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