A Typology of Online Consumers of Wine Websites Based on Electronic Service Quality´s Dimensions

The online wine market is expanding at an annual growth rate of around 30%. Following the pattern of other consumer goods, the sale of wine on the Internet is experiencing growing success throughout the world. Moreover, the increasingly systematic use of the Internet in consumers\´ decision-making processes, coupled with the development of e-commerce, has led researchers and practitioners to examine issues concerning service quality in an online context. This paper proposes a typology of online consumers on wine Web sites based on dimensions of electronic service quality. In all, 2,813 customers of 28 wine Web sites filled in an online questionnaire after completing a specific task. Six groups of customers are identified: the "secure seeker", the "opportunist", the "novice", the "customer service seeker", the "browser" and the "rational browser".