Introduction to the Study

With the millions of customers now going online, company websites seem to have a significant influence on sales and corporate image, and are expected to contribute to overall customer satisfaction in the entire value chain. Whether the objective is to convert visitors into customers, or retain existing online customers. The quality of web experience reflected by its content, usability, security, appearance and service. Effective web design is considered a pre-requisite for a successful E-Commerce. The Considerations for the design and operation of websites are dependent upon the nature of the business activities. While some companies simply want their websites to serve as information providers about the company, others would like their websites to act as active distribution channels for their products and services and enable online transactions. Similarly, consumers who visit the website may do so for different purposes. While some seek information to assist them in pre-purchase research, others may actually want to carry out their business transactions (buying and/or selling), and some others may simply visit the website for entertainment. Thus the website design and the consumer perception of website quality are influenced by the different motives of consumers as well as the objectives of the companies. Considering the websites potential significance, this research specifically focused on the relative importance attributed to various web quality dimensions by online consumers from the user perspective and analyzed the influence of various independent variables such as nature of products or services purchased online, value of purchases, past online buying experience, nationality, gender and type of access to internet. As a first step, this study took Aladwani and Palvias four factor web quality instrument for data collection and empirically validated the underlying dimensional structure, and refined the model. This study focused on transaction seekers who conduct business online and specifically excluded users who merely surf or browse websites.

Background of the Study

With the rising number of online consumers, and their increasing expectations from businesses, there is an increasing pressure for the businesses to better understand the issue of web quality. In the 1990s, most of the companies designed their websites by trail and error and did not take into consideration the customers perception or feedback at the design stage. In the initial days of Internet commerce, websites were expected to provide some entertainment to customers, but that is generally considered irrelevant in todays business environment, except in some online services where entertainment is an important component of the product/service package.

Several commercial research firms and trade press have developed scales to rate websites. For example Bizrate.com an online research firm collects information from online consumers during their buying and after the delivery of products. Along with an overall score for the retailer, Bizrate collects consumers perception on attributes such as ease of ordering, product selection, product information, price, on-time delivery, product representation, customer support, privacy policies and shipping and handling. Other online researchers such as Forrester Research, Jupiter Communications, and Gartner Research etc. regularly publish research on the consumer ratings of online experiences. An understanding of the relative importance attributed by users would help to managers assess the effectiveness of their website in a reliable and valid way and improve the design and management of websites.

Literature Review
Quality is a multi-faceted concept and has been studied by researchers in the disciplines of information systems, marketing, operations, and communications in the past. Because of the dual nature of the online consumer as traditional shopper and computer user, appropriate user interface influenced by the technology and information systems and other elements of human computer interaction are as important as offering the customer good service, transaction efficiencies, lower prices and order fulfillment. Depending upon the focus of the individual research study, several authors have developed multi item scales to measure websites quality. Among them four instruments can be considered comprehensive in the literature. They are Aladwani and Palvia model of user perceived web quality, the WebQual model by Loiacono et al and the eTailQ (Electronic Retail Quality) by Wolfinbarer and Gilly. Among these four, Aladwani and Palvia focus on web interface, while WebQual and eTailQ measure the entire online buying experience that include the pre-purchase and post purchase experience of the customer. Aladwani and Palvia studied website quality from the users perspective and developed a scale for measuring web quality interface using university students in the US. Concentrating on the web interface, they have identified four underlying dimensions, namely technical adequacy, specific content, content quality and appearance. WebQual, developed by Loiacono et al identified 12 dimensions of web quality. Interviewing both customers and website designers, and using students to rate the websites, they have identified informational fit to task, interactivity, trust, response time, ease of understanding, intuitive operations, visual appeal, innovativeness, flow/emotional appeal, consistent image, online completeness and better than alternative channels as the dimensions of web quality.

Extending the service quality model developed earlier, Zeithaml et al have develop the eSQ(Electronic Service Quality) model to measure the quality of service offered online through websites. It comprises 4 dimensions with 3 of them related to the online experience, the fourth being fulfillment that relates to the post transaction experience. A study by Wolinbarger and Gilly established 4 dimensions of eTail quality (eTailQ) website design, fulfillment/reliability, and privacy/security and customer service. This study measured the overall online customer retail experience that includes web interface and delivery, and established the dimensions of eTail experience. There are several other studies in the area, with some focusing on the usability issue and satisfaction, and others on the factors contributing to the website success. Other studies focus on the entire online experience and the consumers intention to return, identifying and developing key dimensions of websites, quality factors and the measurement of web customer satisfaction. National culture is expected to influence users expectations and perceptions regarding web quality. For example, in a study of cultural adaptation in the design websites, Singh et al observed significant differences between Chinese and American websites. By adapting websites to local culture, website usability and global competitiveness could be enhanced. Other studies by Fock and Simon also earlier observed cultural sensitive websites enhance their usability, reach and interactivity and lead to more online business activities.

Research Methodology
Need of the Study: To provide knowledge on web quality To facilitate better understanding and explanation of the relative importance of underlying website features and factors in different national and cultural contexts.

Scope of the Study: In this study, graduates and undergraduate students enrolled in an electronic commerce course in the year 2004 were used as respondents. Of the 296 respondents received, 270 were found to be valid and used for analysis.

Objectives of the Study: The main objective of the study is to determine the relative importance attached to various web quality features by online consumers and analyze the influence of various independent variables on consumers perception of web quality. Limitations: Unlike other studies on web quality, respondents in this study were actual online consumers. Even though this enabled to collect information from the actual shoppers of the websites rather than potential consumers, it still did not allow to study the actual online buying while the transaction was taking place. This study relied on respondents recall of using the website rather than actual web user experience. The findings could not be generalized in the view of the differences in the companies corporate image, purchase price, pre-transaction knowledge, and post-transaction knowledge of the website and products/services purchased. This study focused on users perception of website based on actual online experience, as the transaction actually occurred about three months prior to the data collection, the effect of timing on the changes to their perception of the importance of various web quality factors was not known. Factors such as distinctive nature of product/services offered online, past online experience of the consumers, pricing efficiencies and cultural attitudes towards various factors might also have affected the perceptions of web quality but these factors were considered beyond the scope of this study. Sampling of respondents is another limitation of this study. Even though the respondents are actual online shoppers, their association with a university suggests that the sample is not fully representative of the general online population.

Data collection
This study adopted an instrument that was designed in US by Aladwani and Palvia for data collection. This instrument measures the user perception of web quality with a 25 item scale. The 25 items that measure various aspects of web quality including variables such as ease of navigation, security, search facilities, ease of access, availability, speed of page loading, quality of content in terms of completeness, currency, conciseness and accuracy; information about the company, products/services, customer service and privacy; and appearance of the website. Aladwani and Palvias instrument was first validated by asking respondents to visit the Amazon website and rate their web interface with reference to the 25 website features in the instrument. Respondents were then asked to rate the relative importance of each of the 25 items, along with reasons for their rating, on a scale of 1 (not important) to 7 (highly important) as perceived by them based on their specific online buying experience. In addition, respondents were asked to list the top 5 items that were important for any electronic commerce website that facilitate transactions and give reasons for the ranking. Data on various independent variables such as product or service purchased, frequency of online purchases in the past, gender, dollar value of the purchase, nationality of the respondent and method of payment was collected. In addition, information about the website from which they have purchased products/services was also collected.

Data Analysis and Interpretation:

An exploratory factor analysis was carried out to determine the underlying factorial structure of the perceived web quality construct using the data collected from the evaluation the Amazon website. The dimensions were tested on the Amazon website to control for differences in the consumer perceptions by the nature of website and the nature of products available for online purchase. A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to test the goodness of fit of the data set. When the first model did not fit the data well, several iterations were carried out based on the values of modification indices and squared multiple correlations and the original four factor Aladwani and Palvia model was revised.

Based on the exploratory factor analysis and substantive criteria, 3 models were identified (model A, B and C) for comparison and tested for significance. Model A was the four factor 25 item model suggested by Aladwani and Palvia. Model B was a 7 factor model developed based on the exploratory factor analysis. Model C was another hypothesized model with 6 factors. All the 3 models were tested for significance using the Amazon data set collected earlier. The model that fitted the data set was used for discussion and further analysis. Accordingly, the final model C (revision II) was identified as a 6 factor model with 20 items. This 6 factor structure was then applied to the actual online buying experience data set.

Findings
In this study, about 70% of the respondents were below 30 years and 12% of the respondents were more than 40 years of age, with the remaining 18% between the age of 30 and 40 years. About 56% were male and 44% were female. The respondents were categorized into two groups local and international, based on their nationality/citizenship status. With 90% of the international participants generally coming from Asia, this variable was use to analyze the differences between the perception of local respondents (Australians) and the Asian participants (international). About 31% of the respondents had purchased once in the past one year, while about 46% reported to have purchased at least 4 times in the past one year, reflecting the active online buying of participants. 12 different websites were named in the study where the respondents had shopped most often in the past one year. While about 76% of the respondents had purchased a physical product form retailer online store, 24% had purchased online information based services including tickets to events, air tickets and accommodation. Even though the nature and type of product purchased was different, every transaction with the website involved a financial transaction using a credit card, ranging from payments of $15 to $1500. Website Appearance: This study noticed the neutralizing influence of website appearance factor on the user perceived web quality. Nature of internet connection: Analysis observed that there were significant difference between the respondents who use modem and broadband to access internet

Trust and Accessibility: Based on the respondents own online buying experience they had rated security (6.7), accuracy of the content (6.1), product details (6.1), currency of the content (5.9), and content usefulness (5.8) as the top five ranking items of web quality. The items use of multimedia and use of fonts were rated the least important with a mean rating of 3.6 and 3.9 respectively. A majority of the items such as ease of navigation, search facilities, valid links, speed of page loading and ease of access under the factor accessibility and general information were rate between 5 and 6.

Influence of culture on web quality perceptions: Confirming previous studies on the influence of culture on web quality perceptions, this study found that there were significant difference between Asia respondents and locals in terms of content quality and accessibility. Accessibility issues were rate more important by the Asian respondents, while the customer service and privacy information was considered more important by the local respondents.

Gender and online buying: This study revealed that there were no significant differences between men and women in their perceptions. However, the study found that women were more satisfied with their online buying experience than men.

Value of purchase and past online buying: The value of purchase and the past online buying experience of consumers had no influence on the relative importance attributed to various website features and their perception of the particular website, the study noted.

Conclusion
The study noted that the variables online buying experience, value of purchases and gender have no differentiating influence on the perception of web quality and relative importance of various website features. In the context of increasingly globalize e-businesses, further understanding of the role of websites in different national and cultural contexts is imperative to increase their business value.

Suggestions and Recommendations:

It is important for businesses to convince their potential customers as well as existing ones on the trust aspect in relation to payment mechanism, security of the site, privacy of the consumer information and customer service and provide assurance to the consumers. Depending upon the purpose of the website, payment mechanisms and nature of products or services sold online. Businesses must analyze the need and nature of personal information to be collected for customization purposes and then develop appropriate strategies for their management. Managers must concentrate on the trust and accessibility issues that will have a potential impact on online consumer behaviour and repeat visits to the website. Businesses need to view every online transaction as an independent instance with no bearing on the past online buying experience, and manage the interactions accordingly. Website designers must actively anticipate users expectations. Web designers must understand the differing requirements and varying perceptions of online consumers influenced by the nature of products and services and other factors and incorporate them in their design and management.