Hi,

I'm also in my final year at university, and for my dissertation i am studying the attitudes and behaviors of students at my university who shop online, and not in the city. I would be very intrested in viewing your questionnaire and pehaps your key findings.

Many thanks

Hi there,

I own an internet business and we have been trading 4 years. We deal in ink cartridges and get a lot of traffic.

Many people still prefer to give there card details over the phone rather than through the internet as they just think the net is unsafe.

If you are on a secure, properly regulated site you will be ok. Admitedly some fraud takes place. For instance, we sometimes have sales that appear totally legitimate but a few weeks down the line an unsuspecting cardholder gets a statement and sees purchases they have not made.

The money is taken back from the website business and returned to the cardholder. The website business, having sent the goods, loses out.

Fraud will happen everywhere but cardholders are well protected should their details be used by villains.

Cheers,

Jon b

with the hyphen... harboro-simon

Brilliant. Don't check too much, I've got to plan something first.

is the email harboro-simon or harborosimon?

Either... I'll make sure I check the email fairly regularly :o)

Brilliant - I've not got anything in stone yet, but I'll keep you posted. Best to keep you informed here or via the email?

If it's for your research paper then feel free to quote me, all my opinions are public domain :o)

Happy to answer any other related questions... I'm sure you'll understand me not wanting to give my personal details out on here so I've set up a throwaway email address - drop me a line if you want to ask me anything specific - harboro-simon at hotmail dot co dot uk

True. I beleive it is all at the end of the day down to the gut feeling. Trust is a human perception and we must go on this feeling to acertain ourselves the quality of it. I think we all have our own mental checklist, but it's realsing them that's the problem. Hopefully my questionnaire might pull them out!

You seem to be pretty clued up on this thing. Might you be available for a short interview or might I be able to quote some of the things you've said here?

If not no worries, I'll need to construct the questions beforehand!

Thanks.

For me I think it's an internal checklist whenever I find a new site... I prefer to see a UK regional number (i.e. not an 0870 national or a mobile number), coupled with a physical address, evidence that the company has been around for more than 5 minutes, a 'genuine' sounding about us, delivery and returns info, certificates, verisign etc.

I know that all of the above is open to fraud and the presence of them does not mean that you are not going to get ripped off, however, a combination of all the above, combined with site design, pricing, and marketing, add up to that gut feel about whether it's a good idea to place an order.

harboro,

thanks for doing the questionnaire. It's amazing how much sub-concious thought we put into making decisions when buying online. I find it interesting you see a contact us link/number as a method of adding to the sites credability.

I have personally come across a website that had all these features, including the VeriSign technology symbol, however turn out to be completely fake and fraudulent. Luckily they go not more from me than a phone call. After some initial investigation I found that the number was a nigerian mobile, when the bank was in Spain. I also filled out their form for information and it was a deadlink.

I admit too that a nice posh site gives a good but perhaps false sense of trust. At the end of the day, scammers and fraudsters are out there to make alot of money with as little investment as possible. A flash/posh site with all the trademarks of a trustworthy site which is fraulent is very few and far between.

The main baddie out there I think is eBay. Use with common sense.

Thanks again

Interesting point Roger... I'd agree whole heartedly with what you say from a risk assessment perspective, but I'd also say that it affects my trust of the website as well...

If I was buying a something that I know is going to be cheap then I would more likely trust a vendor who has a 'budget' design website than one with something that has clearly cost £000s or even £ms. When I see a flashy website with a relatively low cost product I know that the cost of marketing has been included in the product price and therefore I may get better value and customer service from the small guy with the cheap website. For example, I bought some new halogen bulbs the other day, Tesco was selling them at £2.97, but after a quick Google I found them for 67p each... I rang the 'Contact Us' number (btw, I always like it if people have this - adds to credibility) to quickly check they were in stock and then ordered online.

Although I suppose my example does highlight another aspect of trust - I wouldn't have rang Amazon or Tesco because if their system says it is in stock I believe it as they have complex automated systems.

(btw, I've done the questionnaire)

IMHO value is a factor in the assesment of risk, but not in the perception of trust (uncertainty).
If I feel a site may be a bit dodgy, and i'm buying a CD for a tenner then I'll probably go for it.
If it's... i dunno... a CD player for £500 then i probably wouldn't. more likely I'd pay 10% more & buy from a well known vendor.
Bit of a bad example because reputation of the supplier is more important when buying a CD Player than it is when buying a CD (what happens with faulty goods etc.) but hopefully you get my point.
Ludicrous decision really from a data protection/fraud perspective...

Thanks for your comment Roger. It was interesting how you had automatically assumed you could trust my questionnaire that I wouldn't be asking for any personal information!

Your comment on value is one I have never consdiered. Are you saying that low value goods and services are one that ensues a higher level of trust with consumers than high value G&Ss? Consumers see a lower level of uncertainty and therefore risk in lower valued goods. As trust is a determined factor of uncertainty then it would seem value is a key factor too. Following this, reports have been published mentioning that levels of technological experince have something to do with undertanding the risk and therefore making a more valued assessment of the trust needed to make purchases online.

Hope you enjoyed the questionnaire!

There are a number of factors which can aid the "trust" perception...
For instance, I have made online purchases from sites that didn't look particularly good, purely because the site was listed as an official supplier or dealer for the item I wished to buy. Value comes in to the decision also. If I'm looking at something which costs a few pounds I am more likely to purchase it from a site which doesn't perhaps inspire confidence than if it were an item costing hundreds. This is a poor judgement, as you are just as (or probably more) likely to fall victim to fraud from purchasing low value items... Anyone wishing to set up a website offering goods for sale purely to defraud customers is unlikely to offer items costing thousands of pounds...

I haven't filled out the questionnaire yet, but will do so now... I trust I won't be asked for my creditcard details! ;o)

financestu, you comments are very valid. Trust is a human perception and one that is judged on physical actions and emotions. Websites do not give this and therefore we must be able to judge the uncertainty by using well known feature. This could be secure server technology, or well known brand either online (play/amazon) or from the high stree (tesco.com). Without these we can find it difficult to assess the uncertainty. Commercial websites must learn to provide these features to help consumers trust them!!

I'm not sure if you completed the questionnaire, but thank you for responding!!