Specific content dimension of web quality does not directly impact users’ perceptions of usefulness, but it does
directly affect the user’s trust. Specific content affects perceived usefulness indirectly via trust. This is an
important finding. In order to increase trust, all useful information relevant to consumers, especially information
that is of particular concern to the consumer (i.e., contact information, customer policies, product/service
details, after-sale support, etc.) should be completely and clearly demonstrated.
Adopting adequate technologies reflects the retailer’s technological capability and facilitates convenience of
using the web site, which in turn enhance the consumers’ beliefs of trust and perceived usefulness. Interestingly,
of all dimensions of web quality, technical adequacy had the most significant impact on trust. The clear
implication is that the web retailer should continuously update technologies in order to provide the requisite
functionality to the online shopper. A retailer with old and outdated technologies is likely to be regarded as less
trustworthy.
The second focus of the article was the role of habit in e-commerce. Besides perceived usefulness and trust,
which are considered major predictors of intention to use, a significant contribution of this research is that the
consumer’s habit was also verified to be a major predictor of intention. Habit is also an antecedent to trust
which in turn is antecedent to perceived usefulness. The role of trust in continuance has been established in the
literature; so we do not discuss it further. What is important is the role of habit, which has a direct linkage to
continuance intention as well as mediated by perceived usefulness and trust. Thus the past behavior of a
customer will have a large impact on their current assessment of whether to continue the behavior in the future.