Factors Influencing Consumer Satisfaction of Fresh Produce E-Commerce in the Background of COVID-19—A Hybrid Approach Based on LDA-SEM-XGBoost

Abstract

In order to clarify the influencing factors of fresh produce e-commerce consumer satisfaction in the context of COVID-19, a hybrid approach based on LDA-SEM-XGBoost was proposed by studying online reviews. Firstly, topic elements were extracted through the LDA topic model, PLS-SEM was established to explore the paths between variables, and XGBoost models were applied to rank the importance of each topic variable based on satisfaction. The results showed that epidemic factors had a significant impact on logistics factors, product factors, and platform factors, with the epidemic factors having the greatest impact on logistics factors. Logistics factors, product factors, platform factors, and epidemic factors had a significant impact on consumer satisfaction, with logistics factors having the greatest impact on satisfaction. The topic variables affecting fresh produce e-commerce consumer satisfaction were, in order: logistics time, shipping speed, product quality, delivery speed, after-sales strategy, logistics packaging, product price, the impact of COVID-19, marketing strategy, and product brand. Based on these findings, recommendations are made for the sustainable production and marketing of fresh produce.

Understanding Customer Opinion Change on Fresh Food E-Commerce Products and Services—Comparative Analysis before and during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Second, regarding the changes in customers' perceptions of the importance of each attribute, we find that during the acute phase of the pandemic, shipping speed, logistic packaging, and delivery speed related to the logistic service of e-commerce gained increased customer attention, which is consistent with the conclusions from previous studies [16]. Moreover, product specification and freshness related to the product lost importance.…”

“…However, during the recovery phase of the pandemic, compared with the acute phase, the importance of taste and mouthfeel, product specification, and freshness related to the product increased, and the importance of logistic service-related attributes, such as shipping speed, logistic packaging, and delivery speed, decreased. These results of the different attribute importance changes in the recovery phase compared with the acute phase extend previous research on consumer behavior regarding e-commerce in the background of COVID-19 [15,16,29].…”

“…These findings also extend existing research. Previous studies have shown that COVID-19 has impacted customer experience or satisfaction in the fresh food e-commerce sector [16] or general online consumer purchasing [8,15]. In contrast, the findings of this study provide a more detailed insight into how satisfaction levels change and vary across different attributes during COVID-19.…”

“…Some researchers have studied fresh food e-commerce customer satisfaction to enhance their development and improve their business. Based on online reviews, Guan et al [16] identified the potential factors that may influence fresh food e-commerce customer satisfaction. Lin et al [43] developed a questionnaire and explored the influence mechanism of e-commerce platform factors and product factors on customers' repurchase intention to enhance online fresh food customer satisfaction and increase the repurchase rate.…”

“…Fresh food e-commerce faces tremendous pressures to meet the evolving customer needs, which may influence customer satisfaction and finally make or break their business. Previous literature on the impact of COVID-19 on fresh food e-commerce studied the change in food prices during the pandemic situation [6], customer demand, and customer consumption frequency for online fresh food during the pandemic [4,7,8], the change in fresh food distribution and retail models owing to the COVID-19 outbreak [9,10], factors influencing the purchasing tendency of fresh food e-commerce customers [11][12][13][14][15], and factors affecting customer satisfaction during the pandemic [8,16,17].…”