The success of electronic commerce

The success of electronic commerce is determined in
part by whether consumers trust sellers and products they
cannot see [1]. The results of this empirical study revealed
that trust in online shopping is positively associated with
online shopping activities; in other words, online retailers
should work to increase consumers’ trust in online stores
to increase their intention to purchase online.
Many factors influence consumers’ trust in online
shopping, but knowledge is one of the strongest.
According to the empirical results of this study, knowledge
is positively associated with trust in online shopping and is
positively associated with online shopping activities. This
means that consumers’ knowledge may determine their
level of trust in online retailers and their intention to
purchase online. The more the consumers know, the more
they trust online shopping. This finding was inconsistent
with Hoffman et al. [6], who found a negative relationship
between trust and users’ skill in using the Internet. A
possible explanation is that, in 1999 or before, few users
gave any thought to the online trust issue; only those who
were more familiar with the Internet had trust issues. Now,
however, the Internet is ubiquitous, many people are
highly familiar with it, and the online trust issue is
frequently discussed. Still, many Internet users may regard
the Internet as non-secure. The users with the richest
knowledge about the Internet may know how to avoid the
security issues online and consider trust as a not-so-serious
problem. This may be the cause of the differing results
between this study and Hoffman et al. [6].
Lack of trust is one of the most frequently cited reasons
for consumers’ not shopping online [1]. The results of this
study will be useful for academics interested in exploring
the antecedents and consequences of trust and for practical
use in building consumer trust. As the empirical study
results indicated, the more users know about online
shopping, the more they trust in online shopping; the more
they trust, the more they shop online. Therefore, consumer
education is important for electronic commerce, since
consumers will not be afraid of shopping online if they
know more about Internet security.
This study benefits scholars and online business
practices by clarifying the influence of knowledge on
users’ level of trust. In addition to knowledge, this study
discusses the influence of trust in online shopping, of
perceived integrity, and of the propensity of users to trust.
The results of the empirical study showed that consumer’s
perceived integrity of an online shopping website is
positively associated with trust in online shopping. This
means that the integrity of the online retailer is an
important moderator influencing individuals’ intention to
purchase online. However, trust propensity is not
associated with trust in online shopping, according to the
survey results. This finding matched McKnight et al. [18],
who argued that the propensity to trust has a significant
effect on a person’s initial trust. However, when a
consumer has experience in online shopping, propensity to
trust is not as an important a factor as before.