The Research On The Impact Of Trust On Consumers' Online Shopping Decision

With the popularity of Internet and development of information-technology, World economic information and globalization were accelerated. At the same time it also change the mode of business compete. Electronic commerce has become the new channel of marketing, more and more businessmen and consumers have been adopting this kind of purchasing way. To truly reap the benefits of the growth of the popularity of online marketing, vendors face a critical task of inspiring trust in users. Online trust is one of the key obstacles to vendors succeeding on the Internet medium.It is clear that certain barriers in the Internet world have seriously limited the volume of online transactions. Potential and actual users alike fear theft, abuse and misuse of financial and privacy information, so they refuse to purchase on the Internet. Other barriers may include blind (non face-to-face) transactions, the possibility of the failure of the product/service delivery system, limitations in displays and technology and the existence of a legal framework that is incomplete, heterogeneous and ineffective. In short, it would be fair to say that the risks the online consumer appears to have to face are extremely high. All these limitations point to issues of'trust'as being critical to the exchange process. Indeed, the development of trust via the Internet is more difficult than in the traditional channels. Online trust is an important determinant for web sites to succeed in marketplace, because trust is an important element affecting consumer behaviors. Lack of trust means that consumers are reluctant to adopt e-commerce this concern regarding the possible lack of trust in online transactions is becoming a major obstacle to the spread of e-commerce. Researching online process-oriented trust effect on consumer's online shopping decision is an essential component for vendors to succeed in an e-commerce environment.The scholars started the research of trust in the last century, and many progenies have been made with the attendance of sociology, psychology, economics and other subjects. The research of the E-trust was started in the end of the last century. There are many trust researchers in Western, but less in China. Most literatures are limited on theoretical research, but lack of empirical research on this area. More attentions are paid to the research of the factors effecting on the E-trust, but ignored the multi-dimensional trust and how the E-trust effect on the online consumer's shopping decision. Trust is not static, but a dynamic phenomenon. Trust is a complex multifaceted and changing concept as few of the relationships are completely static and the dynamics of trust may change over time even within the same relationship. To understand how trust effect on consumer's shopping decision more clearly, however, it is useful to articulate the trust conceptual model further. This study fractionized the trust formation into two stages: the initial stage and the maintainable stage. This study used a two-stage model to explain how trust is built and maintained process in the e-commerce context. We call the trust in the initial stage as initial trust and in the maintainable stage as process trust. Consumer's initial trust is the important factor effecting on the first online shopping decision, and the first intention to shop online is influenced by consumer's perceptive risk and perceptive benefit, while the process trust is the critical factor effecting on the consumer's repurchasing decision. This study also analyzed the factors affecting the two-stage trust in the e-commerce environment and the relationships between the two-stage trust and online consumer's purchase intention, and then we build the process-oriented multi-dimensional trust formation effect on consumers'shopping decision model.This research investigates a consumer's trust building process and proposes a holistic, process-oriented multi-dimensional trust formation effect on consumer's shopping decision model. The paper also identified the factors affecting a consumer's perception of trustworthiness, which can explicate the complex and dynamic phenomena of trust in B-to-C online exchange. In our framework, we identified the four critical factors effecting on the two-stage online trust, including institutional factors, commercial factors, consumer's trust propensity and process factors. We also identified three latent dimensions of institutional construct, including environments, technology (security and privacy protects) and the third party authentication. We identified three latent dimensions of commercial construct, including company and website reputation, website quality and company competence. We also identified two latent dimensions of process construct, including consumer's purchasing experiences and familiarity.The paper was studied in theory and empirical research. We constructed the trust effect on consumer's purchasing decision model. To test the proposed process-oriented multi-dimensional trust effecting on the consumer's purchase decision model empirically, a survey is carried out. We apply SPSS and AMOS7.0 software and structural equation modeling technique to analyze the data. The empirical analytical result validated good reliability and usability of model, and the previous hypotheses were tested.The empirical study provided evidence that institutional and commercial factors had statistically significant effects on initial trust, and process factors had statistically significant effects on process trust. Consumer's trust propensity has no significance influenced on consumer's initial trust. Initial trust and consumer's perceptive benefits are positively related to consumer's the first online shopping decision, and consumer's perceptive risks are negatively related to consumer's the first online shopping decision. Process trust and satisfaction are positively related to consumer's repurchase decision.This study has implications for both theory and practice. From the theoretical perspective, this essay contributes to the literature by suggesting a process-oriented multi-dimensional trust formation effecting on consumer's online shopping decision model, which can enhance our understanding about trust building and consumer's behavior mechanisms. It provides better basis and background for researchers to study in the further. From a practical perspective, this essay identifies several trust-enhancing factors that give implications to the commercial operation and the successful completion of electronic commerce transactions in B-to-C environments. So in order for consumers to engage in trust-related Internet behavior like online shopping, the e-vendor must take measures to increase consumer trust by posting a privacy policy, using a third-party seal, interacting with customers, advertising its good reputation, linking to other reputable sites, or offering guarantees and so on. Thus, from a marketing perspective, customers who have a low perception of trust may form good indicators for how the element of trust should be managed in order to assure a greater level of trust in future customers.Only if the e-vendors comprehended consumer's purchase psychology and its impact factors and have a definite operative tactic in view, the company would increase competitive superiority in the world information and knowledge economical globalization environment, and electronic commerce would have a brighter future.