Moving Web customers along to the purchase click is proving to be difficult. Current customer online shopping revenues are meager, though the industry is optimistic, thanks to bullish forecasts of cyber customer activity for the new millennium. In the few available online offerings, no standardized technologies for secure payment mechanisms, and the lack of profitable business models play important roles in the relative dearth of commercial activity among businesses and customers on the Internet.



The commercial development of the Web is still in its infancy, so few expect these very real barriers to continued commercial development to persist forever. Yet, the successful commercial development of the Web faces a far more formidable barrier to ultimate commercialization. At its core, the reason online customers have yet to shop online in large numbers, or even provide information to Web providers in exchange for access to information offered onsite, is because of the fundamental lack of faith that currently exists between most businesses and customers on the Web today. In essence, customers simply do not trust most Web providers enough to engage in relationship exchanges with them. Research reveals that this lack of trust arises from cyber customers' perceived lack of control over the access others have to their personal information during the online navigation process.

These concerns of control over information privacy span the dimensions of environmental control and secondary use of information control. Environmental control directly affects customers' perceptions of the security of online shopping. In the physical world, a customer may be concerned about giving out credit card information over the telephone to an unknown mail-order company.

On the Web, a customer may fear typing in her credit card information to any commercial Web provider. Similarly, a commercial Web provider may fear the efforts of a hacker out to steal a cache of credit card numbers. Secondary use of information control reflects the customer's perceived ability to control the use of personal information for other purposes, subsequent to the transaction during which the information was originally collected.

On the Web, this is manifested by customers' concern that Web providers are selling their personal information to third parties without their knowledge or permission. Unlike traditional retail environments in the physical world where customers perceive little choice, these perceptions of little control over information privacy on the Internet have a striking influence on customer willingness to engage in relationship exchanges online. The customer expectations of privacy depend on the medium. In traditional media, it is well known that customer attitudes toward privacy invasions range from tolerance to resigned disgust. But in electronic media, customers are making it clear that their need for control and protection is intense.