<p>The popularity of personal computers and recent advances in Internet technology has provided companies with a new medium for selling their products and increasing their customer base. Due to the influx and acceptance of these new possibilities for both users and businesses, all the more organizations are choosing to exploit electronic commerce. This concept is nothing new or novel, but over the years recent development in the domain of e-commerce has increased tremendously and it has become more commonplace and viable as a solution for customers to easily and effectively shop for products and services. One reason for users not to do an online purchase is feelings of uncertainty and dependency on the unknown, but more importantly a lack of trust for the vendor and the technology involved in the transaction. The focus of this report is on aspects of user trust in business-to-consumer e-commerce and how specific factors of e-commerce, i.e., usability, web site design, security, transference and privacy, influence user trust in e-businesses.</p><p>Eleven respondents who had some experience in e-commerce purchases were interviewed using open-ended questions to find out how they perceived trust in general and how certain factors influence their perception of trust in e-commerce. The results of this study show that usability, web site design, security, and transference and privacy, directly influence user trust in e-businesses since these factors lie closest to the user and are deciding factors for the users and influence their decisions regarding transactions in e-commerce. These results can be of importance for vendors since they show how the customers perceive trust and which factors can directly influence their trust in a vendor and their experience with e-commerce and that the factors can play a deciding role on whether or not a customer will make a purchase.</p>

The popularity of personal computers and recent advances in Internet technology has provided companies with a new medium for selling their products and increasing their customer base. Due to the influx and acceptance of these new possibilities for both users and businesses, all the more organizations are choosing to exploit electronic commerce. This concept is nothing new or novel, but over the years recent development in the domain of e-commerce has increased tremendously and it has become more commonplace and viable as a solution for customers to easily and effectively shop for products and services. One reason for users not to do an online purchase is feelings of uncertainty and dependency on the unknown, but more importantly a lack of trust for the vendor and the technology involved in the transaction. The focus of this report is on aspects of user trust in business-to-consumer e-commerce and how specific factors of e-commerce, i.e., usability, web site design, security, transference and privacy, influence user trust in e-businesses. Eleven respondents who had some experience in e-commerce purchases were interviewed using open-ended questions to find out how they perceived trust in general and how certain factors influence their perception of trust in e-commerce. The results of this study show that usability, web site design, security, and transference and privacy, directly influence user trust in e-businesses since these factors lie closest to the user and are deciding factors for the users and influence their decisions regarding transactions in e-commerce. These results can be of importance for vendors since they show how the customers perceive trust and which factors can directly influence their trust in a vendor and their experience with e-commerce and that the factors can play a deciding role on whether or not a customer will make a purchase.