| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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Trust is crucial in the online business environment. In the brick and mortar world, customers can alleviate some of their concerns through face-to-face transactions. The physical presence of the business offers assurance that it exists, is accessible, and can be trustworthy. However, in the online virtual marketplace, there exists only an indistinct presence, as well as contact anonymity.
Building and marketing an online business poses some unique challenges. For example, when the well-known 4Ps (i.e., product, price, promotion and place) of marketing were developed in the 1960s and extensively studied by researchers and employed by practitioners (Anderson et al., 1995), place was considered one of the most important factors in the business marketing mix. As the real estate axiom indicates, the three most important things in real estate are location, location and location. Businesses often pay top dollar to be located where their customers can see and access them conveniently.
Like their counterparts in the physical world, online businesses require a sound business model and must be profitable in order to succeed. Unlike their mortar counterparts, e-businesses cannot depend upon traditional marketing with its reliance upon a physical location.
Wilson and Abel (2002) claimed that on the Internet, location issues have become non-existent. With the declining importance of place as a determinant of business success, other factors are becoming more critical. A factor that may substitute for place as one of the 4Ps is perception. It may include the customer’s perceptions of trust, value congruence, and other intangible factors that motivate customers to complete a transaction.
As location becomes irrelevant and competition turns intense in e-commerce, perception can be quite influential. With the competition just a click away, e-businesses must find other ways to distinguish themselves from their competitors. It is argued that value congruence and the ensuing trust can play such a key role in differentiating e-sellers.