Trust is What You See: Identifying Trust Cues for Online Classified Websites

Abstract

More than 1 billion websites exist on the Internet.  What are the factors that influence website adoption and how can an online brand be created.  How can a user decide which website to trust?  How is online trust created? 

Today's brand managers know that websites are integral to their business and would need to know the constituents of online trust for brand building on the net.  This study focuses on the role of trust in the adoption of online classified websites.  Our survey was conducted with professionals in India who had used any Online Classified website.

Trust is important to the users of online classified websites.  Trust was mostly impacted in the context of online classified websites by information quality, sense of community, usability and prior experience.  It had positive correlation with most other trust variables, though its impact was least for reputation and usefulness. Community remains a significant aspect of trust. Users believe that usability factors are relevant in their relationship with the website, and being in control of the navigation process had high correlation.

In the context of a transaction oriented category like classified websites, information quality remains the key trust metric, and brand managers need to zealously guard against fake, irrelevant and junk information which can erode trust.  Users also look to ensuring an experience design that helps them remain in control, and this has strong implications in user experience creation and management.