SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO ASSESSING CONSUMER TRUST AND CONVENIENCE FACTORS IN DIGITAL COMMERCE

Abstract

The assessment of factors influencing consumer safety and comfort in e-commerce is a key element of quality management for electronic services, as the perception of safety and convenience determines user loyalty and activity. With the expansion of digital trade, there is an increasing need for a systematic approach to identifying and ranking the factors that shape the user experience. Such evaluation helps to timely detect technical, behavioral, and organizational risks related to data protection and service quality. Regular monitoring of these factors enables business models to adapt to changing consumer expectations and enhances the competitiveness of electronic platforms. It has been proven that ensuring consumer safety and comfort in e-commerce is a multifactorial task that requires the integration of technical, informational, behavioral, and regulatory components based on comprehensive expert evaluation. It has been substantiated that the most significant factors are “Product Information” (8.66 points), “Data Access Management” (8.64 points), and “Intuitive Design” (8.61 points), indicating the priority of meaningful content, protection of personal data, and interface usability in the perception of users. It has been argued that the sample of 78 experts, formed using a statistically justified formula and structured according to professional and regional representativeness, ensured high reliability of the results, where the coefficients of variation did not exceed 9%, confirming the consistency of judgments. The obtained data make it possible not only to build a ranked hierarchy of factor influence (with significance coefficients ranging from 0.0423 to 0.0410) but also to use them for constructing an integrated index of digital service quality, strategic planning, indicative monitoring, and the formation of digital trust policies. The set of results confirms the relevance of applying the expert approach under conditions of insufficient statistical data and a complex interdisciplinary context, which enables business models to adapt to the dynamics of consumer expectations and enhances the competitiveness of electronic platforms.