E-Service Quality Model for Spanish Textile and Fashion Sector: Positioning Analysis and B2C Ranking by F-Topsis

Abstract

This paper proposes and validates an e-service quality (eSQ) evaluation model for B2C websites in the textile-and-fashion (TF) sector in Spain. The research allows to represent the positioning of the main websites of this sector according to different utilitarian and hedonic quality dimensions and to establish the global ranking of these websites by using the F-TOPSIS methodology. After a thorough bibliographic review of the most common attributes used to evaluate eSQ of B2C websites, an expert panel has assisted in both, their precise wording and grouping them into the factors and latent dimensions of the proposed model. Later, model validation was carried out through the psychometric analysis of a survey conducted over a sample of 405 users searching/buying on TF industry online sales platforms. The paper already shows the perceptual maps for the eSQ dimensions analyzed for different TF B2C websites. Finally, in order to be able to process the intrinsic uncertainty inherent to the valuations given by the users, the F-TOPSIS method was used to sort the main TF websites. The study has demonstrated the validity of the proposed model, making it replicable in other countries and allowing to obtain the positioning and ranking of the six main websites analyzed in Spain, where Asos and Zara were the leaders.