KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ACHIEVING CUSTOMER’S LOYALTY IN E-SMES: A STUDY ON IMPACT OF CUSTOMER AND E-BUSINESS CHARACTERISTICS ON E-LOYALTY IN IRAN

The rapid development of technology and growing interest of consumers to use Internet, has forced most SMEs to focus on e-retailing. Therefore, customer e-loyalty has been known as one of the main factors impacting on the revenue and profitability of these SMEs. Nevertheless, research on the key success factors of achieving customer loyalty in e-SMEs in developing countries such as Iran, is generally limited. This study investigated the impact of customer and e-business characteristics on e-loyalty in Iran through a comprehensive theoretical model and aimed to present which factors drive customers to be loyal to a specific e-SME. Based on the theoretical model, a comprehensive set of hypotheses were developed and a methodology for testing them was outlined. A survey among more than 157 customers of three e-SMEs active in different fields of e-business was conducted and results of multiple regression of their responses showed that customer e-loyalty in Iran is strongly influenced by customer trust and satisfaction and the impact of e-business characteristics such as community, cultivation and website design on customer e-loyalty is significant. Implications of the current findings may contribute to increasing customer retention for e-SMEs in developing countries.