Investigating the Impact of User Experience in Turkey's Online Bookstore: Application of Flow Theory

In the 1990s, Amazon, Alibaba and eBay, pioneers in digital retailing, integrated technological innovations into their online shopping applications, to increase customers’ satisfaction. These companies have paved the way for the sector's development. Today, online shopping is more user-friendly than ever before. Innovations in electronic commerce -easy navigation, fast webpage loading times, quick product searches, accurate product recommendations, detailed information on product features, accurate visual design and shop atmosphere, and an easy checkout process- are site-specific developments that prioritize a pleasant shopping experience and create competitive advantage to businesses. Digitalization and e-commerce trends have brought significant changes to the retail industry both in developed and developing countries. As consumers increasingly turn to online platforms for their shopping needs, it is crucial for e-commerce businesses to adapt and provide an exceptional online shopping experience. This is particularly true for online book retailers, which cater to book enthusiasts seeking convenience and a wide selection of titles. The empirical research is set in Turkey because it has a significant market for e-commerce (Akar, 2021; Kaya et al. 2019). This dissertation investigates the relationship between trust, satisfaction, and intention to repurchase in the digital retail sector, specifically in book shopping. This is done by conducting a survey with customers who made book purchases from the online store www.idefix.com, one of the largest e-commerce websites in Turkey. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was administered to 649 active users of www.idefix.com. The flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975, 1990) was applied to identify the drivers of online shopping satisfaction and repurchase intention. The data was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was utilized for statistical analysis. Results indicate that the affective and cognitive experiential state have a direct positive effect on online shopping satisfaction and repurchase intention. Findings contribute to the ongoing discussion about consumers' experiences in e-commerce and their impact on the retail sector. The results of the study can provide website managers with a tool to evaluate customers' shopping experiences more accurately on the site and contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between the dimensions of website performance mentioned in the literature. The study also explores theoretical implications.