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

Developing a Framework for Evaluation of Corporate Non-Transactional Business-to-Consumer Web Sites: A Descriptive Study

During the soaring information economy of the last decade, organizations spent large sums of money on the development of Web sites without much knowledge of their performance value. In time, organizations realized that measuring Web site performance to determine value was fundamental. For transactional, e-commerce Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Web sites, this effort is straightforward because value is attached to sales. Measuring performance to determine the value of non-transactional B2C Web sites (i.e., sites that provide information, not sales) is more complex. This study examined the underexplored subject of evaluating non-transactional Web sites. Performance was defined as outcomes ranging from site visitor attributes to business impacts. Value was defined as the degree to which the site contributed to achieving business objectives. The resulting qualitative, exploratory study involved 45-60 minute semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 employees from four corporations across diverse industries regarding evaluation of non-transactional sites. Each interview was recorded with participant consent and transcribed. Interview results were aggregated, analyzed, and grouped based on themes and patterns. Logical groupings of participant opinions on topics such as associating Web initiatives to company business strategy, how Web success is defined, comfort with subjective measurement, and value placed on subjective measurement were identified and placed on several continuums. The study\u27s result is a three phase process to evaluate non-transactional Web sites. Phase one is comprised of four components: 1) identify the company\u27s Web belief system, 2) clarify the company\u27s level of expectation for non-transactional Web sites, 3) determine which viewpoint (business, customer, or both) the company will use to evaluate Web site effectiveness and success, and 4) identify the purpose of evaluating the performance of Web sites. Phase two includes two components: 1) select applicable metrics and 2) collect appropriate data. To supplement Phase two, three tools/guides were developed: 1) expectations/evaluation considerations matrix, 2) sample business viewpoint metrics and 3) sample customer viewpoint metrics. Phase three consists of two components: 1) analyze the data and identify insights and 2) act upon the results. Together, this three phase process and accompanying tools constitute a practical framework for evaluating non-transactional Web sites

Exploring the neural correlates of e-Assurance and multi-faced risk in e-Commerce

El comercio electrónico ha permitido a multitud de pequeñas empresas exponer sus productos y aumentar su público objetivo potencial. Pese a la relativa facilidad de introducirse en este mercado, la mayor dificultad estriba en eliminar las barreras que limitan a los consumidores comprar online. Una de las vías que poseen mayor potencial para aumentar la confianza online y reducir el riesgo percibido es dotar a su web de señales de confianza, entre las que destacan los certificados externos, ratings de consumidores y políticas de privacidad. Este estudio precisamente usa una técnica neurocientífica (resonancia magnética funcional) junto a cuestionarios con el propósito de esclarecer objetivamente el procesamiento neurológico de esas tres señales de seguridad online. Además, usando estas nuevas herramientas, pretende dilucidar la debatida dimensionalidad del riesgo percibido. Los resultados aconsejarán a comercios online la señal más útil a incluir en sus webs y se concretarán las dimensiones del riesgo percibido.E-commerce has allowed many small firms sell their products and broaden their target. Despite the relative ease in which vendors enter this marketplace, the strongest difficulty is to decrease barriers which discourage online purchases. One of the most useful ways to increase consumer online trust and reduce perceived risk is creating trust mechanisms in web sites, such as seals of approval, consumer ratings and privacy policies. Specifically, this study applies a neuroscientific tool (functional magnetic resonance imaging- fMRI-) together with questionnaires with the aim to clear up the neural processing of those trust signals (e-assurances). Furthermore, using fMRI, we explore the “under-debated” dimensionality of perceived risk. The findings will advise online retailers with the most useful e-assurance to include in their websites as well as will specify the dimensions of perceived risk

A user perspective of quality of service in m-commerce

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2004 Springer VerlagIn an m-commerce setting, the underlying communication system will have to provide a Quality of Service (QoS) in the presence of two competing factors—network bandwidth and, as the pressure to add value to the business-to-consumer (B2C) shopping experience by integrating multimedia applications grows, increasing data sizes. In this paper, developments in the area of QoS-dependent multimedia perceptual quality are reviewed and are integrated with recent work focusing on QoS for e-commerce. Based on previously identified user perceptual tolerance to varying multimedia QoS, we show that enhancing the m-commerce B2C user experience with multimedia, far from being an idealised scenario, is in fact feasible if perceptual considerations are employed

Integrating customer relationship management strategies in (B2C) e-commerce environments

Creating value and generating a total customer experience(TCE ) is important for E -Commerce in order to attract customers. However, with increasing competition in the marketplace, it is becoming increasingly difficult to retain customers. E-Commerce, therefore, should focus on continuously providing value to the customers to build long-term relationships and reduce customer defections. We have evaluated five E -Banking sites from the UK finance industry and have shown that an organisation whose Web site is usable in HCI terms (that satisfies the Web Design heuristics / E -Commerce guidelines) might not always generate a TCE . It is important that along with usability heuristics, customer relationship management (CRM) strategies are integrated into the design of E-Commerce sites. In this paper, we have applied the service quality (SERVQUAL ) framework from the relationship marketing literature for deriving customer relationship enhancing heuristics which can be integrated into the design of E -Commerce environments

Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

Over the last few years, the concept of online loyalty has been examined extensively in the literature, and it remains a topic of constant inquiry for both academics and marketing managers. The tremendous development of the Internet for both marketing and e-commerce settings, in conjunction with the growing desire of consumers to purchase online, has promoted two main outcomes: (a) increasing numbers of Business-to-Customer companies running businesses online and (b) the development of a variety of different e-loyalty research models. However, current research lacks a systematic review of the literature that provides a general conceptual framework on e-loyalty, which would help managers to understand their customers better, to take advantage of industry-related factors, and to improve their service quality. The present study is an attempt to critically synthesize results from multiple empirical studies on e-loyalty. Our findings illustrate that 62 instruments for measuring e-loyalty are currently in use, influenced predominantly by Zeithaml et al. (J Marketing. 1996;60(2):31-46) and Oliver (1997; Satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill). Additionally, we propose a new general conceptual framework, which leads to antecedents dividing e-loyalty on the basis of the action of purchase into pre-purchase, during-purchase and after-purchase factors. To conclude, a number of managerial implementations are suggested in order to help marketing managers increase their customers’ e-loyalty by making crucial changes in each purchase stage