Cyber Times International Journal of Technology & Management

E-Commerce worldwide, and particularly in growing economies like India and China, is growing at an astronomical rate. Thanks to the ever increasing reach of the telecommunication companies, each day, thousands of Internet users and shoppers from all over India, are joining the ranks of digitally connected. Given the speedy growth of E-Commerce in India, the importance of trust in E-Commerce exchange deserves special attention. Trust is a very important factor for any exchange to take place. In an e-commerce environment where characters like uncertainty, anonymity, lack of control and potential opportunism exists very prominently, Trust becomes all the more important for any transaction to take place. Consumers are really concerned about the security and privacy of their information, product quality, credit card fraud and product delivery. Consumers also worry about the availability of returns in case they don’t like or get the product they ordered. These concerns arise because of lack of face to face interaction with the seller, inability to touch or feel the product and not being familiar with the online merchant because of online mode of conducting business.

This paper discusses different types of trust, its attributes and also explores various trust factors which has significant effect on ecommerce operations in India from the customer’s perspective. In this paper, we identify various trust elements at the organizational level (like brand reputation, order fulfillment, return policies, direct relationship with the customer, etc.), website level (presentation, security, navigation, availability, certification and meta branding, etc.) and the consumer level (ability to take risks, awareness).