Evaluating e-commerce trust using fuzzy logic [article]

Trust is widely recognized as an essential factor for the continual development of business to customer electronic commerce (B2C EC). Many trust models have been developed, however, most are subjective and do not take into account the vagueness and ambiguity of EC trust and the customers’ intuitions and experience when conducting online transactions. In this article, we develop a fuzzy trust model using fuzzy reasoning to evaluate EC trust. This trust model is based on the information customers expect to find on an EC Website and is shown to increase customers trust towards online merchants. We argue that fuzzy logic is suitable for trust evaluation as it takes into account the uncertainties within e-commerce data and like human relationships; it is often expressed by linguistics terms rather then numerical values. The evaluation of the proposed model will be illustrated using two case studies and a comparison with two evaluation models was conducted to emphasise the importance of usin fuzzy logic

Evaluating trust in electronic commerce : a study based on the information provided on merchants' websites

Lack of trust has been identified as a major problem hampering the growth of Electronic Commerce (EC). It is reported by many studies that a large number of online shoppers abandon their transactions because they do not trust the website when they are asked to provide personal information. To support trust, we developed an information framework model based on research on EC trust. The model is based on the information a consumer expects to find on an EC website and that is shown from the literature to increase his/her trust towards online merchants. An information extraction system is then developed to help the user find this information. In this paper, we present the development of the information extraction system and its evaluation. This is then followed by a study looking at the use of the identified variables on a sample of EC websites

Manifestations of Culture in Website Design

The web is a global phenomenon and its reach and influence ignores political and cultural boundaries. However, the web’s global presence and easy accessibility does not also mean there are no issues related to the understanding and interpretations of its content. Of particular interest to us is to find out whether there is any effect of culture on web design. In this paper, we report on our research into the identification of elements that can be attributed to culture on website design. We examined and compared South Korean and UK’s charity websites and identified these elements of the websites. The findings suggest that there are some differences and preferences in the website design that are mostly related to whether the websites employ multimedia and provide facilities for user input. <!--EndFragment--

Manifestations of Culture in Website Design

The web is a global phenomenon and its reach and influence ignores political and cultural boundaries. However, the web’s global presence and easy accessibility does not also mean there are no issues related to the understanding and interpretations of its content. Of particular interest to us is to find out whether there is any effect of culture on web design. In this paper, we report on our research into the identification of elements that can be attributed to culture on website design. We examined and compared South Korean and UK’s charity websites and identified these elements of the websites. The findings suggest that there are some differences and preferences in the website design that are mostly related to whether the websites employ multimedia and provide facilities for user input. <!--EndFragment--

Eyes don\u27t lie: understanding users\u27 first impressions on website design using eye tracking

Websites are becoming more prevalent these days. They need to create a favorable first impression on the users during initial exposure. After allocating their attention to stimuli, users form a cognitive representation of the visual information leading to first impression. Hence, first impression is important to evaluate the effectiveness of a website. This research tries to examine the amount of exposure time needed to form first impression; identify the web design factors that influence the formation of users\u27 first impression; study the emotional responses of users on website design; and finally understand the relationship between first impression and eye movement. Eye movements on displays indicate spatial focus of attention. Eye tracking can provide fixation points where users focus their attention on stimuli. In this study eye tracking has been used to study users\u27 first impression on website design. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, participants were presented with the stimuli of twenty five university websites\u27 screen shots of home pages on the eye tracker with no time restrain and asked to move on to the next stimuli when they feel that they have formed their initial impression of the website. On viewing each homepage, participants were asked to rate the page on their first impressions and emotional response. In the second phase, users were shown their gaze plots from the eye tracker device for the previous stimuli viewed, followed by a short interview. Twenty students from a mid west university were recruited to participate in the experiment. Quantitative analysis was performed on the various fixation data extracted from the eye tracker as well as on the data collected from survey. Open coding was performed on the qualitative data obtained from the interview. The results show that first impressions are formed within 180ms after allocating their attention to stimuli. The qualitative analysis identified various issues with the website design and also revealed a number of ways in which the website design can be improved that affects impression --Abstract, page iii

Targeting International Customers in Japanese E-commerce: A Web Content Analysis of the Marketing Mix in Rakuten and Amazon.co.jp

The thesis examines the marketing strategies implemented by the two biggest e-commerce companies in Japan, namely Rakuten and Amazon.co.jp, in order to address their international customers. Specifically, the study is conducted by means of a multiple-case study design, an interpretivist approach and a qualitative Web Content Analysis on the two firms’ websites in English language. The theoretical framework is based on a revisited marketing mix with a view to applying the so-called “4Ps” in the international online environment throughout the analysis of the websites. The study primarily stems from a lack of research on marketing practices of Japanese e-commerce companies, as well as from an inadequate emphasis on case-study research of marketing operations. Based on the main findings, both companies propose an efficient and secure global shipping system and accommodate a variety of international payment methods, although they partially ensure international payment security. Furthermore, whereas Rakuten is aimed at advertising Japanese products abroad, Amazon.co.jp provides customers with an international return policy. Finally, the thesis reveals that the customized nature of Rakuten’s marketplace and a limited translation into English of the website content in Amazon.co.jp pose challenges in terms of the companies’implementation of international marketing strategies

E-handel Designaspekter som bidrar med marknadsföring

E-handeln fortsätter att växa och beräknas utgöra tolv procent av den totala handeln år 2022 om det fortsätter att växa i samma takt. För att nå ut till kunder behöver företaget marknadsföra sin e-handel. Uppsatsen undersöker hur målen för e-handelns tre marknadsföringsfaser: pre-sale, online och after-sale uppfylls med användning av designaspekter. Aspekterna som valdes var sökmotorsoptimering, ett första intryck, tillgänglighet och gamification med ett övergripande one size fits all perspektiv. En nyckelordsmodell användes för att identifiera kopplingen mellan marknadsföringsfaserna och de valda designaspekterna. Vidare utfördes en empirisk datainsamling i form av två intervjuer med totalt tre informanter. Materialet från intervjuerna kunde sedan användas för att validera den framlyfta teorin. Studien har kommit fram till att designaspekterna kan ses som substitut mot metoderna under de tre marknadsföringsfaserna, då målen för de tre faserna överensstämmer med de valda designaspekterna. Det finns emellertid utrymme för vidare forskning för att mäta till vilken grad designaspekterna uppfyller marknadsföringsfasernas mål