Designing the e-Servicescape: Implications for Online Retailers

Abstract

This exploratory study attempts to establish the link between Internet retailing and services marketing and proposes a conceptual framework for examining the Web site as an e-servicescape. Findings suggest that the dimensions of the servicescape as they pertain to Web sites play a significant role in influencing customers' attitudes, evaluation, and purchase intentions with respect to online retailers. Whether a Web site is an extension of an organization's bricks-and-mortar establishment or a stand-alone service portal, it is clear that the servicescape dimensions of ambient conditions (AC), spatial layout and functionality (SLF), and signs, symbols, and artifacts (SSA) are present and influential in organizations' cyber settings.

KEYWORDS:

• ambient conditions
• attitude toward Web site
• e-servicescape
• purchase intentions
• spatial layout/functionality

Notes

^a χ² = 390, df = 3 (p = 27), GFI =.99, AGFT =.96, RMSEA =.035, St RMR =.016.