E-Qual: A French scale measuring e-tailing service quality

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to design, develop and evaluate a reliable and valid scale for the measurement of online retail service quality, specifically in the French context. Design/methodology/approach – Study 1 derived scale items from the literature by content analysis. Study 2 extracted items from two quantitative data sets, gathered by questionnaire from 172 and 125 online shoppers, by exploratory factor and reliability analyses. Study 3 applied psychometric testing and confirmatory factor analysis to data from a survey of 178 e-shoppers. Findings – The outcome is "E-tail SQ", a 15-item scale to measure five key user values (labelled ease of use, information content, fulfilment reliability, security/privacy and post-purchase customer service). These scale items derived from French data are found to be similar to those identified in previous international studies, except that French e-shoppers place more emphasis than their English-speaking counterparts on internet security and privacy of personal information. Research limitations/implications – The sample profiles place limits on the applicability of the scale across markets and service categories. Further research must be conducted to improve its external validity. Practical implications – "E-tail SQ" can help online retailers in the French marketplace to measure service quality delivered, and thereby to improve it, and may be transferable to other national markets. Originality/value – This new scale for the measurement of service quality in a specific cultural environment offers online retailers a framework within which to manage their web-based relationships with a growing number of online shoppers.