Abstract
Online secondhand markets have been growing substantially over the last decade and are expected to grow further. In order to effectively promote the growth of online secondhand markets, this paper designs and validates a scale to assess customer perception of the service quality of secondhand products purchased via online platforms. Complementarily, the paper assesses how each of the different dimensions that configure the scale contributes to explaining the fulfillment of customers’ expectations. The scale is defined by 23 items and is arranged in 5 dimensions from the literature on online commerce as well as on the sharing economy. A sample of 200 questionnaires is used for exploratory factor analysis. A second sample of 507 users is used for confirmatory factor analysis. The quality perceived by online customers of secondhand products depends on the quality of the interactions that they have with the website, with the vendor, and with the product. The dimension that contributes the most to customer fulfillment of expectations is product quality. Findings identify the items that contribute the most to quality perception and fulfillment of expectations, facilitating the development of more effective strategies for platform owners and vendors who want to attract and retain customers of secondhand products. Complementarily, these findings are useful to businesses and governments that want to promote a more sustainable economy by reducing consumption of new products and promoting reutilization of existing ones.
Highlights
Secondhand shopping is defined as buying goods that have been previously owned by someone else [1]
Results are organized in two subsections: firstly, the assessment of the OSS-Qual scale proposal is considered; the dimensions of the scale as antecedents of the fulfillment of customer’s expectations are analyzed
In order to identify the significant dimensions, we performed an exploratory analysis with a sample of 200 individuals
Summary
Secondhand shopping is defined as buying goods that have been previously owned by someone else [1]. Secondhand shopping was popular during the 18th and 19th centuries; during the 20th century, the growth of a wide array of new products at low prices put several flea markets at risk. Over the last 20 years, secondhand shopping has increased in popularity again [2]. Some of the latest data indicate that one-third of consumers have increased their secondhand purchases [3]. At the beginning of the 21st century, sales of secondhand products increased in brick-and-mortar retail stores, like thrift stores, and at flea markets. Secondhand product sales have gained market share in the online marketplace worldwide for budgeting reasons as well as for sustainability motives [4]
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