Digital Courtesy in E-Commerce: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Measurement Gauge

As the consumption landscape evolves, consumer decision-making is shifting from value-driven material pursuits to experience-oriented patterns that emphasize psychological satisfaction. However, current e-commerce evaluation systems lack courtesy assessment tools grounded in consumers’ psychological perceptions. To address this gap, this study adopts a psychological perspective on perceived courtesy and employs Structural Equation Modeling to conduct empirical research across six dimensions within the e-commerce context: personalized recommendation, respect for customer choice, cost-effectiveness, consumer service, interface design and security. The objective is to develop a psychometric gauge tailored to e-commerce environments, providing a structured measurement framework for platforms and facilitating the optimization of courtesy-oriented service design grounded in psychological principles. Findings reveal that all six dimensions significantly contribute to consumers’ perception of e-commerce courtesy, conceptualized as a higher-order psychological construct. Customer service emerges as the most influential factor, whereas value of money exerts the least impact. The other four dimensions—personalized recommendation, respect for consumer choice, interface design, and security—exhibit comparable levels of influence. This study develops an initial empirical scale for e-commerce courtesy and highlights practical insights for platforms to improve consumer satisfaction through more courteous interactions.