eCommerce - The Three Dimensions Of Trust From An Informatics Perspective

Three dimensions of consumer trust for online interaction have been created as a cause of the importance of trust for click-and-mortar firms relative to the ordinary physical vendors, brick-and-mortar. Creating and sustaining trust via the Internet requires different conceptualization and thus the three dimensions of consumer trust, competence, integrity and benevolence, are indeed very important.

Low confidence of online purchasing has been identified by a U.S. study which showed that only 21% of consumers were confident over their personal information being transferred when involved in an online purchase. That is why these dimensions of trust in connection with interface design, IT-security and electronic payment can be enhanced and thus Internet vendors can gain and maintain consumer trust. We should keep in mind that trust is created at different stages and to a different degree. Trust starts with the interface design and perceiving and approving it, and then moves on to security and privacy where transaction are made. If an Internet vendor can control the three stages with the right tools and well-designed systems they will ultimately win trust. All the three stages are mutually exclusive and one cannot be foregone on the cost of another.

Informatics perspective on consumer trust

Interface design

Initial trust starts at this point. Just as you may enter a physical store and witness the aisles and shelves and see products and advertisements your impressions are being constructed. In a similar way as a store is organized and designed so must a virtual store-front be. This initial trust is pivotal to keeping consumers on the site and making them come back (retaining). A few characteristics of good interface design (suggested by expert authors) that will attract customers and keep them coming back, are: Ease of navigation, consistency, learnability, user guidance, and perception. These all belong to the usability of the vendors’ website and are important sources of trust.

Ease of navigation: Ease of finding what you want and knowing where you are in the Web site.

Consistency: In human-computer interaction, consistency is recognized to be able to improve user performance and user satisfaction. It applies internally to the web site and externally to other websites through standards and conventions.

Learnability: A well-designed interface should be easy to learn. This is achieved through the use of simple and clear language, meaningful display and logical grouping.

User guidance or support: A good user guidance scheme will improve learnability and decrease the mental workload.

Perceptual limitation (perception): A good interface design should embed the considerations of human perceptual organization limitations.

Navigation and learnability of a website must maintain its simplicity and prioritize over what information is the most important to be displayed on the front page. Making the navigation user-friendly and clear, at the same time making the site intuitive so the next revisit will be already familiar with the functions it presents, is key to usability.

Furthermore, for example, user guidance or support can envisage an Internet vendor having a thorough step-by-step guidance on procedures done on the website. Like having guidance on how to successfully search an e-catalogue, or even more importantly display a step-by-step payment method so the customer will feel safe/secure before engaging in purchasing something from the vendor. Coupled with providing FAQ and pages that answer most commonly asked question, the feedback system is well prepared. Intuitively we can conclude when it comes to the interface design that the perception (the initial impression) serves as the most significant determinant of trust. For example, competence of a firm is seen through the professionalism of the site, based on institutional-based trust.

Research on interpersonal/ visual cues have determined the impact it has on consumers assessment of Internet vendors professionalism and competence. What is meant by this is that the availability of graphics/photos can induce customer trustworthiness to some extent when the interface is designed. Graphics of products, trust seals, pictures of personnel, can create some sort of credibility amongst consumers. In addition, these cues can enhance consumer trust in a firm deliberately. A good example of a cue is when a vendor has a license for TRSTEe for privacy assurance in logo-format displayed on the interface. As we will see privacy and security policies serve to create confidence amongst consumers through these cues.

Another important thing to consider is the user-centered perspective a web designer can appropriate when creating the interface. Before establishing trust from the security point of you, you have to take into account the user experience. So the User-centered design (UCD) method might just do this in consolidating both designers and users needs of an interface. For once the user is put in the spotlight and inquired so as to design a interface that will appeal to the general consumer. In addition, many experts in the field stress the importance of Human-Computer interaction (HCI) when designing an interface, since just like UCD it is an inter-disciplinary subject working on the interaction between users and computers. The whole point is to make the computers comprehension of consumer wants closer to the ways humans think. These study design efforts support the third dimension of trust, benevolence.

IT-security

Security is the next step in establishing trust. Only after the end-user has browsed through the site, and has perceived and approved its professionalism and competence, only then will the consumer look to investigate the terms and agreements, the security and privacy policy. This stage is right before the consumer transacts with the vendor and the order is placed. An Internet vendor may use many security tools such as SSL, SET etc. to protect consumer and the vendor’s privacy but may have a hard time rendering this information forward to the end-user and thus marketing their security and privacy issues in laymen terms.

Since there is a lot of technical jargon depicting the degree of security and privacy a site uses to protect its end-users, laying the terms and policies in laymen language would clarify to the consumer that the vendor has good intentions with keeping the consumers information secure and private. Making these policies clear for both the vendor (personnel) and the end-user would further improve trust and effectiveness and thus there would be good feedback coming from the vendor. As mentioned earlier, clear cut policies and cues that depict that this website is secure (e.g. logos of trustworthy institutions, TRUSTe logo) are a must for creating this trust. This is indicative of vendors’ competence and integrity.

Before an order can be taken and processed, an Internet vendor should make sure s/he constructs a comprehensive security system that takes into account the context of its business and the group of applications used by the system. Designing the security system with the use of different programs with different degree’s of security levels needs to be assessed. For example, biometric (e.g. fingerprint), non-biometric (e.g. firewall) and software security (e.g. data encryptions) are some of the security methods available for securing the consumers. I think for an ordinary Internet vendor the software security is the most appropriate level of security necessary. Aside from possessing a firewall which is standard, applications on encrypting personal data (encryption algorithm), dealing with passwords and access codes should be well designed.

What’s important at this stage is to put the security in the context of the business. If you plan to sell products like toys over the Internet you would probably need security applications (basic cryptographic protection) e.g. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for example, for your website. If you are an Internet vendor selling and providing banking services you would require more complex authentication and security mechanisms such as e.g. SET protocol. You have to make sure that while you are building trust with the consumers you do not overspend on unnecessary high-cost security systems (which will have to add costs to consumers who are using it), but rather make it comprehensive and affordable and at the same time simple. Having additional applications and software could possible hinder the consumers in terms of convenience, and it has been shown that complicated systems such as SET have failed amongst consumers, and thus gaining new customers will be more difficult. Once again, all this information must be portrayed on the Internet vendors’ website in a clear and a marketing savvy manner.

Electronic payment

The next step after the completion of the comprehensive security system is the payment options and procedures. This is the part where consumers require the most trust, in terms of respect of privacy (personal data, credit card payment information) and security. A vendor can offer a wide array of payment options, all ranging from standard credit card payments to e-checks, and micropayments. Some are widely used by a broad customer base and others are used for small/big buys. Again the context of you business has to be assessed so you, as the vendor, will provide appropriate payment options to suit your customer base and your product/service sales. You want to provide both, simplicity to users and adequate payment options.

When choosing which payments are available for your customers one should keep in mind to fulfill the main criteria attached to payments: anonymity, security, reliability, user control leverage, and reputation of the provider of the system.

The payment procedure has to be secure and protect the authentication and anonymity of the consumer, and once this is done and proven it is secure, customers will feel comfortable with the vendor. The process starts with customer ordering a product, providing personal information as well as sensitive information such as credit card numbers. This might be secured through the SSL application. This data is then communicated to the appropriate banks (e.g. vendor and customer banks). It is approved and the product is ready to be shipped. During this process the vendor must make sure to provide adequate support. If the vendor decides to alter the security settings, s/he must provide updated information of that to convince the customer. The vendor also must give the customer control and access to its information and ability to change that information and if necessary delete that information. The key here is that there is a balance between security and the ease of use of consumer’s information.

Final remarks

This work from an informatics perspective analyzed what can be done to achieve trust as an Internet vendor. It concludes that perception of the website in terms of the three dimensions of trust was crucial for the interface design and that the design has to do with the user-centered and human computer interaction kind. This is the initial trust that paves way for the end-user to move on and decide to transact with the vendor. Security and payment issues try to assure the consumer in their purchases by providing a comprehensive security system with ease of use, affordability, and clarity of policies. In this way the vendor purports competence and integrity.