Empirical examination of effects of web assurance seals on perceived level of assurance and price tolerance with a focus being placed on CPA-associated seals

Since the beginning of e-commerce, trustworthiness of commercial web sites has been a constant issue, and, very likely, it will continue to be. Soon after the start of e-commerce, website assurance seal services emerged on the market, for the purpose of addressing online trust issues. As of 2008, web assurance seals have been around for more than ten years in B2C e-commerce.;This study tested if multiple displays of web assurance seals had an incremental effect on perceived assurance levels, and if accounting-associated seals had any distinguishing effect compared with non-accounting-associated seals. Further, the relationship between perceived assurance levels and the maximum prices that online consumers were willing to pay was tested.;The results of the study showed that multiple displays of assurance seals increased perceived assurance levels significantly, but only by a marginal amount, and that there was little relationship between level of perceived assurance and maximum price. Accounting-associated assurance seals turned out to share very similar results with non-accounting-associated seals. However, it was found that accounting-associated seals had similar results at significantly higher levels than non-accounting-associated seals; namely, compared with non-accounting-associated seals, accounting-associated seals raised perceived assurance levels higher and maximum tolerable prices higher than non-accounting-associated seals.;Key words: e-commerce, B2C, online trust, website assurance seals, multiple displays, assurance level, perception, accounting-associated, CPA-associated, and price tolerance.