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Transactions on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence - Vol. 10, No. 5

Publication Date: October, 25, 2022

DOI:10.14738/tmlai.105.13170. Kwadade-Cudjoe, F. (2022) Consumer Trust in B2C Ecommerce Strategy for Contemporary Business Transaction is Paramount for

Sustaining the Emerging Commerce Market. An Assessment of the Conduct of Consumer Trust Across Cultures and Benefits of

Companies that go Ecommerce. Transactions on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, 10(5). 30-42.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Consumer Trust in B2C Ecommerce Strategy for Contemporary

Business Transaction is Paramount for Sustaining the Emerging

Commerce Market. An Assessment of the Conduct of Consumer

Trust Across Cultures and Benefits of Companies that go

Ecommerce

Francis Kwadade-Cudjoe

Senior Lecturer, Knutsford University College

Accra and Adjunct Lecturer, Regional Maritime University

Tema, Ghana

ABSTRACT

E-Commerce has been going on since Netscape.com introduced the idea in 1995

when www was invented. Businesses / consumers that have been immersed in e- commerce transaction have reaped the benefits associated with such technological

break-through, as consumers sit at comfort of their homes to transact business.

However, the impediment that has hindered other businesses / consumers to

transform to this technological business approach has been the trust associated

with carrying out business; consumer trust across global cultures has been

contentious. Authors, including Hofstede, Gefen et al. and Greenberg et al. have done

research on culture differences across the globe and how these differences could

affect behaviours towards accepting e-commerce for transacting business. There is

therefore, the need for a global digital guideline / policy to protect all consumers

and businesses that trade on the internet. Such a policy would hopefully allay the

fears amongst nations’ cultures having difficulty in imbibing this wholesome

technological advancement for enhanced business transaction. Conducting

business transaction through brick-and-mortar approach is archaic and

cumbersome and should be faded out completely.

Key words: E-Commerce, trust, consumer, technology, culture, brick-and-mortar and

transaction.

INTRODUCTION

E-Commerce may be defined as sharing of business information, maintaining business

relationships, and conducting business transactions using digital networks (Zwass, 2003 cited

in Wu & Hisa, 2008). E-Commerce could also be explained based on four (4) perspectives.

According to Kalakota and Whinston (1997) cited in Ngai and Wat (2002), these are:

i. Communication: delivery of information, products / services, or payments via

telephone lines, computer networks, or any other means;

ii. Business: application of technology toward the automation of business transactions

and workflow;

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Kwadade-Cudjoe, F. (2022) Consumer Trust in B2C Ecommerce Strategy for Contemporary Business Transaction is Paramount for Sustaining the

Emerging Commerce Market. An Assessment of the Conduct of Consumer Trust Across Cultures and Benefits of Companies that go Ecommerce.

Transactions on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, 10(5). 30-42.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/tmlai.105.13170

iii. Service: tool that addresses the desire of firms, consumers, and management to cut

service costs while improving the quality of goods / services and increasing the speed

of service delivery; and

iv. On-line: capability of buying and selling products / services and information on the

internet and other online systems (Kalakota & Whinston, 1997 cited in Ngai & Wat,

2002).

Furthermore, e-commerce is the use of technology to transacting business globally and was

started in 1995 when Netscape.com explored the idea of using the world-wide-web (www) for

sales and advertising, leading to growth in e-commerce for retail sales. This led to sales revenue

to double and triple, and mobile phones were also introduced for buying goods / services

(Laudon & Laudon, 2007 cited in Al-Rawi, Sabry, & Al-Nakeeb, 2008). Consequently, there has

been a substantial rise in the use of e-commerce globally, by businesses to promote the sale of

their products / services.

Lin (2007) cited in Al-Rawi et al. (2008), alluded that e-commerce has been associated with the

need for change through technologies to re-engineer the way in which business is conducted,

improving process efficiency, effectiveness, flexibility, etc. to cater for the needs / expectations

of customers / consumers. Additionally, e-commerce enables organizations to expand to

unknown frontiers and leading to international virtual marketing, especially small & medium- sized enterprises (SME) -(Al-Rawi et al., 2008; AlRawi, Ekbia, & Jaber, 2008). Subsequently, this

leads to selecting the best suppliers from different geographical locations which enlarges the

scope of global service market (Soopramanien et al., 2007 cited in Al-Rawi et al., 2008).

THE GLOBAL NATURE OF ONLINE TRANSACTIONS

E-Commerce is a global activity that takes place amongst e-vendors and e-consumers (Alrawi

et al., 2008). As such, consumer reliability in e-commerce is vital to enable e-consumers to be

assured services offered by the online transaction are dependable and safe for e-business. No

e-consumer would be happy to lose his / her money due to fraudulent business transactions

with an e-vendor. There is no physical presence between the e-consumer and e-retailer during

the trading period and this necessitates an established concepts and frameworks for regulating

trading within the e-commerce markets.

IMPORTANCE OF CONSUMER TRUST IN E-COMMERCE

Consumer trust in e-commerce is linked to Consumer Perceived Quality (CPQ), which is defined

by Gro ̈nroos (1984) cited in Su, Li, Song & Chen (2008), as the confirmation / disconfirmation

of a consumer’s expectations of service in comparison to the customer’s perception of the actual

service received. E-Consumer’s level of trust is therefore, associated with the perceived risk

within the e-commerce system. Though, third party seals have been introduced to enhance e- consumer’s trust through transference process, more needs to be done to allay the fears of

consumers; they feel unsecured, and therefore, reluctant in releasing their credit / debit card

details (Al-Rawi et al., 2008). Every consumer would like to have trust in a market system

before any meaningful transaction could take place between the consumer / customer and the

vendor / retailer. Without the establishment of trust, no effective business can take place, as

there would be no assurance of receiving the required goods / services from the retailer.

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Transactions on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (TMLAI) Vol 10, Issue 5, October - 2022

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

When business is conducted between retailer and consumer in e-commerce, the consumer

cannot have physical access to the shop, let alone physically see the retailer, the goods being

sold, etc. to enable the consumer have informed judgement / decision to continue or not, with

the transaction. Unfortunately, this is how e-commerce operates, as trading takes place in a

virtual environment, unlike the traditional market system. Therefore, there is the need for the

e-consumer to have assurance of genuine business venture / transaction, as the spatial and

temporal separation between e-consumers and e-vendors creates fears of e-vendor- opportunism due to product / service and identity uncertainty (Ba & Pavlou, 2002 cited in

Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006).

Furthermore, quality of service received by e-consumer (Business-to-Consumer – B2C) from e- retailer is vital because the consumer’s personal information and credit / debit card details are

required by the retailer before service could be extended to the consumer (Su et al., 2008). As

these particulars are personally treasured information, they must be managed well, so as not

to cause any damage / harm to the e-consumer.

Moreover, the e-consumer must be involved in an extensive Information Technology (IT) use

to be able to transact e-business (Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006), as without proper IT knowledge,

no meaningful business could be transacted. It is therefore, important that a concept be enacted,

and be globally acceptable to stakeholders, which should lead to the provision of qualitative

and trustworthy product / service, and correspondingly, a framework designed for the release

of vital information by the e-consumer to the e-retailer.

The above are some important features which need to be addressed to allay consumers’ fears

associated with e-commerce markets, so as to create confidence / trust for e-consumers within

the e-commerce market system.

STRATEGIES OF E-COMMERCE

There are many strategies associated with e-commerce and e-business; e-business is the

organization that operates the e-commerce. However, the three (3) main strategies associated

with e-commerce are:

1. Business-to-Business (B2B),

2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C), and

3. Business-to-Government (B2G).

However, there are additional two (2), which are:

4. Consumer-to-Business (C2B), and

5. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) – (Wu & Hisa, 2008; Strauss & Frost, 2014).

Fig. 1 below highlights strategies of the three (3) popular markets that sell to and buy from each

other: businesses, consumers, and governments. Note that after business-to-consumer (B2C)

and business-to-business (B2B) markets, the business-to-government (B2G) and consumer-to- consumer (C2C) markets are where most e-business activity occurs (Strauss & Frost, 2014).

Strauss and Frost (2014) and Robert and Zahay (2013) confirmed that the business market

involves the selling of products / services to businesses, governments, and institutions /

consumers for use or resale in the business operation. Furthermore, the online B2B strategy is