تبیین وفاداری مشتریان در خرده‌فروشی آنلاین بر اساس بازاریابی رابطه‌ای آنلاین با نقش میانجی اعتماد آنلاین

This study aims to examine the effect of online relationship marketing on customer loyalty, with a specific emphasis on the mediating role of online trust in the context of online retailing. The research is applied in terms of its purpose and descriptive-survey as well as cross-sectional in terms of its methodology. The statistical population of this study comprised all customers of Digikala, a prominent Iranian online retailer, from whom a final sample of 384 individuals was selected and examined. The required data were collected using a structured questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale. The collected data were then analyzed utilizing SPSS and SmartPLS 4 software, applying the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The empirical results demonstrated that online relationship marketing exerts a positive and statistically significant effect on online trust. Furthermore, online trust was found to have a positive and significant impact on customer loyalty, while the direct effect of online relationship marketing on loyalty was also confirmed to be significant . Additionally, the indirect effect of online relationship marketing on loyalty through the mediation of online trust was significant, which indicates a partial and complementary mediating role for online trust. Ultimately, the proposed research model successfully explained 45.1% of the variance in online trust and 64.2% of the variance in customer loyalty. The findings suggest that targeted communications, relational benefits, and store reliability can effectively strengthen customer loyalty by enhancing online trust.