The relationship between order procurement and order fulfillment quality perception and consumer complaint behavior and switching intention in e-marketplaces: A mixed-methods study

The improvements in information technologies and the increasing importance of time, which is one of the most critical resources to be used efficiently in today's intense work and life pace, have made e-commerce become a shopping channel more preferred day by day among customers. In this shopping channel, it is essential to examine both the process starting from the moment customers decide to purchase a product until they receive it, which is called e-fulfillment, and uncovering their perception of the purchased products or services, and the behaviours and intentions they develop during this process. Within this context, this study searches the impact of the order procurement which consists of e-business quality and product quality, and processes of order fulfillment, which consists of physical distribution services quality and ease of return, on consumers' complaint behaviours and their switching intentions in e-commerce. In the quantitative part of this mixed method study, an online survey was applied to 423 e-commerce customers. In the qualitative part, in-depth interviews were made with 20 participants who were customers of e-commerce and had completed the survey. Confirmative factor analysis, correlation, and regression analyses were applied in the quantitative part, while content analysis and descriptive analysis took place in the qualitative part. The results showed that e-business quality and product quality in the order procurement affected private and public complaint behaviour and switching intention negatively. During the process of order fulfillment, it was found that timeliness and ease of return impacted private and public complaint behaviour and switching intention negatively; whereas availability did not affect private and public complaint behaviour but affected switching intention. Additionally, according to the results of the research, while individual complaint behaviour affect the intention to change positively, public complaint behaviour do not affect the given. Information obtained from the in-depth interview results are supporting the quantitative findings, however they are more detailed.