Trust is also a key element in the establishment of ongoing relationships. This is an especially crucial area for e-commerce marketers, as many potential consumers have some reservations about the trustworthiness of online marketers. Current online customers generally find e-commerce marketers to be highly reliable and worthy of customer trust. Yet online sales are made to only a small percentage of consumers.

To expand this number, trust building is essential. Trust-based collaboration between buyers and sellers is based on six building blocks: site security; merchant legitimacy; fulfillment; tone; departmental coordination; and customer control.

Site Security

A significant number of potential e-commerce customers are reluctant to share credit card and other personal information necessary to buy online. There are also concerns about viruses that could be contracted when visiting Web sites. These fears are multiplied when hackers manipulate e-commerce sites. Early in 2000, hackers showed just how vulnerable sites can be by breaking into Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon.com., and E*Trade. These sites were shut down for hours at a time, and consumers worried that their credit card information may have been captured by the hackers.***

To maximize site security, site operators use encryption to convert readable messages into an unreadable format unless the reader is authorized by the system. Authentication, which verifies the identity of users and hardware, is also essential for secure sites.

Customer privacy (discussed in the last section of this chapter) protects the data from unauthorized viewing. With these processes and safeguards in place, e-commerce marketers can offer their customers a reasonably safe site, perhaps even a guaranteed-safe site.

Merchant Legitimacy

Marketers of well-established, high-quality branded merchandise have an advantage in achieving merchant legitimacy. So do leading retailers who have added e-commerce to their store base. Examples include Barnes and Noble, Kmart, and Toys "R" Us. Many business-to-business companies already had achieved legitimacy, or credibility, with customers before moving into e-commerce. For most start-ups and marketers of lesser-known brands or unbranded merchandise, offering risk-free trial periods and strong customer satisfaction guarantees could be effective.

Marketing communications can also affect the perceived legitimacy of lesser-known e-commerce merchants. Referring to Super Bowl advertising, the most expensive ad time on television, many start-ups were trying to establish legitimacy in the minds of their target customers. While most start-ups failed to establish legitimacy with their Super Bowl ads, some did move a step closer. Examples include Monster.com, and Computer.com, with both reporting millions of new visitors to their sites in the days following the Super Bowl.

Fulfillment

Fulfillment refers to meeting customer expectations in an efficient manner. Customer service again comes to the forefront, and it is important to note that customer service is not restricted to after-the-sale status. The Boston Consulting Group reports that 80 percent of on-line purchasers have experienced at least one failed purchase during their past 12 months of shopping and that 25 percent of all attempted on-line purchases fail. Typical reasons for failure include technical problems with the Web site, difficulties in finding products, and delivery problems after the sale.

Lands’ End and Gap offer good examples of how to ensure fulfillment. Lands’ End overhauled its site in 1999—and doubled its sales. The site features multiple opportunities for the customer to interact with the company, including electronic chats with customer service agents 24 hours a day. The Gap site is also customer-friendly and allows shoppers to compare the fit of items, say a loose fit versus a classic fit. By encouraging interaction and dialogue, Lands’ End and Gap do a good job fulfilling customer expectations.  We'll analyze Land's End in an upcoming lesson.

Departmental Coordination

It is essential that the front end of an organization understands what's happening with the back end, and vice versa.  While many organizations sell their goods and services on the Web predicated on their brick and mortar reputation, they are not necessarily prepared to service the transaction through the same venue.  Customers like to speak with a person when they need assistance.  Organizations operating on both fronts must coordinate their efforts, as well as with departments, throughout the organization.  Nothing can kill customer confidence any quicker than a poor customer service experience.  Crossing communication is critical.

Tone

Web site content and dialogue with customers should always be friendly and straightforward. This is absolutely as important in electronic exchanges as it is in other communications exchanges such as between a salesperson and the customer.

Web site design, content, and navigation should be coordinated and customer-focused. Disclosures and policies related to purchases and delivery should be clearly identifiable and easy to interpret.

At L.L. Bean’s Web site, all of these points are covered in an inviting, simple format. The site features a "Start Here Go Anywhere" button, a "Need Help?" icon, a simplified purchase process, and interesting content to explain how their hiking boots and other apparel and equipment meets the needs of their shoppers. Further, the tone is straightforward. For example, the site speaks directly to site security and consumer privacy issues: "llbean.com is a secure site that respects your privacy."  Do most people really read all of this information?  Not likely.  However, it all adds to the feel of the site's security policy.

Control

Customer trust is more easily achieved if the customer has a significant amount of control over the interaction. For example, at CDNow, customers have an option of "one-click" buying or of checking and even rechecking order details before making the purchase. Allowing customers the option of sharing their personal information with other marketers is another way to grant the customer control. Alternative will be discussed in an upcoming lesson.

Personalization is another way to give customers more control. When consumers can receive relevant information in their preferred format -- and even products tailored to individual tastes -- the customer gains control. Actually, this a mutually beneficial occurrence, as it works to the benefit of the marketer as well as the customer.

***While the press made a huge fuss over these incidents, the concerns were overblown.  What actually occurred on the sites was NOT that the sites were "cracked" and broken into.  Rather, software that you can find free on the Internet was utilized to flood and deluge the sites, rendering them temporarily inoperable, much the same way your telephone lines might go down during an emergency when massive numbers of calls are being placed simultaneously.  The hysteria that ensued was a discussion of stealing credit card numbers and "is anything safe?" when in reality no data was ever at risk during these incidents.