Service Quality, Consumer Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intentions in Cross-border Online Shopping: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Abstract

With the rapid development of globalization and digital technology, cross-border e-commerce has become an important part of international trade. The global cross-border e-commerce market size reached US$1.245 trillion in 2024 and is expected to grow to US$4.574 trillion by 2032, at a compound annual growth rate of 18.7%. Service quality is a key factor influencing consumer satisfaction and behavioral intention, but the understanding of service quality dimensions and its influence mechanism in the cross-border e-commerce environment is still limited in existing studies. Based on the E-S-QUAL scale and expectation confirmation theory, this study adopts structural equation modeling to systematically explore the influence paths of service quality dimensions on consumer satisfaction and behavioral intention in cross-border e-commerce platforms. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 466 Chinese consumers with cross-border online shopping experience, and the data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that delivery service quality, return logistics service and cross-border shopping experience have a significant positive effect on consumer satisfaction; price fairness, cross-border shopping experience and consumer satisfaction have a positive effect on repurchase intention; and consumer satisfaction mediates the relationship between service quality and behavioral intention. The innovation of this study is that it focuses on the cross-border dimension and introduces additional factors such as price fairness and cross-border shopping experience, which provides a theoretical basis and practical guidance for cross-border e-commerce enterprises to formulate effective service quality improvement strategies.