Internet transaction anxiety & recognition of assurance services

Abstract

Many recent surveys and articles have shown that consumers have "Internet transaction anxiety." This study explores specific transaction anxieties related to the services provided by several prominent e-commerce assurance services. Results indicate that consumers are most concerned about their personal information both as it is being transmitted over the Internet and when it is being handled remotely by an e-commerce vendor. However, there is no significant relationship between having major reservations about purchasing via the Internet and actually doing so. Also, the majority of subjects in this study did not recognize assurance service seals designed to alleviate transaction anxieties. A personal safe shopping guarantee from a reputable e-commerce vendor (e.g. Amazon.com) appears to be as effective at alleviating consumer anxiety as a Web assurance seal from an assurance service.