ONLINE RETAIL AND ETHICAL RISK: BALANCING PROFIT WITH PRINCIPLES

The rapid spread of e-commerce has created tremendous opportunities for economic efficiency and customer choice. Use of the global Internet computer network for ecommerce activities provides some advantages to the consumers on their daily life. On the other hand Internet represents a new environment for unethical behavior. While e-commerce has witnessed extensive growth in last decade, consumers concerns regarding ethical issues also continue to increase. Even many consumers and businesses are reveling in e-commerce; consumer problems related to online retail become the dark side of the issue. Approach: A survey on 400 online shoppers was conducted (three cities in Turkey (Izmir, Manisa, Mersin) in order to measure consumers’ perceptions regarding the ethical issues of online retailing by using scale of Consumers’ Perceptions regarding to Ethics of Online Retailers (CPEOR). Results: Ethical problems like security, privacy, reliability and non-deception on Internet are core issues that limit the growth of online retailing. Conclusion/Recommendation: Findings indicate that; four factors (security, privacy, non-deception and reliability) are strongly predictive of online consumers’ satisfaction. Also, this research will be beneficial to online retailers on their online retailing activities.