Security Risk and Social Presence in E-commerce

Abstract

The object is to investigate the relationship between consumers' sense of security of a store and their purchasing intention from the store. This was investigated by evaluating how perceptions of security vary among pure play websites with no social presence on the one hand and with social presence on the other; and click and mortar websites with no social presence on the one hand, and social presence on the other. It was also investigated by evaluating how social presence might mitigate the risk of security perceived by consumers. The research method included a scenario given to each participant which requires them to walk through a shopping purchase on a given website. Then the participant was given a survey where the participant will evaluate their perceptions of the shopping experience in regards to security, social presence, and intention to purchase. While there have been studies conducted about perceptions of security, none of these studies have looked at how the type of store, either click and mortar or pure play, impact perceptions of security and how social presence might mitigate negative perceptions. Our study concluded that perceptions of security risk and intention to make a purchase are inversely related, that is that the more risk one feels, the less likely they will have an intention to make a purchase. Our study also found that the type of store does not influence perceptions of security or intention to make a purchase. Social presence was also not found to influence perceptions of security or intention to make a purchase. Online shopping experience was found to influence perceptions of risk.

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