To ensure that a customer is satisfied when they purchase a product, they need to be able toreceive assistance if the product does not work correctly or is in any other way unsatisfactory. Thisis why support is needed. There are many different types of support, but with an ever growingnumber of people having less time to spare in their every day life, a quick short answer issometimes preferred. This is why the market for Live-Chat support solutions has grown.    The purpose of this thesis project is to develop a functional stand-alone Live-Chatdemonstration prototype according to Askås' demands and wishes. The demonstration prototypewas developed using the programming language Perl, with additional functionality developed injQuery, HTML and CSS. The project will be evaluated by its functionality and too which degree itcompares to similar solutions.    The project was successful in the development of a functional demonstration prototypehowever further development is needed if it is to be used as a complement to Askås' web-shopsolution.

Aim: This paper aims to explore and to understand how the E-CRM affects customer satisfaction and trust from customer perspectives in electronic commerce. Method: The research is an exploratory and qualitative study. A multiple case study involving 3 Swedish companies with 12 face-to-face interviews in Gävle, Sweden, was chosen to collect the empirical data for this study. Data were coded by hands and structured in the form of tables in accordance with 7 codes categorized in 2 themes. Coded data were interpreted to investigate the research questions by using the inductive method. Result & Conclusions: This study found that live chat and e-service quality in E-CRM directly affect how satisfied a customer feel with a company in e-commerce, thus affecting trust as well. However, the findings also showed that not all customers could perceive all the effects of E-CRM on their satisfaction and trust.   Suggestions for future research: Other features such as electronic word-of-mouth, internet branding or internet prices are suggested for the future research to have an in-depth understanding of E-CRM effects. Future studies may combine data from both company and customers to increase the validity and reliability. Furthermore, the population of samples could be collected in others cities or countries than in Gävle, Sweden to generalize the result more. The contribution of the thesis: This study contributes knowledge about E-CRM effects in Swedish e-commerce. Some differences related to existing theories were found in this research such as the effects of gender on trust or effects of prices on relationship building. Understanding the customer perspectives on E-CRM effects enables companies to have a proper E-CRM implementation and training for their organization and employees.

Creating effective functions in website designs that reduce consumers' anxiety in shopping online is a challenge common to most e-retailers. The present study investigated the roles of online reputation systems and instant chat services in decreasing customer perceived risk and increasing initial trust in unfamiliar e-retailers. Therefore, the reputation system when coupled with live chat service may be an effective external mechanism for providing potential consumers with critical decision making information. The present research focused on examining the respective value of live chat services and reputation systems in reducing potential consumers' perceived risk and simultaneously increasing their initial trust towards an unfamiliar e-retailer. The present research tested an e-retailing trust model based on the consumer decision making process. The model incorporated the following variables: (1) live chat service, and (2) reputation system, and explanatory variables: (1) perceived risk and (2) an initial trust. Customer prediction of purchasing is the response variable. The moderating role of interdependent and independent self-construal on online consumers’ behavior was also examined. Based on the review of literature, the following hypotheses were developed: (H1) Perceived risk associated with an unfamiliar web retailer will vary as a feature of the reputation system feature of a web retailer; where the reputation is positive, perceived risk will decrease. (H2) Perceived risk associated with an unfamiliar web retailer will vary as a feature of the instant chat feature of a web retailer; the mere presence of a live chat feature will decrease perceived risk. (H3) Initial trust associated with an unfamiliar web retailer will vary as a feature of the reputation system feature of a web retailer; where the reputation is viewed as negative, perceived risk will increase. (H4) Initial trust associated with an unfamiliar web retailer will very as a feature of the instant chat feature of a web retailer; the mere absence of a live chat feature will result in an increase in perceived risk. (H5) Purchase Intention will be influenced by the live chat function in the e-retailing website. (H6) Purchase Intention will be influenced by the evaluation system presented in the website. (H7) Purchase Intention will be influenced by the customers' perceived risk. (H8) Purchase intention will be influenced by the customers' initial trust. (H9) There is no interaction effect between the perceived risk and initial trust. (H10) Self-construal will moderate the effects on initial trust and perceived risk. A two by two factorial between-subjects experiment was conducted using a mock retail website design to examine the effect of reputation system and live chat service on customers. The findings demonstrated that the evaluation system significantly influences customers' perceived risk and initial trust, and directly influences customers' purchase intention. Perceived risk and initial trust influence customers' purchase intention independently. For future marketing implications, this research suggests that positive customer reviews, transaction history or other evaluation details in the web presentation is crucial for a starting e-retailer. Although there is no significant direct effect of self-construal on the perceived risk and initial trust, this research demonstrated that female and male have different self-construal and self-construal can be a good mediator to observe its effects on the customers' attitude and behavior. Furthermore, customers' initial trust and perceived risk determine their behavior separately which indicates that customers' initial trust increase doesn’t mean their perceived risk will decrease. / Graduation date: 2012