Changing Dynamics of Online Trust and Retailers Ethics: A B2C Study of High Valued Products in Pakistan from the COVID-19 Perspective

Abstract

Ecommerce is gaining significance for emerging and developing economies like Pakistan, during COVID-19 Pandemic. The online traffic has increased enormously due to a growing number of online businesses. There are a few studies on ethical concerns of online retailers in B2C perspective, but very rare on (High Involvement Products) HIPs. This study has tested the empirical nature and impact of retailer’s ethics on purchase intentions with mediating role of trust. The associate moderating role of gender and HIPs is analyzed, during situations when buying from physical outlets is perceived risky. “Consumer Perceptions Regarding the Ethics of Online Retailers” (CPEOR) is measured in five dimensions i.e. security, non-deception, reliability fulfillment, service recovery and privacy. A sample of 225 HIP customers is taken from different parts of Pakistan. Results of the study illustrate that people have built confidence in e-retailers. Trust mediates the relationship between purchase intention and CPEOR for all its dimensions apart from privacy. It is worth mentioning that service recovery is powerful measure to gain trust upon online retailers. However, the moderating roles for HIPs and gender are insignificant, unlike previous studies where mostly negative relationships are determined. Moreover, previous studies have shown that if costumers have Trust on retailers for physical buying of HIPs, then the costumers may use online tools to evaluate new HIPs and order online from reliable e-retailers, thus enhance their expectations online as before. It is concluded that CPEOR will lead to online purchases during current COVID environment, provided that online retailers maintain ethical standards and meet their expectations and due to COVID over all online expectations are higher than before. This study will be further utilized in other dimensions of relationship marketing by using HIPs in B2B mode of online business as well.