Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on customer loyalty factors in the Russian e-commerce market
(R2021-104585)

AUTHORS

Mehran Haddadi, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Vera Rebiazina, National Research University Higher School of Economics

KEYWORDS

COVID-19; Customer Loyalty; E-commerce

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted consumer behavior in e-commerce. The purpose of this article is to examine the possible effects of the pandemic on customer loyalty factors in the Russian e-commerce market. Questionnaire data were collected in 2019 and 2020, including 836 and 926 observations, respectively. EFA, CFA, and t-test methods were used to examine the data. After validating the CFA models, nine latent variables affecting customer loyalty were examined to investigate possible changes in their mean values of their manifest indicators. The results showed that the factors Customer Satisfaction, Ease of Shopping Online, E-WOM, and Number of Reviews had a statistically significant difference in the mean value of the indicators between the pre and post COVID-19 outbreaks. These results may help Russian online business executives improve these four factors in the future.

REFERENCES

The paper was prepared within “Sharing Economy as an Innovative Business Model” at the Higher School of Economics university in 2021 (grant ? AAAAA19-119081290039-7) and within the framework of the Russian Academic Excellence Project «5-100».