Abstract
This short dissertation concerns the Internet and the role that this medium is playing in the purchasing of goods and services. More specifically, it focuses on the importance of trust in business-to-consumer E-Commerce in South Africa. It identifies the factors that produce a sense of trustworthiness, investigates their interactions and relative importance to the consumer. Understanding the roles of these different factors would allow online retailers to ease consumers' concerns and could hasten the maturation of online purchasing.
A total of 1 573 online questionnaires, measuring different issues surrounding trust were completed by customers of the South African icanonline Internet portal (see the Internet website http://www.icanonline.co.za).
Findings indicated that gaining the consumer's trust is very important for the online merchant to reduce the level of perceived risk. Since consumers cannot see the outcomes of their shopping process ahead of time, they will judge an online shopping website based on cues that they encounter as they shop. Brand, navigation, fulfillment, security, privacy protection and the logos of trusted third parties constitute some of the essential formal characteristics of websites that communicate trustworthiness to visitors.
Due to the nature of the icanonline portal and the fact that most customers displayed a high level of Internet experience and education, the results could not be generalised, this provides an opportunity for future comparative research.
Prof. S. Kruger