Seller Reputation Within the B2C e-Marketplace and Impacts on Purchase Intention

Abstract

Online electronic marketplace platforms, a business model that connects buyers with sellers through an intermediary, are steadily growing in Brazil. This research seeks to investigate the importance of the reputation of third-party sellers and its effects on consumers' perceptions of risk and trust; we also assess the consequent impacts on purchase intention within the e-marketplace platform. Data was collected via a survey of 309 respondents and tested through structural equation modeling. All proposed hypotheses were confirmed. The results point to the third-party seller's reputation negatively affecting the perception of risk and positively affecting trust in the third-party seller and the intermediary store. Consequently, trust in the intermediary store seems to negatively influence perceived risk, while positively affecting purchase intention. Implications for practice include suggestions for firms that operate in the e-commerce sector. In order to optimize their efforts in e-marketplaces, online retailers should (a) focus on improving the management of third-party sellers and their reputation systems to promote transparency and interactivity and (b) constantly invest in branding, customer service, training, and communicating with third-party sellers. Also, firms must understand that the transfer of trust to third-party sellers raises consumer repurchase intentions and makes e-businesses sustainable.