Strategies for Trust and Confidence in B2C E-Commerce

Mass access to the Internet coupled with trends in globalisation of products and services have given birth to new e-commerce markets in recent years. There have been several optimistic projections of rapid growth for e-commerce, but the business-to-consumer (B2C) sector has failed to achieve its expected growth potential (CommerceNet, 2000). One of the main reasons for these disappointing results is thought to be the lack of consumer trust and confidence in e-commerce (SCRIBBENS, 2001). The European Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the OECD and business sectors have all identified the establishment of T&C as being crucial for the future of B2C e-commerce (OECD, 1997, 2000, 2001). Although previous research has focused on the strategies deployed for the organisational growth of e-commerce as a whole (LYNCH, 2000), few efforts have been devoted to strategies for developing T&C in e-commerce.