Cultivating loyalty through logistics: the role of functional, emotional and social experiences in fresh agri-food E-commerce

Purpose Encouraging positive repeat purchasing behaviour among consumers is an effective pathway for numerous fresh agri-food platforms to achieve sustainable development. This study aims to explore the factors and underlying mechanisms that affect consumers’ loyalty in agri-food e-commerce, with a focus on the last-mile logistics service experience. Design/methodology/approach The authors construct a theoretical research model with the last-mile logistics service experience (operationalized into three novel dimensions: functional, emotional and social) as the independent variable, customer satisfaction and trust as mediating variables and customer loyalty as the dependent variable. A regression analysis and empirical study were conducted on the data from 396 fresh agri-food e-commerce shoppers. Findings The research results indicate that social experience can significantly influence customer loyalty directly (ß = 0.166, p < 0.001), while functional and emotional experiences exert indirect effects through mediators: emotional experience most strongly influences customer satisfaction (0.396) and functional experience most strongly influences customer trust (0.374). Specifically, emotional experience primarily drives loyalty via satisfaction, whereas functional experience primarily drives loyalty via trust. Originality/value This study contributes to literature and practice by examining last-mile logistics service experiences in agri-food e-commerce. Uniquely, it dissects these experiences into functional, emotional and social dimensions, offering a nuanced framework. Practically, platforms can boost loyalty by prioritizing social experience, strengthening functional experience to build trust and refining emotional experience to improve satisfaction.