European Journal of Service Management

Despite of a growing understanding of the benefits associated with e-commerce, characteristic for this form of trading lack of direct contact between the sellers and the buyers, enforces a strong emphasis on building customer trust. The aim of this article is to present the characteristics and properties of electronic commerce and its impact on customer trust in this form of trading as well as indication of activities to build and strengthen customer confidence in e-commerce. The article tries to verify the following hypothesis: the characteristics of e-commerce, in particular the spatial distance between the seller and the buyer, points to the need to give an important role to build the trust of customers to this form of trading, The article layout has been subordinated to achieve the pursued objectives and to verify the hypotheses. The article presents the following issues: benefits and possible risks of online trade, the impact of e-commerce features on customer trust and confidence as well as selected, essential activities that serve this purpose.