Logistics Service Quality on Customers' Repurchase Intention and
Word of Mouth: Taking Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform as an
Example
Chenxue Ren and Linbo Tan
School of Economics and Management, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Keywords: Logistics Service Quality, Purchase Intention, Word of Mouth, Cross-border E-commerce Platform.
Abstract: Cross-border e-commerce relies heavily on logistics and customer satisfaction is the goal pursued by e-
commerce enterprises. However, due to factors such as high transportation costs, lengthy transportation
cycles, and information discrepancy, customers who shop on cross-border e-commerce platforms have a less
than satisfactory shopping experience. In addition, there is a scarcity of academic research on the impact of
logistics service quality on consumer repurchase intention and word-of-mouth in the cross-border online
shopping environment. To fill this gap, this paper constructs a cross-border logistics service quality model
with consumer satisfaction, behavioral intention and word-of-mouth. Through structural equation modeling,
344 consumers with cross-border shopping background were surveyed. The results indicated that logistics
service quality positively affects customers' repurchase intention and word-of-mouth. Customers' repurchase
intention were further boosted by positive word-of-mouth. Finally, theoretical and practical suggestions and
future research directions are discussed.
1 INTRODUCTION
Big Data and the Internet of Things have brought
about tremendous changes in e-commerce. Various
forms of information sources have improved
customers' online shopping performance, leading to a
wide spectrum of e-commerce transactions (Fu et al.,
2020). With its convenience and interactivity, lower
cost, and higher level of customization and
personalization (Chen et al.,2018), e-commerce has
provided enormous business potential and revenue
development for organizations. In 2022, global e-
commerce sales will attain a new high, winning $5
trillion for the first time. E-commerce will then
account for one-fifth of all retail sales and will reach
$7 trillion by 2025, according to eMarketer.
Despite the growing number of online shoppers,
cross-border e-commerce platforms still confront
certain hurdles as compared to traditional company
models (Ren et al., 2020). Cross-border commerce
service quality is one of the most important aspects
influencing the success or failure of online supply
chains. It is much cheaper to induce customers to
repurchase goods than to generate a whole new
customer for e-commerce firms (Meilatinova,2021),
and customer satisfaction is one of the important
indicators to make customers' intention to repurchase
and positive word-of-mouth evaluation. Furthermore,
in the cross-border shopping environment, the level
of logistics service quality will in turn bring different
levels of satisfaction to customers.
Unfortunately, existing research has not
thoroughly investigated the overall and consumer
perceived the level of quality of the logistics service
for international online commerce (Huma et al., 2019;
Uvet, 2020) .From the perspective of the shopping
model, finding and checking product information,
together with completing orders online, are all
components that constitute the key link in the
customer's perceived experience. Logistics services
play an essential role in online purchasing as well
(Gajewska & Zimon, 2018). From the perspective of
consumers’ behavior, services in logistics that are
prompt, reliable, safe, and superb will optimize the
shopping experience for customers, which will
elevate the level of satisfaction that customers are
experiencing, as well as generate better word-of-
mouth (Gajewska et al., 2019). The quality of the
logistics service has been demonstrated to be an
essential element in a number of published research,
228
Ren, C. and Tan, L.
Logistics Service Quality on Customers’ Repurchase Intention and Word of Mouth: Taking Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform as an Example.
DOI: 10.5220/0012028600003620
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Economic Management and Model Engineering (ICEMME 2022), pages 228-235
ISBN: 978-989-758-636-1
Copyright
c
 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

and these studies have concluded that this factor
positively leads to customer satisfaction. However,
there has been relatively insufficient investigation
into the role that international logistics services
participate in online business (Van Asch et al., 2020).
Accordingly, this research aims to examine how
consumers' satisfaction, repurchase intention, and
word-of-mouth are modified by the quality of the
logistical services they encountered when
undertaking cross-border e-commerce transactions.
On the one hand, it will be advantageous for the cross-
border e-commerce platform to improve the overall
quality of logistics services in order to increase
consumer satisfaction. On the other hand, it will be
advantageous for the cross-border e-commerce
platform to receive timely feedback from consumers
which will in turn improve the relationship with
consumers, promote the increase of product
repurchase rate, and maximize customer value.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND
HYPOTHESIS
2.1 Logistics Service Quality
With the continuous expansion of information and
communication technology (ICT), it is becoming
increasingly acknowledged that one of the most
efficient strategies for gaining and sustaining a
competitive edge is to pay to raise the service quality
delivered through online commerce (Özkan et al.,
2019). Service quality is a prerequisite for assessing
whether a firm will earn a profit and keep consumers,
and it is also a company's primary competitive edge
over its competitors.
Research on service quality typically uses the
SERVQUAL scale, which encompasses the
following five subscales: tangibility, reliability,
responsiveness, safety, and empathy (Parasuraman et
al., 1988). The theoretical groundwork for future
logistics service quality scales was established with
the introduction and implementation of the
SERVQUAL scale (Mentzer et al., 1999). Mentzer et
al. (2011) in subsequent academic research and
practice, have validated the modified LSQ scale. The
modified LSQ scale is widely utilized in the logistics
services industry and has been shown to be a valid
research tool in subsequent academic study and
practice. (Saura et al., 2008; Rao et al., 2011; Uvet,
2020).
Logistics service providers are the service
providers directly facing customers in the cross-
border e-commerce platform, and the quality of
logistics services will influence consumers' judgment
of items or services at a later stage (He, 2021). In
other words, logistics is a key part of running and
managing cross-border e-commerce. It also
contributes significantly to enhancing corporate
performance and providing an edge over the
competition. Increased customer satisfaction is the
result of fast cross-border logistics times, excellent
after-sale support, the prevention of damage to
shipped goods by efficient freight forwarders, and
affordable logistics prices. As a result, consumers are
more likely to return to the same international e-
commerce website in the future.
2.2 Customer Satisfaction
Cardozo (1965) was the first to provide a concept of
"customer satisfaction" in the business world, which
he considered as a psychological condition generated
by comparison. Based on a merger of the business-to-
consumer e-commerce setting, Anderson &
Srinivasan (2003) established B2C model customer
satisfaction as an overarching feeling of contentment
with one's B2C online shopping experiences. Existing
studies on user satisfaction in cross-border e-
commerce platforms mostly use empirical and textual
analysis to investigate the antecedent variables that
influence satisfaction and the impact of satisfaction
on other outcome variables (Pham & Ahammad,
2017).
As consumption escalates, the higher consumers'
expectations of service, the more businesses with
superior service quality and service experience will
win consumers' goodwill. In a highly competitive
climate, a company's ability to survive its business
depends on consumer satisfaction and sustained
shopping intention (Haming et al., 2019). Consumers
are often prone to the psychology of consumer
consistency and are reluctant to easily transform their
identified consumer relationships. Once they have
made multiple purchases on an e-commerce platform
and have a good impression, they are likely to become
"repeat customers" and are unwilling to switch to
other shopping platforms.
2.3 Repurchase Intention and Word of
Mouth
Stauss (1997) established the initial description of
eWOM as "information about goods or services that
consumers share and exchange over the Internet." The
development of Internet has expanded the
transmission of eWOM through online
communication, allowing consumers to share their
ideas and experiences on the Internet platform,
Logistics Service Quality on Customers’ Repurchase Intention and Word of Mouth: Taking Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform as an
Example
229

culminating in "Internet Word of Mouth." Customer
comments, for example, can be disseminated online
to other consumers (Tran & Strutton, 2020). This can
lead to an informative flow of data for keeping tabs
on logistics service quality, drawing attention to the
weak spots in the architecture of business processes,
and serving as a foundation for future choices aimed
at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of these
logistic service systems.
The previous studies have employed an
experimental method to look at how various aspects
of eWOM influence customers' decision to make a
purchase. When shopping online, customers rely
heavily on the opinions of other customers and
recommendations from other customers (Hu et al.,
2006). Existing studies have shown that the quality
and quantity of online word-of-mouth has an
important impact on purchase intention. Research
conducted by Tien et al. (2019) on the electronic
word-of-mouth of cosmetic users in social
networking sites demonstrated that electronic word-
of-mouth makes a significant contribution to
customers' desire to make a purchase. Based on social
communication theory, Al-Gasawneh & Al-Adamat
(2020) discovered that electronic word of mouth
plays a mediating function in marketing and greatly
influences customers' propensity to purchase green
products.
The following assumptions are derived from the
aforementioned literature, and the corresponding
research model is presented in Figure 1
H1: Logistics service quality has a positive effect
on customer satisfaction.
H2: Customer satisfaction has a positive effect on
repurchase intention
H3: Customer satisfaction has a positive effect on
word-of-mouth
H4: Cross-border logistics service quality has a
positive effect on consumers' repurchase intention.
H5: Cross-border logistics service quality has a
positive influence on consumer word-of-mouth
H6: Word-of-mouth has a positive influence on
customers' repurchase intention.
Figure 1: Research model.
3 METHODOLOGY
Five hundred online customers from the Chinese
mainland with a background of cross-border
shopping. Demographic description is shown in
table1. The questionnaire designed based on prior
scholarly research and employing a seven-point
Likert scale was used to gather the data for this
investigation. 15 items in 5 dimensions were adopted
to measure logistics service quality (Mentzer et al.,
1998), whereas 3 items in 9 were applied to measure
customer satisfaction (Stank et al., 2003), repurchase
intention (Jones et al., 2000), and word of mouth
(Kamtarin, 2012). The questionnaire comprised 30
items in total. A total of 500 questionnaires were
randomly distributed nationwide through online
research, and 344 valid questionnaires were selected
according to the questionnaire criteria, with a valid
return rate of 68.8%, meeting the statistical analysis
criteria. The structural equation model's reliability
test, validity test, and correlation analysis were
conducted using SPSS27.0 and AMOS28.0.
Table 1: Population descriptive statistics.
Variables Category Number of people Percentage (%)
Gender
Man 161 47
Woman 183 53
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Age
Under 25 years old 29 8
25-30 years old 85 25
30-35 years old 51 15
35-40 years old 65 19
40-45 years old 57 17
45-50years old 38 11
Over 50 years old 19 6
Education
High School 106 31
University 108 31
Master 89 26
PhD 41 12
Income
Less than 1500 yuan 30 9
1501-3000 yuan 28 8
3001-4500 yuan 61 18
4501-6000 yuan 47 14
6001-7500 yuan 96 28
7501-9000 yuan 82 24
Frequency of
shopping per month
Once a day or more 24 7
1-2 times per week 104 30
3-4 per month 149 43
Less than 1 time per month 67 19
4 DATA ANALYSIS
4.1 Convergent Validity
Constructs' convergent and discriminant validity in
the model were evaluated using SPSS27.0. The
Cronbach's alpha value was more than the threshold
level of 0.7, indicating that the questionnaire items
were reliable. Validation factor analysis (CFA) was
then conducted using Amos 28.0 for all the constructs
to derive the standardized loadings for each indicator.
In accordance to that, the combination reliability
(CR) as well as the average variance extracted (AVE)
were evaluated. As indicated in Table 2, the
convergent validity of the model's potential
constructs was determined by evaluating the entire
model.
In this research, the Cronbach’s alpha for all
constructs were fluctuated from 0.847 to 0.918,
exceeding the acceptable level of 0.7 (Nunnally,
1978), reflecting that the questionnaire scales were
reasonably well set and reliable. The CR for all
constructs was within the range of 0.840 and 0.917,
which was significantly higher than the standard
value of 0.7(Vinzi et al., 2010). The AVE for each
construct ranged from 0.636 to 0.788, which was
higher than the acceptable value of 0.50 (Hair et al.,
1998) and suggested that the scale exhibits a
satisfactory convergent validity.
Table 2: Convergent validity analysis.
Construct Item Factor loading Cronbach’s α CR AVE
Tangibility
Tan1 0.829
0.855 0.857 0.667 Tan2 0.855
Tan3 0.763
Reliability
REL1 0.765
0.847 0.850 0.653
REL2 0.849
Logistics Service Quality on Customers’ Repurchase Intention and Word of Mouth: Taking Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform as an
Example
231

REL3 0.809
Responsiveness
RES1 0.751
0.867 0.870 0.691 RES2 0.876
RES3 0.862
Collaboration
COL1 0.749
0.850 0.853 0.659 COL2 0.832
COL3 0.851
Economical
ECO1 0.85
0.897 0.899 0.749 ECO2 0.875
ECO3 0.871
Customer
Satisfaction
CS1 0.774
0.839 0.840 0.636 CS2 0.834
CS3 0.783
Repurchase
Intention
RI1 0.974
0.918 0.917 0.788 RI2 0.854
RI3 0.828
Word of mouth
WOM1 0.822
0.903 0.911 0.774
WOM2 0.848
WOM3 0.963
4.2 Discriminant Validity
SPSS27.0 was used to conduct a Pearson correlation
analysis between the four constructs (logistics service
quality, customer satisfaction, repurchase intention,
and word of mouth), and then the results were
compared to the square root of AVE to determine the
discriminant validity among all constructs. Table 3
illustrates the overall result. The discriminant validity
between the constructs was acceptable since the
square root of AVE for each construct was greater
than the square root of the correlation coefficient
(Fornell and Larcker, 1981).
Table 3: Discriminant validity analysis.
Construct QLS CS WOM RI
QLS 0.712
CS 0.352** 0.879
WOM 0.399** 0.408** 0.797
RI 0.480** 0.509** 0.544** 0.887
Note: Bold text is square root of AVE
4.3 Model Testing
AMOS28.0 is used to test the hypothesized
relationships between latent variables. Figure 2
depicts the structural model. The following are the
parameters of model fit: 𝜒

 370.065，𝐷𝐹  241
， 𝜒

/𝐷𝐹  1.536

3

， 𝐺𝐹𝐼  0.921

0.9

，
𝑅𝑀𝑆𝐸𝐴  0.04

0.08

， 𝑁𝐹𝐼  0.934

0.9

，
𝑁𝑁𝐹𝐼  0.972

0.9

， 𝐼𝐹𝐼  0.976

0.9

，
(Marsh et al., 1998; McHugh, 2013; Kenny et al.,
2015). These indicators all meet the standard values,
indicating a good model fit.
ICEMME 2022 - The International Conference on Economic Management and Model Engineering
232

Figure 2: Results.
The overall model is tested for path coefficients,
as shown in Table 4. At the 0.001 threshold of
significance, the findings reveal a significant and
positive relationship among the four main constructs,
which support H1, H4, H5. Customer satisfaction has
a favorable influence on repurchase intention and
WOM, which support hypothesis H2, H3. WOM has
a positive effect on repurchase intention, therefore
hypothesis H6 is supported.
Table 4: Path coefficient table.
5 CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Result
This paper builds a conceptual model between cross-
border logistics service quality, customer satisfaction,
repurchase intention, and word-of-mouth. SPSS27.0
was implemented to validate the presented hypothesis
and model to confirm that logistics service quality
and customer satisfaction had a favourable effect on
repurchase intention and word-of-mouth in the
scenario of cross-border e-commerce platform
Logistics Service Quality on Customers’ Repurchase Intention and Word of Mouth: Taking Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform as an
Example
233

shopping. Meanwhile, it also proves that customer
word-of-mouth has a positive effect on repurchase
intention. It was further found that consumer word-
of-mouth has a helpful effect on the intention to
repurchase. Among them, the quality of cross-border
logistics service has the greatest explanatory power
on customer satisfaction, reaching 42%. It indicates
that in the process of purchasing on cross-border e-
commerce platforms, consumers are primarily
concerned about commodity logistics information,
platform feedback, logistics time, and logistics costs.
5.2 Implications
Cross-border e-commerce has its own distinctive
features, elevating the importance of cross-border
logistical connections. Customers' positive
impressions of the platform's cross-border logistics
services will lead to the development of a desire to
make repurchase behavior. This means that online
stores must prioritize the convenience and ease of
their customers' purchasing experiences and strive to
improve the standard of their logistics service. For
instance, cross-border e-commerce businesses can
construct a real-time sharing platform for the
visualization of logistics information in order to make
the information of the commodity transportation
more transparent and efficient. These businesses can
also make an accurate prediction and analysis of
customers' consumption behavior through big data,
and they can prepare goods for domestic bonded
warehouses in advance in order to improve the
timeliness of cross-border logistics and
transportation, which allows these businesses to more
effectively meet the needs of their customers.
5.3 Limitations and Future Research
The scope of this investigation has several
restrictions. Firstly, because the dimensions of cross-
border e-commerce logistics service quality
perception are relatively complex, further
improvement is still needed. The industries of cross-
border e-commerce, such as mother and child,
cosmetics, clothing and baggage, are not divided
down into their component parts in this study. It
would be interesting to investigate how different
types of cross-border e-commerce are affected by the
quality of the cross-border logistics service in future
studies. Secondly, due to cost and time constraints,
the questionnaire was only sent online to collect data,
and thus the sample size of this investigation is
limited. Future research can extend the sample size
and quality to generate more exact suggestions for
enhancing cross-border e-commerce logistics service
quality.
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