Customer Loyalty: An Empirical Study on Italian E-commerce Websites

In contemporary entrepreneurial environment based on customer retention, the growth of the internet has pushed the most dynamic businesses to compete in the electronic market. In literature, there are many studies showing how a company’s brand affects customer loyalty. Less attention has been paid to the relationship between e-commerce website loyalty and e-customer loyalty. This paper can be included in a stream of research that applies the construct of loyalty to e-commerce. Thus, this study aims to analyze, within the electronic market, the elements influencing and determining the trust and loyalty of the e-customers. This research consists of a descriptive study carried out utilizing the survey method. The population in this study includes 421 e-customers of Italian online multi-brand portals. The instrument of data gathering was a web-questionnaire and the data analysis was based on regression. Findings show a positive relationship between three factors (website t echnological level, e-service quality, and brand) and e-customer trust. Furthermore, the correlation, among the three variables, trust as mediating variable, and e-customer’s loyalty, has been revealed. Therefore, it can be basically assumed that trust builds e-customer loyalty.