In general, I think people have become increasingly savvy online consumers. While this is good for companies looking for a market, businesses must realize that they will only succeed as long as they are credible and trustworthy.
With e-commerce, consumers are very aware of the dangers of buying online such as credit card fraud and problems with merchandise. Most customers won’t buy anything from a company they do not already have a relationship with – either through a friend’s recommendation or by a physical presence offline. Even on auction sites such as eBay, reputation goes a long way. If two sellers are selling similar items, the buyer will pick the seller with the best reputation – often even if the product costs a little more.
The look of a Web site also goes a long way to gain credibility among users. A poorly designed site reflects poorly on the company. If a site is well-designed then the company is more likely to be legitimate since they took the time to really work on the site.
Online news sites that are associated with an offline company tend to be viewed as more credible than online-only news sources. It was interesting that younger people were more critical of online information in general, according to the BELO survey. I wonder if this is because they have constantly had teachers telling them to be cautious when using online sources or if it’s because they are used to using MySpace and Facebook and looking at news sites based on popularity where the news might not always be factual.
