ABSTRACT

Consumers abandon their online purchases at an e-commerce website partly due to the lack of information transparency of the website. We identify the antecedents of consumers’ perceived information transparency of an e-commerce website and its effects on consumers’ online purchase intention. We collected data through a scenario-based survey conducted in a laboratory setting. We found that (1) product transparency, vendor transparency, and transaction transparency significantly influence perceived information transparency; (2) perceived information transparency significantly increases consumers’ online purchase intention; and (3) perceived risk partially mediates the effects of perceived information transparency on purchase intention.

INTRODUCTION

The rapid development of business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce has largely benefited consumers, such as facilitating their search for product information and improving the quality of their online purchase decisions [60, 61]. However, there is also evidence of deterrence to consumers’ purchase decisions because of the lack of necessary information. That is, the information provided by e-vendors does not always satisfy online consumers’ information needs. The information needed by consumers is sometimes not available, and in some instances, the required information is deliberately not provided by the e-vendors, leading to the issue of lack of information transparency. For example, some vendors failed to provide privacy policy regarding how they utilize the customer’s information collected. 1 Some online vendors of used cars are unwilling to disclose clear warranty policy about their products [19]. Anecdotal evidence indicates that the lack of information transparency is one of the top 10 factors that lead to consumers’ final abandonment of online purchases [2]. This partly explained why e-commerce sales in 2016 accounted for less than 9% of the total sales despite the rapid development of e-commerce in the U.S. [79]. In particular, consumers believe that in most B2C ecommerce websites, the information for making a purchase decision is insufficient, incomplete, or just plainly wrong, resulting in refusal to make a purchase. In a survey conducted by the E-Tailing Group and ARS Ecommerce Inc., 76% of subjects stated that they find information insufficient to make an online purchase and 72% of them complained that the incomplete product information makes them finally abandon an online purchase [67].