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

An information framework for merchant trust in electronic commerce (Business to Consumer Segment)

The primary purpose of this research is to investigate the information requirements that need to be available on merchants' websites. This information is important to facilitate the establishment of initial trust from potential consumers towards the owners of electronic commerce (EC) websites. This study is important due to the nature of EC itself where EC is a non face-to-face businessarrangement. EC is still yet to be widely accepted and trusted by consumers.This thesis is intended to develop an information framework for creating trust from consumers to merchants referred to as a Merchant Trust Information Framework. This framework can help both parties involved in establishing trust during EC transactions. Merchants can use this framework to decide what information needs to be present on their websites in order to help consumers establish trust while consumers can use this information framework to evaluate the trustworthiness of merchants before they decide to continue with their EC transactions. In addition, a prototype was created to test the proposed information framework in a real EC setting.The proposed information framework consists of information regarding existence, affiliation, policy and fulfillment. The result of the study confirmed the importance and need for this information in the information framework. However,the creation of merchant trust does not only depend on the information framework being suggested but it also depends on other factors such as the technology used in the websites, the design of the websites as well as other external factors and previous online transactions between consumers and merchants.To make this process more usable, a prototype system for information extraction and retrieval was developed to help customers find the related information for the merchant trust framework. This information is directly extracted from merchants' websites when available in textual format. Further refinement of the system should turn it into a personal shopping assistant to help consumers find important information about merchant trust creation in an online shopping environment