Relative Importance of Web Quality Dimensions

Quality of web sites has major impact on sales and on overall customer satisfaction in business today. Measuring the quality of web site from the users’ perspective, will give a fast and early feedback to the firm and will enable it to take corrective action and improve its operations. This paper reports on a study investigating the ranking given by the users to various factors of web site quality and compares it with their perception of the web quality. Extending the work by Aladwani & Palvia, this study validates and revises their model and contributes to better understanding of web quality dimensions. Study concluded that there are significant differences between the perceptions of consumers who buy products and those buying services in terms of their overall perception of web site quality, convenience/availability and specific content of the web site. Study points out the importance of security, access and personalization factors for online consumers irrespective of the products or services purchased online. Low importance attached to appearance and information quality factors of web sites suggests that they are considered as ‘qualifiers’ by consumers.