On line shopping and trust: two sides of the same coin

I have been here in the US for more or less six months and I have noticed that one of the ( many ) different aspects from Italy is the large number of UPS, FedEx and DHL trucks in circulation delivering the items people buy on line. Here in US, unlike Italy, on line shopping is a widely diffuse way of doing shopping and I saw people buying everything, from shoes and garments to groceries.

In Italy I experienced on line shopping but I always tried to limit as much as possible on line transactions. On one side, I am quite worried about putting my credit card data on line, on the other side I, as a number of Italians, have a problem about trust. Trust about my item being really delivered, trust about the postman not opening the package to check if there is something of interest to him, trust about the seller actually sending the item I bought from him. Trust, at least in Italy, is the main hurdle to a wide development of on line shopping.

Just to better clarify my point I will give you an example of what I mean for trust. A couple of years ago I ordered on Amazon a DVD that was supposed to be delivered after 10 days. The fifteenth day, still waiting for the dvd, I sent an email to Amazon complaining about the delay. Amazon, without an further questioning, apologized and told me that it would have sent another copy of the same DVD immediately. I was really impressed simply because Amazon trusted me! If an Italian on line retailer had the same trust it would go bust in a couple of months because the average Italian would order an item, get the item and than would claim that he/she has never received it just to have another copy for free to resell or to give to a friend.

In other words, Italy is a classic example of the tight relationship between the trust and the buyer behaviour, how the latter is deeply affected by the former and how both of them are essential for an healthy market development.

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