Determinants of Customer Loyalty toward Mobile Wallet Services in Post-COVID-19: The Moderating Role of Trust

Abstract

One of the highly acclaimed innovations is the mobile wallet. Mobile wallets ensure that customers can make purchases even if they forget their wallets at home. The use of these wallets has increased significantly with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic as a preventive measure. However, with COVID-19 restrictions lifted and adaptation to the pandemic, customers are no longer forced to use mobile wallets. That is, things have returned to normal as before the pandemic, where the customer is left free to choose the method of payment. In this regard, businesses need to retain their customers and make sure that those customers will reuse their own mobile wallets even during this period (post-COVID-19). Hence, it is critical to explore customer loyalty determinants toward mobile wallet services in such a period. Therefore, using the Indian context, this paper sought to explore the determinants of customer loyalty toward mobile wallet services post-COVID-19. This study also investigated the role of trust as a moderator. Based on a sample size of 243 customers in India, the relationships in the proposed model were tested using SmartPLS statistical technology. The results revealed that service quality, privacy and security, and trust are the key determinants in gaining customer loyalty toward mobile wallets. Yet, the results did not support perceived usefulness and ease of use as determinants of customer loyalty. As for trust as a moderator, the results supported only one of the four proposed hypotheses. Specifically, the results supported that “trust has a significant moderating impact on the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty”. The results offer a more precise comprehension of the relationships between customer loyalty and customer loyalty determinants in post-COVID-19 and enable managers to make better management decisions.