The Measurement of Electronic Service Quality: Improvements and Application

A relatively recent form of commerce, electronic commerce is increasingly becoming routine. Despite recent years’ turbulence, electronic commerce is on the rise in Canadian commercial landscape. Representing a sales volume of $4.7 billion, about 1.3% of Canadian retail sales, e-commerce is becoming an indispensable tool for retailers Statistics. In total, 67% of Canadian households use the Internet (eMarketer 2005). While only 18.4% of consumers that use the Internet claim to purchase products on the Web, 56% of Web users report using this medium to obtain product information before purchasing it at a brick-and-mortar store. The systematic increase of Internet integration in consumers’ decision making processes has created a strong impetus for retailers to go online. In 2005, 34% of Canadian retailers had a Website and 11.4% sold products on the Web. The proportions at finance and insurance sectors were 43% and 8%, respectively, compared with 51% and 14% for that of arts and culture. While ABSTRACT