Trust online and the opinion of former consumers

Résumé du document

This study examines the issue of trust and the influence of the opinion of former users in electronic commerce. The lack of trust is the main reason why people are still reluctant to purchase online. Lack of trust is due to many reasons in online business, no physical contact, risk of theft of personal data or credit card number. In order to create long term relationship with their customers and so, increase consumers trust into electronic commerce, building trust is today the main challenge for web marketers. The objectives of this dissertation areto show the importance of creating trust in online commerce and the influence of trust in decision making process. Moreover, the researcher shows the importance of former users opinion in the decision making process of consumers. First, the researcher present a review of marketing literature conserning topics in relation with online commerce like trust and risk online, web specificities, online security, reputation etc. Then, by primary research, the researcher confirms two hypotheses which are: The opinion of former users is important in the decision making process of new consumers by reducing risk and creating trust. Creating trust is essential for companies to succeed in electronic commerce. The findings of this research could be interesting for companies that have a commercial web site or for companies that want to start an online business. This research could be interesting for a web marketer to develop tools in order to increase consumer trust on his web site.

Extraits

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[...] The interest for the researcher is to have the interviewee's point of view and opinion about different situations from a professional point of view. As in-depth interview is conducted face to face, it is a good way to understand the subject better and generate precise and detailed information (Kumar 2005, p.124). For the qualitative research, the researcher conducted two in-depth interviews, both face to face, with two professionals of the online industry. The first interview with Mr Stephane Traullé, project manager of Actif2i, a company located in Toulouse, in the south of France, specialized in building commercial websites, and developing software. [...]

[...] Connaissez vous le site Internet Ebay : Oui Non 10. Avez vous déjà effectué un achat sur Ebay : Oui Non 11. Parmi ces éléments, quels sont ceux qui pour vous créent ou peuvent créer de la confiance à l'achat sur le site Ebay : Le système de paiement sécurisé Paypal La réputation du site Ebay Le système d'évaluation acheteurs/vendeurs No opinion 12. Pour vous, l'avis d'un ancien utilisateur d'un site Internet ou d'un produit est une source d'information qui est : Pas importante Peu importante Assez importante Importante Très Importante Sans opinion 13. [...]

[...] Questions fifteen and sixteen are rating questions. The researcher wanted to know the influence of a positive and a negative opinion of a past user on the respondent's purchasing behaviour. A four point scale is available to answer that will not influence; No, that may not influence; Yes, it may influence; Yes, it will influence). The last two questions, questions seventeen and eighteen, refer to data concerning gender and age, they are variable attributes because they give information regarding respondents' characteristics QUESTIONNAIRE VALIDITY In the opinion of Saunders et al., (2007, p.150), the questionnaire validity is “concerned with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about.” In order to obtain answers from the respondents to his research questions, the researcher has to design a good questionnaire. [...]

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