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IN DEGREE PROJECT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY,SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS
, STOCKHOLM SWEDEN 2021
Influence of Website Characteristics on Initial Trust in M-Commerce for Young Consumers
ELIN FORSBERG
KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYSCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
Abstract
Lack of trust is argued to be one of the key reasons behind buyers’ reluctance to purchase online.
In mobile commerce (m-commerce), gaining initial trust upon the first visit from prospective
consumers highly depends on the design of the website. However, the number of qualitative
empirical studies investigating what and how website characteristics affect initial trust in an
unfamiliar m-commerce website remains limited. The aim of this thesis was thus to gain a
deeper understanding of the influence of website characteristics on initial consumer trust in a
m-commerce website, to provide insights for designers. An exploratory case study of the mobile
version of an e-vendor’s website was conducted and qualitatively examined through Think-
Aloud sessions and semi-structured interviews. By thematically analyzing the data, the follow-
ing website characteristics were identified as influencing initial trust in an unknown m-com-
merce website: purposeful and clear visual design, internal design consistency, mobile adapta-
tion and reading experience, content quality, similarity and expectations, social proof and ex-
ternal validation. Based on the insights, the study further provides recommendations to practi-
tioners on how to design trustworthy m-commerce websites, both as support in the design pro-
cess and for evaluation purposes.
Sammanfattning
Brist på förtroende anses vara en av de viktigaste orsakerna till att köpare tvekar att handla
online. Att få initialt förtroende vid potentiella konsumenters första besök inom mobil handel
(m-commerce) beror mycket på webbplatsens design. Antalet kvalitativa empiriska studier som
undersöker vad och hur webbplatsens egenskaper påverkar initialt förtroende för en okänd m-
handelswebbplats är dock fortfarande begränsat. Syftet med denna avhandling var således att
få en djupare förståelse för hur webbplatsens egenskaper påverkar konsumenternas initiala för-
troende för en mobil handelswebbplats, för att ge insikter till designers. En undersökande fall-
studie av mobilversionen av en e-handlares webbplats genomfördes och undersöktes kvalitativt
genom Think-Aloud-sessioner och halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Genom att tematiskt analysera
den insamlade datan identifierades följande webbplatsegenskaper att påverka initialt förtroende
för en okänd mobil handelswebbplats: målmedveten och tydlig visuell design, internt konse-
kvent design, mobilanpassning och läsupplevelse, innehållskvalitet, likhet och förväntningar,
socialt bevis och extern validering. Baserat på insikterna ger studien rekommendationer till de-
signers om hur man kan utforma pålitliga m-handelswebbplatser, både som stöd i designpro-
cessen och för utvärdering.
Influence of Website Characteristics on Initial Trust in M-Commerce for Young Consumers
Elin Forsberg
KTH Royal Institute of
Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
ABSTRACT
Lack of trust is argued to be one of the key reasons behind
buyers’ reluctance to purchase online. In mobile commerce
(m-commerce), gaining initial trust upon the first visit from
prospective consumers highly depends on the design of the
website. However, the number of qualitative empirical
studies investigating what and how website characteristics
affect initial trust in an unfamiliar m-commerce website
remains limited. The aim of this thesis was thus to gain a
deeper understanding of the influence of website character-
istics on initial consumer trust in a m-commerce website, to
provide insights for designers. An exploratory case study of
the mobile version of an e-vendor’s website was conducted
and qualitatively examined through Think-Aloud sessions
and semi-structured interviews. By thematically analyzing
the data, the following website characteristics were identi-
fied as influencing initial trust in an unknown m-commerce
website: purposeful and clear visual design, internal design
consistency, mobile adaptation and reading experience,
content quality, similarity and expectations, social proof
and external validation. Based on the insights, the study
further provides recommendations to practitioners on how
to design trustworthy m-commerce websites, both as sup-
port in the design process and for evaluation purposes.
Author Keywords
M-commerce; Initial Trust; Website Characteristics; Case
Study; Online Consumer Trust: User Interface Design; User
Experience; Usability.
CSS Concepts
• Human-centered computing~Human computer interaction
(HCI); User studies;
INTRODUCTION With the increasing popularity of using mobile devices,
mobile commerce (m-commerce) has become one of the
most popular channels for shopping [38]. M-commerce is
associated with advantages such as instantaneity, ubiquity,
personalization, identification and allows for shopping on
the go [32]. On the other hand, m-commerce also suffers
from disadvantages such as small screen sizes and limita-
tions of displaying information [32]. In contrast to physical
shopping, online consumers need to trust the e-vendor and
the products without any physical interaction, and in the
digital systems providing the services [18]. That entails
overcoming possible risks such as identity theft, credit-card
fraud and unfulfilled product promises [34]. Lack of trust is
argued to be one of the key reasons behind buyers’ reluc-
tance to purchase online [24] and in m-commerce, trust is
considered to be a critical factor in generating positive
purchase intentions [7].
Online users’ first impression about the e-vendor is formu-
lated through the vendor’s website, and the first purchase
intention is dependent on the vendor’s abilities to build
potential consumers’ initial trust, that is trust in an unfamil-
iar party [26], which is formed between a user and an or-
ganization or system when the user has no previous
knowledge or experience with it. Therefore, for e-vendors
to attract new customers, they need to establish initial trust
with prospective customers. While branding and market
reputation has shown to affect initial trust in an e-
vendor [10, 17], gaining trust from mobile customers upon
their first visit highly relies on the design of the website
[22]. Therefore, there is a need for designers of m-
commerce websites to have practical guidelines on how to
design for gaining prospective consumers’ initial trust.
While studies have examined a variety of topics on trust in
m-commerce [22, 23, 28, 35] including impact of aesthet-
ics [22], quality and satisfaction [35], as well as security,
design and content [28], the number of qualitative empirical
studies investigating what and how website characteristics
affect initial trust in an unfamiliar m-commerce website
remains limited.
To further investigate and gain a deeper understanding of
how website characteristics can influence initial consumer
trust and perceived trustworthiness in the context of an
unknown m-commerce website, an exploratory case study
approach is applied using qualitative research methods.
This enables us to understand prospective customers’ be-
haviour, thoughts, needs and concerns and enriches the
previous research on the topic by adding aspects of how and
why website characteristics affect initial trust in m-
commerce.
Purpose and Research Questions
This thesis aims to investigate what, and how, website
characteristics, e.g., structure, interface design elements and
content [11], affect initial consumer trust in a m-commerce
website, and to unveil aspects in the website design where
there is a possibility of securing or, on the contrary, losing
the prospective consumer’s trust. By using an exploratory
case study approach, the thesis aims to gain in-depth in-
sights about what aspects affect the initial trust of a m-
commerce website from the perspective of prospective
consumers, which in turn can be used as practical guide-
lines by designers.
The research questions to be explored are:
1. What website characteristics affect the initial trust
of a m-commerce website?
2. How do website characteristics affect the per-
ceived trustworthiness?
3. What website characteristics should be considered
by designers when developing a m-commerce web-
site for it to be perceived as trustworthy?
To answer the research questions, the mobile version of an
e-commerce website is examined (see Image 1).
Image 1 - The landing page of the examined e-commerce web-
site
Limitations
The participants in the study are limited to young adults
with high digital maturity, as their experience with mobile
devices might affect the results of the study and because
they have shown to have an enhanced acceptance of and
willingness to use the m-commerce medium [7].
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Below, concepts from the field of online trust are intro-
duced. They include literature on trust in an online context,
initial trust and the website's role in trust formation in an
online and m-commerce context.
Trust in the online context
The concept of trust is widely studied over several different
disciplines, where each discipline has its own understanding
of the concept and ways to operationalize it [37]. However,
despite the numerous interpretations of trust, the general
view is that there must exist two actors in a trusting rela-
tionship to develop trust, namely a trustor and a trustee, and
that trust only exists in a risky or uncertain situation where
vulnerability is present [2]. One risky or uncertain situation
is in an online purchase context, where consumers share
privacy information and complete transactions with an e-
vendor [21]. In that context, consumers face financial,
product, delivery and privacy risks such as misuse of credit
card information, receiving defective or wrong products,
issues with shipping and returning of products and private
information being sold or misused [30]. Online trust can
then be described as the connection that happens between a
user or customer and a business through their website,
where the user believes that the website and its business is
reliable [4].
Several studies have examined online consumer trust in the
context of e-commerce [5, 9, 16, 19] and found factors that
affect online consumer trust towards an e-vendor. Some of
the most common factors include social presence (the feel-
ing of being able to communicate), website quality and user
interface, quality of product and service information, and
the website’s reputation and brand [19].
Initial trust
Initial trust can be defined as “trust in an unfamiliar party”
[26], and is formed between a user and an organization or
system when the user has no previous knowledge or experi-
ence with it. While trust develops over time and is affected
by different aspects, initial trust is instead instant and based
on the first visit without prior brand awareness. When po-
tential consumers enter an e-commerce website they imme-
diately make judgments and perceptions of uncertainty and
risks that determine if they will continue to use the site or
not [13]. Consequently, understanding how initial trust is
formed is important for ensuring continued usage and trust
[39].
Initial trust formation has been found to be influenced by
three bases of trust, namely cognition trust base, institution
trust base and personality trust base [17, 19, 21]. They are
all based on lack of previous experiences and knowledge
with an unfamiliar trustee [17]. Cognition based trust is a
result of first impressions and stereotypes, built on rapid
and cognitive cues [17], where for example a cognitive
familiarity is established based on experiences with similar
systems in other contexts [21]. Institution based trust in-
stead assumes that trust is built on signs of normality,
where trust is built when the trustee fits the common stand-
ard of the context [21]. Lastly, personality based trust relies
on the trustor’s general tendency to be willing to trust a
trustee, and is formed by the trustor’s personal experiences
[17].
Trusting beliefs - benevolence, ability and integrity
Trusting beliefs are of importance when studying the con-
structs of initial online trust as it has been shown to affect
the initial trust attitude toward e-vendors [17] and refers to
the trustor’s perception of whether the trustee has the at-
tributes to be trusted [13, 21, 33]. Trusting beliefs can be
divided into the three dimensions of benevolence, ability
and integrity [25]. Benevolence is the extent to which the
trustor believes that the trustee wants to do good things and
cares about the trustor’s welfare. Ability refers to the skills
and competencies of the trustee and integrity is the trustor’s
perception that the trustee will be honest and adhere to an
acceptable set of principles, such as honesty and keeping
promises [25]. If ability, benevolence or integrity is ques-
tionable the user’s trust has shown to decrease [33].
Website design and initial trust in online commerce
Perceived usefulness, perceived security, perceived privacy
and perceived good reputation have been found to be im-
portant for initial consumer trust in online commerce [10,
20]. Perceived privacy regards how consumers believe that
the e-vendor takes care of their personal information,
whereas perceived security refers to how secure consumers
feel in transacting with the e-vendor.
Studies have found that following principles of good user
experience design for creating user-friendly and usable
websites is important for the formation of trust [27, 34]. An
online retailer’s website is the primary communicator be-
tween the transacting parties, and the design of the website
has shown to affect consumer’s initial trust in e-commerce
[13, 15]. For example, Ang and Lee state that “If the web
site does not lead the consumer to believe that the merchant
is trustworthy, no purchase decision will result” [1] (p.3).
Hence, a focus on web interface design by online merchants
can enhance the trustworthiness to potential online custom-
ers.
Several website design dimensions have shown to influence
consumer trust in e-vendors such as graphic design, struc-
ture design, content design and social cue design [15, 34,
37]. Graphic design, or visual design [34], refers to the
overall visual design of the website, for example layout,
colours, typography, font size and photographs, while struc-
ture design entails the overall organization and findability
of displayed information whose success is determined by,
for example, good usability [34, 37]. Content design, on the
other hand, deals with textual or graphical informational
elements on the website as well as the use of comprehen-
sive and correct information. Lastly, social-cue design re-
fers to the communication possibilities and signs of repre-
sentation provided by photographs and names of customer
service agents and contact opportunities [34, 37].
Based on the four mentioned design dimensions, [34] em-
pirically studied the content of trustful and distrustful user
experiences on the web to identify website characteristics
that affect online trust, and found a fifth dimension of per-
sonal and social proof, which focuses on recommendations
from people we know and on user ratings and reviews. A
common way to integrate customer reviews is to use a
third-party review system, for example Trustpilot1.
Additionally, the presence of trust assurances has been
found to influence initial consumer trust in online com-
merce [20]. These include for example general trust assur-
ances which are usually provided by third-party organiza-
tions and specific trust assurances such as warranty and
return policy, product quality guarantee, and delivery on
time [20]. Internally provided privacy/security policies and
vendor-specific guarantees have been found to be as effec-
tive as those from third parties [15].
M-Commerce and initial trust
As mobile devices have small screens and limitations in
displaying information, research has shown that the user
interface design is an important determinant of a user's
initial trust in a m-commerce system [12, 22, 23, 32]. A
well-designed user interface facilitates navigation and inter-
activity and reduces the perceived complexity of the system
[22]. Therefore, mobile service providers need to present
users with a clear layout, powerful navigation and visually
appealing interface in order to gain prospective consumers’
trust [12]. Additionally, for a m-commerce website to gain
initial consumer trust it has been shown that design aesthet-
ics such as colours, shapes, font and animations, plays a
role, since it meets customers' need for enjoyment and
arousal and positively affects users’ impression of the web-
site [22].
Usability aspects have also shown to influence initial trust
in m-commerce, where positive experiences of perceived
ease-of-use (the feeling that the usage of the m-
commerce website is free of effort) and perceived useful-
ness (the degree of believing the m-commerce website is
useful) positively affects the perceived trustworthiness of
the m-commerce website [22, 23, 32]. Scholars have also
identified information quality, such as accurate, complete
and relevant information [12, 28], as well as security as-
pects [28], such as how the e-vendor communicates the
safety or protection in personal privacy and transaction data
[23], to have effect on trust in m-commerce.
METHOD
The following section describes the methods for data col-
lection and data analysis used to answer the research ques-
tions. An exploratory case study approach was applied and
the qualitative methods for data collection include conduct-
ing task-driven think-aloud sessions, followed by semi-
structured interviews. Thematic analysis was employed to
analyze the collected data.
Methodological approach
To explore and gain in-depth insights about the initial con-
sumer trust in the context of m-commerce, an exploratory
case study was applied [3]. Further, qualitative methods
were used for the exploratory case study, since the thesis
1 https://se.trustpilot.com
aimed to gain a deeper understanding of participants’ per-
ceptions and thoughts [6].
Study settings
The mobile version of an e-commerce website (see Image
1), was chosen as the setting of the study. The e-vendor has
a sustainability focus as they collect and sell other e-
vendor’s returned and/or reclaimed goods. Sustainable
consumption is becoming more important and when an
online retailer acts as a retailer of returned or already used
goods, it is necessary for the success of the e-vendor that
the website is perceived as trustworthy by prospective con-
sumers. Since this thesis aimed to investigate initial trust
where prospective consumers are not familiar with the e-
vendor, the selected m-commerce website was chosen
based on the fact that it is not a well known brand to people.
Additionally, it offers a variety of products and is repre-
sentative of a m-commerce website with its common fea-
tures.
Participants
The inclusion criteria for participation was that the partici-
pants never had heard of or visited the website to ensure
that the data collected from the study would be of their
initial trust, and to avoid bias based on possible brand
awareness. For qualitative evaluations, the general guide-
line is to have 5-8 participants [31]. Therefore, through
social media and an online time booking platform, 6 partic-
ipants were recruited for the study. The participants were
friends of friends to the author, and all had different back-
grounds varying from kindergarten teacher to physiothera-
pist and economics student. As the study is limited to focus
on young adults, the ages ranged between 24-27 and all
participants were Swedish.
Methods for data collection
Since trust and perceived trustworthiness are abstract con-
cepts, the assessment and understanding of them are based
on individuals’ subjective perceptions [13]. Therefore, as
mentioned, a qualitative methodological approach was
chosen for data collection, namely task-driven think-aloud
sessions followed by semi-structured interviews (see Table
1). Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, all data was col-
lected remotely using Zoom. The participants got to enter
Zoom’s mobile application and share their screen. All
think-aloud sessions and semi-structured interviews were
recorded for the purpose of data analysis.
Task-driven think aloud
To be able to observe and understand how prospective
consumers interact with- and experience the m-commerce
website a think aloud test was conducted with each partici-
pant. First, the participants got a brief introduction to the
study’ aim, where they were informed that the purpose of
the study was to investigate initial trust in an unfamiliar e-
vendor, thus ensuring the focus of the study throughout the
session. Each participant was then given a scenario and a
set of tasks to complete on the website. The tasks were
chosen to make the participants ‘discover’ the website and
Participant Age Interview
duration (h:mm)
Number of
transcribed words
Participant A 27 1:07 2651
Participant B 25 0:54 2643
Participant C 24 1:06 2374
Participant D 27 0:57 1791
Participant E 25 0:53 2010
Participant F 26 1:05 2566
Table 1 - Data collection details per participant
use it as if they were to purchase something. The partici-
pants were asked to enter the website through a link sent in
Zoom’s chat function.
During the test, the participants were instructed to think out
loud about what they saw, what they expected and how they
felt about the interactions, which is a common approach for
usability testing when the goal is to understand the partici-
pants’ behaviours, goals, thoughts and motivations [36].
Additionally, follow up questions were asked when needed
to make sure that the participants explained their thoughts
out loud throughout the session.
Semi-structured interviews
Interviewing is the most common format of data collection
in qualitative research and the most significant source for
obtaining case study information [14]. Therefore, as the
second part of the data collection, a semi-structured inter-
view was held with each participant after their respective
think-aloud sessions. Having semi-structured interviews
allowed for asking follow up questions and exploring the
participants’ answers in more depth. The semi-structured
interviews followed a pre-set interview guide and questions
about the participants’ experience of the website and how
and why it affected the perceived trustworthiness were
asked, as well as more general questions about initial trust
in an unknown e-vendor and in the mobile context. Addi-
tionally, some of the interview questions were inspired by a
study on measuring online trust in websites by [11].
Pilot study
To ensure the quality of the tasks and interview questions a
pilot study was conducted with two participants. The pilot
study revealed that some questions were redundant and that
some of the tasks were too specific. This resulted in chang-
es to the interview guide to its final form.
Method for data analysis
To analyze and identify patterns in the qualitative data from
the Think-Alouds and semi-structured interviews, thematic
analysis (TA) [8] was applied. The total time of the record-
ings was 5h and 52 min, which were transcribed verbatim
into 14 035 words (see Table 1 for details). The data was
then processed, using the qualitative method data analysis
software Maxqda2, by identifying, analyzing and interpret-
ing patterns into themes [6] (see Image 2). The most com-
monly mentioned words, experiences and topics relevant to
the research questions were grouped together. The TA was
conducted iteratively and the collected data was read
through multiple times and coded following the guide sug-
gested by [29].
Image 2 - Print Screen of MAXQDA 2020 software during
coding process
RESULTS
In this section, the results of the think aloud tests, inter-
views and the conducted thematic analysis is presented (see
Table 1 for details). Since the study was conducted in Swe-
dish, all quotes have been translated into English.
Themes
Purposeful and clear visual design
Participants' first impressions of the website were related to
the visual design, where combinations of visual elements,
images and illustrations, typography and colour were shown
to influence the participant’s initial trust in the e-vendor.
During the think-aloud tasks, participants reacted to the fact
that the website felt cluttered in combination with words
like “sceptical”, “messy”, “unprofessional”, explaining
that the multiple combi- nations of colours, fonts, images,
illustrations and mixed sizes of elements were confusing
and overwhelming, which affected how trustworthy the
website felt at a first glance.
“The combination of many strong colours and different fonts just gave a messy impression, and that there is such a mix between real photos and
illustrated characters, it's like they want to include as much as possible in
one place.” (Participant B)
During the interviews, when asked about how the messy
impression influenced their perceived trustworthiness of the
website, participants stated that the visual design of the
website reflects what the retailer wants to convey, and that
a cluttered page can confuse and distract, as well as give the
impression of that the e-vendor hasn’t put time into the
2 https://www.maxqda.com
design. They expressed diverging opinions regarding aes-
thetics of the visual design, where some of the participants
liked the overall look of the interface and the choice of
colours, describing them as “calm” and “earthy”, while
others didn’t personally like the chosen colours and fonts.
However, despite the diverging opinions, participants
stressed that generally, aesthetics can give a feeling that
time is put into the design which in turn can induce a trust-
worthy feeling.
When discussing the perceived aesthetics in connection to
trustworthiness, the participants expressed that while a
website that is perceived as aesthetically pleasing and
“looks good” could enhance a feeling of craftsmanship, the
most important aspect for initial trust was that the visual
elements were selected for a purpose.
“The messy impression and these illustrations, I mean It feels a bit quirky
and unprofessional, how can I trust it as an online store if it feels like
something else?” (Participant C)
Participants expressed that they did not, at first, understand
what kind of website it was based on the choice of illustrat-
ed figures and font in the landing page (see Image 1), and
that it reminded them of other kinds of online services such
as non-profit organizations. This induced a confusing and
unprofessional feeling, which in turn affected trustworthi-
ness as an online store.
Similarly, colour combinations and associations showed to
influence the participants’ initial trust in the e-vendor. As-
sociations of the colours on the website were mentioned by
the majority of the participants and mostly regarded specific
colours, like the green colour being associated with sustain-
ability and climate, and that it was positive that the selected
colours on the website were in line with the type of busi-
ness and brand.
Internal design consistency
Internal consistency, i.e., keeping the same design through-
out the website, was a common source of discussion during
the interviews.
“Even though I didn’t like the colour choice of bright pink in some head-
lines and banners, I liked that it showed up in several pages. It made me feel as if they were consistent in their design choices and that someone is
working on the website.” (Participant D)
When completing tasks on the website, all participants
mentioned that recurring visual elements and usage of col-
ours and fonts made a positive impression on them. This
was discussed as a sign of the website being an entity with
well thought out design and that someone had put time into
the visual design of the website, which positively affected
the perceived trustworthiness. Similarly, when participants
noticed lack of internal consistency it negatively affected
the perceived trustworthiness as it disrupted the experience
and didn’t live up to participants' consistency expectations.
For example, when some of the participants discovered the
“About us” and “Contact Us” pages, they noticed that the
different pages used e.g., different fonts, font sizes, head-
lines and line-height, which made them insecure about the
e-vendor and induced a feeling that “the website seems to
be under construction”.
Similarity and expectations
A common theme among the participants was that the
trustworthiness of the website was affected by how similar
it was to other webshops, i.e. how much the overall design
met their expectations based on prior experiences with
similar online shops. Participants stressed that if their ex-
pectations are not met, their initial trust in the e-vendor is
affected.
“I expect it to look and behave like similar online shops, and when it
doesn’t it can give me a sceptical feeling, like something is wrong” (Partic-
ipant A)
During the interviews participants mentioned that an e-
vendor was perceived to be more trustworthy if the design
of the website was similar to other e-vendor’s of the same
category. During the think-aloud tasks, participants reacted
to the fact that the overall look and structure of the website
felt similar to shops like “Bauhaus” or “for example com-
panies like Mediamarkt or Elgiganten”. Expectations re-
garded the visual appearance, element placements, infor-
mation, interactions and functionalities. For example, par-
ticipants reacted to the filtering function not working as
they expected it to, where they all commented on the limita-
tion of the price filter where they could only choose be-
tween two, very broad, price spans. They expressed that for
a webshop to feel trustworthy they expect the filtering to
work like it usually does, where you for example can set
your own price span. One participant specifically men-
tioned that “It feels as if they have never seen a filtering
function on an e-commerce website before”. Another ex-
ample was during the checkout process, where participants
mentioned that it deviated from what they normally would
have been encountered with, where information about the
shipping and taxes was present in the shopping cart (see
Image 3), confusing the participants if they were at check-
out or if they were supposed to know about details in ship-
ping costs and VAT already in the shopping cart. As a re-
sult, participants discussed whether the e-vendor targeted
individuals or other companies since the checkout process
was perceived as “unnecessarily complicated”, which in
turn negatively affected the trustworthiness of the website.
Mobile adaptation
One of the most discussed themes for the initial trust crea-
tion among the participants was the mobile adaptation on
the website in terms of structure, navigation and product
findability, which are connected to usability aspects such as
ease-of-use and usefulness, mentioned by [22, 23, 32].
“It was not a sloppy job that you can get from certain sites where it feels very unserious at once. Without a clear structure, like when you can’t see
categories and clear division of elements and products and a clear menu, I
don’t trust those sites.” (Participant D)
Image 3 - A screenshot of the shopping cart
During interviews, participants discussed that lack of struc-
ture and easy navigation can yield an unserious impression,
and thus affect the trustworthiness of the e-vendor and the
website negatively. Easy navigation was highlighted as
especially important for a majority of the participants since
they want online shopping, especially when using a mobile
device, to be simple. They stated that finding relevant prod-
ucts and going through the purchase steps should not take
up unnecessary time or effort. Participants mentioned that
an intuitive and clear structure of elements, pages and in-
formation positively influenced the trustworthiness of the
website since it indicated that the company had put time
into the design and provided necessary functionalities to be
able to interact with the site properly. For example, partici-
pants appreciated the product categories and that the e-
vendor “had made sure that the website works on mobile”,
like the use of a hamburger menu3. In contrast, when the
mobile adaptation and usability failed, where in some pages
the website moved sideways when scrolling, some partici-
pants reacted and stated that it felt as if the e-vendor could
have tried a bit harder with the mobile adaptation and that it
felt unprofessional.
During the think-aloud tasks, different aspects of navigation
on the website were common, such as expectations and
simplicity. Overall, participants mentioned that the naviga-
tion “was good and easy to understand” and participants
mentioned that it was positive that the website provided
them with multiple ways of finding a product they were
looking for, for example, from the menu, through bread-
crumbs, category shortcuts and through the search function-
ality. However, when the navigation failed to live up to the
3 What Is a Hamburger Menu Button? (howtogeek.com)
participants’ expectations, for example when one of the
participants didn’t find the way to go back to the landing
page from the checkout page, they reacted with that it made
them frustrated and that the website felt unprofessional.
They stated that if the navigation doesn’t work properly
they can’t be sure that the skills and competencies of the e-
vendor can be trusted, thus doubting the e-vendor’s ability
[25].
Content quality and reading experience
All participants mentioned content quality being important
for their trust formation, such as information findability and
accuracy, hierarchy and relevance of the information pro-
vided, as well as the reading experience. Participants
stressed that easily finding the information they are looking
for is crucial for how trustworthy the e-vendor is. That
included finding information about the company, a specific
product and contact possibilities.
“I want easily findable information, it could have made me leave the page
and go to someone else because I don’t want to look for so long. If I can’t find the information I want, like information about the company, product
or in this case what “We Reuse” even means I feel like, can I really trust
this?” (Participant B)
The use- and quality of product images and information
also influenced how trustworthy the website seemed. The
participants reacted to product images having varied resolu-
tion, that the website did not support zooming in on details
and that most products only had one image of the product
from one angle, which made it difficult to determine what
the product actually looked like. During interviews, they
mentioned that image quality is important when shopping
online since it is the only way to decide the ‘look and feel’
of the product. Correct and detailed product information
was according to participants a sign of someone taking care
of the website, continuously updating the information and
making sure its correctness, which they mentioned was
important for their initial trust in the e-vendor. When, for
example, product information was incorrect or not detailed
enough, it resulted in a negative experience that influenced
participants' perceived trustworthiness. For example, one of
the participants noticed that the product information of a
laptop was wrong, since the image of the laptop didn’t seem
to correspond to the product name, which made him very
sceptical. The information being wrong made him suspect
that more things could be wrong in the website and the trust
in the e-vendor was immediately affected.
“Since the image was wrong, I started questioning everything else and
became sceptical .” (Participant C)
During the think-aloud sessions, participants reacted to that
it was difficult to find information about the e-vendor, and
once found, the text amount was perceived as “overwhelm-
ing” and that it felt“ more like an essay than a website”
(see Image 4).
Image 4 - A screenshot of the “About Us” page
How the information on the website was presented was a
common discussion point during interviews. Here, the read-
ing experience was discussed, which was partly affected by
how easy the content was to read. Participants mentioned
visual aspects such as the choice of typography/font, text
size, amount of text, structural aspects such as lack of head-
lines and paragraphs, but also copy, i.e. the writing style
and typos as affecting the reading experience.
Regarding the writing style, some participants mentioned
that a “too relaxed” or “unserious” type of writing could
negatively affect their trust in the e-vendor in places such as
the contact page, as it was perceived as inappropriate and
unprofessional when they “might have important ques-
tions”. As an example, participants reacted to the language
used in the “Contact Us” page where sentences such as “I
Just Called to Say…?” and “Ping a signal” (Swedish:
“Plinga en signal”) was perceived as informal and unseri-
ous. Additionally, typos occurring in some places caused
participants to react and induced a sceptical feeling.
When asked about how the reading experience affected the
perceived trustworthiness of the website, participants
stressed the importance of information hierarchy and rele-
vance, only highlighting the important sections or head-
lines, as well as using a professional language without ty-
pos. This was connected to their feeling that e-vendor had
made an effort to make it understandable and mobile friend-
ly.
Social proof
All participants mentioned that proper information about
the company and who is behind it is important for their trust
formation, especially when it concerns an unfamiliar e-
vendor and when the overall impression of the website
doesn’t yield a totally trustworthy feeling.
“As a new, small and not so established company I would expect them to present themselves more properly, like their personnel or the founders and
links to social media. That would increase their trustworthiness. Otherwise
it is very anonymous. “ (Participant A)
The participants mentioned that the lack of social cues on
the website, such as signs of representation provided by
photographs and names of customer service agents, nega-
tively affected the trustworthiness and that presenting the
staff or founders “would have increased the credibility of
the website”. Participants stressed that they want to know
that someone would be held accountable in case something
would go wrong with, for example, an order or payment,
and that there is a human behind the business, reducing the
feeling of the webshop being a scam.
“When I saw that they had physical shops, it kind of made up for the
feeling that it was very anonymous” (Participant C)
All participants mentioned that they were positively sur-
prised when they found out that the company also has phys-
ical stores, as they mentioned it to make up for the other-
wise anonymous feeling on the website and that it induced a
more trustworthy feeling as they then would have the op-
portunity to go to the store if something would go wrong
with the purchase. This indicates that the website itself did
not induce a fully trustworthy feeling among the partici-
pants and that they needed more proof that someone would
be held accountable. Additionally, participants discussed
that they would only have searched for social proof on the
website if they had been unsure or sceptical to begin with,
and that then being able to see that there are people behind
the company would reduce that feeling. Another common
reaction was the perception of how big the company was,
where the participants noted that if the company is per-
ceived as big and established it is not as important with
social cues on the website as if the e-vendor is perceived as
small and new on the market.
External validation
Another aspect discussed, regarding what the most im-
portant thing for a m-commerce website to gain initial trust
from the participants, was to be able to validate that the e-
vendor is serious through third party integrations of cus-
tomer reviews (e.g. Trustpilot) and external payment meth-
ods (e.g. Klarna).
“I reacted to the fact that they had Trustpilot, and that they use Klarna. It is a service that I can trust, and that I can read what others have experienced
when using this page. That makes me feel that I could purchase some-
thing” (Participant F)
Participants especially mentioned that looking at other,
known websites for confirmation that the e-vendor is legit
and credible is of high importance when the e-vendor is
unknown, and especially when the overall design of the
website was not perceived as trustworthy. This was de-
scribed as seeking confirmation that an e-vendor has the
skills and competencies, i.e. the ability [25], needed to
handle a payment and deliver the ordered products in high
quality and that previous customers have experienced that
the e-vendor is honest and keeps promises, i.e. the integrity
[25]. All participants encountered these integrations late in
their exploration of the website, and some reacted and stat-
ed that “Oh I wish I had seen this earlier” and “that they
use Klarna makes it a bit more credible”.
Additionally, during the interviews participants stressed
that they never fully trust information provided by the e-
vendor themselves, as “they could write just about any-
thing”, and that it, therefore, is important to be able to con-
firm from elsewhere that the e-vendor can be trusted. In the
context of the case study website, however, this topic re-
vealed some contradictory results where a few participants
mentioned that even though external reviews and an exter-
nal payment method was integrated on the website, they
would still want to look up if, for example, Klarna has a
deal with the company or not, and enter Trustpilot’s website
to see if the reviews really seem genuine. They argued that
this had to do with their initial sceptical impression they got
from the e-vendor upon the first visit based on their general
feeling of the design of the website.
Overall experience and initial trust
This section describes the more general and higher level
findings from the think-aloud sessions and semi-structured
interviews where more general aspects of initial trust in m-
commerce were discussed. During the semi-structured in-
terviews participants discussed what usually gives them a
trustworthy impression in a m-commerce website.
“The most important thing for an e-vendor to feel trustworthy is the vibe
that the website gives when you enter it” (Participant C)
All participants discussed the importance of the overall
feeling and first impression of the website in relation to
initial trust in an unfamiliar e-vendor. The overall feeling of
a professional m-commerce website was based on aspects
such as functioning navigation, first impression of visual
design and layout, as well as information quality. Partici-
pants mentioned that the feeling of an unprofessional web-
site usually made them sceptical that the e-vendor would
manage to, for example, process and ship an order or an-
swer questions quickly. Additionally, the overall experience
with- and feeling of the website determined how partici-
pants felt about other aspects, such as looking up reviews:
“My experience of the whole site is very important and determines if I even want to take the time to, for example, check out reviews and so on if I
would feel the need to.” (Participant A)
Participants discussed how the e-vendor should clearly
describe themselves and their business concept as soon as
possible on the website, as it would enable the participants
to get to know the e-vendor before continuing on the web-
site. However, a feeling of “buy buy buy”, as one partici-
pant put it, would instead induce a feeling of an e-vendor
who doesn’t care about their customers and only wants to
force on deals and products, which can be compared to the
concept of benevolence that has previously shown to affect
initial trust in online commerce [25].
DISCUSSION
This section will explore the findings and discuss them in
relation to previous studies on the topic, as well as answer
the three research questions asked in this thesis.
Influence of website characteristics on initial trust
Overall, the results of this study attests to previous studies
of the importance of website design and the user interface
in enhancing user’s initial trust in a m-commerce system
[12, 22, 32]. The results indicate that prospective consum-
ers immediately make up judgements and perceptions of
uncertainty and risks in their first impression of the m-
commerce website and that if the first impression of the
landing page does not immediately induce a trustworthy
feeling, prospective consumers might leave the website
even before exploring it further.
The first question asked was:
What website characteristics affect the initial trust of a m-
commerce website?
The results from this study found 7 themes regarding what
website characteristics influence prospective consumer’s
initial trust in an unfamiliar e-vendor’s website: Purposeful
and clear visual design, Internal design consistency, Simi-
larity and expectations, Mobile adaptation, Content quality
and reading experience, Social proof and External valida-
tion. They include aspects found by scholars in the context
of e-commerce such as visual, structural, content, social-
cue and social proof related website characteristics [15, 34,
37] as well as perceived security [10, 20, 28]. However, this
thesis contributes to previous research on the topic by add-
ing aspects of design consistency, similarity and expecta-
tions, mobile adaptation, reading experience and the impact
of the overall impression of the website’s design. Addition-
ally, in contrast to previous research the results also suggest
how and why these website characteristics affect initial trust
in a m-commerce website, which will be discussed below
by answering the second research question:
How do website characteristics affect the perceived trust-
worthiness?
Perceived design effort
One of the most prominent indicators from the results is the
feeling of design effort, i.e., the perceived time put into the
design, affecting the perceived trustworthiness. This can be
connected to the theory of perceived ability (skills and
competencies) and benevolence (caring about the consum-
er) affecting initial trust suggested by [25], and that if one
or more of them is questionable the initial trust is negatively
affected [33]. The perceived design effort was shown to be
induced by a combination of purposeful and clear visual
design, internal design consistency and content quality and
mobile adaptation. Therefore, this thesis suggests that a
combination of those characteristics can enhance the feeling
that an e-vendor has put time into the design of the website
and thus increase prospective consumers’ initial trust.
Similarity and purpose over aesthetics
This study indicates that prospective consumers’ perception
of the e-vendor is affected by associations and pre-existing
ideas about visual elements such as illustrations and colours
and highlights the importance of quality and purpose over
aesthetically appealing visual design. In line with [22],
design aesthetics did show to influence initial consumer
trust to some extent where participants felt as if time had
been put into the design, i.e. contributing to perceived de-
sign effort as mentioned in the previous section. Neverthe-
less, in contrast to stating that design aesthetics affect initial
trust as it meets customers' need for enjoyment and arousal,
this study showed that it also needs to fulfill a purpose,
illustrated by how the participants reacted to the choice of
colours and illustrations in the website. Colours that did not
serve a purpose and illustrations associated with other kinds
of websites and services negatively affected the impression
and trustworthiness of the website, even if they were per-
ceived as aesthetically pleasing.
Another interesting finding was the aspects of similarity
and expectations in relation to initial trust in a m-commerce
website. The results indicate that when a m-commerce
website, has a similar design to other e-vendors’, it posi-
tively affects trustworthiness. This could be linked to insti-
tution based trust [21], where trust is built on signs of nor-
mality and that the website shows signs of living up to a
common standard. The feeling of similarity was based on
several aspects such as expectations regarding both the
visual appearance, element placements, information and
functionalities. Interestingly, the participants in the study
seemed to value the similarity to other e-vendors more than
the aesthetic appearance, which further confirms that simi-
larity is important for the initial trust in a m-commerce
website.
This study thus confirms previous research that found that
the visual design of a m-commerce website has implications
for the initial trust formation [12, 22, 23, 32], and further
contributes with the insights that it is more important for
initial trust that the design of a m-commerce website is
similar to other webshops of the same category and that the
visual design is clear and fulfills a purpose rather than being
visually appealing.
Content quality, reading experience and limitations in mobile interface
An interesting finding from the study is the importance of,
what in this thesis is called, the reading experience. The
reading experience was shown to be affected by a combina-
tion of usability aspects regarding how easy the text was to
read [22, 23, 32], the quality of the content [34, 37] in terms
of the writing style, relevance and typos, and the perception
of how much the e-vendor cares for their customers, i.e. the
benevolence [25]. The results contribute to previous re-
search by indicating that the reading experience is especial-
ly important in m-commerce, which has limitations of dis-
playing information, and that prospective consumers expect
information on mobile to be as concise and easy to read as
possible.
Additionally, in agreement with previous research on how
content design and quality influences perceived trust- wor-
thiness [34, 37], this thesis confirms the importance of
accurate, updated, findable and relevant information, both
regarding products and the company, as it was a sign of
professionality and that someone is taking care of the web-
site. The heavy focus on content quality can be a result of
the company acting as a second hand shop, selling re-
claimed and returned goods, which puts extra pressure on
the information provided.
External over internal trust validation
As noted by [10, 20, 28] perceived security showed to af-
fect participants' initial trust in the m-commerce website. In
that context, it was important to be able to verify and con-
firm with external parties that the e-vendor has the ability to
perform the tasks needed, and that they are known to keep
promises. Interestingly, in contrast to [15, 20], specific trust
assurances such as warranty and return policy, product
quality guarantee, and delivery on time were not mentioned
as influencing the trustworthiness. Instead, assurances pro-
vided by the e-vendor were perceived as less trustworthy
than external ones. This could be a result of personality
based trust [17], where the participants in the study based it
on prior experiences they have had, or that their initial scep-
tical impression of the website made the internally provided
assurances less trustworthy. Another contrasting insight to
previous studies [10, 20] is that none of the participants
commented on perceived privacy nor mentioned sharing
personal information as a concern, since they all felt like
that information is already shared with multiple companies
already. That could be a result of the young participant
group being used to- and comfortable with sharing privacy
information online and that other security aspects such as
payment method, shipping and fraud accord greater weight.
However, the results in this study indicate that it is im-
portant for prospective consumers to be able to take part of
previous customers’ purchasing experiences through re-
views and, for example, look at a data protection policy
provided by an external party, in this case Klarna. External-
ly provided reviews were also found to be perceived as a
sign of others using the website, thus reducing the risk of it
being a scam.
Importance of the overall impression and experience
The results indicate that the overall impression of the de-
sign is highly important for the initial trust formation in an
unknown m-commerce website and that when the user
experience is disrupted, it affects the initial trust negatively.
This relates to the theory of cognitive trust base, where trust
is formed based on first impressions and rapid, cognitive
cues [17]. As results state, a combination of visual design
aspects, similarity to other webshops and expectations on
structure and functionalities set the basis for the rest of the
experience and that a bad first impression affects how pro-
spective consumers evaluate the website. For example,
when the overall design is perceived as unprofessional or
induces a sceptical feeling it increases the need for assur-
ances such as looking at social proof of who is behind the
website [19, 34, 37], as well as external validation through,
for example, review systems like Trustpilot or external
payment systems like Klarna. Here, integrations of external
parties that can verify the website, as well as proof of social
presence can make up for a bad first impression of the web-
site in terms of perceived trustworthiness. However, from
the results it can also be seen that a bad first impression of
the visual and structural design affected the external inte-
grations' credibility. This indicates that the overall impres-
sion is important and should be considered carefully to gain
prospective consumers’ initial trust in an unknown e-vendor
and that initial trust cannot solely be induced by having
such external integrations on the website.
Recommendations for practitioners
Based on the results from the study, some general sugges-
tions on how to design for gaining prospective consumers’
initial trust in an unknown m-commerce website are pre-
sented below, thus answering the research question:
What should be considered by designers when developing a
m-commerce website for it to be perceived as trust- worthy?
Carefully selected visual design
The initial trust formation in a m-commerce website could
be enhanced by carefully selecting the visual design and its
elements, making sure that they convey the desired message
and serves a purpose, as well as having a clear layout and
using only a few colours, fonts and elements to avoid the
cluttered and messy feeling that the participants experi-
enced in this study. This adds to the suggestion by [12] that
a clear layout can enhance initial trust in m-commerce.
Results also indicate that choosing a colour scheme and
graphical elements that reflect the business and brand can
enhance initial trust in the e-vendor.
Internal design consistency
Keeping a consistent visual design between different pages
could help improve the feeling of craftsmanship and design
effort, which from the results showed to positively influ-
ence the trustworthiness of the m-commerce website.
Therefore, this study suggests having clear design guide-
lines that are followed throughout the website.
Ensure similarity and meet expectations
Make sure that the website follows pre-set expectations of a
m-commerce website in the same category. This regard, for
example, visual appearance, element placements, infor-
mation and functionalities such as checkout process and
sorting/filtering.
Mobile adaptation and reading experience
Ensure that the website is adapted for mobile use by having
an intuitive and clear structure of elements, pages and in-
formation, as well as easy navigation. This study further
suggests that in a mobile context, to avoid crowded sections
of text and to make sure that only the most relevant infor-
mation is included. In that way, the information might be
easier for customers to absorb and thus reduce the over-
whelming feeling that the participants experienced in the
study. Additionally, keeping “free language” to a minimum
in places such as the contact page can make the website
seem more professional and caring about the concerns of a
prospective consumer.
Content quality
This study revealed that in a mobile context, content quality
is highly important for initial trust. Therefore, ensuring
accurate, updated, findable and relevant information, for
example that product images correspond to product infor-
mation and presenting information in a structured and hier-
archical manner, can help induce a more trustworthy feel-
ing.
Provide social proof
Providing images of representatives and information about
who is behind the website is important for prospective con-
sumers’ initial trust, as it generates a feeling that someone
is held accountable if something goes wrong and reduces
the feeling of anonymity.
External validation
Based on the discussion that the overall impression affects
the need for external validation, this study suggests that it is
of importance to include integrations of external trust assur-
ances such as a review- and a payment system. This can
help induce a trustworthy feeling upon the first visit with an
unknown m-commerce website and possibly reduce the
impact of a bad first impression and overall design experi-
ence. Another suggestion would be to have these integra-
tions available sooner rather than later during the customer
journey, for example in the case of the case study website,
having the Klarna logo and Trustpilot integration higher up
in the landing page.
Method reflection
The choice of utilizing an exploratory case study approach
was suitable for the purpose of the study, as it enabled gain-
ing in-depth insights of how website characteristics can
influence initial trust in a m-commerce website. However,
as with many qualitative studies, the methodology chosen
in this thesis has some implications.
Firstly, investigating only one m-commerce website makes
it difficult to generalize the results outside of the context of
the study. Secondly, priming users about the aim of the
study might also have affected the way participants looked
at and experienced the website. However, since the aim of
the study was to investigate initial trust it was important to
not investigate usability on its own without a trust context,
since that was out of the scope of this study.
The age of the participant group might have affected the
results of the study, since people with different digital ma-
turity might have different perceptions of what constitutes a
trustworthy m-commerce website and having a certain
propensity to trust due to them being used to interacting
with mobile devices and shopping online. Thus, the find-
ings and conclusions can only be drawn for that particular
age group. Additionally, the study setting did not include a
real purchase situation and all participants knew that they
were taking part in a test. This might limit the possibility of
transferring the findings to actual m-commerce situations
with real transactions and risks.
Regarding the interviews and think-aloud tasks, as always
in qualitative research the choice of questions and tasks
might have impacted the result. This risk was reduced by
taking question inspiration from [11] and testing the think-
aloud tasks and interview questions in the pilot study.
CONCLUSION
This thesis aimed to investigate what and how website
characteristics affect initial trust in a m-commerce website
by qualitatively exploring the mobile version of the e-
vendor’ website. The purpose was to gain a deeper under-
standing of how the design of a m-commerce website af-
fects initial trust. The study confirms the importance of
website design and that the user interface can enhance ini-
tial trust and several website characteristics were identified
in the study, such as purposeful and clear visual design,
internal design consistency, mobile adaptation and reading
experience, content quality, similarity and expectations,
social proof and external validation, influencing initial trust
in an unknown m-commerce website. The thesis further
provides the insight that perceived design effort and overall
impression of the design are especially important aspects
for initial trust, as it affects the need to externally validate
the website. Additionally, the study concludes that it is
more important for initial trust that the design of a m-
commerce website is similar to other webshops of the same
category and that the visual design is clear and fulfills a
purpose rather than being aesthetically appealing. The study
findings are useful for designers as it provides insights and
recommendations on how to design trustworthy m-
commerce websites, both as support in the design process
and for evaluation purposes.
Future work
As this thesis was limited to a certain age group, namely
young adults, it would be interesting to look at how other
age groups’ initial trust in m-commerce is influenced by
website characteristics. Additionally, future research could
take the insights from this thesis and apply in the design of
a m-commerce website and measure the effect on perceived
trustworthiness. To get more generalizable results, a com-
parative study could be made between different m-
commerce websites.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to express my gratitude to my supervisors from
KTH, Olga Viberg and Cristian Bogdan, for all the support
and feedback during this study. I also want to thank my
external supervisor Max Ringi for steering me into the right
direction and bouncing ideas. Lastly, I would like to thank
everyone who participated in this study, and my family and
friends for all the support during the process.
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