Understanding eTrust

Abstract The aim of this research is to provide a broader understanding of the concept of e-trust as it relates to web site design characteristics. A random sample of US internet shoppers was used, and a survey instrument administered to gauge their perceptions on the importance of e-quality web features. Using principal component factor analysis methods, we analyzed e-trust using three factors reflecting reliability, assurance and credibility. Based on gender, although females generally ranked all three e-trust factors as more important than males did, the assurance factor was significantly more important to females than to males. Assurance was also perceived to be significantly more important to consumers with an annual income of $30,000-$49,999 than those with a higher annual income bracket (i.e., ≥$75,000). Furthermore, our results show that frequent shoppers perceived reliability to be significantly more important than infrequent shoppers did. Additionally, in terms of importance, our findings show that reliability was significantly more important than assurance and credibility.