Shaping Customer Confidence in Online Purchasing Decision: The Role of DSS Tools Supporting an Information Aggregator

E-commerce gives customers the access to a vast quantity of products but, at the same time increases in a significant way the volume of information they need to deal in a buying decision process. Aggregators of information offer comparison shopping solutions to reduce the consumers´ cognitive efforts overload by adding Decision Support Systems to aid consumers with their purchase decisions. Obviously, the success of these service providers depends on the customers´ confidence on decisions made with such systems. Although knowing how customers´ confidence is shaped by DSS in information aggregators is crucial to the provider´s survival, it is still unclear which specific factors contribute to shape the customer confidence. This study, conducted with a major information aggregator in the Brazilian market, successfully proposes a model to analyze the consumer confidence in decisions about products and dealers, and their antecedents.