E-catalog evaluation criteria and their relative importance

Although e-catalog is a central component of e-commerce sites, there has been little research on how to develop an effective e-catalog. The purpose of this research is to develop an e-catalog evaluation model that provides prioritized criteria for e-catalog development and evaluation. Using Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) methodology, a hierarchy of e-catalog evaluation criteria is constructed and their relative importance are identified. To check the validity of the evaluation model, the e-catalog of the selected e-commerce sites are evaluated using the model and the evaluation scores of the e-catalogs are compared with customer satisfaction rates of the sites. The results show that the e-catalog with a higher evaluation score has a better customer satisfaction rate. Based on the results, it is cautiously concluded that this study provides guidelines for developing an effective e-catalog that yields a higher customer satisfaction.