Electronic Service Quality Gaps in the Australian Wine Industry

Abstract

The wine industry is very important in Australia and the advent of e-commerce has presented the industry with new challenges. This is especially so for smaller wineries in order to reach a wider audience and secure a competitive advantage. The old adage ‘the customer is always right’ has never been more important, as the foundation stone upon which electronic service quality (e-SQ) lies is customer requirements. Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Malhotra, (2002) claim that the elimination of e-SQ gaps will lead to customer satisfaction which results in increased perceived e-SQ, value, purchases and repurchases. This paper proposes a formal mathematical definition for e-SQ gaps and a statistical method of testing for the existence of such gaps. This method was applied to a study of Australian winery customers, managers, and websites and it was found that e-SQ gaps did exist. Hence, Australian wineries are not meeting customer website requirements. Further research is being conducted to determine the extent of, and contributing factors to, these e-SQ gaps.