors can be generalized to studies of online shopping festivals.
The significant findings of information accuracy and product quality for postpurchase
satisfaction of the holiday shoppers have crucial implications for shopping festivities
around the world, demonstrating primary concerns of the shoppers and factors for their
satisfaction.
The lack of significance of “processual” factors may also be explicable by continuous
service improvements in online shopping festivals over the years (Mewati, 2014; Bell, 2016).
The SD logistics has largely improved over the past years. For example, with accumulated
experiences and big data analysis, most SD online retailers have learned how to allocate
sufficient manpower to offer good and fast service, stock up enough goods and ship estimated
amounts of goods to the warehouse close to target customers on the eve of the shopping
holiday. By contrast, the negative gap in system quality may result from system breakdowns.
In 2015, millions of shoppers swarmed onto the Alibaba platform; however, part of them failed
to log on or failed to make a payment for the goods already in their online shopping carts.
After the system recovery, their target products were sold out. Those disappointed
consumers likely ascribe the problems to the unreliable system.
Our findings further contribute to the literature by showing that savings boost
satisfaction while return reduces it. Hence, while past research considered cost savings
mainly as a motivator to online purchase (e.g. Rohm and Swaminathan, 2004; Kim and
Krishnan, 2019), we show that it is also an important predictor of consumer satisfaction. In
terms of holiday rituals, shopping success is evaluated by whether buyers have
accomplished the plan with targeted items at deep discounts. Savings and return play an
important role in explaining SD shopping success: savings refer to brand/quality upgrade or
volume increase at the same price while return signifies all efforts are wasted (Raghubir
et al., 2004). These two elements directly determine after-sale satisfaction. As moderators,
savings show no effect on any quality factors. In contrast, return significantly strengthens
the effect of service quality but lessens the effect of delivery service on customer satisfaction.
SD specials feature deep discounts: some e-merchants offer discount options of 50% or more.
In consumers’ mind, deep discount on SD has been taken for granted due to their wait and
effort (Xia et al., 2010) and should not compromise other quality factors. In contrast, return
involves numerous activities including customer service and reverse logistics. Good after-
sale service quality can ease the return process, but the return shipping will be regarded as
“too much hassle” (Petersen and Kumar, 2009), especially when consumers with an elaborate
shopping plan are disappointed in the received products (Tzeng and Shiu, 2019). Another
possible reason for this moderating effect may result from the long-delayed delivery, which
could cool down consumer’s aggravation triggered by SD’s atmosphere and therefore induce
regret due to a change in significance (Lee and Cotte, 2009). When the utility of delivered
MIP product diminishes, the return request will be made right after the product arrives or even on
39,4 the delivery way.

6. Managerial implications
Online retailers should offer sufficient assortment and variety of quality products as
advertised and reliable, consistent quality information to establish a fraud-free online
526 shopping environment. In addition, when product return happens, the managers have to
simplify the whole refund process. Retailers should shorten the delivery time to lessen the
possibility of consumer regret. If longer delivery time is unavoidable, buyers should be kept
informed of the whereabouts and estimated arrival time of delivered goods. The importance
of purchased products to shoppers should also be emphasized.

7. Limitations and avenues for future research

Although findings of the current study provide a good picture of the SD online shopping
holiday in China, a few limitations need to be underscored. First, we sought to identify the
relative importance of specific factors in an online holiday context but did not compare with
nonholiday situations. Future research could replicate the study in a nonholiday context in
China to identify potential similarities and discrepancies in critical predictive factors. Second,
all the constructs are measured based on consumers’ self-reported perceptions. Future research
could focus on using actual usage data in order to triangulate findings, especially with regards
to product returns. However, despite advances in natural language processing, sentiment
analysis and other text mining methods, estimating intrapsychic consumer constructs (e.g.
satisfaction and attitudes) still requires a conventional consumer survey analysis.

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Appendix Factors
affecting
customer
Construct and Items Factor loadings satisfaction
Savings
I Think that I will save money when I shop on SD 0.88 531
I feel that I will obtain a good deal when I shop on SD 0.84
I think that I will spend less on the items I want on SD 0.83
Information quality
The online shop(s) provide(s) up-to-date product 0.87
information on SD
The online shop(s) provide(s) sufficient product 0.77
information on SD
The online shop(s) present(s) consistent product 0.73
information on SD
Product quality
The online retailer(s) sell(s) products of high quality on SD 0.89
The online retailer(s) sell(s) reliable products on SD 0.78
The online retailer(s) sell(s) superior products on SD 0.82
Service quality
The online vendor(s) deliver(s) orders/ services in a timely 0.98
manner on SD
The web-based vendor(s) provide(s) customer service and 0.53
after-sale support on SD
It is easy to place orders with the web-based vendor(s) on 0.52
SD
Paying for an item purchased is easy with the web-based 0.54
vendor(s) on SD
Returns and refunds are easy with the web-based 0.98
vendor(s) on SD
Delivery service
The web-based vendor(s) deliver(s) the right product 0.89
which was ordered on SD
The web-based vendor(s) deliver(s) products with safely 0.86
packaged on SD
The web-based vendor(s) deliver(s) products at promised 0.51
time on SD
System quality
The website(s) provide(s) easy access to information on 0.81
SD
The website(s) ensure(s) the privacy of the user 0.66
information on SD
The website(s) demonstrate(s) good functionality on SD 0.62 Table A1.
The website(s) ensure(s) that the transactions are free of 0.61 Measurement items
error on SD and loadings

About the authors

Shian-Yang Tzeng is Assistant Professor in Marketing at Guangdong University of Finance and
Economics. His research interests cover sustainable tourism, tourism development and sustainable
development. His research has already appeared in Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics or
the International Journal of Business and Society.
MIP Myriam Ertz is Assistant Professor in Marketing and Director of LaboNFC at Universite du Quebec a
Chicoutimi. Her research interests cover responsible marketing, collaborative economy, sustainable
39,4 consumption, product lifetime and technology. Her research has already appeared in International
Marketing Review, Resources Conservation & Recycling, Journal of Cleaner Production, Business
Strategy and the Environment, Journal of Environmental Management or Journal of Business Research.
Myriam Ertz is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: Myriam_Ertz@uqac.ca
Myung-Soo Jo is Associate Professor in Marketing at McGill University. His research interests relate
532 to cross-cultural studies, customer value in social media, anticorruption and extractives and
proenvironmental behavior. His research has already appeared in International Marketing Review,
Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Environmental Management, Journal of Business Research,
Sustainability as well as Critical Perspectives on International Business.
Emine Sarig€oll€
u is Associate Professor in Marketing at McGill University. She is specialized in
proenvironmental behavior, responsible marketing, responsible consumption and branding. She has
already published on these topics in various prestigious international outlets such as International
Marketing Review, Resources Conservation & Recycling, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of
Environmental Management, Environment and Behavior or Journal of Business Ethics.

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