Two Consumer Studies of Customer Trust and Satisfaction launched

Two studies into online trust and satisfaction dominated last week's conference organised by the Irish Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with the support of the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee.

The European Consumer Day Conference on "Building Consumer Confidence in the European Online Marketplace" began with a paper describing how recent polls and studies have indicated that whereas e-commerce is gaining acceptance among consumers, the medium still lacks trust in several respects. Eurobarometer polls suggest that this is related to lack of confidence in shopping across borders, in payment systems and in whether ordered goods will effectively be delivered.

The conference also marked the launch of the new European Consumer Centres' report "The European Online Marketplace: Consumer Complaints". The results of this report echo the findings of other studies - non-delivery and defective products were recurring problems. In addition the ECC discovered emerging trends, such as problems associated with internet auctions and the opening up of a worldwide e-commerce market place with increasing complaints regarding transatlantic purchases.

Mary Harney, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment said that 'the aim of the conference was to highlight the issues which affect consumer confidence across the European online marketplace and to ascertain and discuss models or proposals which would help to raise confidence levels'.

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