Assessing the Mediation Role of the Customer Trust On E-Service Quality: Lessons During Covid-19 Pandemic

Online groceries or e-groceries were highlighted as one of the effective means to avoid personal contacts and maintain social distance during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Thus, this paper focuses on the insight on the impact of e-service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction of e-groceries with the role of customer trust as a mediating variable during the epidemic. A quantitative approach has been adopted where the empirical data gathered from 300 e-grocery shoppers in Western province, Sri Lanka while adopting the multi-stage sampling technique. A field survey was conducted during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic during March-June 2020. Regression analysis was the main analysis method whereas the Barron and Kenny mediator analysis and Sobel test were adopted for mediation impact. Findings highlight, e-service quality dimensions strongly impact the customer satisfaction of e-groceries during the Pandemic whereas customer trust partially mediates the e-service quality and customer satisfaction of e-groceries. Implications focused on; (a) e-grocery service providers have to distinct on revamp of customer trust parameters, (b) e-service quality dimensions to enhance the customer satisfaction, customer trust, and (c) attract more customers for e-grocery shopping.