Perceived Importance and Satisfaction of Evaluation Criteria of the Price Comparison Website

가격비교사이트 평가기준의 중요도와 만족도 분석

The purpose of this study was to identify the criteria of evaluating a price-comparison website, and to investigate the consumers' perceived importance and satisfaction of each criterion. Also, it compared both the importance and satisfaction levels based on consumers' socio-economic and Internet-usage characteristics. Data for this study came from a questionnaire completed by consumers (n=417), who had used the price-comparison website, and were analyzed through factor analysis, t-test, and ANOVA. The findings of the study were as follows: First, the evaluation criteria of the price-comparison website were categorized into five variety of information, accuracy, convenience, credibility, and the website system. Second, convenience of searching information was seen by consumers as both the most important and most satisfactory criterion. Variety of information was also considered important. For most of the evaluation criteria, the level of consumers' satisfaction was significantly lower than the level of consumers' recognized importance. Third, consumers in their 20s, students, and housewives were less likely to be satisfied by the price-comparison website overall. Older people were less likely to be satisfied with the convenience of the website, and the higher-income group was less likely to be satisfied with the variety of information on hand.