Consumer Perception, Online Retailing and the Nigerian Experience: An Interchange of Demographic Patterns and Service Quality

Abstract

Customer perception has earned a lot of interest in recent times as a tool for assessing service quality in service-oriented organizations. Although numerous studies have addressed customers’ perceptions of service quality in traditional service settings, a relatively small volume of literature has empirically examined service quality issues in the online retailing environment. In the case of Nigeria, there is no known research relating to perceived service quality of online retailers. To address this knowledge gap, the consumer perception of the online retail sector in Nigeria was studied. The expectation theory, the electronic service quality model, and the electronic recovery service quality model served as the theoretical foundations on which this study is based. The methodology involved the use of a descriptive survey method to assess the perceived service quality of the online retail sector and the effect of selected demographic factors on customer perception. The study was conducted with a sample size of 300 respondents. The results revealed that the perceived service quality of the online retail sector in Nigeria is above average but has room for improvement. The study also showed that customer perception was not affected by the demographic factors that this research focused on.