Building trust in private label (PL) online: Qualitative insights from home retail practitioners

Consumer trust represents a key driver in PLs and online shopping. Despite the extensive research on this concept, a gap still exists in the literature due to an emergent retail practice i.e. the online trade of high-involvement PLs (e.g. home fixtures). Some questions have risen and require answers to update our knowledge of consumer trust and to better understand this emergent retail practice. They are: what does consumer trust signify in this retail practice? What can the meaningful drivers be? Are the drivers related to customer experience? Based on in-depth interviews with practitioners in the home retail sector, we suggest two conventional and one new facets underpinning consumer trust. They are ability, integrity and authenticity. We also identify and suggest experiential drivers (e.g. education, effortless and enjoyment) are as important as functional drivers in building consumer trust in this emergent retail practice. We contribute to theory by bridging the two literature of PLs and online shopping, and contribute to practice by offering insights into marketing and managing an online business that trades high-involvement PLs.