Building Trust in Online Customers

Abstract

Although significant progress has been made towards securing the Internet environment, many consumers remain reluctant to participate in making on-line purchases. Cyber-crime continues to have a negative influence upon the uptake and acceptance of E-Commerce by consumers. As a result commercial website operators are faced with the problem of overcoming user distrust in the systems. The main argument put forward in this paper is that a consumer's trust depends more upon traditional marketing strategies than it does upon their beliefs in the security of on-line systems. In many cases these issues have been overlooked by web developers and vendors alike. The main conclusions of the study indicate that website design can have a positive effect on aconsumer's willingness to purchase from a website. Much responsibility for reinforcing trust in consumers lies with web developers. This can be achieved by making efforts to educate and engender trust in visitors through the overall design and informational content of the website itself and through the careful selection and combination of website design components.