Increasing trust in mobile commerce through design aesthetics

The growth of mobile commerce (m-commerce) has motivated a better understanding of how trust can be built on a mobile device. Researchers have previously examined design aesthetics (or visual aesthetics) of mobile website and incorporated a hedonic component of enjoyment in m-commerce domain, but the relationship between design aesthetics of mobile website design and customer trust in m-commerce has been rarely investigated. In this study, design aesthetics was enhanced to include a website characteristics component as important to trust development on the mobile Internet. This model was examined through an empirical study involving 200 subjects using structural equation modeling techniques. Our research found that design aesthetics did significantly impact website characteristics component, especially customization, perceived usefulness and ease of use, all of which were ultimately shown to have significant explanatory power in affecting customer trust.