It is also echoed by recent research in offline and online services (e.g. Cheung and Lee, 2001), which defines trust as the “degree of confidence or certainty the [.. .] [customer] has in [.. .] exchange options” (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000, p. 327). E-trust will therefore be defined as the degree of confidence customers have in online exchanges, or in the online exchange channel.