Trust transference in brick and click retailers: An investigation of the before-online-visit phase

We examined the formation of online trust encountered by potential customers of a brick and click retailer before they visit its online website; this phase of the purchasing experience has been under-investigated in trust literature. Since a brick and click retailer is eager to attract offline customers to its website based on trust in the brick and mortar stores, our exploratory study investigated, (1) Can customers’ offline trust in a retailer affect their online trust (in the website operations of the retailer)?; (2) What other factors might be influential on online trust? A social relations and networks perspective was adopted to explain customers’ online trust formation during the before-online-visit phase. Findings from a sample of 246 offline customers who had never visited a supermarket's website revealed that word-of-mouth, offline trust, and expected sanctioning power were significant in forming online trust. Furthermore, findings showed that word-of-mouth was more influential than offline trust based on a customers’ personal experience with the supermarket's physical stores. This provided empirical evidence on how and why some pure online retailers outperformed brick and click retailers.