1. Introduction
Global courier, express, and parcel (CEP) delivery services are currently experiencing strong growth partly because of the developing e-commerce sector and increasing consumer demand for online shopping. Multiple logistic providers have attempted to provide first-class services to enhance customer satisfaction [
1] and the service reuse intention. Online sellers rely heavily on logistics capability to deliver products to various customer locations, which is considered as a backbone for the tremendous growing e-commerce [
1,
2]. Hence, the increase in e-commerce activities should be aligned with the capability of logistic providers.
In 2019, worldwide retail e-commerce sales reached USD 3.53 trillion and are anticipated to reach USD 6.54 trillion in 2022 [
3] (Global Retail E-Commerce Sales 2014–2024, 2020). Moreover, the International Post Corporation predicted a surge in Asia–Pacific regional sales of up to two-thirds of the global e-commerce by 2021 [
4]. Along with government intervention, Malaysia’s industry could achieve more than 20 per cent growth, equivalent to more than RM 170 billion in 2020. Thus, the reliability of the service providers is one crucial factor to be considered by e-commerce retailers to ensure the goods are delivered at the right time, in good condition, and at competitive prices.
The reliability of 3PL services is a never-ending issue despite the vast volume of parcel delivery services. For instance, Pos Malaysia Bhd. is one of the biggest third-party parcel delivery services admitted to receiving numerous complaints on delivery services [
5]. Additionally, Dalsey Hillblom Lynn (DHL) Malaysia’s managing director and customer service director welcomed customers’ comments and suggestions by providing an email address for direct complaints to the management. Hence, the delivery service is a critical issue in Malaysia. Significantly, increasing customer complaints increases customers’ tendency to switch to another 3PL service provider.
Sustaining high service quality to minimise customer complaints is fundamental in service industries, specifically for the third-party logistics service industry [
6] in order to promote loyalty among online sellers. As the Asian market leads e-commerce growth, covering around 50% of the global e-commerce market, whether the customer will continue to shop online or not is no longer the issue [
7]. Nonetheless, having the right logistics provider to support the online business is crucial for the online seller. Furthermore, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the e-commerce trajectory, highlighting the importance of selecting the right logistics provider to ensure online business sustainability during this challenging period. Hence, investigating and identifying the factors influencing online sellers’ reuse intention for 3PL services is critical.
Although various studies investigated logistic services providers, most focused on the service quality theory, [
8] satisfaction by employing the service quality theory, and logistics service quality [
9,
10]. Besides, the studies also highlighted the intention to use parcel services [
11], omni-channel retailing [
12], online logistic service value [
13], and customer satisfaction on the logistics service quality and capabilities [
9]. Studies were also conducted on selecting the third-party logistics related to reverse logistics [
14], based on service performance [
15] and green logistics [
16]. Consequently, studies on the reuse intention of 3PL services among online sellers remain limited, particularly regarding the SOR model. Hence, this study aimed to identify factors influencing the reuse intention of certain 3PL services among online sellers in Malaysia by employing a quantitative study using the SOR model by Mehrabian and Russell [
17]. Customer satisfaction has become a popular subject, particularly in today’s dynamic and highly competitive business [
18].
The study enhanced the predictive power by testing satisfaction as a mediator between reliability and flexibility with the reuse intention. Although customer satisfaction is usually used as a mediator in business studies, many tested customer satisfaction as a mediator between reliability and flexibility toward reuse intention in the logistics context. The study also contributes to the current literature by introducing the moderation effect of price fairness on the relationship between satisfaction and reuse intention. In Malaysia, most online sellers advertise products on social media such as Facebook and Instagram or Whatsapp, displaying the product prices and transportation costs separately. Moreover, the online sellers require customers to pay the delivery cost upon customers’ enquiry. Price fairness is commonly associated with buyers, whereby customers will pay for the products and the logistics charges as a sum of the total price, influencing the potential buyers’ decision. Even if the online seller does not bear the logistics cost, the sellers will decide which logistics provider will deliver the products to the respective customers. Thus, the study analysed price fairness from the online sellers’ perspective. Notably, online sellers are also customers of the logistics providers. Thus, expanding the online business also increases the importance of the logistics industry [
2], which is considered a backbone to online businesses [
1]. The findings will benefit many parties, specifically online sellers and logistics providers to craft better marketing strategies for business sustainability. Significantly, both parties rely on each other to survive in the dynamic and competitive business field.
Thus, the study contributes by providing an advanced understanding of the online retailer’s perspective on selecting the third-party logistics service providers by using the SOR model, which has received little attention from logistics scholars. The study also contributes by introducing the new SOR model, of which there is no similar model to the author’s knowledge. The flexibility of the SOR allows researchers to develop their model, provided it fits with the stimulus–organism–response concept. Third, the study also introduces satisfaction as the mediator for the relationship between reliability and flexibility towards the reuse intention. Although satisfaction was commonly used as a mediator in other studies, the limited literature has confirmed the mediation effect of satisfaction between reliability and flexibility towards the reuse intention, specifically concerning online retailers. Lastly, the study includes price fairness as a moderator for the relationship between satisfaction and reuse intention.
3. Methodology
The study items were adopted from established articles specific to the study area. For example, reliability measures were adopted from Le et al. [
44], the measurement for customer satisfaction was based on Huma et al. [
9], flexibility referred to Sorkun et al. [
45], the reuse intention was from Venkatesh et al. [
46], and price fairness was taken from Konuk [
41]. All constructs were measured by using a five-point Likert scale, except for the reuse intention. The reuse intention was measured using a seven-point Likert scale. Moreover, the different scales were used to measure the study variables to overcome common method variance (CMV) as per MacKenzie and Podsakoff [
47].
Sampling Method
The study focused on online sellers who advertise products via Facebook, Instagram, and other social media channels without a website; thus, the study unit was at the individual level. Because of the targeted respondents being online sellers, the questionnaire link was provided via the channels from early January 2020 until the end of March 2020. The respondents were also encouraged to share the link with colleagues involved in online selling activities. The study applied the purposive sampling method as the population was unknown with specific criteria for the valid respondents. Additionally, using convenience sampling suffices as the nature of the study highlights the integrity of the theoretical effects [
48].
This study ensured respondent validity by using filter questions. Firstly, the study confirmed that the respondents are online sellers without a website to promote products. Next, all the logistics costs were paid by the customers. Besides being voluntary, the system automatically stops those that do not fulfil the study criteria. Furthermore, the respondents had to declare the logistics companies they use to deliver their products. Initially, the system gathered 311 respondents, but only 217 were valid respondents, with 75 respondents being invalid because of having a website and the remaining for answering “no” to the second filter question. Online sellers sometimes promote free delivery in certain occasions. Out of the 217 data received, 12 were discarded because of poor data quality, such as answering in a straight line and incompletely. Additionally, all data were gathered in Microsoft Excel before further analysis.
The study employed structural equation modelling with Smart PLS [
49]; hence, the power of analysis was applied to determine the minimum sample size of the study determined by model complexity. Based on the power of 0.8, referring to Gefen et al. [
50] for the medium effect size and using the four predictors of the study, the minimum sample was 85. Hence, the sample size of 205 respondents was sufficient to test the research model.
Out of the 205 respondents, 70.7% were female, most respondents (53.2%) were 18–24 years old, 61.5% were single, 48.3% had a degree as the minimum qualification, and 43.9% had less than two years of experience in online selling. Meanwhile, 58% of the respondents sell between four to six products, 63% deliver the products twice a week, and 38% sell healthcare products.
5. Discussions and Findings
The study discovered that reliability positively affected customer satisfaction, in line with [
27,
30], whereby reliability had a positive relationship with satisfaction in the service quality of the Nakhon Phanom Municipality-Thakhek (Lao People’s Democratic Republic) ferry in Thailand and the self-service technology in Malaysia. Hence, the reliability of logistics services is vital for customer satisfaction. Consequently, to enhance customer satisfaction, 3PL providers must fulfil the promises to deliver products. The issue is not about the delivery speed but the ability to deliver the products on time as promised when the transaction is established.
Furthermore, flexibility positively affected customer satisfaction in line with Chavez et al. [
37] and Yu et al. [
38], who revealed that logistics flexibility positively influences customer satisfaction. The findings showed that the flexibility of 3PL services is a crucial factor that online sellers must consider. Thus, 3PL service providers should not be too rigid in providing services. In this highly competitive business, online sellers can choose which 3PL service providers to deliver the products to the customers’ destination. Hence, 3PL service providers offering more flexible services have an enormous chance to satisfy online sellers. Besides online sellers visiting the centres, some 3PL service providers offer door-to-door services. The approach involves online sellers calling the centres and the 3PL collecting the goods at the online sellers’ location.
Unfortunately, flexibility does not affect the reuse intention of 3PL services among online sellers, contrary to de Grahl et al.’s [
39] study but in line with Tontini et al. [
59], who found that flexibility did not significantly affect the reuse intention of the 3PL services from specific 3PL service providers. The discovery proves that flexibility only positively affects satisfaction, not the reuse intention. Therefore, online sellers have many options, causing them not to reuse the same 3PL provider even if the services are flexible. Meanwhile, other factors to be considered before selecting 3PL service providers are geographical coverage, experience, and other factors that other studies should further investigate.
The study also revealed that satisfaction positively affects the online sellers’ reuse intention of particular 3PL services, confirming [
12,
34]. The results indicated that once the online sellers are satisfied with the current 3PL service providers, they form a high intention to continue using the services in the future. Hence, the 3PL providers intending to garner loyalty among online sellers should ensure customer satisfaction is fulfilled. Thus, 3PL service providers should strengthen efforts in reducing complaints and increasing customer satisfaction. Moreover, customer satisfaction starts once customers begin communicating online or during the first step of coming to the business centre. Customer satisfaction is also influenced by how they were entertained in the beginning, which could enhance the reuse intention. For example, the efforts undertaken by DHL managers to provide a special link for customer complaints could reduce the problem since customer service managers might be unhappy if their boss directly attends to customer complaints.
Interestingly, the study also discovered that price fairness strengthened the relationship between satisfaction and reuse intention of 3PL services. The findings suggested that even if online sellers are satisfied with the current logistics providers, the intention to reuse their services will be stronger if 3PL providers provide a fair price. Although the customers pay delivery costs, because of the delivery cost also including in the total price, the delivery cost plays a significant role in online sellers’ decisions. Furthermore, if the online sellers are happy with the particular 3PL service but the price is not competitive, they would shift to other logistics providers. Currently, most 3PL service providers in Malaysia offer similar services with similar capabilities.
Satisfaction mediates the relationship between reliability and reuse intention and the relationship between flexibility and reuse intention. Hence, satisfaction is vital in influencing the reuse intention of 3PL services among the online sellers in Malaysia. The findings also proved that 3PL providers should ensure customer satisfaction to gain loyalty. Generally, service providers must satisfy customers to reduce complaints. Nonetheless, the function of customer services and tracking systems is undeniable, whereby customers are assured of the goods’ safety, provided they could track or are entertained by the customer service department at any time.
5.1. Theoretical Implications
The results produce notable theoretical contributions for the reuse intention of logistics providers among online sellers. First, the study applied the SOR theory in explaining the reuse intention of the logistics providers, which is limited in the logistics context. Most studies focused on the service quality or logistics service quality theory to predict the satisfaction and the reuse intention of 3PL among online sellers. Instead of analysing buyers as respondents, the study presented online sellers’ perspectives because choosing the 3PL is the power to decide, thus extending the literature on the online sellers’ behaviour to select the 3PL.
Although price fairness is mostly used to predict buyers’ decisions, the study used price fairness as a moderating factor between satisfaction and reuse intention for the online sellers. The findings offer new insight into how price fairness strengthens the relationship between satisfaction and reuse intention of 3PL among online sellers. Lastly, the study also strengthens the role of satisfaction as a mediating factor to predict the reuse intention. Despite satisfaction being commonly used as a mediating factor in marketing studies, most studies focused on satisfaction as a mediator for the relationship between reliability and flexibility toward the reuse intention of the 3PL services, hence enriching studies on online sellers’ behaviour and 3PL reuse intentions.
5.2. Managerial Implications
The study presented notable practical contributions for 3PL managers to convince online sellers to remain loyal. Understanding the factors influencing the reuse intention among online sellers enables the managers of 3PL companies to scheme better and more meaningful marketing strategies and attract and retain current online sellers. Increasing service flexibility and reliability enhances customer satisfaction and creates a better chance for online sellers to reuse their services. Additionally, increasing business flexibility and reliability produces good results for all parties (3PL, online sellers, and online shoppers). Thus, managers (particularly those dealing directly with customers) should train or develop their business operations to be more flexible and reliable during work. Overpromising or lacking consideration should be avoided to reduce customer complaints and promote customer loyalty, leading to business sustainability.
5.3. Limitation and Future Research Recommendations
Despite the theoretical and practical implications, the study has several limitations. First, the study was limited to online sellers and 3PL providers in Malaysia. Hence, the research should be replicated in other settings to ensure model consistency. In the future, the findings should be compared between Malaysia and other Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries with similar criteria. Besides, other factors should be considered to further enhance the model’s predictive power to explain the reuse intention variance. Lastly, instead of using the SOR theory, other theories such as technology continuance theory [
60] could be applied in the study area.
6. Conclusions
The e-commerce industry is increasing rapidly in Western countries and developing countries such as Malaysia. Online sellers have created a multiplier effect on the economy, with undeniable contributions. Online sellers in Malaysia have various options of 3PL to select from. Hence, understanding the factors influencing online sellers’ reuse intention of 3PL is crucial. The literature review suggested that online sellers’ reuse intention of 3PL providers is underexplored. Hence, the study attempted to disclose the factors influencing the reuse intention of 3PL providers among the online sellers in Malaysia by adopting the SOR model. Interestingly, only one of the seven hypotheses tested was supported.
The results proved that reliability and flexibility positively affect satisfaction, and satisfaction positively affects online sellers’ reuse intention of particular 3PL service providers in Malaysia. Contrarily, flexibility was found insignificant towards the reuse intention. Hence, introducing a moderator and mediator deepens the knowledge on factors influencing online sellers’ satisfaction and reuse intention. Furthermore, the study enhances the literature by introducing price fairness as a moderator between customer satisfaction and reuse intention. Although marketing studies claimed that satisfied customers would reuse the services, Seiders et al. [
61] mentioned that only 30–40% of them repurchased. Therefore, the study discovered that price fairness has a moderating effect between customer satisfaction and reuse intention. The findings also confirmed that even if theoretically satisfied customers positively affect the reuse intention, the relationship could be strengthened by introducing related factors towards the reuse intention. Besides, satisfaction is not the only variable that enhances the reuse intention among satisfied customers.
Although the study highlighted the online seller’s perspective on 3PL service, the findings are not limited to online sellers and are applicable in other study areas. Service providers should be aware of customer satisfaction and be more realistic in setting the service price. Although higher prices could increase profit, customers look at price fairness in this highly competitive business. Furthermore, instead of looking for immediate income for the short term, businesses should focus on the long-term perspective. Consequently, top management should seriously consider the price fairness factor if it intends to be treasured by customers and regarded by competitors.
The study was conducted in Malaysia, but the findings could be useful for 3PL providers in developing countries with similar characteristics to Malaysia. Hence, countries such as ASEAN countries could use the findings as a guideline to modify their marketing strategy accordingly to ensure customers are satisfied and willing to continue using their services in the future.