The Impact of pre-sales E-CRM Features on Customer Satisfaction and customer Loyalty: Examining the role of Website Usability, Information Quality, and Personalization in e-Commerce Websites

This study investigates the impact of pre-sales electronic Customer Relationship Management (e-CRM) features on customer satisfaction and loyalty in e-commerce websites, with a specific focus on website usability, information quality, and personalisation. Using a quantitative research design with data collected from 678 respondents across multiple cities, the study employed structural equation modelling to test the hypothesised relationships. The findings reveal that all three pre-sales e-CRM features significantly influence customer satisfaction, with website usability showing the strongest effect (β = 0.894, p < 0.001). While personalisation demonstrated both direct and indirect effects on customer loyalty (β = 0.410, p < 0.001), website usability and information quality influenced loyalty primarily through customer satisfaction's mediating role. The model explained 57.8% of the variance in customer satisfaction and 71.4% in customer loyalty. These results underscore the critical importance of pre-sales e-CRM features in building customer relationships, particularly highlighting the dual impact of personalisation and the crucial mediating role of customer satisfaction in developing customer loyalty. The findings provide valuable insights for e-commerce practitioners in designing effective customer relationship strategies and suggest directions for future research in post-sales e-CRM features.