Role of Trust Transfer in E-Commerce Acceptance

Lack of trust is one of the most important obstructions to consumers’ acceptance of e-commerce. With the increase of companies going online from offline, trust transfer has been found between offline presence and online presence. By applying the entitativity theories, this study empirically tested the trust transference from offline presence to online presence and addressed the underlying reasons through a questionnaire investigation on the customers of Lianhua supermarkets and Lianhua OK online supermarkets. Process integration was used as a useful means to promote this transfer process. For a click-and-mortar company such as Lianhua Group, its established offline trust is one of the major sources contributing to its initial online trust building. The results from this study suggest a new way to enhance e-commerce acceptance.