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Top1. Introduction
All over the world the users of internet have increased from 2.92 to 3.42 billion during 2014 to 2016 (Internet Live Stats, 2016a, 2016b, 2016c). And because of its increased prominence marketers are now adopting internet as a source of stimulating their marketing activities. The function of internet technology has now jumped ahead from accessing information towards a source of shopping online (Ramus & Asger Nielsen, 2005; Retailing Today, 2013). It would be wise to say that internet has undergone through change from being a social communication channel to a marketing channel (Ahmad & Khan, 2015; Biswas & Krishnan, 2004; Hajli, 2014; Sharma & Sheth, 2004). Having the potential of huge financial benefits, marketers are now working hard to more carefully analyze the needs of their target audience in online retailing industry so that they can effectively improve their business and earn more profits (Van der Heijden et al., 2003; Lin, 2008; Wu et al., 2013). Online retailing needs a lot of effort to become successful rather than just having a good online website.
The entrepreneur Kamen writes: “Technology is easy to develop; developing a new attitude, moving the culture from one mental model to another, that’s the difficult part” (Kamen, 2010).
Therefore, it is very important to understand the consumers’ behaviour in online shopping industry and how they form their purchase intentions. However, these behavioural dimensions of consumers have been studied up to very modest levels and still need a lot of attention (Lin, 2008). Due to false assumptions such as low finances or limited access to internet, online shopping in developing countries has been given a very little attention (Akhlaq & Ahmed, 2015). However due to the increase in wireless technologies and smartphones in developing countries including the increasing purchase power of people the markets of these developing countries are increasing and also having some proof that people linked to these technologies use them like the consumers in developed countries (Pew Research, 2012). According to the facts or proofs available, the main reasons consumers avoid online shopping are due to security of online platforms, competence of online retailers and technology involved in online e-commerce websites (Gefen, 2000). Developing trust for online websites is crucial for success in digital commerce (McKnight & Chervany, 2001; Balasubramanian et al., 2003; Grabner-Krauter & Kaluscha, 2003; Koufaris & Hampton-Sosa, 2004), also to maintain long lasting ties with the online buyers (Reichheld & Schefter, 2000; Gefen et al., 2003). Trust is defined as:
The willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party (Mayer et al., 1995).
Greater level of online trust satisfies the online shoppers and also helps in removing ambiguity and perceived risks in online shopping (McKnight & Chervany, 2001; Pavlou, 2003). Moreover, greater level of trust leads to high levels of intention to purchase and eventually it becomes easier for firms to keep loyal online customers (Jarvenpaa & Tractinsky, 1999; Gefen & Straub, 2004).