Research Insight | Building Consumer Trust Through Tailored Communications
Trust isn’t one-size-fits-all in digital commerce. This Journal of Interactive Marketing study argues that marketing research has overlooked how individual consumers’ motivational orientations—whether they are more focused on avoiding loss (prevention-focused) or achieving gains (promotion-focused)—affect how they interpret trust signals. Drawing on regulatory focus and regulatory fit theories, the authors examine how the three dimensions of trustworthiness—ability, benevolence, and integrity—influence consumer evaluations, intentions, and behaviors in digital commerce.
The findings reveal that prevention-focused consumers are more persuaded by evidence of a retailer’s ability, such as its competence, reliability, and operational efficiency. In contrast, promotion-focused consumers respond more to benevolence, which reflects a retailer’s goodwill, care, and willingness to prioritize customer interests. Integrity, which reflects honesty, fairness, and adherence to ethical standards, is valued equally by both groups.
Considering these findings, retailers can craft targeted messages and practices by identifying or inferring customers’ motivational tendencies. Communication that emphasizes technical competence, guarantees, and reliability can reassure prevention-focused shoppers. In contrast, stories, testimonials, and messaging that highlight empathy, customer care, and shared values may appeal more to promotion-focused shoppers. Integrity should always be communicated, as it serves as a baseline expectation across all consumers.
For example, after a retailer suffers a data breach, prevention-oriented customers may be reassured by immediate, detailed explanations of corrective measures and strengthened security protocols. Meanwhile, promotion-oriented customers might respond more to heartfelt apologies, expressions of goodwill, and assurances of long-term commitment to customer relationships. Both groups, however, expect transparency and fairness—hallmarks of integrity—throughout the process.
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What You Need to Know
- Focus on what matters most to your audience: prevention-oriented customers care more about your competence and reliability, while promotion-oriented customers respond better to messages that show you care about their interests.
- Always communicate your integrity—honesty and ethical behavior are universally valued, regardless of customer type.
- Use customer data and context to adapt your trust-building messages across channels, aligning them with customers’ motivations to boost engagement and sales.
Abstract
Trustworthiness is considered a key element for any successful online retailing initiative. However, extant digital commerce research has displayed mixed and contradictory findings regarding consumer outcomes of trustworthiness beliefs. The current study explains these mixed effects by investigating how and when trustworthiness beliefs can play a significant role in driving digital commerce behaviors. We draw on regulatory focus and regulatory fit theory to examine how trustworthiness beliefs—ability, benevolence, and integrity—influence consumers’ evaluations, purchase intentions, and digital commerce behaviors (e.g., rankings and reviews) toward online retailers, based on their regulatory orientations. Using a sequential multi-study design, we test our hypotheses through two experiments followed by a survey. The findings demonstrate that the positive consumer outcomes are the highest for (i) prevention-focused individuals with strong beliefs in the online retailer’s ability to fulfill its promises, (ii) promotion-focused consumers with strong beliefs that the online retailer is benevolent, and comparably strong for (iii) all individuals who believe in the online retailer’s integrity. Managerial implications from these findings are further discussed in a value-enhancing manner.
Narongsak Thongpapanl, Abdul Ashraf, Magnus Hultman, and Raeesah Chohan, “How and When Trustworthiness Beliefs Influence Digital Commerce Behavior: A Regulatory Focus Perspective,” Journal of Interactive Marketing. doi:10.1177/10949968251365181