A picture says more than a thousand words

Abstract

Virtual re-embedding, i.e. adding social cues to a website, has been suggested as a possible strategy to increase consumer trust in online-vendors. Numerous online retailers meanwhile incorporate this strategy, for example by adding photographs and names of customer service agents or by creating chat and callback opportunities. Yet, little is known about the effectiveness of virtual reembedding. The present study examined the effectiveness of a comparably simple strategy, the inclusion of photograph in an e-bank's website and found a significant positive effect on perceived trustworthiness of the examined website. It is suggested that virtual re-embedding is an effective way to increase customer trust and that it does not even have to be costly to implement.

Evaluating the Influence of Country-Related Pictures on the Perception of a Foreign Online Store

“…In the case of electronic commerce, this may be accomplished through the design of the website, as user response can be manipulated by modifying visual elements of the design [43]. For example, visual content such as photos of people [3] or human pictures [8], [10] can be included in the design to improve social presence in a website. Similarly, country-related content in pictures may be able to increase country presence in the foreign online store.…”

“…In order to improve the perception of closeness with the online store, research on consumer behavior in electronic commerce has looked into the concept of presence [3]- [5]. The sense of presence, that is, the sense of being psychologically transported to another place or with other people through a technological medium [6], can help reduce the perception of distance [7].…”

“…The sense of presence, that is, the sense of being psychologically transported to another place or with other people through a technological medium [6], can help reduce the perception of distance [7]. In domestic electronic commerce, distance results in a lower sense of sociability and physicality than in conventional shopping, which can be addressed by an increase in social presence [3] and physical presence [5] respectively. However, in the case of cross-border electronic commerce, the distance between the consumer and the foreign vendor also results in a lower sense of the country-of-origin of the online store.…”

The role of social media in affective trust building in customer–supplier relationships

“…In fact, unlike the first experiment that provided no supporting evidence in favor of H cog (see Table 2), experiment 2 did provide support for our hypothesis on cognitive trust, instead (see Table 4). Including photos in online shops influences trust building positively [24] Information elements typical of social media able to foster not only affective-but also cognitive-trust building Showing photos of employees increases customers' trust towards online-bank website [30].…”

“…Riegelsbeirger et al [24] showed that including photos in online shops might positively affect trust building, as far the pictures match the overall site's design and the vendor's brand. Steinbrueck et al [30] observed that showing the photos of employees might increase customers' trust towards an onlinebank website.…”