Trust in Electronic Markets - Customers' Perspective

People have trusted in face-to-face interaction more than any other modes of interactions to develop relationships and as a result of which one of the most concerned problem that the electronic world is facing, is the lack of trust. For online trust development, study of customer behavior is must as customers, in present context, have become more fickle and product cycles are shortening. This research addresses the issues of trust development in Internet shopping and proposes a systematic methodology to develop trust through orientation of electronic customers. All these objectives have been accomplished in three steps; firstly, the factors that influence trust development in Internet shopping are identified and their association with electronic customers’ Internet shopping experience is established. Secondly, the electronic customer base is divided into five segments, using a-priori predictive method. The data collected about the electronic customers was mapped onto these segments, which resonate with the identified segments. Lastly, the factors, influencing the trust in Internet shopping, identified were combined with the segments of electronic customers to develop a segment specific electronic customer orientation methodology. In this study, it is shown that, not all the electronic customers want the same treatment from the online vendors, as their needs and desires are different and they expect more personal treatment.