What Is the Most Important Factor That Influences Customer's Satisfaction When Buying Online

What is the most important factor that influences customer’s satisfaction when buying online?

Over the past two decades, the rapid growth of the internet becomes a platform for buyer-seller interaction, constituting a well-practiced system. With the emergence of e-commerce there has been a significant increase in online transactions. Online shopping could be defined as the concept of buying and selling of goods over the internet. From the aspect of the seller, the buyers tend to attract and persuade the prospect to conduct the purchase decision-making process, and ensure satisfaction and loyalty. However, fraud and unsafe service performances have reduced trust in online retailers. Consumers at all levels of Internet experience are cautious when making Internet purchases, newcomers are likely to require more specific evidence of trustworthiness prior to purchase. Therefore, the important issue that needs to be addressed is trust among the seller-buyer, if the web site does not lead the consumer to believe that the merchant is trustworthy, no purchase decision will result and customers’ satisfaction cannot be fulfilled. This essay contend that ‘‘trust’’ is the most important factor to influence customers’ satisfaction when buying online. The essay starts with the concept of trust, then goes on to explain the concept towards the background of online buying and trust will be demonstrated in terms of perceived security and privacy, reputation of the company, atmospheric cues respectively.

Trust as a concept has been studied and researched across numerous disciplines and fields (Wang & Emurian, 2005). It has been studied with ‘‘. . . both institutional phenomena (system trust) and personal and interpersonal forms of trust (dispositional trust, trusting beliefs, trusting intentions and trust-related behaviors . . . ’’ (Grabner-Krauter & Kaluscha, 2003). The concept applied in various fields, the earliest works being in the area of psychology (Deutsch, 1958;...