Extended Web Assessment Method (EWAM) - evaluation of e-commerce applications from the customer's viewpoint

The paper presents and applies the Extended Web Assessment Method (EWAM), an evaluation tool which has been specifically created for the assessment of e-commerce applications. EWAM builds on the Web Assessment Method developed at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland (P. Schubert and D. Selz, 2000) and integrates findings from the Technology Acceptance Model (F.D. Davis, 1985) and several alternative approaches. It defines an evaluation grid including a set of criteria to appraise the quality and success of existing e-commerce applications. The focus lies on consumer perspectives and the specific features of the Internet as a medium. Using the EWAM tool, an analysis of eight commercial Web sites in two different business sectors: consumer goods and e-banking, was performed. The findings show that according to the assessors, most of the Web sites assessed do still not fully meet user expectations. Consumer goods are a local business. Despite this possible disadvantage, they showed good performance in customer satisfaction. E-banking applications do not present differentiated features; one can seemingly be replaced by the other with no problem.