The Impact of Digital Relationship Marketing Capabilities towards One-to-One Customer Relationship Quality in Online Platform: The Mediating Role of Customer

Abstract

This empirical study investigates the structural mechanisms governing how digital relationship marketing capabilities influence individualized customer relationship quality within the modern e-commerce ecosystem. Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) paradigm, the research challenges the prevailing assumption that advanced technological interventions automatically generate relational bonds. The researchers deployed a quantitative, cross-sectional methodology, utilizing purposive sampling to collect primary data from 250 university students in Selangor, Malaysia, who actively engage with platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop. The researchers analyzed the dataset utilizing IBM SPSS Statistics and the Hayes PROCESS macro to evaluate both direct and mediated pathways. The mathematical results reveal a compelling state of full mediation. While digital capabilities strongly predict customer perceived relevance, the direct impact of technological stimuli on relationship quality collapses to absolute statistical insignificance upon introducing the cognitive mediator. The study definitively proves that algorithms, data-driven insights, and omnichannel infrastructures completely fail to foster trust, commitment, or satisfaction unless the consumer explicitly interprets those interventions as contextually relevant. These findings compel e-commerce executives to abandon exploitative, volume-driven data extraction and adopt sustainable, value-centric personalization strategies that respect the human cognitive load.

Keywords: Digital Relationship Marketing, Customer Perceived Relevance, S-O-R Paradigm, Customer Relationship Quality, E-commerce Algorithms, Mediation Analysis.