The impact of consumer trust on attitudinal loyalty and purchase intentions in B2C e-marketplaces: Intermediary trust vs. seller trust

The online merchant of an e-marketplace consists of an intermediary, providing the market infrastructure, and the community of sellers conducting business within that infrastructure. Typically, consumers willingly buy from unknown sellers within an e-marketplace, despite the apparent risk, since they trust the institutional mechanisms furnished by the relatively well-known intermediary. Consumers’ trust in one component of the e-marketplace merchant may not only affect their trust in the other, but also influence the way consumers make online purchases. This paper explores the impact of trust on consumer behavior in e-marketplaces. An empirical study has been conducted to accomplish our research objectives, using a questionnaire survey of 222 active e-marketplace shoppers in Korea. The results reveal that consumer trust in an intermediary has a strong influence upon both attitudinal loyalty and purchase intentions, although consumer trust in the community of sellers has no significant effect on the two constructs representing consumer behavior. In addition, it was found that trust is transferred from an intermediary to the community of sellers, implying that the trustworthiness of the intermediary plays a critical role in determining the extent to which consumers trust and accept the sellers in the e-marketplace. This paper offers some implications from the findings of the research.

Research highlights
► Of the three factors of trustworthiness, benevolence and integrity have a statistically significant influence on consumer trust in an intermediary in B2C e-marketplaces.
► Trust is transferred from an intermediary to the community of sellers in B2C e-marketplaces.
► Trust in an intermediary influences both attitudinal loyalty and purchase intentions in B2C e-marketplaces.
► Trust in the community of sellers affects neither attitudinal loyalty nor purchase intentions in B2C e-marketplaces.
► Attitudinal loyalty is an important determinant of purchase intentions in B2C e-marketplaces.