Consumer trust is crucial for the success of e-business.  Because Internet transactions tend to be risky (due to the lack of personal interaction, inability to inspect the purchased item physically, and security concerns), consumers often rely on trust toward an e-vendor in their purchasing decisions.  Therefore, much attention has been paid to how trust can be developed and sustained; however, very little is known about how to manage its conceptual counterpart, distrust.  Traditionally, trust and distrust have been treated as opposite sides of the same coin, but more recent literature has recognized distrust as a distinct construct related to but qualitatively different from trust.  That is, distrust is not just the absence of trust but the active expectation that the other party will behave in a way that violates one’s welfare and security.  Such expectation may escalate consumers’ concern that an e-vendor will fail to provide the correct item in a timely fashion or sell personal, identifying information to other, unapproved retailers. 

If trust and distrust are distinct, the antecedents and outcomes of both constructs may not coincide.  This would mean that retailers’ efforts to build trust may not eliminate distrust, and vice versa.  Furthermore, those consumer behaviors that are affected negatively by high distrust may not be promoted even if the firm is able to enhance its customers’ trust.  This study investigates these matters in the context of Internet purchasing concerning books and clothing.  In particular, using consumer judgments of two measures of trustworthiness—namely, the firm’s competence and its benevolence—the author finds that these factors differ in terms of building trust and engendering distrust.  The results show that when consumers view the firm as competent (i.e., the firm is reliable in carrying out its business), their distrust lowers more significantly than does their trust increase. When consumers regard the firm as benevolent (i.e., the firm to treat consumers well or fairly), their trust increases to a greater extent than does their distrust decrease.  In addition, using two measures of consumer behavior—namely, self-disclosure and commitment—, the author finds that trust and distrust affect these behaviors differently.  The results indicate that, to encourage consumers to provide personal information (e.g., credit card information), retailers must lower their levels of distrust.  However, to promote consumers’ commitment to a lasting relationship (e.g., return to the same retailer to make a subsequent purchase), the retailer needs to enhance consumer trust.

These findings suggest that retailers must consider their weaknesses to determine how to manage consumer trust and distrust.  For example, if an e-retailer finds that many consumers visit its site and even add products to the shopping cart but then fail to ever provide their credit card information to complete the sale, its problem lies with self-disclosure, an issue of distrust. In response, the retailer must improve its competence evaluation. If, however, the retailer’s problem is that consumers seem to buy only once and do not return, it faces a commitment concern. To get such consumers to come back and purchase additional items, the retailer needs to increase their levels of trust by improving their perceptions of the retailers’ benevolence.

To provide some insight into how retailers might improve their benevolence and competence ratings, and thereby their levels of trust and distrust among consumers, the author also studies the effects of different elements of e-business operations (e.g., core business operations and relationship investments).  The author finds that consumers weigh these elements differently when they judge an e-vendor’s trustworthiness.  Core business operations, such as the product offerings and site design, tend to be weighed more heavily in a judgment of competence than of benevolence.  That is, if the firm offers attractive products via a well-organized and easy to navigate web interface, consumers are likely to consider the firm competent in their operations and therefore be more willing to provide their credit card information to purchase those items. In contrast, consumers consider relational investments, such as a rewards program and other preferential treatments for return consumers, more significant for their benevolence judgments than their competence judgments.  For example, if retailers were to provide free shipping or discounts, it could signal that the retailers care about consumers’ welfare as much as theirs.  This in turn enhances a consumer’s trust perception, thus increasing the likelihood to return in the future.