A Qualitative Analysis of Consumers’ Perceptions of the Trustworthiness of e-Commerce

A lack of consumer trust hinders the development of electronic commerce. Although the importance of consumer trust in e-commerce is recognized and several studies have been done about the phenomenon, there is still confusion among researchers concerning different concepts related to trust. As an example, researchers have confused the concepts of consumer trust and trustworthiness and trust and risk. Furthermore, the lack of empirical studies concerning consumer trust has increased the confusion. This paper contributes by exploring what meanings consumers give to the less studied concept of trustworthiness in the context of e-commerce and by providing building blocks for further research. The findings of our study revealed altogether 11 different attributes of trustworthiness that consumers saw as important with respect to electronic grocery shopping.