The consumers’ buying decision-making process involves significant amounts of risk. As the need to purchase is realized, risk perception may grow, because, there is no immediate solution and not enough information. As the search begins and information is sought, risk might decrease. Depending on the complexity of the choice, overall risk perception should continue to fall during the evaluation phase. However,
it may rise slightly just before the decision is taken, as last minute indecision causes an increase in uncertainty. Given that the purchase is satisfactory, there could then be a rapid decline in the risk perceived. It is
important to understand what factors affect customer’s confidence to reduce the level of risk over the whole purchase process.
A number of general frameworks in consumer behavior are available that capture the consumer purchase (decision-making) process . These frameworks distinguish a number of stages shown in Fig. 1, typically including at least the following: need recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, actual purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. This section will review the stages of the consumer purchase
process and what factors of customerconfidence online are involved.