Commitment relates to the willingness between exchange
partners to develop and maintain continued relationships while sacrificing short-term benefits for the attainment of long-term rewards (Anderson and Weitz, 1992). Although commitment has been found to be instrumental to customer patronage in brick-and-mortar exchange relationships (De Ruyter et al., 2001; Morgan and Hunt, 1994), the paucity of research attention pertaining to e-shopper commitment toward e-retailers warrants additional empirical exploration. Based on this, we examine how facilitating conditions impact commitment in an online setting. This relationship becomes extra important to study given the lack of human interaction to promote commitment. Additionally, e-shoppers access to countless shopping options continues to cast a doubt on the possibility that consumers can really be committed to one particular e-retailer (Kuttner, 1998; Miyazaki and Fernandez, 2001). Despite these concerns, we believe based on the arguments posited by Koo (2006) that when shopping online, people want to maintain relationships with e-retailers they are familiar with after a prior optimal shopping experience. Optimal shopping experience corresponds to the store’s ability to deliver functional qualities that enhance the customer’s shopping experience through attributes that exemplify ease of use, and online atmospheric cues that generally appeal to customers (because they facilitate online shopping)