Exploring Dimensions of Customer Retention and Information Quality in the Online Automobile Industry

Purchasing online is becoming increasingly more popular option in virtually every industry. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages associated with purchasing automobiles online that were modeled and tested. The basic extraction method was PCA with the basic rotation method of varimax with Kaiser Normalization, although basic descriptive statistics were used to simply the results the factor analysis. The three major independent constructs, which accounted for 61.3% of the explained variance, were found to be statistically significant, included Convenience and Internet Ready, Online Service, Human Interaction, and Gender Influences. These constructs are similar to the basic requirements of online B2C interactions. The dependent variable regressed against these major independent factor-based constructs was perceived resistance to purchasing online (as measured with agreement with viewing inline purchasing as a hassle). Even among the education and Internet-empowered group, it seems that the primary role for the Internet is on information gathering and customer service, rather than actual purchasing automobiles. Evidently, old traditions die slowly. Researching or gathering background information about a product is one aspect that online automobile distributors have a distinct competitive advantage, with 72% of individuals preferring to research online prior to making a purchase. However, no attempt was made in this study was made to survey the attitudes of the dealers toward online purchases, which is a suggested topic for further research.