An overview of online trust: Concepts, elements, and implications

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2003.11.008Get rights and content

Abstract

Lack of trust has been repeatedly identified as one of the most formidable barriers to people for engaging in e-commerce, involving transactions in which financial and personal information is submitted to merchants via the Internet. The future of e-commerce is tenuous without a general climate of online trust. Building consumer trust on the Internet presents a challenge for online merchants and is a research topic of increasing interest and importance. This paper provides an overview of the nature and concepts of trust from multi-disciplinary perspectives, and it reviews relevant studies that investigate the elements of online trust. Also, a framework of trust-inducing interface design features articulated from the existing literature is presented. The design features were classified into four dimensions, namely (1) graphic design, (2) structure design, (3) content design, and (4) social-cue design. By applying the design features identified within this framework to e-commerce web site interfaces, online merchants might then anticipate fostering optimal levels of trust in their customers.

Section snippets

Introduction and background

The phenomenal growth in the number of Internet users and the enormous potential of electronic commerce (e-commerce) via the Internet have attracted merchants to conduct their businesses online. The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce reported that the estimate of US retail e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2002 was $11.061 billion, an increase of 34.3% from the third quarter of 2001.1 However, while

The difficulty of defining trust

Trust, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (1971), is defined as “confidence in or reliance on some quality or attribute of a person or thing, or the truth of a statement” (p. 3423). Trust has existed as long as the history of human beings and the existence of human social interactions. Almost every aspect of a person’s life is based on some form of trust. Undoubtedly, trust is positive and vital to humanity since it is part of love and friendship, and meaningful relationships depend

Characteristics of online trust

Online trust shares similar characteristics to those of offline trust, but there are some important distinctions that are unique in an online environment. These distinctions can serve as starting points for seeking a deeper understanding of the nature of trust in an online context. The characteristics of online trust can be described as follows:

  • 1.

    Trustor and trustee. The two parties, trustor and trustee, are still vital for establishing a trusting relationship in the online world, but they imply

Build online trust by web interface design

Based on the accumulated knowledge and understanding of the elements of online trust in the previous section, online merchants can take many managerial measures to build and enhance merchant–customer relationships before, during, and/or after any online transaction, which can increase consumers’ trust. While those managerial measures might be useful in retaining loyal customers, online merchants need more efficient ways to convey their trustworthiness to first-time visitors and to transform

Conclusion and future directions

Lack of trust has been repeatedly identified as one of the most formidable barriers to people for engaging in e-commerce, involving the disclosure of financial and personal information to online merchants (Hoffman, Novak, & Peralta, 1999). The future of e-commerce is tenuous without a general climate of online trust. Hence, building and sustaining consumer trust on the Internet present a considerable challenge for online merchants and is a research topic of increasing interest and importance.

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the assistance of Mary Madden, Pew Internet and American Life Project, who clarified our interpretation of the survey data and who improved our presentation of that material.

References (72)

  • Bailey, T. (2002). On trust and philosophy. The philosophy of trust [WWW page], Open University Reith Lectures 2002....
  • Basso, A., Goldberg, D., Greenspan, S., & Weimer, D. (2001). First impressions: Emotional and cognitive factors...
  • R. Boyle et al.

    The development of trust and mistrust in mixed-motives games

    Sociometry

    (1970)
  • Cheskin Research and Studio Archetype/Sapient. (1999). Ecommerce trust study [PDF file]. Available:...
  • M. Deutsch

    Cooperation and trust: Some theoretical notes

    Nebraska Symposium on Motivation

    (1962)
  • S. Diller et al.

    The evolving role of security, privacy, and trust in a digitized world

  • K.T. Dirks et al.

    Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (2002)
  • P.M. Doney et al.

    An examination of the nature of trust in buyer–seller relationships

    Journal of Marketing

    (1997)
  • J.W. Driscoll

    Trust and participation in organizational decision making as predictors of satisfaction

    Academy of Management Journal

    (1978)
  • R.F. Dwyer et al.

    Developing buyer–seller relationships

    Journal of Marketing

    (1987)
  • F.N. Egger

    Affective design of e-commerce user interface: How to maximize perceived trustworthiness

  • E.H. Erikson

    Childhood and society

    (1963)
  • Fogg, B. J. (May 2002). Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility. A Research Summary from the Stanford Persuasive...
  • B. Fogg et al.

    The elements of computer credibility

  • Fox, S. (2000). Trust and privacy online: Why Americans want to rewrite the rules [PDF file], The Pew Internet &...
  • B. Friedman et al.

    Trust online

    Communications of the ACM

    (2000)
  • F. Fukuyama

    Trust: The social virtues and the creation of prosperity

    (1995)
  • Fukuyama, F. (2001). The virtual handshake: E-commerce and the challenge of trust [WWW page], The Merrill Lynch Forum....
  • D. Gefen

    Reflections on the dimensions of trust and trustworthiness among online consumers

    ACM SIGMIS Database

    (2002)
  • S. Grabner-Kraeeter

    The role of consumers’ trust in online-shopping

    Journal of Business Ethics

    (2002)
  • T.A. Hemphill

    Electronic commerce and consumer privacy: Establishing online trust in the US digital economy

    Business and Society Review

    (2002)
  • D.L. Hoffman et al.

    Building consumer trust online

    Communications of the ACM

    (1999)
  • Hu, X., Lin, Z., & Zhang, H. (2001). Myth or reality: Effect of trust-promoting seals in electronic markets. Presented...
  • B. Husted

    The ethical limits of trust in business relations

    Business Ethics Quarterly

    (1998)
  • Jarvenpaa, S. L., Tractinsky, J., & Saarinen, L. (1999). Consumer trust in an Internet store: A cross-cultural...
  • K. Karvonen

    The beauty of simplicity

  • Cited by (680)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text