Swift Trust in Web Vendors: The Role of Appearance and Functionality

With the growth of product search engines such as pricegrabber.com, Web vendors have many more casual visitors. This research examines how Web vendors may foster “swift trust” as a means to convert casual visitors to paying customers. We examine whether perceptions of Web sites’ appearance features (normality, social presence and third-party links) and functionality features (security, privacy, effort expectancy and performance expectancy) positively relate to swift trust in a Web vendor. Using a quasi-experimental research design, we empirically test the proposed relationships. Based on an analysis of 224 respondents, we found appearance and functionality features explained 61% of the variance in swift trust. The article concludes with a discussion of findings and implications.

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