Beyond price: how does trust encourage online group's buying intention?

• Published in: Internet research 2012-01, Vol.22 (5), p.569-590
• Main Author: Ku, Edward C.S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Business; Commerce; Consumers; Credibility; Customers; Electronic commerce; Environment; Intention; Internet; Literature Reviews; Merchandise Information; On-line systems; Online; Online shopping; Operators; Order processing; Perceptions; Personal information; Prices; Purchasing; Purchasing groups; Reference Groups; Reputations; Research Design; Sales; Shopping; Site Development; Structural Equation Models; Studies; Surveys; Trust; Trust (Psychology); Web sites; Websites
• ISSN: 1066-2243; 2054-5657
• DOI: 10.1108/10662241211271554

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how online trust affects group shopping intention in the Ihergo web site.Design methodology approach - Samples from the Ihergo web site were collected by mailing a questionnaire survey to those who agreed to participate.Findings - Group-buying operators need to understand their consumers and the scheduling shopping rules between internet shoppers and firms. Moreover, word-of-mouth (WOM) can be created online by offering web visitors the ability to access the opinions of satisfied customers.Practical implications - An online business may adopt different methods to enhance its customer satisfaction level. When people enter a significant amount of personal data at a web site, they are typically reluctant to change vendors and enter the data again.Social implications - Customers view a group-buying operator as a shopping expert, and expect that the group-buying operator can handle shopping problems before a dispute occurs.Originality value - The findings of this study provide interesting insights for group-buying operators interested in group-buying commerce; consumers having a high level of interest in shopping possess a strong motivation and desire to interact with the group-buying operator.