The role of customer experience in the effect of online flow state on customer loyalty

PURPOSE: The Internet revolution has radically changed the means of conducting business all over the world in the past few decades. The digital medium enables consumers worldwide to shop online through B2C e-commerce websites in a convenient manner. Online websites compete to provide a compelling and seamless brand experience to retain their customers. In order to achieve this, fostering a state of flow may help the brands increase customer experience, customer satisfaction and loyalty. In this study, the aforementioned phenomenon is tested against Turkish university students. METHODOLOGY: The study was conducted against 538 valid respondents. The results of the survey were interpreted with the structural equation modeling method. Quantitative data were obtained using a five-point Likert scale. Initially, confirmatory factor analyses and reliability analysis were performed, respectively in order to determine the validity and reliability of the scale. FINDINGS: As a result of the analyses, it has been empirically proven that an online flow state, which is a momentary phenomenon, helps online e-commerce websites build customer satisfaction and customer loyalty indirectly through customer experience. These results are partly parallel with those in the extant literature. ORIGINALITY: This study is significant in the literature in that, as opposed to the extant literature, online flow state is found to influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty rather indirectly via moderating effect of customer experience. Additionally, it is the first to incorporate customer satisfaction along with customer loyalty as a new construct affected by online flow state and customer experience. The results also have important managerial implications.