Unpacking Customer Experience in Online Shopping: Effects on Satisfaction and Loyalty

Abstract

Drawing on experience–satisfaction–loyalty, this study models how specific digital retail interface attributes translate into behavioural outcomes. Survey data from Portuguese online shoppers were analysed with PLS-SEM to test a formative–reflective framework linking Interactivity and Technologies, Trust–Security–Privacy, Fulfilment and Service Quality, Usability and Web Design, Personalisation and Customisation and Omnichannel Integration to customer experience (CX), customer satisfaction (CS), customer loyalty (CL) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM). The model explains 62.6% of CX, 70.1% of CS and 66.7% of CL. CX is strongly associated with CS and CS, in turn, with CL; associations with eWOM are non-significant, revealing a theoretical blind spot around advocacy. Interactivity and Technologies, Trust–Security–Privacy and Fulfilment and Service Quality emerge as the most significant antecedents of CX, whereas Omnichannel Integration is inert. The findings advance digital commerce theory by decoupling advocacy from evaluative satisfaction and by reconceptualising integration as multidimensional. Practically, they prioritise investment in interactive, secure and fulfilment capabilities while signalling that loyalty is not associated with advocacy. This study concludes by outlining measurement refinements and longitudinal avenues to capture social–motivational drivers of eWOM.