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

• Main Author: Mohd Khairudin, K.
• Published: University of Salford 2008
• Subjects: 381.142; HF Commerce
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.523991

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 business arrangement. 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.