CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE

SHOPPING IN CLOTHING
CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ………………………………………………………….…..

INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………….…….

2-3

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE ………………………………………………………………

METHODOLOGY …………………………………………………….……………...

….3

POPULATION …………………………………………………………….

…......4

SAMPLE PLAN …………………………………………………………….

…... 4

SAMPLE SIZE ………………………………………………………………..

…4

DEVELOPMENT OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE …………………………..

…… 4

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY ………………………………………………………...

LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………………………... 5-

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

DEFINATION OF TRUST ………………………………………………………

TRUST AND ONLINE SHOPPING ………………………………………….

5-6

STUDIES RELATED TO ONLINE SHOPPING…………………….…….

…..6-8

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS …………………………..…………………………… 8-

16

CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………...…

17

RECOMMENDATIONS ……………………………………………………………….

17

REFERENCE …………………………………………………………………………..

18

APPENDIX …………………………………………………………………………….

19

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Online business has become one of the most important trades

nowadays, different from traditional trade and characterized with
uncertainty, anonymity, and lack of control and potential opportunism.
Therefore, trust is an important factor to facilitate online transactions.

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

The purpose of this study is to find out the role of trust in online
business and the factor that followed by customer when they buying
online. Also we focused on the threats that face trust online that could
influence attitude towards online purchase.

INTRODUCTION

Retailers find it increasingly important to represent themselves

on the Internet to get more customers, increase the public’s awareness
of the company and its products and – last but not least – to sell more
of its products (Sonja G.K., 2002). Today most of customer looks for
fast and easy way to buy their product with high quality and less price
and they find that online shopping is the best way to get their want.
Therefore, trust play a an important role in facilitating the purchasing
process that are traded over the Internet. It helps ensure that one
party will not take advantage of the vulnerability of the other during or
after a transaction. Trust is quite challenging to define because it
manifests itself in many different forms (A. Josang, R. Ismail, and C.
Boyd).So, online stores must effectively manage the processes which
promote online consumer trust. Trust can be defined as “the
willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party
based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action
important to the trust or, irrespective of the ability to monitor or
control that other party” (Mayer, Davis & Schoorman, 1995, p. 712).
Traders should consider this definition to gain consumer confidence
and knowledge of the concerns that they may have.

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

On the other hand, Lack of customer trust is a critical obstacle to

the success of transactions (A. F. Salam, L. Iyer, P. Palvia, and R. Singh).
This is influenced by several factors. Lack of face-to-face interaction,
the virtual nature of a web store, and often the lack of physical stores,
customer trust is difficult to establish (M. Koufaris &W. H.Sosa). There
are also many new threats that jeopardize trust online, including
privacy invasion, identity theft, spam and phishing. For example on-line
consumers are required to share personal detail (such as mailing
address, telephone number), financial information (such as credit card
numbers), and suffer from the risk of products or services not matching
the description on the website, and the risk of damage during the
delivery process, etc. There seems little assurance that customers will
receive the products or services comparable to the ones they ordered
according to the description and image on the computer screen (T.W.
Tang, W.H.Chi)

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The purpose of our study is to find out the role of trust in online
shopping and the procedures that followed by customer when buying
online. Also we focused on the threats that face trust online that could
influence attitude towards online purchase. The survey that we
prepared will help us to know more about how customer trust on online
shopping, So we can prepare suitable advices and the right
recommendations for companies that will spread their business to
online market.

METHODOLOGY

One way of our plan to achieve the objective of the study is to follow
many steps. Firstly, choose the right type of research which was

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

exploratory research the reason behind choosing this type is because it

collects information in an unstructured and informal manner. Secondly,
we chose the sample size to collect the data and the information.
Thirdly, both primary and secondary data were used but we used
primary data as the main source of information. Finally, we distribute
the questionnaire as an ending step for collecting primary data and
solving the problem.

POPULATION
The population was all ‘females’ as they are more shopaholic and more
curious about new and unique products and interest in online shopping
in any country and those who regularly shop online were considered as
a representative sample (or subset) of that population.

SAMPLE PLAN
The sample plan that has been used to select the sample from the
population was randomly because the questionnaire was distributed in
the UAE university for the students, some female instructors and
managing stuff.

SAMPLE SIZE
Our sample size was around 100 respondents which are as it is
required in the guideline step and we think is enough to measure
customer’s trust and attitude toward online shopping.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE

To get the primary information a questionnaire must be
conducted in a clear way with understandable questions that will
help to have the right information about what it’s required to be
found. The questionnaire mustn’t be very long so that the
respondents will not get bored.

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

When we have done the study we faced several problems
disallowed us from establishing a well-marketing research. Lake of
time, lack of experience and resources were the main problems we
faced. On the other hand we recognize that some of the respondents
didn’t take the questionnaire seriously, they answered unreasonably.
One other problem was that even though we distributed our
questionnaire in many other places but we got very few responds, so
most of our respondents were university students who are similar in
age, income occupation. And this affected the results we got. Also the
number of the responses was big and it took time to enter the data in
to the SPSS.

LITERATURE REVIEW
- DEFINATION OF TRUS

The basis of trust comes from a branch of philosophy called

ethics in the context of social and democratic process. (Roger Clarke,
2001).

Trust is quite challenging to define because it manifests itself in

many different forms [A. Jøsang, R. Ismail, and C. Boyd, 2007]. Mayer,
Davis, and Schoolman defined trust as “the willingness of a party to be
vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation
that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustors,
irrespective of the trustors’ ability to monitor or control that other
party” [R. C. Mayer, J. H. Davis, and F. D. Schoorman,1995]. Trust is an
especially important factor under conditions of uncertainty and risk. It
helps ensure that one party will not take advantage of the vulnerability
of the other during or after a transaction.

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

- TRUST AND ONLINE SHOPPING

Online world is quite different from the real world. Not only in
how people operate there, but also how they perceive it. Through the
internet, it is impossible to touch, smell or use a tangible product, so
customer has to make his or her decisions, based solely on the
information he or she read (which may not be 100% correct and
honest, too). Thus, one of the most important things customer needs
to feel before making a decision to buy something online is whether he
or she trust the seller or not. On the other hand, even the ‘consumer
trust’ differs from online shopping to the traditional one especially in
terms of relationship. Internet shopping involves more uncertainty and
risk than traditional shopping in which trust is based on a combination
of judgment or opinion based on face to face meetings, or
recommendations of colleagues, friends and business parties. While
internet based shopping generally does not involve human interaction
and therefore, this new context requires a new understanding of trust.
Lack of trust from potential customers was one of the reasons cited for
slower-than-expected adoption in the early days of online business.
Today, a majority of consumers have tried online shopping and “lack of
trust” is no longer a barrier to transacting online. Trust, however,
matters now more than ever.
- STUDIES RELATED TO ONLINE SHOPPING
Studies showed that even though acceptance of the Internet as a
marketplace has increased, trust in individual brands is decreasing.
And that here are also many new threats that jeopardize trust online,
as well as privacy attack, identity stealing, spam and phishing. So,
trust still plays a major role across digital channels, but rather than
being a barrier to use, it has now become a key differentiator. (Jens
Riegelsberger, 2005).
A survey related to Online Shopping resulted in the following
outcome, 76 percent of respondents referred to insufficient product

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information as a reason not to purchase, 79 percent rarely or never

purchase with incomplete information, and 72 percent will dump a site
for a competitor or further research, usually finding the product
elsewhere. (WebProNews, 2009).
Moreover, in a clear relationship of consumer trust and the
internet shopping a research showed that 35 percent of non-buyers
(i.e. those who have never bought any products online) in North
America surveyed recently by Forrester Research Inc. had abandoned a
shopping cart while shopping online because they were concerned
about providing their personal information, and 24 percent had done so
due to fears about credit card fraud (Kelley, Rhinelander, and
DeMoulin, 2001). A recent Gallup research survey provided additional
evidence when it found that more than 40 percent of Canadian Internet
users would complete more online purchases if they could trust that a
store would respect their privacy (Shaw, 2001). Similarly, various
academic studies have suggested that trust has a positive influence on
purchase intentions (Jarvenpaa, Tractinsky, and Vitale, 2000, Lim, Sia,
Lee, and Benbasat, 2001, Wetsch and Cunningham, 1999) and actual
buying decisions (Lim et al., 2001). Although the overall volume of B2C
(business-to-consumer) commerce has been growing rapidly, its full
potential will not be realized unless trust-related concerns are
alleviated (Cheskin Research and Studio Archetype/Sapient, 1999).
Lack of trust seems to be one of the key barriers to online shopping;
hence examining how to imp rove consumer trust may be beneficial to
both consumers and Internet stores.
With the most mature of the Internet technique environment,
the concept of trust has been the core of the matter when people
interactions with e-commerce web portals. A previous survey showed
that over (80%) say that being able to trust a web site is very
important for them in making a decision to interact with that site
(Princeton Survey Research Associates, 2002).

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

A study of online shopping reveals that difficulty in finding

product and delivery information fuels consumer frustration and leads
to shopping cart abandonment. The survey, conducted by YouGov Plc
and commissioned by RightNow® Technologies, polled nearly 2,000*
regular internet users across Britain and found that of those that did
Christmas shopping online, nearly one fifth (19%) of online shoppers
abandoned a purchase either because they could not find specific
product information or could not ask questions about a product. 16%
abandoned a purchase because they couldn't find information about
delivery charges and times prior to checkout.
The findings cover a period during which time several top
supermarkets made seasonal increases to their delivery charges and
when understanding details about an intended purchase, and whether
it will be delivered by Christmas, escalates in importance.
"Industry pundits continue to be bullish about online shopping; some
even predict that internet shopping could account for half of Britain's
£300 billion-a-year retail market by as early as 2018. To capitalise on
this burgeoning market a retail website should be as sticky as possible
by being properly organised and consumer-centric – that means
providing consumers with purchase decision-making information at the
right place and at the right time. By designing a site with the consumer
shopping experience in mind, retailers can reduce consumer frustration
and increase sales. This survey reveals what consumers want and
when – retailers should take heed of it rather than just guessing at
what's needed," commented Joe Brown, General Manager EMEA,
RightNow.
Better accessibility to current and relevant information during the
customer journey should help bolster satisfaction levels around
customer experiences. During the 2007 Christmas buying season, 14%

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

of those that did their Christmas shopping online indicated that they
had a negative experience that will prevent them from doing any
future business with the online retailer at fault. The importance of
providing a good customer experience is borne out with 24% of
consumers citing it as a top factor when shopping online.
The survey's findings add to the argument that retailers need to focus
on the following areas to improve the online shopping experience
provided to customers: Clarify essential information, present dynamic
content in context, offer multi-channel choice, make it easy for
customer to do business and drive towards repeat business.
(Maidenhead, 2008).

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

In the questionnaire that was distributed to the respondents, we concentrated on
having questions that are related to what we like to know about and find out also the
questions were selected carefully to measure customer’s trust and attitude toward online
shopping. Our questions were a door to determine type of products, reasons, threats and
the most important factors affecting customer’s online purchase decision.
The following graphs and tables are representing the results of
the collected data from questionnaire.
The questionnaire contained two parts the first part was about the respondent’s
demographics such as age, nationality, occupation, education level and income. And the
second part contained six questions related to type of products, reasons, threats and the
most important factors affecting customer’s online purchase decision.

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

The figure shows number of purchases by respondents, we find out that about more than
half or most of respondents ‘61%’ used to purchase online ‘every 6 months or more’ and
the rest vary as the follow, 13% every 4-5 months, 12% every 2-3 months, 9% every
month and only 5% more than once a month!
This means that still online shopping is not that common or it might have some threats
which we are going to mention later on.

This figure shows the types of products usually purchased online, we can see here again a
significant result that is almost half of respondents buy clothing, shoes & jewelries, 15%
electronics, 14% movies, music and games, only 5% for cosmetics and 23% other things.
As girls have a craze of looking beautiful and fashionable they did not leave even the
internet to shop and find the latest fashion dresses or jewelries. I think the reason they do
not buy cosmetics online is that usually women are sensitive and cautious in using
makeup they do not trust without checking on their skins.

We wanted to know reasons that push people to buy online as it is one of the most
important factors affecting their purchase decision. We found out that reasons differ for
people. 37% of respondents which indicates the largest number of them buy online to
save time!! Maybe they do not have time to go for shopping due to their responsibilities
and tasks. Whereas 28% of respondents go to online shopping because of lack of the
product, as some products may not be available or are so unique to be available in the
market. Only 18% shop online for saving money which might mean that many people
consider online shopping as expensive one, then finally 17% for saving effort.

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What are the threats you face?

Frequenc Percent Valid Cumulative

y Percent Percent
Valid Credit card 31 31.0 31.0 31.0
stealing
Hackers 18 18.0 18.0 49.0
Doubtful website 12 12.0 12.0 61.0
Product not as 39 39.0 39.0 100.0
ordered
Total 100 100.0 100.0

Threats have a great impact in people’s decision as well. It can change their buying
behavior. This figure and the table above show some reasons which make people anxious
about buying online. We see here that ‘product is not as ordered’ ‘39%’ is the main threat
facing people. They order one thing but get something else or different from what they
desired or demanded. ‘Credit card stealing’ is another threat ‘31%’ they do not want to
take a risk for their credit cards which might b stolen in seconds. Hackers might make
people hesitated from buying online-18%- and sometimes doubtful website which are
uncertain-12%-.
What is the most important factor when buying
online?

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulativ

Percent e Percent
Valid Price 35 35.0 35.0 35.0
Free shipping 18 18.0 18.0 53.0
Special 22 22.0 22.0 75.0
promotion
Speed/ 25 25.0 25.0 100.0
efficiency of
check out

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 CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

Total 100 100.0 100.0

This question was about the most important factor people take in account when they buy
online and we here is what we got, as you can see above in the table and figure, most of
respondent’s buying decision ‘35%’ depends on the price as it has always been the most
important factor for most customers. Then quarter of the people we asked depends mostly
on speed and efficiency of check out which is also a very important factor as life is so fast
everything is running so fast, so many people really hate standing hours in line while
cashing or the long procedures while checking out and wasting their expensive time.
22% are attracted by special promotion and 18% care about ‘free shipping’.
Online shopping is the best way to shop

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulativ

Percent e Percent
Vali Strongly Agree 19 19.0 19.0 19.0
d
Agree 42 42.0 42.0 61.0
Undecided 17 17.0 17.0 78.0
Disagree 19 19.0 19.0 97.0
Strongly 3 3.0 3.0 100.0
Disagree
Total 100 100.0 100.0

Our last question was a statement as u can see above ‘Online shopping
is the best way to shop’ by this question we wanted to know the level
to which people today trust or like online shopping. And we got the
answer that not only most of people ‘42%’ do agree with this
statement but some people strongly agree with that ‘19%’. Well this is
a good indicator that yes people somehow trust online shopping. On
the other hand, there are also some people who disagree ‘19%’, even
there is few people who strongly disagree, they prefer traditional
shopping on online which they think is complicated, boring or
distrustful.

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

Graph 1: Relation between age and type of product.

The table shows the relationship between the age and the type of
product bought through internet. By these results we can notice that
the majority of our customers are between the age of 20-30 and they
usually buy clothing, shoes & jewelry. So we notice here that most of
them are young and in this age usually women have a craze to have a
beautiful and a fashionable look, so they look for latest fashion dresses
or jewelries through the internet. This information will help online
shopping marketers to focus on specific segment to serve. Graph 1
illustrates the results in a clearer way.

Graph 2: Relation between income and number of

purchase online per month

Table 2 describes the relationship between the incomes and how often
they purchasing per month, the results show that as the income
decreases, the number of purchases decrease per month, as it is
shown in this figure, 60% of the respondents whose income is less than
20,000 Dhs buy online every six months or more. This information
might help online shopping marketers have to adjust the prices and to
make the products and services affordable for customers; also
promotions can be useful and support purchasing decision.
CONCLUSION

By this study, we found out that most of our respondents were

Emirates female; their ages were between 20-30 years old. They were

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

students and their income was less than $20,000 per month. Also,
most of the respondents purchase online every 6 months or more,
which means that still online shopping is not that common or it might
have some threats. The preferred products they purchase were
clothing, shoes & jewelries with 43%. Moreover, the most important
reason we noticed was saving time. The main two threats affecting
buying decisions are the fear that product may not be as ordered and
credit card stealing. Finally, the factor considered the most while
buying online differs between respondents as they have different
personalities and purchasing attitudes, so we got no ‘one’ significant
factor considered the most. However, price is the most important one
with ‘35%’ as it has always been the most important factor for most
customers.
In the end, we would like to say that by this study, we have learned how to make a
questionnaire, how to conduct a survey and what are the steps that followed. We’ve also
learned how to use SPSS which was very helpful in finding our analysis. At last, we
really want to thank our instructor for giving us a chance to have an idea about doing a
survey and analyzing the data which will help us more in our projects in future. Also, we
appreciate him for all his efforts and for being so helpful and patient with us.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Trust in online shopping is difficult and challenging to achieve, so marketers should be

aware of how to gain customer’s trust, here are some recommendation that we realized
from the graphs and tables and we advise marketers to:
• Online shopping marketers have to adjust the prices and to make
the products and services affordable for customers.
• Promotions can be useful and supportive in purchasing decision.
• Online shopping marketers have to focus on the market
segments with their appropriate products and services which
they are interested in.

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

REFRENCES

 [Sonja G.K., 2002, p. 2] Sonja G. K., 2002, “The Role of

Consumers’ Trust in Online-Shopping,” Journal of Business Ethics,
39: 43–50
 [A. Jøsang, R. Ismail, and C. Boyd], “A Survey of Trust and
Reputation Systems for Online Service Provision”, Decision
Support Systems, 43(2), pp. 618-644, 2007
 [A. F. Salam, L. Iyer, P. Palvia, and R. Singh], “Trust in
Ecommerce”, Communication of ACM, 48(2), pp. 73-77, 2005.
 [Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H, & Schoorman, F.D], (1995) “An
integrative model of organizational trust”. Academy of
Management Review, 20(3), 709-734.
 [M. Koufaris &W. H.Sosa], (2002) “Customer trust online:
examining the role of the experience with the website”. Zicklin
School of Business, p.2
 [T.W. Tang, W.H.Chi), (2002) “The Role of Trust in Customer
Online Shopping Behavior”Perspective of Technology Acceptance
Model, 331, 1–11.
 www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/Asimov.html
 www.rightnow.com/crm-news-565.php
 www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20321999/
 C:\TeMp\Rar$EX08.469\building-customer-trust.htm
 C:\TeMp\Rar$EX00.641\build trust in online shop.htm
 C:\TeMp\Rar$EX14.235\trust-as-the-most-important-online-
value.htm

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

Other Syria Palestine Saudi Emirates Nationali

(Please Arabia ty
specify)
More 41-50 31-40 20-30 Less than Age
than 51 20
other Employee housewif student Occupati
e on
(current
or most
recent)

Over $50,000 $35,000- $20,000 Less than income

$65,000 - $50,000 - $20,000
$65,000 $35,000
Master Bachelor Diploma High school Educatio
degree degree or less n level

How often do you purchase onlin

• More than once a month
• Every month
• Every 2-3 months
• Every 4-5 months
• Every 6 months or more
Type of product you usually purchase it online
• Cosmetics
• Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry
• Electronics
• Movies, Music & Games
• Other
The reason you shop online
• Saving time
• Saving money
• Saving effort
• Lack of product
What are the threats you face?
• Credit card stealing
• Hackers
• Doubtful website
• Product is not as ordered
What is the most important factor when buying online?
• Price.

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CUSTOMER TRUST IN ONLINE SHOPPING

• Free shipping.
• Special promotion.
• Speed / efficiency of check out.
Online shopping is the best way to shop
• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Undecided
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

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