In this survey, we also ascertained consumers’ preferences in how the search results are presented (e.g., merchants list sorted by price or ratings). We asked shoppers what would be the minimum average rating (based on a 5-star rating system with 1 -star intervals) at which they would be comfort- 2 able buying from an unfamiliar merchant. We also queried shoppers on their merchant selection criteria. The questionnaire was first pre-tested with ap- proximately 90 students in two undergraduate Marketing Research classes in a mid-size university in the Western region of U.S. Students were encouraged