Revisiting Trust toward E-Retailers among Indian Online Consumers

Abstract

Despite the prospective size of the Indian market, sales on e-commerce channels are low, which could be attributed to the low trust in e-commerce vendors that tends to get influenced by culture and local elements. Therefore, the objective of current research is to unearth the primary drivers of trust between consumers and e-retailers for online transactions in India. We further explore difference in the perception of trust among different groups based on age, gender, or income level. The research framework seeks to examine returning consumers of e-retailers through the lens of Mayer and Davis complemented by institutional and transference process of trust. The data from 762 Indian respondents was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Our results show that trust is a function of ability, benevolence, and perception of the e-retailer, along with online familiarity of the users. The findings also confirm variations across groups in their trust-generating antecedents. Our work contributes to existing theory by verifying an integrative conceptual model of trust in a complex sociocultural setting and brings out several insights for the practitioners.