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Journal of Internet and e-Business
Studies
Will You Still Trust Me Tomorrow?
Lessons Learnt in Maintaining Trust for SME, B2C E-commerce
Vivienne Farrell
Faculty of ICT, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia
Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 723360, Journal of Internet and e-business Studies, 13 pages , DOI: 10.5171/2011.723360
Copyright © 2011
Vivienne
Farrell. This is an open access article distributed
under
the Creative Commons Attribution License unported 3.0, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided that original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The
introduction of e-commerce holds substantial potential for marketing and
selling products and services online while also introducing a plethora
of risks and concerns for consumers. In the context of
business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce (e-commerce), the
consumer compares not only product and pricing alternatives, but also
the risks of conducting the transaction online. Maintaining trust in a
risk ridden environment provids challenges for many online businesses.
E-commerce, although growing in usage, is also experiencing a growing
hostility from non-users and from previous users who have determined
not to return. Small to medium enterprise (SMEs) who are starting in
the e-commerce arena are at a disadvantage in presenting a trustworthy
venture not having the reputation, finances or infrastructure to create
an online business that exudes safety, security and trust. The SME must
explore methods that will assist them in surviving the competitive
ecommerce market place. This paper will explore SMEs that have
developed start-up Internet based e-commerce businesses in Australia and
the methods they have engaged to keep trust and loyalty. It concludes
that trust, once gained, is very fragile requiring constant vigilance,
essential to overcome the risks that will sustain trust and loyalty in
clients. In conclusion this paper offers guidelines for new B2C
e-commerce SMEs to assist in reducing security and business risks.
Key words: e-commerce B2C, Internet, Trust, Distrust, Mistrust, Benevolence, security
Key words: e-commerce B2C, Internet, Trust, Distrust, Mistrust, Benevolence, security
