The Mediating Role of Customer Trust in Affecting the Relationship between Online Shopping Factors and Customer Purchase Decision

Abstract

Buying online is a trend especially for young customers aged less than 30 years old. A lot of studies have been conducted to investigate this phenomenon but hitherto no cohesive model has been established. Therefore, the present study is meant to investigate online shopping factors that contribute to customers’ purchase decision. Five factors were identified to have potential influence on online purchase decision and one factor is expected to be a mediator to affect the relationship. From 384 data collected from online customers who visited popular online shopping sites, it was found that all five factors (perceived convenience, perceived risk, perceived competence, perceived benevolence, and perceived integrity) lead to trust and at the same time trust acts as a quasi mediator to affect the relationship between these factors and online purchase decision. The findings provide the actively sought after evidence to support the claims on the role of these factors in affecting online purchase decision. Online businesses should incorporate the findings in order to facilitate customers’ decision making process while visiting their websites. The websites must contain or portray all the elements as found in this study.

Keywords

• perceived convenience
• perceived risk
• perceived competence
• perceived benevo-lence
• perceived integrity
• online decision making
• trust