One important factor in the success of any Internet business is customer satisfaction with the products and services offered over the Internet.  Customer satisfaction, especially with Internet retailing, or e-satisfaction, is gaining prominence as a construct bearing tremendous managerial relevance.  Attention to e-satisfaction and its antecedent drivers are important not only for developing better Internet customer experiences, but also for designing and delivering superior customer value.

            A previous study identified the key drivers of e-satisfaction to be customers' perceptions of online shopping convenience, merchandising (i.e., the extent of product information and product offerings), site design, and financial security.  Understanding of these drivers of e-satisfaction would help firms plan and execute their Internet business strategies such that customer satisfaction with the online experience is enriched and enhanced.

            The impact of the above drivers of e-satisfaction was explored using a sample of online consumers in Germany.  As a developed country with an infrastructure and level of e-commerce development similar to that in the U.S., Germany provides an excellent context not only for cross-national generalization of theory but also for the transnational applicability of managerial insights learnt and developed in the U.S.  Consumer perceptions of e-satisfaction and its drivers for Internet shopping and Internet banking were collected online from a panel of German consumers.

            It was found that e-satisfaction is as important in Germany as in the U.S.  Similar to the previous study in the U.S. context, online shopping convenience (i.e., the total shopping time, convenience, and ease of browsing relative to traditional retail stores) was found to have the greatest impact on e-satisfaction with Internet shopping.  Site design (i.e., the provision of uncluttered screens, easy-to-follow search paths, and fast information) was found to have the second most important impact on e-satisfaction with Internet shopping.  Similar results on the most important and second most important influences on e-satisfaction were found for Internet finance sites as well.

However, there were some differences also between the previous results in the U.S. context and this German replication.  In the case of Germany, product information (i.e., quantity and quality of information) did not have an influence on e-satisfaction with Internet shopping, and both product offerings (i.e., the number and variety of offerings) and financial security did not have an influence on e-satisfaction with Internet finance.  These differences in results can be explained by the uniqueness of the German context relative to the U.S.  In Germany, due to historical laws, smaller stores are more prevalent, as compared to the U.S. where a "one-stop shopping experience" is desired by consumers and promoted by retail stores.  As a result, online shopping experience in Germany relative to traditional stores was probably not perceived to be vastly different in terms of the quantity and quality of merchandise information.  German online consumers probably did not concern themselves too much with broad product offerings by their banks, and also, since the German banking sector is highly regulated, financial security was not a major concern for them.

This trans-national application suggests that e-satisfaction and its antecedent drivers are important in Germany as well.  Also, firms in Germany or U.S. firms expanding their online business to Germany should focus on online shopping convenience and site design as these are the most important for consumers, regardless of their being in the U.S. or Germany.  Finally, firms expanding to Germany should take into account some historical and context-related factors unique to Germany.  These include consumer valuation of some aspects of Internet business, such as security of financial transactions as well as the breadth and depth of merchandising.  Indeed, some of these unique institutional factors may even be a source of opportunity for experienced U.S. firms in their multinational Internet business ambitions.