Effects of Website Appearance, Security and Electronic Word-of-Mouth (EWOM) on Online Customer Loyalty: Trust as Mediating Factor

Abstract

Improvements in customer retention rates may result in increases in profits, making customer retention a crucial factor in determining a company's long-term development and profitability. With the increased competition in the business environment, together with evolving, more erratic and less loyal consumers, it is becoming more difficult and even unprofitable for online retailers to acquire new consumers on a consistent basis. More than half of all new customers depart a shop within the first 90 days of purchasing, making it more challenging than ever for businesses to maintain a loyal client base in the face of today's consumers' ability to easily compare goods and move between retailers with a simple click. Thus, this paper critically seeks to examine the effects of website appearance, security and electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM) on online customer loyalty in the Malaysian context by applying the Stimuli-Organism-Response (SOR) model. In addition, trust as a mediator to the relationship between the three components and online customer loyalty will also be investigated. This paper is mainly based on secondary sources of information, through references and review of articles in selected journals on website appearance, security, online trust and online customer loyalty. This paper also highlights past studies on the relationship between the three variables of website appearance, security and electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM), and their effects on online customer loyalty. The reviews also address the related gaps from previous studies. The work of the researcher is a genuine reference to published works of literature and it is hoped that this study will be able to contribute to the development of knowledge by adapting and testing the effects of website appearance, security and electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM) on online customer loyalty in the Malaysian setting and subsequently provide Malaysian online retailers further understandings of consumer behaviour as well as identify proper business strategies to strengthen trust in order to enhance online customer loyalty.