Abstract
This study examines the issue of trust and the influence of the opinion of former users in electronic commerce. The lack of trust is the main reason why people are still reluctant to purchase online. Lack of trust is due to many reasons in online business, no physical contact, risk of theft of personal data or credit card number. In order to create long term relationship with their customers and so, increase consumers trust into electronic commerce, building trust is today the main challenge for web marketers. The objectives of this dissertation areto show the importance of creating trust in online commerce and the influence of trust in decision making process. Moreover, the researcher shows the importance of former users opinion in the decision making process of consumers. First, the researcher present a review of marketing literature conserning topics in relation with online commerce like trust and risk online, web specificities, online security, reputation etc. Then, by primary research, the researcher confirms two hypotheses which are: The opinion of former users is important in the decision making process of new consumers by reducing risk and creating trust. Creating trust is essential for companies to succeed in electronic commerce. The findings of this research could be interesting for companies that have a commercial web site or for companies that want to start an online business. This research could be interesting for a web marketer to develop tools in order to increase consumer trust on his web site.
