Online Trust Cues: Perceptions and Application

This qualitative study analyzes perceptions of online trust cues as identified by shoppers from three countries: Germany, Russia, and the USA. A novel approach of the repertory grid method is used to study online trust cues in business-to-consumers commercial online transactions. This study resulted in the list of web site elements and features that consumers recognize as trust cues and use to evaluate e-vendor’s trustworthiness. Findings show that out of fourteen categories of online trust cues, identified by online shoppers, three categories of online trust cues are found to be common across three cultures while eleven categories are culture specific. This exploratory study was done in the natural environment but participants did not buy a product. They only examined web sites to evaluate perceived trustworthiness. Hence, one has to be cautious in drawing final conclusions and applying them from a sample to a general populatio