The Mediating Role of Trust in Website Quality-Purchase Decision Relationships: An Empirical Investigation in Digital Commerce

The exponential growth of digital

commerce has fundamentally transformed how

consumers make purchasing decisions, with

website quality emerging as a critical determinant

of online transaction success. This study

investigates the complex relationships between

website quality, consumer trust, and purchase

decisions within digital commerce environments.

Through a comprehensive survey of 125 university

students, we employed the established WebQual

framework to assess website quality across three

dimensions: usability, information quality, and

interaction quality. Our analytical approach utilized

Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling

(PLS-SEM) via Smart-PLS software to examine

hypothesized relationships.

The empirical findings reveal compelling evidence

for website quality's significant positive impact on

purchase decisions (β = 0.651, p < 0.001). More

importantly, trust emerges as a crucial mediating

mechanism, explaining 65.1% of the variance in

purchase decisions while website quality accounts

for 45.9% of trust formation variance. Despite

methodological limitations including sample

homogeneity and cross-sectional design

constraints, these results provide valuable insights

for both theoretical advancement and practical

application in e-commerce management.

Our contributions extend existing literature by

empirically validating trust's mediating role in the

website quality-purchase decision relationship. For

practitioners, the findings underscore the necessity

of holistic website development strategies that

simultaneously enhance technical functionality and

build consumer confidence. The study advances

our understanding of digital consumer behaviour

while offering actionable guidance for competitive

advantage in increasingly crowded online

marketplaces