According to Morgan and Hunt (1994), customer commitment entirely mediated the relationship between customer loyalty goals concerning the relationship and customer evaluations of background variables. Under this context, e-service quality could be considered as one of amount commitment-creating background evaluative advantages that customers explore from their relationship with service providers (Gruen et al 2000). Thus, in a retail services context, overall service quality would be an immediate antecedent of affective commitment in service relation- ships. At the same time, to the extent that the elements of service quality represent potential relationship benefits that would be lost in the event of a switching decision, service quality will also drive continuance commitment in the relationship