Research on product quality control in Chinese online shopping: based on the uncertainty mitigating factors of product quality

摘要

Compared with the traditional physical market, the problems of information asymmetry and quality uncertainty are more serious in online shopping markets, especially for the fast-developing Chinese online shopping market. In recent years, the interested parties including the online shopping platform, the government regulatory agency and the seller have strengthened product quality control. But in the academic field, there is still a gap in systematic research in this field. Based on the research gap, this article constructs the model of three-level product quality control in Chinese online shopping, then builds an index system of the product quality control ability of the online shopping platform in four dimensions: trust, website informativeness, product diagnosticity and social presence, and finally evaluates the quality control ability of Taobao. Some conclusions are reached. Firstly, the product quality control of Chinese online shopping operates by the three-level control system including the government regulatory agency, the online shopping platform and the seller. Secondly, trust is the most important index to evaluate the product quality control ability of the online shopping platform. Thirdly, after a few years' rectification, the product quality control ability of Taobao is good currently.