Establishing Trust in E-Commerce Through Website Design Elements: The Moderating Role of Gender

Abstract

It is expected that website design can lead to online trust, although research that systematically examines such a relationship is little. In addition, far too little attention has been paid to understand the effect of website design on e-trust across gender. In this study, therefore, three elements of website design (visual design, information design, and navigation design) are examined for their effect on consumer trust in e-commerce. Using data collected from 532 online shoppers, the overall model was first tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. The research model was then tested for each gender group separately. The results of the study indicated that website design is an important factor in establishing trust in e-commerce. The results further revealed that website information design is more important to males than females in forming e-trust, while website navigation design is more important to females than males in forming e-trust. However, website visual design was found to be a key driver of e-trust for both males and females.