Page 1 of 12
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 03
April 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 76
The Impact of Website Design Dimensions on Online Brand
Trust in E-Commerce Industry: Special Reference of
“Kapruka.Com” Sri Lanka
Bavani Subramaniam a
, Anthony Andrew b
aDepartment of Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka.
baans99@gmail.com
bDepartment of Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka.
andrewsa1965@yahoo.com.au
Abstract
Despite exponential growth in e-commerce,
there is limited research on its potential effect on
online brand trust, website design factors, and
consumer online purchase intentions. This
conceptual paper makes an important
contribution to fill the existing gap in the
literature and creating the fundamental
linkages between level of website design factors
and the effects of the extent on online brand
trust. The importance of this empirical study lies
in to identify the role played by the website
design factors in the creation of online brand
trust. This study empirically examines the
relationship between website design factors and
online brand trust created through
“Kapruka.com”. This study conducted for total
population group of “Kapruka.com” facebook
fan page. Among 331,000 facebook fans of
“Kapruka.com”, about two hundred (200)
customers have been responded to the uploaded
questionnaire within the required time frame.
The respondents provided the data by means of
a close-ended questionnaire. Data were
analyzed and evaluated by Univariate and
Bivariate techniques. Pearson’s Correlation was
used for testing the hypotheses. Data analysis
was conducted using SPSS Software. While both
the variables individually have high level
attributes, the Pearson’s correlation analysis
explores a positively significant linear
relationship between website design factors
(0.817**) and online brand trust created
through “Kapruka.com”. The regression
analysis indicates that the website design
factors for “Kapruka.com” is useful to explain
the variation in online brand trust created
through the “Kapruka.com” Sri Lanka. This
study provides outcomes that could be valuable
to e-commerce industry for strategic planning
and to compete in the industry.
Keywords: Website design factors, Online
Brand Trust and E-commerce Industry
1. INTRODUCTION
The Internet and Technology advancements
have extend into an important marketing
channel and modifying how online vendors
interact with their customers. In the time of
substantial competition and emergence of
online business, fulfilling the aims of new
marketing approaches in the companies
depends to a great extent on the trust of their
customers. Online Trust is believed to
influence attitude change towards online
shopping intensions. This fact is
particularly evident in the electronic
Page 2 of 12
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 03
April 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 77
commerce industries. According to Hussin
et al (2006), the nature of e-commerce
imposes a physical distance between
consumers and the online merchant and is
not able to take a substantial look at their
products. Thus, it becomes more significant
establish mutual trust for stimulating
purchases over the internet (Ha, 2004;
Alam and Mohd Yasin, 2010 ). When a
customer is satisfied with a particular
online store, he or she is purchase
continuously (Khalifa and Liu, 2007).
According to Doney and Cannon (1997) et
al, to create long-term customer
relationships, firms need to strengthen
customer trust. Since the nature of e- commerce imposes a physical distance
between consumers and the online vendor
and is not able to take a substantial look at
their products Hussin et al (2006). Thus, it
becomes more important build trust for
boosting purchases over the online (Ha,
2004; Alam and Mohd Yasin,2010 ). To
develop a successful e-commerce,
companies need an extended understanding
of how online trust is formulated and how
it affects consumer behavioral intention in
the online context.
Therefore, this study particularly in the Sri
Lankan context empirically investigates the
online brand trust, Because of the
intensified perception of risk associated
with the virtual market; trust is regarded as
difficult to create. During every business
transaction, the parties involved should feel
trust with the people and the companies.
Hence, this study specifically focuses e- commerce organization (Kapruka.com) for
testing the website design factors that
influence online brand trust. The results of
this study indicate that the website design
factors have positively related to the OBT,
where the website design factors explain
66.5% variations of Online Brand Trust.
Further analyses reveal that the website
design factors and Positive online brand
trust individually indicate a high level
attributes in the mind-set of customers. The
rest of this study is organized as literature
review of the study, conceptual framework
and hypothesis, method, results,
conclusion.
2. PROBLEM STATEMENT AND
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
There are already substantial studies
regarding factors influencing online brand
trust that have summarized large bodies of
evidence. Alam, S. & Yasin, N. (2010), Ha,
H. (2004) and Seyed Mohammad, A.
(2015), offer a valuable discussion of
influential factors on online brand trust
such as Quality of Information, Security,
Page 3 of 12
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 03
April 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 78
Privacy, Word-of-Mouth, Brand Name and
Online Experience. However, a literature
review that focuses on trust-inducing
website design features is still missing. The
main goal of this paper is therefore to
identify what elements of website design
play a crucial role in online brand trust.
Hence, this study attempts to explore the
role of website design factors in influencing
the OBT of “kapruka.com” Sri Lanka.
Therefore, the specific research question of
this study is:
“How far the role of website design
factors influence on Online Brand Trust
of Kapruka.com”
Therefore, the primary objective of this
study is to examine the role of website
design factors that influencing on online
brand trust among customers in the context
of e-commerce industry. Further, as the
secondary objective, this study also focuses
on identifying the level of website design
factors and OBT in relation to
Kapruka.com.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Online Brand Trust: Due to the expansion
of e-commerce, online brand trust has often
been identified as an essential component,
Because the e-commerce industry is highly
competitive with many online vendors that
look for acquiring customers, it is essential
that a business comes up with a marketing
strategy that creates online brand trust. A
positive and memorable trust of a company
gives its business a competitive edge.
According to Ribbink, D. (2004), Trust
defined as “The extent of belief customers
experience in online exchanges”
Brand trust may play a more critical role in
online businesses than brick-and-mortar
stores (Jones and Kim, 2010; Rios and
Riquelme, 2008) because online businesses
are essentially intangible and their
consumers cannot use physical and tangible
features to infer trust. According to Li and
Zhang (2002), consumers’ trust in a retailer
can reduce perceived risk associated with
context of online transactions.
According to Schlosser et al (2005),
website's design that influences consumer
trust and consequently impacts online
purchase intentions. The look and feel of a
website serves as a basis for consumers to
form a first impression of the e-retailer, to
develop an opinion of its trustworthiness,
and to ultimately form their behavioral
intent. Web site design is a critical part of
electronic marketing strategy and an
important element in building online trust
(e.g., Hoffman, Novak and Peralta 1999;
Shankar, Urban and Sultan 2002; Urban,
Sultan and Qualls 2000).
