Trust Building for Online Private Sellers : Case of Taobao in China

Sammanfattning: Aim:The aim of our study is to analyzeelements of online trust building process from sellers’ standpoint based on case study of Chinese website: Taobao. Method:This study was conducted in qualitative method with 12 interviewees as online sellers from Taobao website. Data presentation involves tables and figures to help readers to understand trust building process and apply it in business. Result & Conclusions: Online trust building is dynamic and interactive. Three main elements of trust building are product, communication and 3rd party. Trust building process goes through three stages: knowledge-based trust, experience-based trust, and relationship-based trust. Suggestions for future research: Limitation of generality suggests further study in quantitative method. Since it is a single case study specific in China, comparison cross-culture or between websites is also suggested as future possibilitiesto test generalizability of this theoretic framework. Contribution & implication: This study provided atheoretic framework for online trust building process in real-world context. Management implication was suggested to focus on development of product, communication and 3rdparty service for sellers and website holder