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Money spent on Web-site design an investment in winning buyers' trust
Mark Reutter,
Business & Law Editor
217-333-0568; mreutter@uiuc.edu
8/1/2006
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —
With consumers growing wary of buying online, how can a company best
win over customers and clinch sales on the Web?
The most common method used by online retailers is to post privacy and
security statements that convey a firm’s good intentions, according
to Tiffany Barnett White, a professor of marketing at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
But good intentions are not enough for today’s skeptical consumer.
The results of four tests of between 79 and 152 people, mostly undergraduate
students, conducted by White and two other researchers, suggest that
spending money on good Web-site design was a more effective way to build
consumer trust.
“Instead of serving a purely aesthetic function, Web-site design
signals that a firm’s ability can be trusted,” the researchers
wrote in an article in the Journal of Marketing, a publication of the
American Marketing Association.
Such trust in a firm’s ability to deliver was “the most
significant driver of online purchase intentions for visitors engaging
in pre-purchase deliberation,” or what the researchers called
“searchers.”
However, improved site design did not significantly increase purchases
in the case of “browsers,” or those who viewed a site for
recreation or enjoyment.
The study reflects a conundrum among online retailers.
Rather than gaining consumer confidence over time, online sites have
suffered from growing caution among buyers.
Not only do consumers balk at buying goods without actually seeing
or touching them, but many are aware that established retailers frequently
outsource their e-commerce functions, making it difficult to predict
the quality of an online product based on the customer’s in-store
experience with the firm.
Another factor affecting Web sales is what the researchers called “social
risk.” For online retailers selling expensive items, such as jewelry,
or gifts for important social occasions, such as weddings, sophisticated
graphics and easy site navigation are important sales tools.
On the other hand, sites that sell commodity-like products, such as
office supplies, can do without costly Web-site investments.
The paper was co-written with Ann E. Schlosser, a marketing professor
at the University of Washington, and Susan M. Lloyd, a marketing professor
at American University.
The article is titled, “Converting Web Site Visitors into Buyers:
How Web Site Investment Increases Consumer Trusting Beliefs and Online
Purchase Intentions.”
