OSS-Qual: holistic scale to assess customer quality perception when buying secondhand products in online platforms

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.